英语六级2005年6月6级.doc

2005年6月18日大学英语六级(CET-6)真题试卷

Part I Listening Comprehension (20 minutes)

Section A

Directions: In this section, you will hear 10 short conversations. At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the question will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.

Example:

You will hear: You will read:

A) 2 hours.

B) 3 hours.

C) 4 hours.

D) 5 hours.

From the conversation we know that the two are talking about some work they will start at 9 o’clock in the morning and have to finish by 2 in the afternoon. Therefore, D) “5 hours” is the correct answer. You should choose [D] on the Answer Sheet and mark it with a single line through the centre.

Sample Answer [A] [B] [C] [D]

1. A) It will reduce government revenues.

B) It will stimulate business activities.

C) It will mainly benefit the wealthy.

D) It will cut the stockholders’ dividends.

2. A) She will do her best if the job is worth doing.

B) She prefers a life of continued exploration.

C) She will stick to the job if the pay is good.

D) She doesn’t think much of job-hopping.

3. A) Stop thinking about the matter.

B) Talk the drug user out of the habit.

C) Be more friendly to his schoolmate.

D) Keep his distance from drug addicts.

4. A) The son.

B) The father.

C) The mother.

D) Aunt Louise.

5. A) Stay away for a couple of weeks.

B) Check the locks every two weeks.

C) Look after the Johnsons’ house.

D) Move to another place.

6. A) He would like to warm up for the game.

B) He didn’t want to be held up in traffic.

C) He didn’t want to miss the game.

D) He wanted to catch as many game birds as possible.

7. A) It was burned down.

B) It was robbed.

C) It was blown up.

D) It was closed down.

8. A) She isn’t going to change her major.

B) She plans to major in tax law.

C) She studies in the same school as her brother.

D) She isn’t going to work in her brother’s firm.

9. A) The man should phone the hotel for directions.

B) The man can ask the department store for help.

C) She doesn’t have the hotel’s phone number.

D) The hotel is just around the corner.

10. A) She doesn’t expect to finish all her work in thirty minutes.

B) She has to do a lot of things within a short time.

C) She has been overworking for a long time.

D) She doesn’t know why there are so many things to do.

Section B Compound Dictation

注意： 听力理解的B节(Section B)为复合式听写(Compound Dictation)，题目在试卷二上，现在请取出试卷二。

Certain phrases one commonly hears among Americans capture their devotion to individualism: “Do you own thing.” “I did it my way.” “You’ll have to decided that for yourself.” “You made your bed, now (S1) ________ in it.” “if you don’t look out for yourself, no one else will.” “Look out for number one.”

Closely (S2) ________ with the value they place on individualism is the importance Americans (S3) ________ to privacy. Americans assume that people need some time to themselves or some time alone to think about things or recover their (S4) ________ psychological energy. Americans have great (S5) ________ understanding foreigners who always want to be with another person who dislike being alone.

If the parents can (S6) ________ it, each child will have his or her own bedroom, even as an (S7) ________, fixes in a person the notion that (S8) ________. Having one’s own bedroom, her books, her books and so on. These things will be hers and no one else’s.

Americans assumer that (S9) ________. Doctors, lawyers, psychologists, and others have rules governing confidentiality that are intended to prevent information about their clients’ personal situations form becoming known to others.

American’s attitude about privacy can be hard for foreigners to understand. (10) ________. When those boundaries are crossed, an American’s body will visibly stiffen and his manner will become cool and aloof.

Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

Passage One

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.

Low-level slash-and-burn farming doesn’t harm rainforest. On the contrary, it helps farmers and improves forest soils. This is the unorthodox view of a German soil scientist who has shown that burnt clearings in the Amazon, dating back more than 1,000 years, helped create patches of rich, fertile soil that farmers still benefit from today.

Most rainforest soils are thin and poor because they lack minerals and because the heat and heavy rainfall destroy most organic matter in the soils within four years of it reaching the forest floor. This means topsoil contains few of the ingredients needed for long-term successful farming.

But Bruno Glaser, a soil scientist of the University of Bayreuth, has studied unexpected patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon. These soils contain lots of organic matter.

Glaser has shown that most of this fertile organic matter comes from “black carbon”—the organic particles from camp fires and charred (烧成炭的) wood left over from thousands of years of slash-and-burn farming. “The soils, known as Terra Preta, contained up to 70times more black carbon than the surrounding soil, “says Glaser.

Unburnt vegetation rots quickly, but black carbon persists in the soil for many centuries. Radiocarbon dating shows that the charred wood in Terra Preta soils is typically more than 1,000 years old.

