6月大学英语六级听力题目答案及原文第2套

合集下载

2018年6月英语六级考试真题及答案解析和听力原文 (第2套)

2018年6月英语六级考试真题及答案解析和听力原文 (第2套)

2018年6月英语六级考试真题及答案解析和听力原文 (第2套)2018年6月英语六级考试真题 (第2套)Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on the importance of building trust between teachers and students. You can cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.1. A) She advocates animal protection.B) She sells a special kind of coffee. C) She is going to start a café chain.D) She is the owner of a special café.2. A) They bear a lot of similarities.B) They are a profitable business sector. C) They cater to different customers.D) They help take care of customers' pets.3. A) By giving them regular cleaning and injections.B) By selecting breeds that are tame and peaceful.C) By placing them at a safe distance from customers.D) By briefing customers on how to get along with them.4. A) They want to learn about rabbits.B) They like to bring in their children. C) They love the animals in her café.D) They give her café favorite reviews.Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.5. A) It contains too many additives.B) It lacks the essential vitamins. C) It can cause obesity.D) It is mostly garbage.6. A) Its fancy design. B) TV commercials. C) Its taste and texture. D) Peer influence.7. A) Investing heavily in the production of sweet foods.B) Marketing their products with ordinary ingredients.C) Trying to trick children into buying their products.D) Offering children more varieties to choose from.8. A) They hardly ate vegetables.B) They seldom had junk food. C) They favored chocolate-coated sweets.D) They liked the food advertised on TV.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.9. A) Stretches of farmland.B) Typical Egyptian animal farms. C) Tombs of ancient rulers.D) Ruins left by devastating floods.10. A) It provides habitats for more primitive tribes.B) It is hardly associated with great civilizations.C) It has not yet been fully explored and exploited.D) It gathers water from many tropical rain forests.11. A) It carries about one fifth of the world's fresh water.B) It has numerous human settlements along its banks.C) It is second only to the Mississippi River in width.D) It is as long as the Nile and the Yangtze combined.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. A) Living a life in the fast lane leads to success.B) We are always in a rush to do various things.C) The search for tranquility has become a trend.D) All of us actually yearn for a slow and calm life.13. A) She had trouble balancing family and work. C) She was accustomed to tight schedules.B) She enjoyed the various social events. D) She spent all her leisure time writing books.14. A) The possibility of ruining her family.B)Becoming aware of her declining health. C) The fatigue from living a fast-paced life.D) Reading a book about slowing down.15. A) She started to follow the cultural norms. C) She learned to use more polite expressions.B) She came to enjoy doing everyday tasks. D) She stopped using to-do lists and calendars. Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by three or four questions. The recordings will be played only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.16. A) They will root out native species altogether.B) They contribute to a region's biodiversity.C) They pose a threat to the local ecosystem.D) They will crossbreed with native species.17. A) Their classifications are meaningful.B) Their interactions are hard to define. C) Their definitions are changeable.D) Their distinctions are artificial.18. A) Only a few of them cause problems to native species.B) They may turn out to benefit the local environment.C) Few of them can survive in their new habitats.D) Only 10 percent of them can be naturalized.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.19. A) Respect their traditional culture.B) Attend their business seminars. C) Research their specific demands.D) Adopt the right business strategies.20. A) Showing them your palm. C) Drinking alcohol on certain days of a month.B) Giving them gifts of great value. D) Clicking your fingers loudly in their presence.21. A) They are very easy to satisfy.B) They have a strong sense of worth. C) They tend to be friendly and enthusiastic.D) They have a break from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.22. A) He completely changed the company's culture.B) He collected paintings by world-famous artists.C) He took over the sales department of Reader's Digest.D) He had the company's boardroom extensively renovated.23. A) It should be sold at a reasonable price.B) Its articles should be short and inspiring.C) It should be published in the world's leading languages.D) Its articles should entertain blue- and pink-collar workers.24. A) He knew how to make the magazine profitable.B) He served as a church minister for many years.C) He suffered many setbacks and misfortunes in his life.D) He treated the employees like members of his family.25. A) It carried many more advertisements. C) Several hundred of its employees got fired.B) George Grune joined it as an ad salesman. D) Its subscriptions increased considerably. 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.Did Sarah Josepha Hale write "Mary's Little Lamb," the eternal nursery rhyme (儿歌) about a girl named Mary with a stubborn lamb? This is still disputed, but it's clear that the woman __26 for writing it was one of America's most fascinating 27 . In honor of the poem's publication on May 24, 1830, here's more about the 28 author's life.Hale wasn't just a writer, she was also a 29 social advocate, and she was particularly __30 with an ideal New England, which she associated with abundant Thanksgiving meals that she claimed had " a deep moral influence. " She began a nationwide __31 to have a national holiday declared that would bring families together while celebrating the 32 festivals.In 1863, after 17 years of advocacy including letters to five presidents, Hale got it. President Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, issued a 33 setting aside the last Thursday in November for the holiday.The true authorship of "Mary's Little Lamb" is disputed. According to the New EnglandHistorical Society, Hale wrote only part of the poem, but claimed authorship. Regardless of the author, it seems that the poem was 34 by a real event.When young Mary Sawyer was followed to school by a lamb in 1816, it caused some problems. A bystander named John Roulstone wrote a poem about the event, then, at some point, Hale herself seems to have helped write it. However, if a 1916 piece by her great-niece is to be trusted, Hale claimed for the 35 of her life that "some other people pretended that someone else wrote the poem".A) campaignB) careerC) characters D) featuresE) fierceF) inspiredG) latterH) obsessedI) proclamationJ) rectifiedK) reputedL) restM) supposedN) traditionalO) versatileSection 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.Grow Plants Without Water[A] Ever since humanity began to farm our own food, we’ve faced the unpredictable rain that is both friend and enemy. It comes and goes without much warning, and a field of lush (茂盛的) leafy greens one year can dry up and blow away the next. Food security and fortunes depend on sufficient rain, and nowhere more so than in Africa, where 96% of farmland depends on rain instead of the irrigation common in more developed places. It has consequences: South Africa's ongoing drought—the worst in three decades—will cost at least a quarter of its corn crop this year.[B] Biologist Jill Farrant of the University of Cape Town in South Africa says that nature has plenty of answers for people who want to grow crops in places with unpredictable rainfall. She is hard at work finding a way to take traits from rare wild plants that adapt to extreme dry weather and use them in food crops. As the earth's climate changes and rainfall becomes even less predictable in some places, those answers will grow even more valuable. "The type of farming I'm aiming for is literally so that people can survive as it's going to get more and more dry," Farrantsays.[C] Extreme conditions produce extremely tough plants. In the rusty red deserts of South Africa, steep-sided rocky hills called inselbergs rear up from the plains like the bones of the earth. The hills are remnants of an earlier geological era, scraped bare of most soil and exposed to the elements. Yet on these and similar formations in deserts around the world, a few fierce plants have adapted to endure under ever-changing conditions.[D]Farrant calls them resurrection plants (复苏植物). During months without water under a harsh sun, they wither, shrink and contract until they look like a pile of dead gray leaves. But rainfall can revive them in a matter of hours. Her time-lapse (间歇性拍摄的) videos of the revivals look like someone playing a tape of the plant's death in reverse.[E]The big difference between "drought-tolerant" plants and these tough plants: metabolism. Many different kinds of plants have developed tactics to weather dry spells. Some plants store reserves of water to see them through a drought; others send roots deep down to subsurface water supplies. But once these plants use up their stored reserve or tap out the underground supply, they cease growing and start to die. They may be able to handle a drought of some length, and many people use the term "drought tolerant" to describe such plants, but they never actually stop needing to consume water, so Farrant prefers to call them drought resistant.[F]Resurrection plants, defined as those capable of recovering from holding less than 0.1 grams of water per gram of dry mass, are different. They lack water-storing structures, and their existence on rock faces prevents them from tapping groundwater, so they have instead developed the ability to change their metabolism. When they detect an extended dry period, they divert their metabolisms, producing sugars and certain stress-associated proteins and other materials in their tissues. As the plant dries, these resources take on first the properties of honey, then rubber, and finally enter a glass-like state that is "the most stable state that the plant can maintain," Farrant says. That slows the plant's metabolism and protects its dried-out tissues. The plants also change shape, shrinking to minimize the surface area through which their remaining water might evaporate. They can recover from months and years without water, depending on the species.[G] What else can do this dry-out-and-revive trick? Seeds—almost all of them. At the start of her career, Farrant studied "recalcitrant seeds (顽拗性种子)," such as avocados, coffee andlychee. While tasty, such seeds are delicate—they cannot bud and grow if they dry out (as you may know if you've ever tried to grow a tree from an avocado pit). In the seed world, that makes them rare, because most seeds from flowering plants are quite robust. Most seeds can wait out the dry, unwelcoming seasons until conditions are right and they sprout (发芽). Yet once they start growing, such plants seem not to retain the ability to hit the pause button on metabolism in their stems or leaves.[H] After completing her Ph. D. on seeds, Farrant began investigating whether it might be possible to isolate the properties that make most seeds so resilient (迅速恢复活力的) and transfer them to other plant tissues. What Farrant and others have found over the past two decades is that there are many genes involved in resurrection plants' response to dryness. Many of them are the same that regulate how seeds become dryness-tolerant while still attached to their parent plants. Now they are trying to figure out what molecular signaling processes activate those seed-building genes in resurrection plants—and how to reproduce them in crops. "Most genes are regulated by a master set of genes," Farrant says. "We're looking at gene promoters and what would be their master switch."[I] Once Farrant and her colleagues feel they have a better sense of which switches to throw, they will have to find the best way to do so in useful crops. "I'm trying three methods of breeding," Farrant says: conventional, genetic modification and gene editing. She says she is aware that plenty of people do not want to eat genetically modified crops, but she is pushing ahead with every available tool until one works. Farmers and consumers alike can choose whether or not to use whichever version prevails:"I'm giving people an option."[J] Farrant and others in the resurrection business got together last year to discuss the best species of resurrection plant to use as a lab model. Just like medical researchers use rats to test ideas for human medical treatments, botanists use plants that are relatively easy to grow in a lab or greenhouse setting to test their ideas for related species. The Queensland rock violet is one of the best studied resurrection plants so far, with a draft genome (基因图谱) published last year by a Chinese team. Also last year, Farrant and colleagues published a detailed molecular study of another candidate, Xerophyta viscosa, a tough-as-nail South African plant with lily-like flowers, and she says that a genome is on the way. One or both of these models will help researchers test their ideas—so far mostly done in the lab—on test plots.[K] Understanding the basic science first is key. There are good reasons why crop plants do not use dryness defenses already. For instance, there's a high energy cost in switching from a regular metabolism to an almost-no-water metabolism. It will also be necessary to understand what sort of yield farmers might expect and to establish the plant's safety. "The yield is never going to be high," Farrant says, so these plants will be targeted not at Iowa farmers trying to squeeze more cash out of high-yield fields, but subsistence farmers who need help to survive a drought like the present one in South Africa. "My vision is for the subsistence farmer," Farrant says. "I'm targeting crops that are of African value."36.There are a couple of plants tough and adaptable enough to survive on bare rocky hills and in deserts.37. Farrant is trying to isolate genes in resurrection plants and reproduce them in crops.38. Farmers in South Africa are more at the mercy of nature, especially inconsistent rainfall.39.Resurrection crops are most likely to be the choice of subsistence farmers.40.Even though many plants have developed various tactics to cope with dry weather, they cannot survive a prolonged drought.41.Despite consumer resistance, researchers are pushing ahead with genetic modification of crops.42.Most seeds can pull through dry spells and begin growing when conditions are ripe, but once this process starts, it cannot be held back.43.Farrant is working hard to cultivate food crops that can survive extreme dryness by studying the traits of rare wild plants.44.By adjusting their metabolism, resurrection plants can recover from an extended period of drought.45. Resurrection plants can come back to life in a short time after a rainfall.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.Human memory is notoriously unreliable. Even people with the sharpest facial-recognition skills can only remember so much.It's tough to quantify how good a person is at remembering. No one really knows how many different faces someone can recall, for example, but various estimates tend to hover in the thousands—based on the number of acquaintances a person might have.Machines aren't limited this way. Give the right computer a massive database of faces, and it can process what it sees—then recognize a face it's told to find—with remarkable speed and precision. This skill is what supports the enormous promise of facial-recognition software in the 21st century. It's also what makes contemporary surveillance systems so scary.The thing is, machines still have limitations when it comes to facial recognition. And scientists are only just beginning to understand what those constraints are. To begin to figure out how computers are struggling, researchers at the University of Washington created a massive database of faces—they call it MegaFace—and tested a variety of facial-recognition algorithms (算法) as they scaled up in complexity. The idea was to test the machines on a database that included up to 1 million different images of nearly 700,000 different people—and not just a large database featuring a relatively small number of different faces, more consistent with what's been used in other research.As the databases grew, machine accuracy dipped across the board. Algorithms that were right 95% of the time when they were dealing with a 13,000-image database, for example, were accurate about 70% of the time when confronted with 1 million images. That's still pretty good, says one of the researchers, Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman. "Much better than we expected," she said.Machines also had difficulty adjusting for people who look a lot alike—either doppelgangers (长相极相似的人), whom the machine would have trouble identifying as two separate people, or the same person who appeared in different photos at different ages or in different lighting, whom the machine would incorrectly view as separate people."Once we scale up, algorithms must be sensitive to tiny changes in identities and at the same time invariant to lighting, pose, age," Kemelmacher-Shlizerman said.The trouble is, for many of the researchers who'd like to design systems to address thesechallenges, massive datasets for experimentation just don't exist—at least, not in formats that are accessible to academic researchers. Training sets like the ones Google and Facebook have are private. There are no public databases that contain millions of faces. MegaFace's creators say it's the largest publicly available facial-recognition dataset out there."An ultimate face recognition algorithm should perform with billions of people in a dataset," the researchers wrote.46. Compared with human memory, machines can ________.A) identify human faces more efficiently C) store an unlimited number of human facesB) tell a friend from a mere acquaintance D) perceive images invisible to the human eye47. Why did researchers create MegaFace?A) To enlarge the volume of the facial-recognition database.B) To increase the variety of facial-recognition software.C) To understand computers' problems with facial recognition.D) To reduce the complexity of facial-recognition algorithms.48. What does the passage say about machine accuracy?A) It falls short of researchers' expectations. C) It varies greatly with different algorithms.B) It improves with added computing power. D) It decreases as the database size increases.49. What is said to be a shortcoming-of facial-recognition machines?A) They cannot easily tell apart people with near-identical appearances.B) They have difficulty identifying changes in facial expressions.C) They are not sensitive to minute changes in people's mood.D) They have problems distinguishing people of the same age.50. What is the difficulty confronting researchers of facial-recognition machines?A) No computer is yet able to handle huge datasets of human faces.B) There do not exist public databases with sufficient face samples.C) There are no appropriate algorithms to process the face samples.D) They have trouble converting face datasets into the right format.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.There're currently 21.5 million students in America, and many will be funding their collegeon borrowed money. Given that there's now over $1.3 trillion in student loans on the books, it's pretty clear that many students are far from sensible. The average student's debt upon graduation now approaches $40,000, and as college becomes ever more expensive, calls to make it "free" are multiplying. Even Hillary Clinton says that when it comes to college, "Costs won't be a barrier."But the only way college could be free is if the faculty and staff donated their time, the buildings required no maintenance, and campuses required no utilities. As long as it's impossible to produce something from nothing, costs are absolutely a barrier.The actual question we debate is who should pay for people to go to college. If taxpayers are to bear the cost of forgiving student loans, shouldn't they have a say in how their money is used?At least taxpayers should be able to decide what students will study on the public dime. If we're going to force taxpayers to foot the bill for college degrees, students should only study those subjects that're of greatest benefit to taxpayers. After all, students making their own choices in this respect is what caused the problem in the first place. We simply don't need more poetry, gender studies, or sociology majors. How do we know which subjects benefit society? Easy.Average starting salaries give a clear indication of what type of training society needs its new workers to have. Certainly, there're benefits to a college major beyond the job a student can perform. But if we're talking about the benefits to society, the only thing that matters is what the major enables the student to produce for society. And the value of what the student can produce is reflected in the wage employers are willing to pay the student to produce it.A low wage for elementary school teachers, however, doesn't mean elementary education isn't important. It simply means there're too many elementary school teachers already.Meanwhile, there're few who're willing and able to perform jobs requiring a petroleum engineering major, so the value of one more of those people is very high.So we can have taxpayers pick up students' tuition in exchange for dictating what those students will study. Or we can allow students both to choose their majors and pay for their education themselves. But in the end, one of two things is true:Either a college major is worth its cost or it isn't. If yes, taxpayer financing isn't needed. If not, taxpayer financing isn't desirable. Either way, taxpayers have no business paying for students'college education.51. What does the author think of college students funding their education through loans?A) They only expect to get huge returns.B) They are acting in an irrational way. C) They benefit at taxpayers' expense.D) They will regret doing so someday.52. In the author's opinion, free college education is ________.A) impractical B) unsustainable C) a goal to strive for D) a way to social equality53. What should students do if taxpayers are to bear their college costs?A) Work even harder to repay society.B) Choose their subjects more carefully.C) Choose majors that will serve society's practical needs.D) Allow taxpayers to participate in college administration.54. What does the author say about the value of a student's college education?A) It is underestimated by profit-seeking employers.B) It is to be proved by what they can do on the job.C) It is well reflected in their average starting salary.D) It is embodied in how they remove social barriers.55. What message does the author want to convey in the passage?A) Students should think carefully whether to go to college.B) Taxpayers should only finance the most gifted students.C) The worth of a college education is open to debate.D) College students should fund their own education.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.中国目前拥有世界上最大最快的高速铁路网。

