1、大学英语六级分类模拟题 290及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：5，分数：100.00)Space exploration has always been the province of dreamers: The human imagination readily soars where human ingenuity (创造力) struggles to follow. A Voyage to the Moon , often cited as the first science fiction story, was
2、 written by Cyrano de Bergerac in 1649. Cyrano was dead and buried for a good three centuries before the first manned rockets started to fly. In 1961, when President Kennedy declared that America would send a man to the moon by the decade“s end, those words, too, had a dreamlike quality. They resona
3、ted (共鸣) with optimism and ambition in much the same way as the most famous dream speech of all, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. two years later. By the end of the decade, both visions had yielded concrete results and transformed American society. And yet in many ways the two dreams ended up at
4、odds with each other. The fight for racial and economic equality is intensely pragmatic (讲求实用的) and immediate in its impact. The urge to explore space is just the opposite. It is figuratively and literally otherworldly in its aims. When the dust settled, the space dreamers lost out. There was no gra
5、nd follow-up to the Apollo missions. The technologically compromised space shuttle program has just come to an end, with no successor. The perpetual argument is that funds are tight, that we have more pressing problems here on Earth. Amid the current concerns about the federal deficit, reaching towa
6、rd the stars seems a dispensable Luxuryas if saving one-thousandth of a single year“s budget would solve our problems. But human ingenuity struggles on. NASA is developing a series of robotic probes that will get the most bang from a buck. They will serve as modern Magellans, mapping out the solar s
7、ystem for whatever explorers follow, whether man or machine. On the flip side, companies like Virgin Galactic are plotting a bottom-up assault on the space dream by making it a reality to the public. Private spaceflight could lie within reach of rich civilians in a few years. Another decade or two a
8、nd it could go mainstream. The space dreamers end up benefiting all of usnot just because of the way they expand human knowledge, or because of the spin-off technologies they produce, but because the two types of dreams feed off each other. Both Martin Luther King and John Kennedy appealed to the id
9、ea that humans can transcend what were once considered inherent limitations. Today we face seeming challenges in energy, the environment, health care. Tomorrow we will transcend these as well, and the dreamers will deserve a lot of the credit. The more evidence we collect that our species is capable
10、 of greatness, the more we will actually achieve it.（分数：20.00）(1).The author mentions Cyrano de Bergerac in order to show that _.（分数：4.00）A.imagination is the mother of inventionB.ingenuity is essential for science fiction writersC.it takes patience for humans to realize their dreamsD.dreamers have
11、always been interested in science fiction(2).How did the general public view Kennedy“s space exploration plan?（分数：4.00）A.It symbolized the American spirit.B.It was as urgent as racial equality.C.It sounded very much like a dream.D.It made an ancient dream come true.(3).What does the author say about
12、 America“s aim to explore space?（分数：4.00）A.It may not bring about immediate economic gains.B.It cannot be realized without technological innovation.C.It will not help the realization of racial and economic equality.D.It cannot be achieved without a good knowledge of the other worlds.(4).What is the
13、author“s attitude toward space programs?（分数：4.00）A.Critical.B.Reserved.C.Unbiased.D.Supportive.(5).What does the author think of the problems facing human beings?（分数：4.00）A.They pose a serious challenge to future human existence.B.They can be solved sooner or later with human ingenuity.C.Their solut
14、ions need joint efforts of the public and private sectors.D.They can only be solved by people with optimism and ambition.The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was just as gloomy as anticipated. Unemployment in January jumped to a 16-year high of 7.6 percent, as 598,000 jobs were slashed fro
15、m U. S. payrolls in the worst single-month decline since December, 1974. With 1.8 million jobs lost in the last three months, there is urgent desire to boost the economy as quickly as possible. But Washington would do well to take a deep breath before reacting to the grim numbers. Collectively, we r
16、ely on the unemployment figures and other statistics to frame our sense of reality. They are a vital part of an array of data that we use to assess if we“re doing well or doing badly, and that in turn shapes government policies and corporate budgets and personal spending decisions. The problem is th
17、at the statistics aren“t an objective measure of reality; they are simply a best approximation. Directionally, they capture the trends, but the idea that we know precisely how many are unemployed is a myth. That makes finding a solution all the more difficult. First, there is the way the data is ass
18、embled. The official unemployment rate is the product of a telephone survey of about 60, 000 homes. There is another survey, sometimes referred to as the “payroll survey,“ that assesses 400, 000 businesses based on their reported payrolls. Both surveys have problems. The payroll survey can easily do
19、uble-count someone: if you are one person with two jobs, you show up as two workers. The payroll survey also doesn“t capture the number of self-employed, and so says little about how many people are generating an independent income. The household survey has a larger problem. When asked straightforwa
20、rdly, people tend to lie or shade the truth when the subject is sex; money or employment. If you get a call and are asked if you“re employed, and you say yes, you“re employed. If you say no, however, it may surprise you to learn that you are only unemployed if you“ve been actively looking for work i
21、n the past four weeks; otherwise, you are “marginally attached to the labor force“ and not actually unemployed. The urge to quantify is embedded in our society. But the idea that statisticians can then capture an objective reality isn“t just impossible. It also leads to serious misjudgments. Democra
22、ts and Republicans can and will take sides on a number of issues, but a more crucial concern is that both are basing major policy decisions on guesstimates rather than looking at the vast wealth of raw data with a critical eye and an open mind.（分数：20.00）(1).What do we learn from the first paragraph?