“Slash-and-burn farming can be good for soils provided it doesn’t completely burn all the vegetation, and leaves behind charred wood,” says Glaser. “It can be better than manure (粪肥).” Burning the forest just once can leave behind enough black carbon to keep the soil fertile for thousands of years. And rainforests easily regrow after small-scale clearing. Contrary to the conventional view that human activities damage the environment, Glaser says: “Black carbon combined with human wastes is responsible for the richness of Terra Preta soils.”

Terra Preta soils turn up in large patches all over the Amazon, where they are highly prized by farmers. All the patches fall within 500 square kilometers in the central Amazon. Glaser says the widespread presence of pottery (陶器) confirms the soil’s human origins.

The findings add weight to the theory that large areas of the Amazon have recovered so well from past periods of agricultural use that the regrowth has been mistaken by generations of biologists for “virgin” forest.

During the past decade, researchers have discovered hundreds of large earth works deep in the jungle. They are up to 20 meters high and cover up to a square kilometer. Glaser claims that these earth works, built between AD 400 and 1400, were at the heart of urban civilizations. Now it seems the richness of the Terra Preta soils may explain how such civilizations managed to feed themselves.

11. We learn from the passage that the traditional view of slash-and-burn farming is that ________.

A) it does no harm to the topsoil of the rainforest

B) it destroys rainforest soils

C) it helps improve rainforest soils

D) it diminishes the organic matter in rainforest soils

12. Most rainforest soils are thin and poor because ________.

A) the composition of the topsoil is rather unstable

B) black carbon is washed away by heavy rains

C) organic matter is quickly lost due to heat and rain

D) long-term farming has exhausted the ingredients essential to plant growth

13. Glaser made his discovery by ________.

A) studying patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon

B) examining pottery left over by ancient civilizations

C) test-burning patches of trees in the central Amazon

D) radiocarbon-dating ingredients contained in forest soils

14. What does Glaser say about the regrowth of rainforests?

A) They take centuries to regrow after being burnt.

B) They cannot recover unless the vegetation is burnt completely.

C) Their regrowth will be hampered by human habitation.

D) They can recover easily after slash-and-burn farming.

15. From the passage it can be inferred that ________.

A) human activities will do grave damage to rainforests

B) Amazon rainforest soils used to be the richest in the world

C) farming is responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforests

D) there once existed an urban civilization in the Amazon rainforests

Passage Two

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn’t the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe’s new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the “irresistible momentum of individualism” over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on (扰乱) Europeans’ private lives.

Europe’s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe’s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today’s tech-savvy (精通技术的) workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so.

Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage-twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative-dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone.

The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn’t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn’t got time to get lonely because he has too much work. “I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult.” Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called “The Single Woman and Prince Charming,” thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don’t last long-if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she’d never have wanted to do what her mother did-give up a career to raise a family. Instead, “I’ve always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life.”

16. More and more young Europeans remain single because ________.

A) they are driven by an overwhelming sense of individualism

B) they have entered the workforce at a much earlier age

C) they have embraced a business culture of stability

D) they are pessimistic about their economic future

17. What is said about European society in the passage?

A) It has fostered the trend towards small families.

B) It is getting closer to American-style capitalism.

C) It has limited consumer choice despite a free market.

D) It is being threatened by irresistible privatization.

18. According to Paragraph 3, the newest group of singles are ________.

A) warm and lighthearted

B) on either side of marriage

C) negative and gloomy

D) healthy and wealthy

19. The author quotes Eppendorf to show that ________.

A) some modern women prefer a life of individual freedom

B) the family is no longer the basic unit of society in present-day Europe

C) some professional people have too much work to do to feel lonely

D) most Europeans conceive living a single life as unacceptable

20. What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

A) To review the impact of women becoming high earners.

B) To contemplate the philosophy underlying individualism.

C) To examine the trend of young people living alone.

D) To stress the rebuilding of personal relationships.

Passage Three

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

Supporters of the biotech industry have accused an American scientist of misconduct after she testified to the New Zealand government that a genetically modified (GM) bacterium could cause serious damage if released.

The New Zealand Life Sciences Network, an association of pro-GM scientists and organisations, says the view expressed by Elaine Ingham, a soil biologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, was exaggerated and irresponsible. It has asked her university to discipline her.

But Ingham stands by her comments and says the complaints are an attempt to silence her. “They’re trying to cause trouble with my university and get me fired,” In