2023年6月英语六级真题及参考答案

2023年6月英语六级真题及参考答案

2023年6月英语六级真题及参考答案六级试卷采用多题多卷形式,大家核对答案时,找准具体选项内容,忽略套数!网络综合版:听力第一套Conversation OneM: Hi Lily, how's the new apartment?W: It's okay.M:What? How can it be just okaywhen last week you were thrilledabout the place and keptnosting photos of it online?W:Well,【1】 last week whenfmoved in, the apartment seemed cozy, justthe right size forone person. But nowit just seems tiny, shabby and solitary.M: Al that's the problem. You missyour roommates from university,don't you?W: I'm going to sound like G idiot【2】because Iused to complain to youall the time about how crowded ourdormitory room was, and about allthe things they did to irritate me, likewatching movies late at night withoutheadphones, or talking loudly early inthe morning. But now Imiss themterribly.M: Of course you do. That's perfectlynormal. When I got my first place,Iremember thinking I could ti wait tolive by myself and get away from myjuvenile roommates and all their annoyipghabits.【3】 But then began issing them and feelinglonely and thinking that our dormitory was like paradise. Even though there were six of us guys inone small room.W: I thought it was just m who reltlike thiat.M: Look, you lived at home with us.And then you had three roommates.And this is your first time living alone.So i hard But your first apartmentis a milestone in your life. And youshould celebrate it. Tell me about theapartment.W: Actuaily, it's not bad. In fact, it'spretty adorable. Now that I have decorated it and it has et rjthing Ineed. I have a kitchen to cook in thebathroom al! to myself.And then anothes room with my bed at one endand the sofa, a small table and chairsat the C herend.M: That does sound adorable, and【4】Ican't wait to see it. And neither canmom and dad.Question 1: What was the woman'sfirst impression of the apartment?Question 2: Why does the womansay she's going to sound like an idiot?Question 3: What do we learn about the man when he left thedormitory to live on his own?Question 4: What is the man say hecan't wait to do.W: Welcome to our program book talk. Q5.ourgyest today is FrankJonesiditicbf our education system and the author of new book,How to reform our universitres.M: Hello, Susan.W: Frank, you support radicallychanging universities in America. Yes.Q6.I believe that the purpose of highereduad grefo prepare young peopleto enter the workforce and that ourcurrent system fails to do this, We'reallocating too many resou disciplines that don't match the needsof employers.W: I think your attitude to education isa bit cynical Frank. Surely the purpose of university is to prepareyoung people to participate fully incivic life rather than just to find wellpaid jobs.M: Susan, many young graduates struggle to find any job let alone agood one. The job markc isgrim.Particulaniior students who studythe arts. I agree that it isn't easy foryoungr gegple to find work, but youpropose closing down alt departments that aren't directlyrelated to science and technology. Isthat really the solution?M: You're overstating my paint. Q7.My argument is that we need it use moer of our budget on areas like science and engineering. To do that, we needto take money from subjects likeliterature and musicW: Q8,But the arts have value. They'rean important part of our culture.studying literature or music or sculpture might not result in a job inthatae But it helps young people tothink about the world in a.deeperway, which makes them b citizens and makes fora better society.M:l agree that the arts are valuable tosociety, but it's naive to think that notonly tk miost talented, but allstudents should study them at university level. The odds are verycompetitive, and most graduates willend up with a great deal of debt,obtaining a degree that has littlevalue on the job market.Question 5. What do we learn from theconversation about the man?Question 6. What does the manbelieve is the problem with the current AmericanSystem of Higher Education?Question 7. How should the educationbudget be allocated according to theman?Question 8. What does the woman saythe arts can do?Passage OneDo you ever have the annoying feetingthat you don't have time to really thinkanymore? You're not alone.【Q9】A variet dtdrs have conspired to robus of time for reflectionourselves and our lives.preoccupied minds are rarely Silent.The average person receives hundredsof texts and voice messages a day. Andholidays for many of us are action-packed weeks more likely full of familyactivities than opportunities fortranquility and contemplation.【Q10】Regular reflection,howe,underlies all great professionals. It's a prerequisite for you to recharge yourmental batteries. See things in a newlight and tap into your creativity.Almost all of the great advisors that Ihave studied have found ways to getaway from it all and contemplate theirlife and work. Some researchers in thefield of creativity, in fact, believe thatinsight occurs during the reflection and relaxation that follows aCeriod of intense actvity.Schedule your time for reflection aboutyourwork ora particular proiect you're engaged in. I usually biock outhalf an hour. Don't answer the phone.Push your papers to the side. Sketch,make lists, draw mind maps of ideasthat come to you. At the end, write down any emerging ideas.When you're alone, stop worrying andthink. A lot of our downtime is spentworryingabout troublesc ne thihgs inour lives or fantasizing aboat how we'dlike our lives to be.【Q11】 Revisitthings during moments of relaxationafter a periodnof intense work. This iswhenwe are the most creative.Question 9 What do we learn about thefeeling that one doesn't heeitime tothink anymore?Questica 10 What trait do all greatprofessionals share?Question 11 What is some researchersbelieve is conducive to creative ideas?Passage Twohad post offices The first opened in 1859 in asettlement founded by migrants searching for gold,Life could be unpredictable outwest. Gold failed to appear. Drought ruinedfarmers, and settlers clashed with_NativeAmericans.On the settlement's location now stands asprawling University campus. Amid all thechanges, one feature remained constant: thepostal service. The maps tracing America'swestward expansion are telling in 1864 therewere few postat branches on land controlledby Native Americans, which still accountedfor most of the West. Over the next 25 years,post offices grew quickly. Colonization'of theWest could be regarded as a result of biggovernment rather than pioneers.【13】Asfederal subsidies and land grants temptedpeople into the deserts and plains, the postkept them connected.In the mid-19th century, the Post OfficeDepartment was far from a centralizedbureaucracy. To keep up with migrationpatterns, postal services were added toexisting businesses.【14】The federal government commissioned private wagons themail. Short term contracts were granted tolocal businessman to act as postmasters.These partnerships enabled the mail to quickly followmigrants helping knit togetherremote parts of the country.Mr. Bellavance, a digital historian, wrote abook on the history of the US postal service.【15】 He used the data science to analyzehistorical trends, Most strikingly he built anaccompanying website, complekw;Tinteractive maps.They show readers-howwithin a generation the postal service helpedcolonize a continent. These online interactivemaps illustrate the formative power of snailmail.Q12 What does the passage say AboutColorado before it became a state?Q13 How did the postal service contribute toAmerica's westward expansion?Q14 What did the federal government:do tomeet the increasing demand for the postalservice in the West?Q15 What did Mr. Bellavance do to study thehistory of the US postal service?听力演讲1In last week's lecture, we discussed reasons whypeople forget things. This week we will discuss asurprising reason why we might remember somethings, anxiety. Think about something as simple asbuying a coffee. That may not seem like an experience that would make a deep impression onyour memory. But anxiety could change that. Q16.In fact, a new study suggests that people withhigher anxiety levels mightremembertertain information better than people with lower anxietylevels.That's because higher levels of anxiety may makepeople moresusceptible to negative feelings,putting them in a more negative state of mind. Thatin turn, may make them able to better remembersome events. Let's take a closer look at that newstudy now. Q17. In this study, tseardhersstarted by giving 80 undergraduate students ananxiety test. The test measure the participantsanxiety levels over the proceeding two weeks.Then, to test memory, the participants were showna series of neutral words one at a time. Some of thewords were printed onto photos of negative scenes,meaning images that could affect their emotionsnegatively, such as a photo of a car accident, or acemetery. The rest of the words were printed ontophotos of neutral scenes, such as a photo of a lakeor trees. Neutral words included words like table ordesk that don't elicit emotion.Later, the participants were asked to think back tothe words they were shown earlier, which causedthem to reenter either a negative or neutral mindset. The participants were then presented withanother set of neutral words, and their memory ofthese new words was tested.The researchers found that the new words presented to people in a negative mindset werebetter remembered by people with higher levels ofanxiety than those with lower levels of anxiety.In other words, when highly anxious individualstook in otherwise emotionallyneutral informationthat was presented to them, it became colored bytheir negative mindset, making them remember theinformation better. But these same effects were notseen in people with low levels of anxiety.Q18. Previous studies havefound that extremeevels of anxiety such as those experienced bypeople diagnosed with an anxiety disorder can bequite detrimentalto memory and cognitive performan But the highly anxious people in thisstudy represent individuals who are managing theiranxiety and for whom anxiety is not. a seriousproblem.Question 16. What does the speaker say the newstudy suggests?Question 17. What did researchers do first in thenew study?Question 18. What do we learn from previousstudies aboutlanxiety?Over the past 20 years, the u ternet hasgradually become a dominant featureof our lives. It has changed how wecommunicate with each other. And ithas definitely transformed the way wedo business with each other:Marketinghas also changed in a number of ways.For instance, in the past, consumershad to call a phone number and patiently wait on hold in order to getthe information they wanted.[Q19]Today, they want the informationimmediately. They'll go to the company's sociaLmediapdc nifostcomments and questions expecting toreceive an immediate response. If theydon't get their questions answeredsoon they'll move on to anothercompany that will answer themquickly.Marketing departments today need tofollow technological development.Forexample, this year smartphone issmarter than last years. s fariving cars are now on the road. Marketershave to do research on which techncingies:are coming into bsing,otherwise, they risk being leit behindin the virtual dust.Marketing has also changed due to theimportance of video. People don't justwant to read text. They walt to watchthings happening. Companies now have to explore how they can use videoon a consistent basis to share information about their sinesses.Fortunately, it's extremely easy toshoot something these days. All youneed is a smartphone.But what's the result of all this? Shorteraitention spans? We aren't the samepeople that we were 20 yedi ago. Notonly have we grown accustomed togetting the information we want instantaneously, our attention spansare much shorter. If something doesn'tcaptulc ourattention within a fewseconds. We're on to the next piece ofcontent.