大学英语六级分类模拟题462及答案解析.doc

1、大学英语六级分类模拟题 462及答案解析(总分：334.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Part Writing(总题数：1，分数：20.00)1.Directions : For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the following situation. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Suppose you have a new classmate from abroad and he or s

2、he is not so familiar with Chinese culture and customs. This year, you are going to invite him or her to your home to spend the Spring Festival with you and your family. Write him or her an invitation letter and introduce to him or her about the traditional Chinese Spring Festival. （分数：20.00）_二、Part

3、 Reading Compr(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Section A(总题数：1，分数：71.00)The Advantages of Being HelplessA. At every stage of early development, human babies lag behind infants from other species. A kitten can walk slowly across a room within moments of birth and catch its first mouse within weeks, while its human c

4、ounterpart takes months to make her first step, and years to learn even simple tasks, such as how to tie a shoelace or skip a rope. Yet, in the cognitive race, human babies turn out to be much like the tortoise (乌龟) in Aesop“s fable: emerging triumphant after a slow and steady climb to the finish. B

5、 Yet, this victory seems puzzling. In the fable, the tortoise wins the race because the hare takes a nap. But, if anything, human infants nap even more than kittens! And unlike the noble tortoise, babies are helpless, and more to the point, hopeless. They could not learn the basic skills necessary

6、to their independent survival. How do human babies manage to turn things around in the end? C. In a recent article in Current Directions in Psychological Science , Sharon Thompson-Schill, Michael Ramscarand Evangelia Chrysikou make the case that this very helplessness is what allows human babies to

7、advance far beyond other animals. They propose that our delayed cortical development (皮质发育) is precisely what enables us to acquire the cultural building blocks, such as language, that make up the foundations of human achievement. In the same way, they suggest, our ability to learn language comes at

8、 the price of an extended period of cognitive immaturity. D. This claim hinges on a peculiar and unique feature of our cognitive architecture: the stunningly slow development of the prefrontal cortex (前额皮质), or PFC. The PFC is often referred to as the “control“ center of the brain. One of its main f

9、unctions is of selectively filtering information from the senses, allowing us to attend to specific actions, goals, or tasks. For this reason, cognitive “control“ tasks are thought to be one of the best assessors of PFC function and maturity. E. The Stroop task (斯特鲁普任务) serves as a simple assessor o

10、f PFC function in adults. The task involves naming the ink color of a contrasting color word: for example, you might see the word “red“ written in green ink, in which case you have to say “green“. Tricky or not, healthy adults can successfully complete the task with only minor hesitation. Children,

11、with their immature PFC“s, are a different story. Typically, the younger children are, the worse they are at solving Stroop-like tasks, and under the age of four, they outright fail them. While young children are sensitive, apt learners, and often appear to fully understand what is being asked of th

12、em, they are unable to mediate the conflicting demands present in these sorts of tasks, and thus fail them, time and time again. Three-year olds simply cannot direct how they attend to or respond to the world. F. Thompson-Schill and her colleagues suggest that this inability to direct attention has

13、important consequences when it comes to learning about uncertain events. For example, imagine you are playing a guessing game: You have to choose one of two options, either A or B, one of which leads to a prize, and the other does not. After a few rounds, you notice that about 3/4 of the time the pr

14、ize is at A, and the rest of the time it is at B, so you decide to guess “A“ 75 percent of the time and “B“ 25 percent of the time. This is called probability matching, and it is the response pattern most adults tend to adopt in these circumstances. However, if the goal is to win the most prizes, it

15、 is not the best strategy. In fact, to maximize the number of correct predictions, you should always pick the more frequent outcome (or, in this case, always pick “A“). G. Interestingly, if you were playing this kind of guessing game with a kid, you would see that he would employ the maximization st

16、rategy almost immediately because they lack the cognitive flexibility that would allow them to alternate between A and B. Fortunately for them, in this guessing game scenario, maximization is the right choice. H. While it may not be immediately obvious what this has to do with language learning, it

17、just might have everything to do with it, because language relies on conventions. In order for language to work, speakers and listeners have to have the same idea about what things mean, and they have to use words in similar ways. This is where children come in. Young children, as it turns out, act

18、like finely tuned antennas (天线), picking up the dominant frequency in their surroundings and ignoring the static. Because of thisbecause children tend to pick up on what is common and consistent, while ignoring what is variable and unreliablethey end up homing in on and reproducing only the most fre

19、quent patterns in what they hear. In doing so they fail to learn many of the subtleties and characteristics present in adult speech (they will come to learn or invent those later). However, this one-track learning style means that what they do learn is highly conventionalized. I. The superiority of

20、children“s convention learning has been revealed in a series of ingenious studies by psychologists Carla Hudson-Kam and Elissa Newport, who tested how children and adults react to variable and inconsistent input when learning an artificial language. Strikingly, HudsonKam and Newport found that while

21、 children tended to ignore “noise“ in the input, systematizing any variations they were exposed to, adults did just the opposite, and reproduced the variability they encountered. Children“s inability to filter their learning allows them to impose order on variable, inconsistent input, and this appea

22、rs to play a crucial part in the establishment of stable linguistic norms. Studies of deaf children have shown that even when parental attempt sat sign are error-prone and inconsistent, children still extract the conventions of a standard sign language from them. Indeed, the variable patterns produc