[Q20]Marketers need to figureout ways to speak directly to the customer's emotions and they need tofigure out how to do that as quickly aspossible. Once people are emotionallyengaged, they'll stick with you.If marketingi has changed this much inthe past 20 years, imagine what thenext 20 years will bring li ai recentsurvey, only 9% of marketers could saywith confidence that their marketingefforts were actually working. Theirconfidence is being shaken becausethe rules of the game change everyyear. That's why [Q21]it'simportant for marketers to pay attention to the latest technological devel and consider collaborating with technological innovators. That way,they'll be moving at the samepace asthe tech industry.Question 19 What does the speaker sayabout today's consumers?Question 20 How do marketers captureconsumers'attention as quickly aspossible?Question 21 What does the speakersuggest marketers do to meet futurechalletes?演讲3You might be surprised to learn that [Q22] thebenefits offriendships extend beyond people'ssociallifeand into their work, which is interestingwhen cd lili the extent to which peoplesacrifice friendships, or at least the time they spendwith friends because of the exte edihairsthey'redevoting to work. Just last week, rwas remarking toa colleague that I'm content with only one socialengagement per week. But according to recentresearch, that's evidently not enough.In an initial study of more than 700 respondents,scholars from an American university [Q23] analyzethe imrf thst:fiends as opposed to family haveon sel dem Jahd well-being. Friends came outsubstantially on top. That's because to be someone's mate is a voluntary act. Unlike familywho people rarely get to choose. The researchersfound that when people choose to cultivate andmaintain supportive friendships with an individual,it means that the person is valued and worthy oftheir limited time. Such sentiments of value andworthiness boost our self-esteem.The second study comprised more than 300 participants. It proved that the better we feel aboutourselves, the more likely we will perform our jobconfidently andcompetently. This follow-up studyfound that [Q24] non-work friends even improvedpeople's job satisfaction. They have as much of animpact on how much they love their jobs, as do thefriends they have at work, despite not actuallybeing at our place of work. These types of friendstend to be our preferred outlet fo nni aboutwork-related mattersyThis is an avenue that maynot be available at the office.So even though friendships can be easy to neglectwhen confronted-by pressures at work, or evenpressures at home, neglecting our friends can turnout to be harmful and counterproductive. That'swhy when determining how to create a better work-life balance, we need to consider not only how tobalance work and family demands, but also how tocultivate and sustain supportive friendships. It's for employees for flexible work arrangements. It'sirrelevant whether their need for a desired scheduleis due to say, parenting responsibilities, or a craving to hang out with their best mate. Whatmatters is the opportunity to engage in a nourishingactiyity outside of work. That will definitely have afollow-on effect at work.Q 22 What does the speaker say is interesting?Q 23 What did researchers from an Americanuniversity analyze in their initial study?Q 24 What did the second study find aboutmon-work friends?Q 25 What does the speaker suggest managers do?参考答案:1.A) She is drawn to its integration of design andengineering.2.D) Through hard work.3.C) It is long-lasting.4.A) Computer science.5.B) He is well known to the public.6.D) Serve as a personatassistant.7.D) He has little previous work experience.8.C) He has a high proficiency in several languages.9.A) They have fewer rules and pressures.10.D) They deprive kids of the opportunity todevelop team spirit.11.C) Let them participate in some less risky outdooractivities.12.B) Tech firms intentionally design products tohave short lifespans.13.C) List a repairability score of their product.14.D) Take the initintive to reduce electronic waste.15.A) It can be solved.16.B) How to prevent employees from cyberloafing.17.C) Cyberloafing may relieve employees of stress.18.A) Taking mini-breaks means better jobperfontance.19.D) There were no trees.20.B) He founded a newspaper and used it topromote his ideas.21.B) The state government declared it the officialArbor Day.22.B)They moved ou of Africa about 60,000 yearsago.23.D) The discovery of two modern human teeth inChina.24.A) There must have been some reason for humanmigration.25.D) What path modern humans took to migrateout of America. 听力第二套参考答案:作文:心理健康Mental well-being is regarded as a state of health where a person is able to address normal stresses in daily life. Recently,this state has been grasped as much attention as physical health.Obviously, there are several factors that affect people's mental well-being. Firstly, a strong contributor to mental well-being refers to the state of a person's usual environ-ment. Adverse environmental circumstances can lea negative effectson psychological wellness. Living in a positive social environment, in contrast, can provide protection against mental challenges. Secondly, people's lifestyle can also impact their mental health. Smoking, a poor diet, alcohol con-sumption, substance use, and risky sexual behavior may result in psychological harm. Smoking, a poor diet, alcohol consump-tion, substance use, and risky sexual behavior may result in psychological harm. Worse, such behaviors have been linked to depression.In conclusion, because mental health is so important to general wellness, it's important that you take care of your mental health. Talking therapy, meditation and maintaining a positive outlook on life all contribute to people mental health. With a positive mental state, all areas of life will go towards active de-velopment.友好的讨论When faced with differing opinions, we should try to reach agreement through friendly discussion and reasonable argu-ment. In our daily life, it is common to see college students struggling with a polite and logical way when their views differ from others'. Apparently, this issue has sparked public con-cerns.Friendly discussion allows individuals to share their perspec-tives and opinions in a respectful manner. This can lead to a better understanding of each other's viewpoints and poten-tially even finding common ground. In addition, reasonable ar-gument allows individuals to present evidence and logic to sup-port their position, which can help persuade others to see their point of view. However, it is important to note that not all disagreements can be resolved through discussionand argu-ment alone. In some cases, compromise may be necessary to reach a resolution that satisfies all parties involved.To sum up, friendly discussion and reasonable argument, to a large extent, are of great use. We should be open-minded and engaged in such practices.教育的目标Education has played an increasingly crucial role in modern so-ciety. We aim education on different levels at cultivating the to-be successors of our global village. One important goal that education is trying to achieve is help students master the ways to acquire knowledge.Of all the capabilities one can develop to acquire knowledge in being educated, three sorts are of the greatest significance.First of all, students who are receiving education definitely know that they are always ignorant of some branches in th eocean of knowledge, which can keep them modest and more willing to explore their unfamiliar realms, even deeper if they've already done so. Moreover, students can imitate what their teachers or professors do in or our of class and then gradually acquire the ability to undertake more scientific re-search and intellectual inquiries alone. Last but not least,youngsters who are accustomed to being educated at school or college are more likely to keep studying as a life-long habit,which will have a substantially positive effect on their own life and the future of the human world.In my perspective, education is one of the most marvelous social inventionsthat ever existed in human history. Without it, the whole globe can never continue developing further in a civilized and prosperous direction.星火英语版:听力部分(共2套)第一套1.B) It was warm and comfortable.2.B) She misses her roommates she used to complain about.3.C) He had a similar feeling to the woman's.4.A) Go to see the woman's apartment.5.D) He has published a book recently.6.C) It has not prepared young people for the job market.7.A) More of the budget should go to science and technology.8.D) Cultivate better citizens.9. A) It is quite common.10. B) Engaging in regular contemplation.11. D) Reflecting during ones relaxation.12. C) There existed post offices.13. D) It kept people in the deserts and plains connected.14. B) It commissioned private wagons to carry the mail.15. C) He examined its historical trends with data science.16. A) Higher levels of anxiety may improve people's memory.17)C) They measured the participants' anxiety levels.18.B) Extreme levels of anxiety can adversely affect cognitive performance.19. D) They expect to get instantaneous responses to their inquiry.20. C) Speaking directly to their emotions.21. B) Keep up with the latest technological developments.22. D) Friendships benefit work.23. A) The impact of friends on people's self-esteem.24. D) They increase people's job satisfaction.25. A) Allow employees to have a flexible work schedule.第二套1. A) She is drawn to its integration of design and engineering.2.D) Through hard work.3.C) It is long-lasting.4.A) Computer science.5.B) He is well known to the public.6.D) Serve as a personal assistant.7.D) He has little previous work experience.8.C) He has a high proficiency in several languages.9.A) They have fewer rules and pressures.10.D) They deprive kids of the opportunity to develop team spirit.11 C) Let them participate in some less risky outdoor activities.12. B) Tech firms intentionally design products to have short lifespans.13. C) List a repairability score of their product.14. D) Take the initintive to reduce electronic waste.15. A) It can be solved.16.B) How to prevent employees from cyberloafing.17.C) Cyberloafing may relieve employees of stress.18. A) Taking mini-breaks means better job perfontance.19.D) There were no trees.20.B) He founded a newspaper and used it to promote his ideas.21.B) The state government declared it the official Arbor Day.22.B)They moved ou of Africa about 60,000 years ago.23.D) The discovery of two modern human teeth in China.24.A) There must have been some reason for human migration.25.D) What path modern humans took to migrate out of America.翻译部分(共3套)1.中国文化出口近年来,越来越多的中国文化产品走向全球市场,日益受到海外消费者的青睐。

2019年6月大学英语六级(第二套)真题及答案解析

2019年6月大学英语六级(第二套)真题及答案解析

2019年6月大学英语六级考试真题答案与详解(第二套)Part I Writing (30 minutes) 【参考范文】How to deal with the complicated interpersonal relationships always remains a major worry for most of us. Wise words or books that aim to teach us to tackle this daunting issue are, almost without exception, putting stress on mutual understanding and respect, the significance of which seems self-evident.Mutual understanding requires us to put ourselves in each other's place and be forgiving of others5 difficulties. By doing so, we will become more easy-going and accessible, and thus more likely to avoid unnecessary conflicts and frictions with others, a common trigger for a failed relationship. Mutual respect—for privacy, lifestyles, hobbies, professions, opinions and the like— helps create a friendly atmosphere that encourages us to share and exchange our ideas openly without the fear of feeling offended.To sum up, this principle of socializing is certainly a prerequisite for healthy and stable interpersonal relationships. Neglect of it will lead us to end up being estranged from, or even hostile to, each other.【范文译文】如何处理复杂的人际关系始终是我们大多数人的一大烦恼。

2019年6月六级第二套听力原文及答案

2019年6月六级第二套听力原文及答案

2019年6月六级第二套听力原文及答案Section AConversation OneW: Wow, I would give anything to be more like Audrey Hepburn.M: I never really understood why so many girls were such big fans of her. I mean. I’ve seen the famous films, Roman Holiday, Breakfast At Tifany’s and a few others, but I still don’t fully get it. Was she that great of an actress?W: Well, for me, my adoration goes beyond her movies. She had such a classic elegance about her.She was always so poised, in part because she spent years training as a ballet dancer before becoming an actress.M: Why didn’t she stick to dancing as a career?W: It seems it was fate. She suffered from inadequate nutrition during the war, and therefore, a career as a professional dancer would have been too demanding on her body. So she focused on acting instead. Roman Holiday was her first big break which made her a star.M: Was that the film that opened with her shopping for jewelry in New York city? You know, the scene she was wearing a black dress and dark sunglasses with a pearl necklace and long black gloves. I see the photo of her in that costume everywhere.W: No, that one is Breakfast At Tiffany's, That costume is often referred to as the most famous little black dress of all time. Her character in that film is very outgoing and charming, even though in real life, Audrey always described herself as shy and quiet.M: So what did she do after her acting career?W: She dedicated much of her life to helping children in need. Her family received international aid during the war when she was growing up. I think that left a big impression on her. That's where I got the idea to volunteer for children’s charity next weekend.M: I’ll join you. I may not be as charming as Audrey Hepburn, but I’m all for supporting a good cause.Q1: What does the man say he never really understood?Q2: What prevented Audrey Hepburn from becoming a professional dancer?Q3: What do we learn about Audrey Hepburn in real lifeQ4: Why did Audrey Hepburn devote much her life to charity after her acting career?Conversation TwoW: So, how is our presentation about the restructuring of the company coming along?M: Fine, I’m putting the finishing touches to it now. But we’ll have to be prepared for questions.W: Yes, there’s already a feeling that this is a top down change. We really need to get everyone on board.M: Well, there’s been an extensive consultation period.W: I know, but there’s always the feeling that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. M: People are worried about their jobs, too. I think we need to stress that while there will be job changes, there won’t be anyone getting dismissed. In fact, we’re looking to take on more staff.W: Agreed. You can hardly blame people for worrying though. We need to make it clear that it’s not just change for change’s sake. In other words, we really must make the case for why we are doing it. So what’s the outline of the presentation? M: I’ll start with a brief review of the reasons for the change that we really need to make a clean break to restart growth. After tha t I’ll outline the new company’s structures and who’s going where. Then I’ll hand it over to you to discuss the timeline and summarize and we’ll take questions together at the end. Anything else?W: Oh, yeah, we should let the staff know the channels of communication, you know, who they can contact or direct questions to about these changes?M: Yes, and we can collect some frequently asked questions and present some general answers.W: Um, and we’ll make the presentation and the questions available via the company’s own computer network, right?M: Yes, we’ll make a page on the network where staff can download all thedetails.W: All right. Perhaps we should do a practice round of the presentation first. M: You bet.Q5: What is the man going to do?Q6: What does the man say about the restructuring?Q7: What will the man explain first?Q8: How can the staff learn more about the company’s restructuring? Section BPassage OneAirline passengers have to deal with a lot these days, getting bumped from flights and losing luggage on top of the general anxiety that nervous passengers always feel.At the Cincinnatirthern Kentucky International Airport, miniature horses deliver a calming force two times a month. Denver and Ruby are two of the 34 therapy horses brought in from a local farm. They can usually be found in the ticket counter area interacting with travelers. More than 30 airports across the country now have therapy dogs. San Francisco has a therapy pig. San Jose, California, began a dog program after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Since its beginning, the program has now grown and has 21 therapy dogs and a therapy cat.The animals don’t get startled. They have had hundreds of hours of airporttraining, so they are used to having luggage and people crowding around them. These professional animals are probably better at finding their way in the airports than the most frequent of travelers.The passengers often say that seeing animals makes them feel much better and helps them to calm down before a flight. This little bit of support can sometimes make a big difference. Some passengers enjoy the animals so much that they call the airport to schedule flights around their visits. Visits to nursing homes and schools are also a regular part of the horses’ sched ule. Their owner is already working on a new idea for a therapy animal—donkeys.Q9: What is special about the Cincinnatirthern Kentucky international airport?Q10: What are the trained animals probably capable of doing in an airport?Q11: What do some passengers try to do?Passage TwoHello, viewers. Today I’m standing at the 2000-year-old Roman-era site. Here the brightly-colored scenes that once decorated a mansion are being dug up. These scenes are turning up in the southern French city of Arles, surprising the historians who have been working here since 2014.Patches of paint still cling to the stone walls of the bedroom and reception hall. Some of these painted walls are preserved in places to a height of one meter. In addition, thousands of fragments that fell off the walls have been recovered. Thesepieces have been put back together with great care and display a variety of images. Some of these images include figures never seen before in France, such as a woman playing a stringed instrument, possibly a character from mythology.The paintings were done with such skill and with such expensive dyes that experts believe the artists originally came from Italy. They were likely hired by one of the city’s elite. Perhaps a Roman official wanted Pompeii-like interior to remind him of home. He was probably stationed in this provincial trading port founded in 46 B.C. as a colony for veterans of the Roman army. Or maybe a wealthy local wanted to show off his worldly sophistication. The paintings may yield even more stunning surprises as additional sections are put together, like pieces of a puzzle. Whoever it was that created such magnificent pieces of art, they surely had no idea that their work would still be around thousands of years later.Q12: Where is the speaker standing?Q13: What do the thousands of fragments display when they are put back together? Q14: What makes experts think the paintings were done by artists from Italy?Q15: What do we learn from the passage about the owner of the mansion Section CRecording OneGood afternoon, class. Today I want to discuss with you a new approach to empirical research. In the past, scientists often worked alone. They were confined tothe university or research center where they worked. Today, though, we are seeing mergers of some of the greatest scientific mind, regardless of their location. There has never been a better time for collaborations with foreign scientists.In fact, the European Union is taking the lead. Spurred on by funding policies, half of European research articles had international co-authors in 2007.This is more than twice the level of two decades ago. The European Union’s level of international co-authorship is about twice that of the United States, Japan and India. Even so, the levels in these countries are also rising. This is a sign of the continued allure of creating scientific coalitions across borders.Andrew Schubert, a researcher at the Institute for Science Policy Research, says that the rising collaboration is partly out of necessity. This necessity comes with the rise of big science. Many scientific endeavors have become more complicated. These new complications require the money and labor of many nations. But he says collaborations have also emerged because of increased possibilities. The Internet allows like-minded scientists to find each other. Simultaneously, dramatic drops in communication costs ease long-distance interactions. And there is a reward. Studies of citation counts show that internationally co-authored papers have better visibility. Schubert says international collaboration is a way to spread ideas in wider and wider circles.Caroline Wagner, a research scientist at George Washington University, notes that international collaborations offer additional flexibility. Whereas local collaborations sometimes persist past the point of usefulness because of social oracademic obligations, international ones can be cultivated and dropped more freely.The collaborative trend is true across scientific disciplines. Some fields, though, have a greater tendency for it. Particle physicists and astronomers collaborate often. This is because they must share expensive facilities Mathematicians, by contrast, tend historically towards solitude. As a consequence, they lag behind other disciplines. However, Wagner says partnerships are rising there, too.The level of collaboration also varies from country to country. There are historical and political reasons as to why collaborations emerge, says Wagner. This rise is also apparently boosted by policies embedded in European framework funding schemes. These policies underlie funding requirements that often require teamwork.Q16: What do we learn about the research funding policies in the European Union? Q17: Why do researchers today favor international collaboration?Q18: What do we learn about the field of mathematics?Recording TwoGood evening. In 1959, on the day that I was born, a headline in Life magazine proclaimed “Target Venus: There May be Life There!” It told of how scientists rode a balloon to an altitude of 80,000 feet to make telescope observations of Venus’s atmosphere, and how their discovery of water raised hopes that there could be living things there.As a kid, I thrilled to tales of adventure and Isaac Asimov’s juvenile science-fiction novel Luck Starr and the Oceans of Venus. For many of my peers, though, Venus quickly lost its romance. The very first thing that scientists discovered with the mission to another planet was that Venus was not at all the Earthly paradise that fiction had portrayed. It is nearly identical to our own planet in bulk properties such as mass, density, and size. But its surface has been cooked and dried by an ocean of carbon dioxide. Trapped in the burning death-grip of a runaway greenhouse effect, Venus has long been held up as a cautionary tale for everything that could go wrong on a planet like Earth. As a possible home for alien life, it has been voted the planet least likely to succeed. But I have refused to give up on Venus, and over the years my stubborn loyalty has been justified. The rocky views glimpsed by Venera 9 and other Russian landers suggested a tortured volcanic history. That was confirmed in the early 1990s by the American Magellan orbiter, which used radar to peer through the planet’s thick clouds and map out a rich, varied, and dynamic surface.The surface formed mostly in the last billion years, which makes it fresher and more recently active than any rocky planet other than Earth. Russian and American spacecraft also found hints that its ancient climate might have been wetter, cooler, and possibly even friendly to life. Measurements of density and composition imply that Venus originally formed out of basically the same stuff as Earth. That presumably included much more water than the tiny trace we find blowing in the thick air today. That presumably included much more water than thetiny trace we find blowing in the thick air today. Thus, our picture of Venus at around the time life was getting started on Earth is one of warm oceans, probably rich with organic molecules, splashing around rocky shores and volcanic vents. The sun was considerably less bright back then. So, Venus was arguably a cozier habitat for life than Earth.Q19: What do we learn from the Life magazine article?Q20: What are scientists’ findings about VenusQ21: What information did Russian and American space probes provide about Venus?Recording ThreeI’m a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. I specialize in Cultural Psychology, examining similarities and differences between East Asians and North Americans.Our research team has been looking at cultural differences in self-enhancing motivations, how people have positive feelings towards not only themselves, but things connected to themselves. For example, when you own something, you view it as more valu able than when you don’t own it. It’s called the “endowment effect”. The strength of that effect is stronger in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures. So we’ve been looking at other ways of seeing whether this motivation to view oneself positively is s haped by cultural experiences. We’ve also started tolook at how culture shapes sleep.We are still in the exploratory stages of this project—although what’s noteworthy is that East Asians on average sleep about an hour and a half less each night than Nort h Americans do. And it’s not a more efficient sleep, not like they’re compressing relatively more value out of their hours. Other studies have found that even infants in East Asia sleep about an hour less than European infants. So we’re trying to figure ou t how culture shapes the way you sleep.Our experiment does not take place in a sleep lab. Instead, we lend people motion-detecting watches, and they wear them for a week at a time. Whenever they are not having a shower or swimming, they keep it on. These kinds of watches are used in sleep studies as a way of measuring how long people are sleeping, how efficient their sleep is, and whether they are waking up in the night. Ideally, I’d like to take this into a controlled lab environment. We’ll see where the research points us. We usually start off with the more affordable methods and if everything looks promising, then it will justify trying to build a sleep lab and study sleep across cultures that way.Why do we study sleep? Sleep is something that has really been an unexplored topic cross-culturally. I’m attracted to it because culture isn’t something that only shapes the way our minds operate; it shapes the way our bodies operate too, and sleep is at the intersection of those.Q22: What does the speaker mainly study?Q23: What does the speaker say about North Americans? Q24: How did the speaker conduct the sleep study?Q25: What does the speaker say about research on sleep?Section A: 1-8 CABACDBDSection B: 9-15 ABCDADASection C: 16-25 BDCDBAABCA。

2023年六月大学英语六级考试真题第二套

2023年六月大学英语六级考试真题第二套

2023年六月大学英语六级考试真题第二套The following is the second set of questions for the June 2023 College English Test Level 6, also known as CET-6.Reading ComprehensionSection A:1. According to the passage, what is the main reason for the decline in bee populations?2. What are the potential consequences of the decline in bee populations on the ecosystem?3. How can individuals help support bee populations?Section B:1. What is the author's main argument in this passage?2. What evidence does the author provide to support their argument?3. How can readers apply the author's ideas to their own lives?Cloze TestFill in the blank with the appropriate word.1. The (1)______ between China and the United States has escalated in recent months.2. The new (2)______ policy has been met with mixed reactions from the public.3. It is important to (3)______ a healthy work-life balance.WritingWrite an essay of at least 300 words on the following topic: "The Impact of Technology on Education". In your essay, discuss how technology has changed the way students learn, the benefits and challenges of integrating technology into education, and your personal opinion on this topic.ListeningListen to the audio recordings and answer the following questions:1. What is the main topic of the conversation?2. What are the speakers' opinions on the issue?3. What solutions do the speakers propose to address the problem?TranslationTranslate the following passage from Chinese to English:中国是世界上最古老的文明之一,拥有悠久的历史和丰富的文化遗产。