23、ed by parents who learn sign language offers insight into what might happen if children did not maximize in learning: language, as a system, would become less conventional. What words meant and the patterns in which they were used would become more unstable, and all languages would begin to resemble

24、 pidgins (混杂语言). J. While no language is completely stable, there is a balance to be struck between an individual“s expressivity and the conventions that underpin it, and children clearly play an important role in maintaining this balance. Children may learn the established characteristics of their

25、community, but they do so only because these forms are stable in their input. They are unlikely to adopt highly unusual or characteristic forms or sequences that they“ve heard only rarely, and when they themselves make errors, they are similarly unlikely to incorporate these errors into their langua

26、ge use over the long run. K. Individual societies are built upon these kinds of cultural and linguistic conventions, and a vast array of them. As social animals, human babies must somehow master not just “culture and language,“ but the specifics of their culture, and their language. Explaining how b

27、abies manage to learn all of this information is a formidable task. The research reviewed here reveals one advantage that nature may have conferred on human infants: when it comes to conventionlearning, children“ sinability to think unconventionallyor flexibly may be of huge benefit. Indeed, a numbe

28、r of neurological studies suggest that children who often exhibit marked language delays and characteristic language development experience a massive overgrowth of the prefrontal cortex over the first two years of life.（分数：71.00）(1).In terms of language learning, children are more likely to focus on

29、 the most frequent expressions they hear.（分数：7.10）(2).Human babies are compared to the tortoise in Aesop“s fable because they share a similar process in their respective races.（分数：7.10）(3).According to Carla Hudson-Kam and Elissa Newport, when learning an artificial language, children and adults rea

30、ct differently to variable and inconsistent input.（分数：7.10）(4).A recent article in Current Directions in Psychological Science shows that helplessness enables human babies to develop better than other animals.（分数：7.10）(5).studies of deaf children have shown children can still learn the conventions o

31、f a sign language even if the signs used by their parents are error-prone and inconsistent.（分数：7.10）(6).The function and maturity of prefrontal cortex (PFC) can be assessed by “cognitive control“ tasks.（分数：7.10）(7).Children play an important role in maintaining the balance between an individual“s ex

32、pressivity and the conventions that support it.（分数：7.10）(8).When it comes to Stroop task, age makes great differences.（分数：7.10）(9).Children tend to benefit a lot when learning conventions because they can“t think flexibly.（分数：7.10）(10).According to Thompson-Schill, the fact that children can“t direc

33、t attention leads to important outcome when learning about unsure events.（分数：7.10）四、Section B(总题数：0，分数：0.00)五、Passage One(总题数：2，分数：142.00)At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks t

34、hey“re bad. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So

35、 why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants“ impact on the economy and the reality? There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented immigrants place on

36、 public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation“s fears and insecurities. There“s some truth to all these explanations, but they aren“t quite sufficient. To get a better understanding of what“s going on, conside

37、r the way immigration“s impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most directly from immigrants“ low-cost labor are businesses and employersmeatpacking plants in

38、Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers“ savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are conc

39、entrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist, immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9% between 1980-2000. Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, oppositi

40、on was strongest in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried them most, in other words, was the fiscal (财政的) burden of immigration. That conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to soften when that fiscal bu

41、rden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed immigrants“ access to certain benefits. The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal. Even for those most acutely affectedsay, low-skilled workers, or California residentsthe impa

42、ct isn“t all that dramatic. “The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our perceptions,“ says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon. “But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a

43、small one.“ Too bad most people don“t realize it.（分数：71.00）(1).What can we learn from the first paragraph?（分数：14.20）A.Whether immigrants are good or bad for the economy has been puzzling economists.B.The American economy used to thrive on immigration but now it“s a different story.C.The consensus am

44、ong economists is that immigration should not be encouraged.D.The general public thinks differently from most economists on the impact of immigration.(2).In what way does the author think ordinary Americans benefit from immigration?（分数：14.20）A.They can access all kinds of public services.B.They can

45、get consumer goods at lower prices.C.They can mix with people of different cultures.D.They can avoid doing much of the manual labor.(3).Why do native low-skilled workers suffer most from illegal immigration?（分数：14.20）A.They have greater difficulty getting welfare support.B.They are more likely to en

46、counter interracial conflicts.C.They have a harder time getting a job with decent pay.D.They are no match for illegal immigrants in labor skills.(4).What is the chief concern of native high-skilled, better-educated employees about the inflow of immigrants?（分数：14.20）A.It may change the existing socia

47、l structure.B.It may pose a threat to their economic status.C.It may lead to social instability in the country.D.It may place a great strain on the state budget.(5).What is the irony about the debate over immigration?（分数：14.20）A.Even economists can“t reach a consensus about its impact.B.Those who ar

48、e opposed to it turn out to benefit most from it.C.People are making too big a fuss about something of small impact.D.There is no essential difference between seemingly opposite opinions.The idea of public works projects as a device to prevent or control depression was designed as means of creating

49、job opportunities for unemployed workers and as a “pump priming“ device to aid business to revive. It was conceived during the early year as of the New Deal Era (1933-1937). By 1933, the number of unemployed workers had reached about 13 million. This meant that about 50 million people-about one third of the nation-were without means of support. At first, direct relief in the form of cash or food was provided for these people. This made them recipients (接受者) of government charity. In order to remo