2019年6月六级第二套听力原文及答案

2019年6月六级第二套听力原文及答案

2019年6月六级第二套听力原文及答案Section AConversation OneW: Wow, I would give anything to be more like Audrey Hepburn.M: I never really understood why so many girls were such big fans of her. I mean. I’ve seen the famous films, Roman Holiday, Breakfast At Tifany’s and a few others, but I still don’t fully get it. Was she that great of an actress?W: Well, for me, my adoration goes beyond her movies. She had such a classic elegance about her.She was always so poised, in part because she spent years training as a ballet dancer before becoming an actress.M: Why didn’t she stick to dancing as a career?W: It seems it was fate. She suffered from inadequate nutrition during the war, and therefore, a career as a professional dancer would have been too demanding on her body. So she focused on acting instead. Roman Holiday was her first big break which made her a star.M: Was that the film that opened with her shopping for jewelry in New York city? You know, the scene she was wearing a black dress and dark sunglasses with a pearl necklace and long black gloves. I see the photo of her in that costume everywhere.W: No, that one is Breakfast At Tiffany's, That costume is often referred to as the most famous little black dress of all time. Her character in that film is very outgoing and charming, even though in real life, Audrey always described herself as shy and quiet.M: So what did she do after her acting career?W: She dedicated much of her life to helping children in need. Her family received international aid during the war when she was growing up. I think that left a big impression on her. That's where I got the idea to volunteer for children’s charity next weekend.M: I’ll join you. I may not be as charming as Audrey Hepburn, but I’m all for supporting a good cause.Q1: What does the man say he never really understood?Q2: What prevented Audrey Hepburn from becoming a professional dancer?Q3: What do we learn about Audrey Hepburn in real lifeQ4: Why did Audrey Hepburn devote much her life to charity after her acting career?Conversation TwoW: So, how is our presentation about the restructuring of the company coming along?M: Fine, I’m putting the finishing touches to it now. But we’ll have to be prepared for questions.W: Yes, there’s already a feeling that this is a top down change. We really need to get everyone on board.M: Well, there’s been an extensive consultation period.W: I know, but there’s always the feeling that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. M: People are worried about their jobs, too. I think we need to stress that while there will be job changes, there won’t be anyone getting dismissed. In fact, we’re looking to take on more staff.W: Agreed. You can hardly blame people for worrying though. We need to make it clear that it’s not just change for change’s sake. In other words, we really must make the case for why we are doing it. So what’s the outline of the presentation? M: I’ll start with a brief review of the reasons for the change that we really need to make a clean break to restart growth. After tha t I’ll outline the new company’s structures and who’s going where. Then I’ll hand it over to you to discuss the timeline and summarize and we’ll take questions together at the end. Anything else?W: Oh, yeah, we should let the staff know the channels of communication, you know, who they can contact or direct questions to about these changes?M: Yes, and we can collect some frequently asked questions and present some general answers.W: Um, and we’ll make the presentation and the questions available via the company’s own computer network, right?M: Yes, we’ll make a page on the network where staff can download all thedetails.W: All right. Perhaps we should do a practice round of the presentation first. M: You bet.Q5: What is the man going to do?Q6: What does the man say about the restructuring?Q7: What will the man explain first?Q8: How can the staff learn more about the company’s restructuring? Section BPassage OneAirline passengers have to deal with a lot these days, getting bumped from flights and losing luggage on top of the general anxiety that nervous passengers always feel.At the Cincinnatirthern Kentucky International Airport, miniature horses deliver a calming force two times a month. Denver and Ruby are two of the 34 therapy horses brought in from a local farm. They can usually be found in the ticket counter area interacting with travelers. More than 30 airports across the country now have therapy dogs. San Francisco has a therapy pig. San Jose, California, began a dog program after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Since its beginning, the program has now grown and has 21 therapy dogs and a therapy cat.The animals don’t get startled. They have had hundreds of hours of airporttraining, so they are used to having luggage and people crowding around them. These professional animals are probably better at finding their way in the airports than the most frequent of travelers.The passengers often say that seeing animals makes them feel much better and helps them to calm down before a flight. This little bit of support can sometimes make a big difference. Some passengers enjoy the animals so much that they call the airport to schedule flights around their visits. Visits to nursing homes and schools are also a regular part of the horses’ sched ule. Their owner is already working on a new idea for a therapy animal—donkeys.Q9: What is special about the Cincinnatirthern Kentucky international airport?Q10: What are the trained animals probably capable of doing in an airport?Q11: What do some passengers try to do?Passage TwoHello, viewers. Today I’m standing at the 2000-year-old Roman-era site. Here the brightly-colored scenes that once decorated a mansion are being dug up. These scenes are turning up in the southern French city of Arles, surprising the historians who have been working here since 2014.Patches of paint still cling to the stone walls of the bedroom and reception hall. Some of these painted walls are preserved in places to a height of one meter. In addition, thousands of fragments that fell off the walls have been recovered. Thesepieces have been put back together with great care and display a variety of images. Some of these images include figures never seen before in France, such as a woman playing a stringed instrument, possibly a character from mythology.The paintings were done with such skill and with such expensive dyes that experts believe the artists originally came from Italy. They were likely hired by one of the city’s elite. Perhaps a Roman official wanted Pompeii-like interior to remind him of home. He was probably stationed in this provincial trading port founded in 46 B.C. as a colony for veterans of the Roman army. Or maybe a wealthy local wanted to show off his worldly sophistication. The paintings may yield even more stunning surprises as additional sections are put together, like pieces of a puzzle. Whoever it was that created such magnificent pieces of art, they surely had no idea that their work would still be around thousands of years later.Q12: Where is the speaker standing?Q13: What do the thousands of fragments display when they are put back together? Q14: What makes experts think the paintings were done by artists from Italy?Q15: What do we learn from the passage about the owner of the mansion Section CRecording OneGood afternoon, class. Today I want to discuss with you a new approach to empirical research. In the past, scientists often worked alone. They were confined tothe university or research center where they worked. Today, though, we are seeing mergers of some of the greatest scientific mind, regardless of their location. There has never been a better time for collaborations with foreign scientists.In fact, the European Union is taking the lead. Spurred on by funding policies, half of European research articles had international co-authors in 2007.This is more than twice the level of two decades ago. The European Union’s level of international co-authorship is about twice that of the United States, Japan and India. Even so, the levels in these countries are also rising. This is a sign of the continued allure of creating scientific coalitions across borders.Andrew Schubert, a researcher at the Institute for Science Policy Research, says that the rising collaboration is partly out of necessity. This necessity comes with the rise of big science. Many scientific endeavors have become more complicated. These new complications require the money and labor of many nations. But he says collaborations have also emerged because of increased possibilities. The Internet allows like-minded scientists to find each other. Simultaneously, dramatic drops in communication costs ease long-distance interactions. And there is a reward. Studies of citation counts show that internationally co-authored papers have better visibility. Schubert says international collaboration is a way to spread ideas in wider and wider circles.Caroline Wagner, a research scientist at George Washington University, notes that international collaborations offer additional flexibility. Whereas local collaborations sometimes persist past the point of usefulness because of social oracademic obligations, international ones can be cultivated and dropped more freely.The collaborative trend is true across scientific disciplines. Some fields, though, have a greater tendency for it. Particle physicists and astronomers collaborate often. This is because they must share expensive facilities Mathematicians, by contrast, tend historically towards solitude. As a consequence, they lag behind other disciplines. However, Wagner says partnerships are rising there, too.The level of collaboration also varies from country to country. There are historical and political reasons as to why collaborations emerge, says Wagner. This rise is also apparently boosted by policies embedded in European framework funding schemes. These policies underlie funding requirements that often require teamwork.Q16: What do we learn about the research funding policies in the European Union? Q17: Why do researchers today favor international collaboration?Q18: What do we learn about the field of mathematics?Recording TwoGood evening. In 1959, on the day that I was born, a headline in Life magazine proclaimed “Target Venus: There May be Life There!” It told of how scientists rode a balloon to an altitude of 80,000 feet to make telescope observations of Venus’s atmosphere, and how their discovery of water raised hopes that there could be living things there.As a kid, I thrilled to tales of adventure and Isaac Asimov’s juvenile science-fiction novel Luck Starr and the Oceans of Venus. For many of my peers, though, Venus quickly lost its romance. The very first thing that scientists discovered with the mission to another planet was that Venus was not at all the Earthly paradise that fiction had portrayed. It is nearly identical to our own planet in bulk properties such as mass, density, and size. But its surface has been cooked and dried by an ocean of carbon dioxide. Trapped in the burning death-grip of a runaway greenhouse effect, Venus has long been held up as a cautionary tale for everything that could go wrong on a planet like Earth. As a possible home for alien life, it has been voted the planet least likely to succeed. But I have refused to give up on Venus, and over the years my stubborn loyalty has been justified. The rocky views glimpsed by Venera 9 and other Russian landers suggested a tortured volcanic history. That was confirmed in the early 1990s by the American Magellan orbiter, which used radar to peer through the planet’s thick clouds and map out a rich, varied, and dynamic surface.The surface formed mostly in the last billion years, which makes it fresher and more recently active than any rocky planet other than Earth. Russian and American spacecraft also found hints that its ancient climate might have been wetter, cooler, and possibly even friendly to life. Measurements of density and composition imply that Venus originally formed out of basically the same stuff as Earth. That presumably included much more water than the tiny trace we find blowing in the thick air today. That presumably included much more water than thetiny trace we find blowing in the thick air today. Thus, our picture of Venus at around the time life was getting started on Earth is one of warm oceans, probably rich with organic molecules, splashing around rocky shores and volcanic vents. The sun was considerably less bright back then. So, Venus was arguably a cozier habitat for life than Earth.Q19: What do we learn from the Life magazine article?Q20: What are scientists’ findings about VenusQ21: What information did Russian and American space probes provide about Venus?Recording ThreeI’m a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. I specialize in Cultural Psychology, examining similarities and differences between East Asians and North Americans.Our research team has been looking at cultural differences in self-enhancing motivations, how people have positive feelings towards not only themselves, but things connected to themselves. For example, when you own something, you view it as more valu able than when you don’t own it. It’s called the “endowment effect”. The strength of that effect is stronger in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures. So we’ve been looking at other ways of seeing whether this motivation to view oneself positively is s haped by cultural experiences. We’ve also started tolook at how culture shapes sleep.We are still in the exploratory stages of this project—although what’s noteworthy is that East Asians on average sleep about an hour and a half less each night than Nort h Americans do. And it’s not a more efficient sleep, not like they’re compressing relatively more value out of their hours. Other studies have found that even infants in East Asia sleep about an hour less than European infants. So we’re trying to figure ou t how culture shapes the way you sleep.Our experiment does not take place in a sleep lab. Instead, we lend people motion-detecting watches, and they wear them for a week at a time. Whenever they are not having a shower or swimming, they keep it on. These kinds of watches are used in sleep studies as a way of measuring how long people are sleeping, how efficient their sleep is, and whether they are waking up in the night. Ideally, I’d like to take this into a controlled lab environment. We’ll see where the research points us. We usually start off with the more affordable methods and if everything looks promising, then it will justify trying to build a sleep lab and study sleep across cultures that way.Why do we study sleep? Sleep is something that has really been an unexplored topic cross-culturally. I’m attracted to it because culture isn’t something that only shapes the way our minds operate; it shapes the way our bodies operate too, and sleep is at the intersection of those.Q22: What does the speaker mainly study?Q23: What does the speaker say about North Americans? Q24: How did the speaker conduct the sleep study?Q25: What does the speaker say about research on sleep?Section A: 1-8 CABACDBDSection B: 9-15 ABCDADASection C: 16-25 BDCDBAABCA。

2021年6月6级第二套听力原文

2021年6月6级第二套听力原文

2021年6月6级第二套听力原文Part I Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)Section A1. M: The concert was fantastic, wasn't it?W: Yes, it was amazing. I've never heard such beautiful music before.Q: What do we learn from the conversation?2. W: I really like your watch. Where did you get it?M: Thanks. I got it online. There are many good deals online.Q: What does the man imply?3. W: Excuse me, I'm looking for the nearest ATM. Can you tell me where it is?M: Sure. Turn left here and you'll see the ATM on the corner of the next block.Q: What does the man tell the woman to do?4. M: What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?W: I like all kinds of music, but I guess I prefer classical music. Q: What does the woman like best?5. W: I called the restaurant to make a reservation, but they're fully booked.M: Well, there's always takeout. We can order online and pick itup from there.Q: What does the man suggest they do?6. W: The weather is getting colder these days, don't you think? M: Yes, but it's not as bad as it was last year.Q: What do we learn about the weather from the conversation?7. W: I heard you had a big party last night. How did it go?M: It was fun, but it got pretty late. I'm still recovering.Q: What does the man say about the party?8. W: I can't seem to find my passport. I think I left it somewhere. M: You'd better check your luggage again. It's probably in there. Q: What does the man suggest the woman do?9. M: Do you think you'll have time to come to the game tonight? W: Sorry, I can't make it. I have a meeting at work that will go late.Q: What is the woman's reason for not going to the game?10. W: I'm not feeling well. I think I'm coming down with something.M: You should go see the doctor if you're not feeling better soon. Q: What does the man suggest the woman do?Section BPassage OneAfter graduating from college, many people choose to travel or live in another country for a period of time. This can be a valuable experience that teaches independence, responsibility, and cultural awareness. But staying in a foreign country is not always easy. One of the biggest challenges is language. To feel comfortable and enjoy your environment, it's important to learn at least the basics of the language spoken there.Another challenge is making friends. When you're away from your familiar social circle, it can be difficult to meet new people. But there are many ways to connect with the locals. Language exchange programs, volunteering, and shared activities are all good ways to meet new people and build friendships.Q: What is the main challenge for people who decide to live in aforeign country?Passage TwoRaising kids is difficult, especially in today's world where technology dominates all aspects of life. Many parents worry about how to control their children's use of technology. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, experts say that communication is key. Parents should talk to their children about technology and its effects on their lives. They should set clear guidelines for screen time, and lead by example by following those guidelines themselves.Parents should also keep an eye on what their children are doing online. There are many apps that allow parents to monitor their children's social media accounts, and they can also use parental controls on devices to block certain websites or limit usage during certain times of day.Finally, parents should encourage their children to engage in activities that don't involve screens. This could be anything from outdoor sports to playing an instrument.Q: What is the most important thing parents should do to control their children's use of technology?Passage ThreeEating local food is a great way to experience a new culture. But for some people, especially those with dietary restrictions, findingsomething to eat can be a challenge. In these cases, it's helpful to do some research beforehand. Look up the local cuisine and pick out some dishes that are compatible with your diet.It's also a good idea to learn some basic phrases in the local language, such as "vegetarian" or "gluten-free." This will make it easier to communicate with servers and chefs.Another option is to self-cater. Many accommodations have kitchens or kitchenettes where guests can cook their own meals. This is especially helpful for people with severe food allergies or sensitivities.Q: What is one way to ensure that people with dietary restrictions have something to eat when traveling?Section C1. W: Did you hear about the new travel restrictions to Japan? M: Yes, I did. It's too bad because I was planning to go there next month.Q: What do we learn from the conversation?2. W: I'm thinking of getting a new car, but I'm not sure if I can afford it.M: You might want to consider getting a used car instead. They're often cheaper and just as reliable.Q: What does the man suggest the woman do?3. W: Can I borrow your calculator for a minute?M: Sure thing. Here you go.Q: What does the man do?4. M: I'm really struggling with this math problem. Can you help me out?W: Sure. Let me take a look.Q: What does the woman offer to do?5. W: I heard that the university is going to cancel all classes tomorrow because of the weather.M: Really? I haven't heard anything about that.Q: What do we learn from the conversation?6. M: I think we should get a head start on the project. We only have two weeks left.W: That's a good idea. When should we start?Q: What do the speakers plan to do?7. W: I can't decide which shirt to wear. Which one do you like better?M: I like the blue one. It looks good on you.Q: What does the man think about the blue shirt?8. W: Do you have any plans for the weekend?M: Not really. I was thinking of maybe going to the movies or something.Q: What does the man plan to do over the weekend?9. M: I'm really tired. I stayed up late last night studying for the exam.W: You should try taking a nap. That always helps me when I'm tired.Q: What does the woman suggest the man do?10. W: I can't believe how much homework we have to do this week.M: Tell me about it. I feel like I've been studying all day.Q: What do the speakers think about their homework load?。

2024年6月大学英语六级考试真题和答案(第2套)

2024年6月大学英语六级考试真题和答案(第2套)

2024年6月大学英语六级考试真题和答案(第2套)Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay that begins with the sentence “Nowadays more and more college students have come to realize social practice and academic learning are equally important.” You can make comments, cite examples or use your personal experiences to develop your essay. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.You should copy the sentence given in quotes at the beginning of your essay.Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)Section ADirections:In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.1. A) Read numerous comments users put online.B) Blended all his food without using a machine.C) Searched for the state-of-the-art models of blenders.D) Did thorough research on the price of kitchen appliances.2. A) Eating any blended food.B) Buying a blender herself.C) Using machines to do her cooking.D) Making soups and juices for herself.3. A) Cooking every meal creatively in the kitchen.B) Paying due attention to his personal hygiene.C) Eating breakfast punctually every morning.D) Making his own fresh fruit juice regularly.4. A) One-tenth of it is sugar.B) It looks healthy and attractive.C) One’s fancy may be tickled by it.D) It contains an assortment of nutrients.Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.5. A) How he has made himself popular as the mayor of Berkton.B) How the residents will turn Berkton into a tourist attraction.C) How charming he himself considers the village of Berkton to be.D) How he has led people of Berkton to change the village radically.6. A) It was developed only to a limited extent.B) It was totally isolated as a sleepy village.C) It was relatively unknown to the outside.D) It was endowed with rare natural resources.7. A) The people in Berkton were in a harmonious atmosphere.B) The majority of residents lived in harmony with their neighbors.C) The majority of residents enjoyed cosy housing conditions.D) All the houses in Berkton looked aesthetically similar.8. A) They have helped boost the local economy.B) They have made the residents unusually proud.C) They have contributed considerably to its popularity.D) They have brought happiness to everyone in the village.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B),C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.9. A) They have created the smallest remote-controlled walking robot in the world.B) They are going to publish their research findings in the journal Science Robotics.C) They are the first to build a robot that can bend, crawl, walk, turn and even jump.D) They are engaged in research on a remote-controlled robot which uses special power.10. A) It changes its shape by complex hardware.B) It is operated by a special type of tiny motor.C) It moves from one place to another by memory.D) It is powered by the elastic property of its body.11. A) Replace humans in exploratory tasks.B) Perform tasks in tightly confined spaces.C) Explore the structure of clogged arteries.D) Assist surgeons in highly complex surgery.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. A) She threw up in the bathroom.B) She slept during the entire ride.C) She dozed off for a few minutes.D) She boasted of her marathon race.13. A) They are mostly immune to cognitive impairment.B) They can sleep soundly during a rough ride at sea.C) They are genetically determined to need less sleep.D) They constitute about 13 percent of the population.14. A) Whether there is a way to reach elite status.B) Whether it is possible to modify one’s genes.C) Whether having a baby impacts one’s passion.D) Whether one can train themselves to sleep less.15. A) It is in fact quite possible to nurture a passion for sleep.B) Babies can severely disrupt their parents’ sleep patterns.C) Being forced to rise early differs from being an early bird.D) New parents are forced to jump out of bed at the crack of dawn.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by three or four questions. The recordings will be played only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard. 16. A) We have poor awareness of how many controversial issues are being debated.B) No one knows better than yourself what you are thinking about at the moment.C) No one can change your opinions more than those who speak in a convincing tone.D) We are likely to underestimate how much we can be swayed by a convincing article.17. A) Their belief about physical punishment changed.B) Their memory pushed them toward a current belief.C) The memory of their initial belief came back to them.D) Their experiences of physical punishment haunted them.18. A) They apparently have little to do with moderate beliefs.B) They don’t reflect the changes of view on physical punishment.C) They may not apply to changes to extreme or deeply held beliefs.D) They are unlikely to alter people’s position without more evidence.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.19. A) American moms have been increasingly inclined to live alone.B) The American population has been on the rise in the past 25 years.C) American motherhood has actually been on the decline.D) The fertility rates in America have in fact been falling sharply.20. A) More new mothers tend to take greater care of their children.B) More new mothers are economically able to raise children.C) A larger proportion of women take pride in their children.D) A larger proportion of women really enjoy motherhood.21. A) The meaning of motherhood has changed considerably.B) More and more mothers go shopping to treat themselves.C) More mothers have adult children celebrating the holiday.D) The number of American mothers has been growing steadily.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.22. A) Add to indoor toxic pollutants.B) Absorb poisonous chemicals.C) Beautify the home environment.D) Soak up surrounding moisture.23. A) NASA did experiments in sealed containers resembling thesuper-insulated offices of 1970s.B) It was based on experiments under conditions unlike those in most homes or offices.C) NASA conducted tests in outer space whose environment is different from ours.D) It drew its conclusion without any contrastive data from other experiments.24. A) Natural ventilation proves much more efficient for cleaning the air than house plants.B) House plants disperse chemical compounds more quickly with people moving around.C) Natural ventilation turns out to be most effective with doors and windows wide open.D) House plants in a normal environment rarely have any adverse impact on the air.25. A) The root cause for misinterpretations of scientific findings.B) The difficulty in understanding what’s actually happening.C) The steps to be taken in arriving at any conclusion with certainty.D) The necessity of continually re-examining and challenging findings.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 2with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.The Sun Is Also a Star is a truly lovely story of love, romance, fate,and destiny.Natasha is a Jamaican-born immigrant living____26____in America, not by choice exactly. Her parents brought her over and created the situation she____27____to be out of.Daniel is an American born of Korean immigrants. He believes in true love, fate, and all that other nonsense that Natasha____28____through scientific reasoning.Daniel and Natasha meet by____29____on the streets of New York on the day that she is to be____30____. She doesn’t tell him that but does allow him to keep her company while he tries to get her to fall in love with him over the course of the day.Natasha is me. I found her so similar to myself. She’s scientifically-minded, practical, somewhat cynical, andalways____31____. Her obsession with the universe through a scientific lens is infectious and I____32____Daniel seeing that too.Daniel is charming and passionate and has a way with words that even____33____Natasha’s tough outer shell.By the end of the book I fell in love with both of them.I used to find romance stories to always be cheap or laughable. I think now I can see the value in escaping into a story of pure optimism. I got____34____in The Sun Is Also a Star and finished it cover to cover in a weekend. I couldn’t wait to get to what I hoped would be a happy ending.It’s nice every once in a while to give in to magic. It doesn’t have to be a hard fantasy novel with actual spells, it can be the magic found between two people who just have that special something.That____35____that causes them to react and spark when they’re near each other.A) adoreB) appraiseC) assaultsD) chemistryE) coincidenceF) cracksG) deportedH) dismissesI) illegallyJ) lostK) perpetuallyL) prescribedM) shrewdN) skepticalO) strivesSection 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.These are the habits to avoid if you want to make a behavior changeA) According to recent research, behavioral change involves physical changes in the brain. In the past decade, researchers have shown that when it comes to the duration of making a new behavior a deep-rooted habit there is not a simple answer. Even for the most productive and disciplined among us, undoing something that has become an automatic part of who we are takes more than an overnight effort. Once we’ve successfully made that change, we then have to make other adjustments to our lives to ensure that we continue to maintain it, which is often a whole other challenge in itself.B) At its core, success in changing and maintaining a behavior rarely occurs without the introduction of some sort of system. When there isn’t the right framework in place, we face a greater likelihood of derailing our hard-earned progress. To ensure success in changing and maintaining a behavior, we should stay away from some detrimental habits.C) The first one to avoid is relying on willpower. Think about the last time you vowed to resist a temptation. Perhaps you didn’t want to check your phone every 15 minutes, or you were determined not to reach for a chocolate bar at 3 p.m. Think about how difficult it must have been not to glance at your phone when it was within reach, or not to walk to the vending machine when your afternoon slump hit.D) The research on whether we have finite or infinite willpower is inconclusive, but experts do generally agree that you can’t change and sustain a habit if you rely on your willpower alone. The old military saying “You never rise to the occasion, you only sink to the level of training” also applies to behavior change. The idea is simple—you repeat something so many times that it becomes automatic.E) Think about what else you can change about your surrounding that makes it easier for you to perform this change on a daily basis. This is called your “cue.” Basically, it’s a trigger to perform that particular habit. If you don’t want to reach for a sugary treat at 3 p.m., have a box of herbal tea ready at your desk. When 3 p.m. comes around, that’s your cue to pour yourself a cup of hot water and drink that tea, instead of walking to the vending machine.F) The second one to avoid is focusing on negative goals. Sometimes, it’s not your process that lets you down, but the habit that you want to change in the first place. For starters, not eating chocolate to beat your afternoon slump is a harder goal than swapping chocolate for herbal tea when you reach the designated time. Your brain wants to find routinesthat have succeeded in the past and allow you to repeat those actions again in the future without having to think about them explicitly. However, this habit-learning system isn’t so effective when it comes to learning not to do something. That’s why rather than giving up something, think about introducing something in its place. Focus on actions you are going to take that will ultimately conflict with the behaviors you want to stop. When your attention is on doing something new, you give your habit system a chance to operate.G) The third one to avoid is using the same strategies in different circumstances. Because we are creatures of habit, it’s natural to assume that when we do manage to adopt and sustain a desirable behavior, that same strategy will work when we want to make another behavior change. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, the system that got you to change one behavior might not work for another.H) Sometimes we become accustomed to relying on our guts when it comes to decisionmaking. This serves us well in certain situations, but can hinder us in others especially when we need to consider metrics and data, rather than letting our instinct override everything. For example, if you want to stop checking your email first thing in the morning, you might decide to substitute another activity in its place. But if you want to stop indulging in video games, simply deciding you will go for a run might not be as effective. You might need to introduce another reinforcement, such as meeting a friend and booking an exercise class together.I) The fourth one to avoid is not forgiving ourselves for slipping up. Of course, even the bestlaid plans fail sometimes. You might have stuck to your screen-free nighttime routine for five days, and then a big project landed on your desk and you found yourself in bed with your laptop before you went to sleep. Or you prepared meals on Sunday and stuck to eating healthy dinners at home, but by Friday you found yourself so exhausted and opted to order greasy takeout. Life happens and even if your behavior change is small, every single day can prove pretty inflexible, and at some point your luck may run out, even if just for a day. The perfectionist in you might be screaming to abandon your goals altogether, but try to see it in the bigger picture. Just because you might have temporarily strayed off course doesn’t mean you can’t start afresh the next day.J) The final one to avoid is discounting small progress. There’s a habit that many perfectionists tend to fall into when they try to establish a behavior change. They focus too much on the big goal and don’t take the time to celebrate the small progress they make in the process. Your brain responds to rewards. The basal ganglia, the brain region linked to our performance of habits, is most active at the beginning of a behavior, when the habit is cued, and at the end, when it’s rewarded. Say your goal is to run five miles three times a week, and this week you ran one mile on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Rather than focusing on how far you’ve gone toward your goal, think about how you can reward yourself for the progress you’ve made. It doesn’t have to be big or expensive; it can be something as simple as making your favorite fruit juice after your run. Whatever your reward, it has to be more than just the activity itself to get you going.K) Initiating a new behavior usually seems like the hardest part of the process of change. However, people often fail to adequately prepare for maintaining it. One of the reasons for this is because we mistakenly believe the strategies we used to initiate the change will be equally effective in helping us continue the change. But they won’t. Where changing a strongly deep-rooted habit requires changing our belief about that habit that penetrates deeply into our lives, continually manifesting that wisdom requires that we maintain a positive outlook. If our mood is low, the wisdom to behave differently seems to disappear and we go back to eating more and exercising less. The key, then, to maintaining new behaviors is to be happy! Which is why it’s so hard to maintain new behaviors.L) Remember, overcoming the behavioral inertia that prevents us from implementing new changes, like eating a healthy diet or exercising, can benefit us in the long run and can improve our physical and mental health. No one was born with habits. They were all learned, and can all, therefore, be unlearned. The question is: how badly do you really want to change?36. There is general consensus among experts that willpower alone cannot guarantee one’s success in changing and maintaining a habit.37. One need not abandon their goals completely just because they missed their target temporarily; they can start anew.38. Research shows it is quite another challenge to maintain a behavioral change after you have initiated it.39. It is wrong to assume the strategies we use to start a change of behavior will work equally well in helping maintain it.40. Sometimes, it may not be successful to simply substitute one activity with another to effect a change of habit; you may need extra reinforcement.41. One should introduce something new to replace an old habit instead of simply kicking it.42. Perfectionists focus too much on their big target and neglect celebrating the small gains they make in the process.43. It is of great benefit to us in the long term to conquer the inertia that stops us from making behavioral changes.44. The strategy that successfully changed one of your behaviors may not work for some other behavior of yours.45. Without a happy mood, it seems that our wisdom to adopt a different behavior vanishes.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.The “American Dream” promises that in the Land of Opportunity, any individual can climb the economic ladder and prosper through hard work and ambition alone. And yet, young Americans today are struggling to earn more than their parents did at the same age, and upward mobility in the US actually compares unfavourably to that of other industrialised nations.So why does the idea of the American Dream persist? A new study in the American Journal of Political Science identifies one factor that has been overlooked: the influence of reality TV.Reality shows have come to dominate US television over the past 20 years, notes Eunji Kim from Vanderbilt University. And the overwhelming majority of these have a “rags-toriches” storyline: they feature ordinary Americans who work hard to achieve great economic success. And while these programmes are regularly among the most-watched shows, news broadcasts—which paint a more realistic view of the economic hardship faced by millions of Americans—get a much smaller proportion of the viewership.Rags-to-riches stories are ubiquitous (无处不在的) on TV—but does watching these programmes actually convince people that economic mobility is easily attainable? To find out, Kim’s team had participants watch a 5-minute clip from a reality show with a rags-to-riches storyline. Control participants watched a clip from a reality show that didn’t have a rags-toriches story. After watching the shows, participants rated how much they agreed with four statements relating to the American Dream.The results showed that those who’d watched a rags-to-riches clip did indeed have a significantly greater belief in the American Dream. Interestingly, when participants were separated by party affiliation, this effect was significant among Republicans but not Democrats, suggesting that the kind of messages implicit in these TV shows may play into people’s existing socioeconomic beliefs.Kim also conducted a survey of 3,000 US residents. They also rated the extent to which they believed success in life is related to various internal factors (such as ambition) and external factors (such as family wealth). Finally, they read a list of TV programmes and indicated which they regularly watched.Participants who were heavy viewers of rags-to-riches programmes or frequent viewers had a stronger belief in the American Dream than those who never watched such shows.Kim concludes that “rags-to-riches entertainment media are an important cultural force that promotes and perpetuates beliefs in upward mobility”. And here’s the problem: if people mistakenly believe that hard work is all that is needed for individuals to make a better life for themselves, they may be less supportive of policies that could actually combat inequality.“In this era of choice, entertainment media are what captures hearts and minds,” Kim writes. “Its political consequences are anything but trivial”.46. What do we learn from the passage about young Americans of today?A) They have greater ambitions than their parents.B) They find it difficult to achieve upward mobility.C) They have overtaken their parents in terms of earnings.D) They envy the opportunities in other industrialised nations.47. What does Kim’s team find about reality TV shows in America?A) They reinterpret the essence of the popular rags-to-riches culture.B) They urge people to achieve economic success through hard work.C) They help strengthen people’s conviction in the American Dream.D) They feature ordinary Americans striving for social recognition.48. What does the author say about news broadcasts in America?A) They attract far fewer viewers than reality TV.B) They are bent on reporting the dark side of life.C) They stand in striking contrast with reality TV.D) They focus on Americans’ economic hardships.49. What can we infer from the passage about Republicans in general?A) They believe strongly in the American Dream.B) They strive to climb the socio-economic ladder.C) They have a very strong affiliation with their party.D) They tend to watch more rags-to-riches TV shows.50. What is stated about people who believe in upward mobility?A) They are likely to blame the government for their plight.B) They regard political consequences as anything but trivial.C) They respect individuals striving to climb the social ladder.D) They are less likely to approve of policies to fight inequalityPassage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.When someone asks us ‘what do you do?’ we nearly always reply with our occupation. Work, for many of us, is much more than a job. It is the defining aspect of our identity. For many of us it is through our job that we can define ourselves.“Without my job I don’t know who I am,” is a sentence that has been uttered on more than a handful of occasions from my office chair. Indeed, it can be one of the most challenging aspects I work on with clients who have lost or been forced into changing their jobs. This loss provokes an identity crisis much greater than the loss of the job itself.One of the things I have come to understand, however, is that our identity is much more complex than we recognise at first glance. If we take the time to reflect we might recognise that as well as our work we can also identify as a friend, a spouse, a son or daughter, a parent, a member of a sports team or religious community. We may recognise that we feel and act differently in these roles and relationships than we do at work. The passive daughter becomes an assertive leader at work. Furthermore, our identities at work are not static. They change over time.I myself have been a shop assistant, a waitress, a student, a graduate, and a clinical psychologist. At each stage my ability to adapt to and develop my career identity has been crucial to my wellbeing. Whilst we like to eliminate uncertainty in our lives at some level we have to manage uncertainty, especially in today’s volatile and ever-shifting job market.How we see ourselves is central to the issue of our identity. When we tell ourselves “I’m good at starting projects but not so great at seeing them through” it can become part of our belief system. But if you have the unfortunate experience of an enforced job change you will need to examine those beliefs to see how grounded in reality they are. You will be required to ask yourself how helpful these beliefs are and consider personal change. We can change our beliefs, behaviours and emotional experience at any time through experimentation, practice and conscious self-discipline. In an age where career progression may lead us into new sectors it is ever more important to challenge our sense of self and explore whether you can create a new experience of your identity by changing the beliefs you hold about yourself in order to expand your career options. Ultimately it is you who define who you are. You are only your job if you let it be so.51. What do we learn from the passage about one’s loss of a job?A) It compels them to visit a clinical psychologist.B) It offers them a chance to play different roles.C) It renders them puzzled about who they are.D) It forces them to redefine their life’s goals.52. What has the author come to understand about our identity?A) It is crucial to our emotional wellbeing.B) It plays a big role in many facets of life.C) It reflects our changing status in society.D) It is more complicated than it appears.53. What does the passage say about our identities at work?A) They are essential to our self-esteem.B) They evolve with the passage of time.C) They overrule all other self-perceptions.D) They are key to understanding ourselves.54. What do we have to do in today’s ever-changing job market?A) Strive to develop our social identity.B) Prepare for different career paths.C) Try to be assertive at all times.D) Learn to manage uncertainty.55. What should we do to expand our career options?A) Alter our perceptions of ourselves.B) Compare various job opportunities.C) Look into newly emerging sectors.D) Exercise self-discipline consciously.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.中国盛产竹子,是最早开发利用竹资源的国家。

  1. 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性,平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
  2. 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
  3. 3、如文档侵犯您的权益,请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间:9:00-18:30)。

Section ADirections:In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer. from the four choices marked A), B),C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.注意:此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.1. A) The project the man managed at CucinTech.B) The updating of technology at CucinTech.C)The man's switch to a new career.D) The restructuring of her company.2. A) Talented personnel.B) Strategic innovation.C) Competitive products.D) Effective promotion.3. A) Expand the market.B) Recruit more talents.C) Innovate constantly.D) Watch out for his competitors.4. A) Possible bankruptcy.B) Unforeseen difficulties.C) Conflicts within the company.D) Imitation by one's competitors.Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.5. A) The job of an interpreter.B) The stress felt by professionals.C) The importance of language proficiency.D) The best way to effective communication.6. A) Promising.B) Admirable.C) Rewarding.D) Meaningful.7. A) They all have a strong interest in language.B) They all have professional qualifications.C) They have all passed language proficiency tests.D) They have all studied cross-cultural differences.8. A) It requires a much larger vocabulary.B) It attaches more importance to accuracy.C) It is more stressful than simultaneous interpreting.D) It puts one's long-term memory under more stress..Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two passages. At the end of each passage, you willhear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line throughthe centre.Passage OneQuestions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.9. A) It might affect mothers' health.B) It might disturb infants' sleep.C) It might increase the risk of infants, death.D) It might increase mothers' mental distress.10. A) Mothers who breast-feed their babies have a harder time falling asleep.B) Mothers who sleep with their babies need a little more sleep each night.C) Sleeping patterns of mothers greatly affect their newborn babies' health.D) Sleeping with infants in the same room has a negative impact on mothers.11. A) Change their sleep patterns to adapt to their newbornbabies'.B) Sleep in the same room but not in the same bed as their babies.C) Sleep in the same house but not in the same room as their babies.D) Take precautions to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.Passage TwoQuestions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. A) A lot of native languages have already died out in the US.B) The US ranks first in the number of endangered languages.C) The efforts to preserve Indian languages have proved fruitless.D) More money is needed to record the native languages in the US.13. A) To set up more language schools.B) To document endangered languages.C) To educate native American children.D) To revitalise America's native languages.14. A) The US govemment's policy of Americanising Indian children.B) The failure of American Indian languages to gain an official status.C) The US government's unwillingness to spend money educating Indians.D) The long-time isolation of American Indians from the outside world.15. A) It is being utilised to teach native languages.B) It tells traditional stories during family time.C) It speeds up the extinction of native languages.D) It is widely used in language immersion schools.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by threeor four questions. The recordings will be played only once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B),C) and D). Then mark thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Recording OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.16. A) It pays them up to half of their previous wages while they look for work.B) It covers their mortgage payments and medical expenses for99 weeks.C) It pays their living expenses until they find employment again.D) It provides them with the basic necessities of everyday life.17. A) Creating jobs for the huge army of unemployed workers.B) Providing training and guidance for unemployed workers.C) Convincing local lawmakers to extend unemployment benefits.D) Raising funds to help those having no unemployment insurance.18. A) To offer them loans they need to start their own businesses.B) To allow them to postpone their monthly mortgage payments.C) To create more jobs by encouraging private investments in local companies.D) To encourage big businesses to hire back workers with government subsidies.Recording TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the recording you have just heard.19. A) They measured the depths of sea water.B) They analyzed the water content.C) They explored the ocean floor.D) They investigated the ice.20. A) Eighty percent of the ice disappears in summer time.B) Most of the ice was accumulated over the past centuries.C) The ice ensures the survival of many endangered species.D) The ice decrease is more evident than previously thought.21. A) Arctic ice is a major source of the world's fresh water.B) The melting Arctic ice has drowned many coastal cities.C) The decline of Arctic ice is irreversible.D) Arctic ice is essential to human survival.22. A) It will do a lot of harm to mankind.B) There is no easy way to understand it.C) It will advance nuclear technology.D) There is no easy technological solution to it.Recording ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.23. A) The reason why New Zealand children seem to have better self-control.B) The relation between children's self-control and theirfuture success.C) The health problems of children raised by a single parent.D) The deciding factor in children's academic performance.24. A) Children raised by single parents will have a hard time in their thirties.B) Those with a criminal record mostly come from single parent families.C) Parents must learn to exercise self-control in front of their children.D) Lack of self-control in parents is a disadvantage for their children.25. A) Self-control can be improved through education.B) Self-control can improve one's financial situation.C) Self-control problems may be detected early in children.D) Self-control problems will diminish as one grows up.第二套答案1. A) The project the man managed at CucinTech.2. B) Strategic innovation.3. C) Innovate constantly.4. D) Imitation by one's competitors.5. A) The job of an interpreter.6. B) Admirable.7. B) They all have professional qualifications.8. C) It is more stressful than simultaneous interp reting.Section B9. C) It might increase the risk of infants' death .10. D) Sleeping with infants in the same room hasa negative impact on mothers.11. B) Sleep in the same room but not in the same bed as their babies.12. A) A lot of native languages have already died out in the US.13. D) To revitalise America's native languages.14. A) The US government's policy of Americanising Indian children.15. C) It speeds up the extinction of native langu ages.Section C16. A) It pays them up to half of their previous wages while they look for work.17. B) Providing training and guidance for unemployed workers.18. C) To create more jobs by encouraging private investments in local companies.19. D) They investigated the ice.20. D) The ice decrease is more evident than previ ously thought.The decline of Arctie ice is irreversible.22. D) There is no easy technological solution to it.23. B) The relation between children's self-control and their future success.24. B) Those with a criminal record mostly come fr om single parent families.25. A) Self-control can be improved through educatio n.2016年6月大学英语六级考试真题听力原文(第二套)Section AConversation OneW: So, Mike, you managed the innovation project at CucinTech. M: I did, indeed.W: Well, then. First, congratulations! It seems to have been very successful.M: Thanks. Yes. I really helped things turn around at CucinTech. W: Was the revival in their fortunes entirely due to strategic innovationM: Yes, yes. I think it was. CucinTech was a company who were very much following the pack, doing what everyone else was doing, and getting rapidly left behind. I could see there was a lot of talent there, and some great potential, particularly in their product development. I just had to harness that somehow.W: Was innovation at the core of the projectM: Absolutely. If it doesn't sound like too much of a cliche,our world is constantly changing and it"s changing quickly.We need to be innovating constantly to keep up with this.Stand still, and you#re lost.W: No stopping to sniff the rosesM: Well, I$ll do that in my personal life. Sure. But as a business strategy, I%m afraid there is no stopping.W: What exactly is strategic innovation thenM: Strategic innovation is the process of managing innovation of making sure it takes place at all levels of the company and that is related to the company's overall strategy. W: I see.M: So, instead of innovation for innovation's sake and new products being created simply because the technology is there, the company culture must switch from these point-in-time innovations to a continuous pipeline of innovations from everywhere and everyone.W: How did you align strategies throughout the companyM: I soon became aware that campaigning is useless. People takeno notice. Simply, it came about through good practice trickling down. This built consent. People could see it was the best way to work.W: Does innovation on this scale really give a competitive advantageM: I'm certain of it. Absolutely, especially if it's difficult for a competitor to a copy. The risk is of course that innovation may frequently lead to imitation.W: But not if it's strategicM: Precisely.W: Thanks for talking to us.M: Sure.Questions 1to4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.1. What seems to have been very successful according to the womanspeaker2. What did the company lack before the man's scheme wasimplemented3. What does the man say he should do in his business4. What does the man say is the risk of innovation Conversation TwoM: Today my guest is Dana Ivanovich, who has worked for the last20 years as an interpreter. Dana, welcome.W: Thank you.M: Now, I'd like to begin by saying that I have on occasions used an interpreter myself as a foreign correspondent.So I’m full of admiration for what you do. But I think your profession is sometimes underrated and many people think anyone who speaks more than one language can do it.W: There aren"t any interpreters I know who don#t have professional qualifications and training. You only really get profession after many years in the job.M: And am I right in saying you can divide what you do into two distinct methods: simultaneous and consecutive interpreting.W: That$s right. The techniques you use are different. And alot of interpreters will say one is easier than the other, less stressful.M: Simultaneous interpreting, putting someone's words into another language more or less as they speak, sounds to me like the more difficult.W: Well, actually no. Most people in the business would agree that consecutive interpreting is the more stressful. You have to wait for the speaker to deliver quite a chunk of language before you then put it into the second language which puts your short-term memory under intense stress. M: You make notes, I presumeW: Absolutely. Anything like numbers, names, places have to be noted down, but the rest is never translated word for word.You have to find a way of summarizing it. So that the message is there, turning every single word into the target language would put too much strain on the interpreter and slow down the whole process too much.M: But with simultaneous interpreting, you start translating almost as soon as the other person starts speaking, you must have some preparation beforehand.W: Well, hopefully, the speakers will let you have an outline of the topic a day or two in advance, you have a little time to do research, prepare technical expressions and so on. Questions 5to8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.5. What are the speakers mainly talking about6. What does the man think of Dana's profession7. What does Dana say about the interpreters she knows8. What do most interpreters think of consecutive interpreting Section BPassage OneMothers have been warned for years that sleeping with their new-born infant is a bad idea, because it increases the risk that the baby might die unexpectedly during the night. But now Israeli researchers are reporting that even sleeping in the same room can have negative consequences, not for the child, but for the mother. Mothers who slept in the same room as their infants, whether in the same bed or just the same room, hadpoorer sleep than mothers whose baby slept elsewhere in the house. They woke up more frequently, were awake approximately 20 minutes longer per night, and had shorter periods of uninterrupted sleep. These results held true even taking into account that many of the women in the study were breast-feeding their babies. Infants, on the other hand, didn't appear to have worse sleep whether they slept in the same or different room from their mothers. The researchers acknowledge that since the families they studied were all middle-class Israelis. It,s possible the results would be different in different cultures. Lead author Lyati Sotski wrote in an email that the research team also didn-t measure fathers' sleep. So it's possible that their sleep patterns could also be causing the sleep disruptions for mums. Right now, to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers not sleep in the same bed as their babies, but sleep in the same room. The Israeli study suggests that doing so may be best for the baby, but may take a toll on mum.Questions 9toll are based on the passage you have just heard.9. What is the long-held view about mothers" sleeping withnew-born babies10. What do Israeli researchers' findings show11. What does the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend mothers doPassage TwoThe US has already lost more than a third of the native languages that existed before European colonization and the remaining 192 are classed by UNESCO as ranging between unsafe and extinct. u We need more funding and more effort to return these languages to everyday use," says Fred Nawusky of the National Museum of the American Indian. “We are making progress, but money needs to be spent on revitalizing languages, not just documenting them." Some 40 languages mainly in California and Oklahoma where thousands of Indians were forced to relocate in the 19th century have fewer than 10 native speakers. Part of the issue is that tribal groups themselves don%t always believe their languages are endangered until they are down to the last handful of speakers. u But progress is being made through emerging schools, because if you teach children when they are young, it will stay with them as adults and that&s the future,"says Mr. Nawusky, a Comanche Indian. Such schools have become a model in Hawaii, but the islanders’ local language is still classed by UNESCO as critically endangered because only 1,000 people speak it. The decline in American Indian languages has its historical roots. In the mid-19th century, the US government adopted a policy of Americanizing Indian children by removing them from their homes and culture. Within a few generations, most had forgotten their native tongues. Another challenge to language survival is television. It has brought English into homes, and pushed out traditional storytelling and family time together, accelerating the extinction of native languages.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. What do we learn from the report13. For what purpose does Fred Nawusky appeal for more funding14. What is the historical cause of the decline in American Indian Languages15. What does the speaker say about televisionSection CRecording oneGreg Rosen lost his job as a sales manager nearly three years ago and is still unemployed. “It literally is like something in a dream to remember what it's like to actually be able to go out and put in a day's work and receive a day's pay."At first Rosen bought groceries and made house payments with the help from unemployment insurance. It pays laid-off workers up to half of their previous wages while they look for work. But now, that insurance has run out for him and he has to make tough choices. He-s cut back on medications and he no longer helps support his disabled mother. It is a devastating experience. New research says the US recession is now over. But many people remain unemployed and unemployed workers face difficult odds. There is literally only one job opening for every five unemployed workers, so four out of five unemployed workers have actually no chance of finding a new job. Businesses have downsized or shutdown across America, leading fewer job opportunities for those in search of work. Experts who monitor unemployment statistics here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania say about 28,000 people are unemployed and many of them are joblessdue to no fault of their own. Thafs where the Bucks County Careerlink comes in.Local director Elizabeth Walsh says they provide training and guidance to help unemployed workers find local job opportunities. “So here’s the job opening. Here's the job seeker. Match them together under one roof," she says. But the lack of work opportunities in Bucks County limits how much she can help. Rosen says he hopes Congresswill take action. This month, he launched the Ninety-Niners Union, an umbrella organization of eighteen Internet- based grass roots groups of Ninety-Niners. Their goal is to convince law makers to extend unemployed benefits. But Pennsylvania State representative Scott Petri says governments simply do not have enough money to extend unemployment insurance. He thinks the best way to help the long-term unemployed is to allow private citizens to invest in local companies that can create more jobs. But the boost in investor confidence needed for the plan to work will take time. Time that Rosen says still requires him to buy food and make monthly mortgage payments. Rosen says he%ll use the last of his savings to try to hang onto the home he worked for more than twenty years to buy. But once that moneyis gone, he says he doesn’t know what he'll do.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.16. How does unemployment insurance help the unemployed17. What is local director Elizabeth Walsh of the Bucks County Careerlink doing18. What does Pennsylvania state representative Scott Petri say is the best way to help the long-term unemployed Recording TwoEarlier this year, British explorer Pen Huddle and his team tracked for three months across the frozen Arctic Ocean, taking measurements and recording observations about the ice.“Well, we)ve been led to believe that we would encounter a good proportion of this older, thicker, technically multi-year ice that+s been around for a few years and just get thicker and thicker. We actually found there wasn't any multi-year ice at all."Satellite observations and submarine service over the pastfew years had shown less ice in the polar region. But the recent measurements show the lost is more pronounced than previously thought.u We are looking at roughly 80 percent loss of ice cover on the Arctic ocean in ten years, roughly ten years and 100 percent loss in nearly twenty years."Cambridge scientist Peter Waddams, been measuring and monitoring the Arctic since 1971, says the decline is irreversible.The more you lose, the more open water is created, the more warming goes on in that open water during the summer, the less ice forms in the winter, the more melt there is the following summer. It becomes a breakdown process where everything ends up accelerating until ifs all gone."Martin Summercorn runs the Arctic program for the environmental charity the World Wildlife Fund. u The Arctic sea ice holds a central position in the earth’s climate system and it’s deteriorating faster than expected. Actually, it has to translate into more urgency to deal with the climate change problem and reduce emissions."Summercorn says a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming needs to come out of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December.“We have to basically achieve there—the commitment to deal with the problem now. That’s the minimum. We have to do that equitably. And that we have to find a commitment that is quick."Waddams echoes the need for urgency. “The carbon that we’ve put into the atmosphere keeps having a warming effect for 100 years. So we have to cut back rapidly now. Because it would take a long time to work its way through into our response by the atmosphere. We can’t switch off global warming just by being good in the future. We have to start being good now."Waddams says there is no easy technological fix to climate change. He and other scientists say there are basically two options to replacing fossil fuels. Generating energy with renewables or embracing nuclear power.Questions 19 to 22 are based on the recording you have just heard.19. What did Pen Huddle and his team do in the Arctic Ocean20. What does the report say about the Arctic region21. What does Cambridge scientist Peter Waddams say in his study22. How does Peter Waddams view climate changeRecording ThreeFrom a very early age, some children exhibit better self-control than others. Now, a new study that began with about 1,000 children in New Zealand has tracked how a child"s low self-control can predict poor health, money troubles and even a criminal record in their adult years. Researchers have been studying this group of children for decades now. Some of their earliest observations have to do with the level of self-control the youngsters displayed. Parents, teachers, even the kids themselves, scored the youngsters on measures like ^acting before thinking" and “persistence in reaching goals".The children of the study are now adults in their thirties. Terrie Moffitt of Duke University and her research colleagues found that kids with self-control issues tended to grow up to become adults with a far more troubling set of issues to deal with.“The children who had the lowest self-control when they were age L to 10, later on had the most health problems in their thirties, and they had the worst financial situation. And they were more likely to have a criminal record and to be raising a child as a single parent on a very low income."Speaking from New Zealand via Skype, Moffitt explained that self-control problems were widely observed and weren’t just a feature of a small group of misbehaving kids.“Even the children who had above-average self-control as pre-schoolers could have benefited from more selfcontrol training. They could have improved their financial situation and their physical and mental health situation 30 years later."So, children with minor self-control problems were likely as adults to have minor health problems, and so on. Moffitt said ifs still unclear why some children have better self-control than others, though she says other researchers have found that ifs mostly a learned behavior, with relatively little genetic influence. But good selfcontrol can be set to run in families in that children who have good self-control are more likely to grow up to be healthy and prosperous parents.“Whereas some of the low self-control study members are more likely to be single parents with a very low income and the parent is in poor health and likely to be a heavy substance abuser. So thafs not a good atmosphere for a child. So it looks as though self-control is something that in one generation can disadvantage the next generation."But the good news is that Moffitt says self-control can be taught by parents, and through school curricula that have proved to be effective. Terry Moffitfs paper “On the Link Between Childhood Self-control and Adults’ StatusDecades Later" is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.23. What is the new study about24. What does the study seem to show25. What does Moffitt say is the good news from their study。

相关文档
最新文档