23、（分数：4.00）A.The U. $. economic situation is going from bad to worse.B.Washington is taking drastic measures to provide more jobs.C.The U.S. government is slashing more jobs from its payrolls.D.The recent economic crisis has taken the U.S. by surprise.(2).What does the author think of the unemployment
24、 figures and other statistics?（分数：4.00）A.They form a solid basis for policy making.B.They represent the current situation.C.They signal future economic trends.D.They do not fully reflect the reality.(3).One problem with the payroll survey is that _.（分数：4.00）A.it does not include all the businessesB.
25、it fails to count in the self-employedC.it magnifies the number of the joblessD.it does not treat all companies equally(4).The household survey can be faulty in that _.（分数：4.00）A.people tend to lie when talking on the phoneB.not everybody is willing or ready to respondC.some people won“t provide tru
26、thful informationD.the definition of unemployment is too broad(5).At the end of the passage, the author suggests that _.（分数：4.00）A.statisticians improve their data assembling methodsB.decision makers view the statistics with a critical eyeC.politicians listen more before making policy decisionsD.Dem
27、ocrats and Republicans cooperate on crucial issuesAt some point in 2008, someone, probably in either Asia or Africa, made the decision to move from the countryside to the city. This nameless person pushed the human race over a historic threshold, for it was in that year that mankind became, for the
28、first time in its history, a predominantly urban species. It is a trend that shows no sign of slowing. Demographers (人口统计学家) reckon that three-quarters of humanity could be city-dwelling by 2050, with most of the increase coming in the fast-growing towns of Asia and Africa. Migrants to cities are at
29、tracted by plentiful jobs, access to hospitals and education, and the ability to escape the boredom of a farmer“s agricultural life. Those factors are more than enough to make up for the squalor (肮脏), disease and spectacular poverty that those same migrants must often at first endure when they becom
30、e urban dwellers. It is the city that inspires the latest book from Peter Smith. His main thesis is that the buzz of urban life, and the opportunities it offers for co-operation and collaboration, is what attracts people to the city, which in turn makes cities into the engines of art, commerce, scie
31、nce and progress. This is hardly revolutionary, but it is presented in a charming format. Mr. Smith has written a breezy guidebook, with a series of short chapters dedicated to specific aspects of urbanityparks, say, or the various schemes that have been put forward over the years for building the p
32、erfect city. The result is a sort of high-quality, unusually rigorous coffee-table book, designed to be dipped into rather than read from beginning to end. In the chapter on skyscrapers, for example, Mr. Smith touches on construction methods, the revolutionary invention of the automatic lift, the pr
33、acticalities of living in the sky and the likelihood that, as cities become more crowded, apartment living will become the norm. But there is also time for brief diversions onto bizarre ground, such as a discussion of the skyscraper index (which holds that a boom in skyscraper construction is a fool
34、proof sign of an imminent recession). One obvious criticism is that the price of breadth is depth; many of Mr. Smith“s essays raise as many questions as they answer. Although that can indeed be frustrating, this is probably the only way to treat so grand a topic. The city is the building block of ci
35、vilization and of almost everything people do; a guidebook to the city is really, therefore, a guidebook to how a large and ever-growing chunk of humanity chooses to live. Mr. Smith“s book serves as an excellent introduction to a vast subject, and will suggest plenty of further lines of inquiry.（分数：
36、20.00）(1).In what way is the year 2008 historic?（分数：4.00）A.For the first time in history, urban people outnumbered rural people.B.An influential figure decided to move from the countryside to the city.C.It is in this year that urbanization made a start in Asia and Africa.D.The population increase in
37、 cities reached a new peak in Asia and Africa.(2).What does the author say about urbanization?（分数：4.00）A.Its impact is not easy to predict.B.Its process will not slow down.C.It is a milestone in human progress.D.It aggravates the squalor of cities.(3).How does the author comment on Peter Smith“s new
38、 book?（分数：4.00）A.It is but an ordinary coffee-table book.B.It is flavored with humorous stories.C.It serves as a guide to arts and commerce.D.It is written in a lively and interesting style.(4).What does the author say in the chapter on skyscrapers?（分数：4.00）A.The automatic lift is indispensable in s
39、kyscrapers.B.People enjoy living in skyscrapers with a view.C.Skyscrapers are a sure sign of a city“s prosperity.D.Recession closely follows a skyscraper boom.(5).What may be one criticism of Mr. Smith“s book?（分数：4.00）A.It does not really touch on anything serious.B.It is too long for people to read
40、 from cover to cover.C.It does not deal with any aspect of city life in depth.D.It fails to provide sound advice to city dwellers.Amid all the job losses, there“s one category of worker that the economic disruption has been good for nonhumans. From self-service checkout lines at the supermarket to i
41、ndustrial robots armed with saws and taught to carve up animal bodies in slaughter-houses, these ever-more-intelligent machines are now not just assisting workers but actually kicking them out of their jobs. Automation isn“t just affecting factory workers, either. Some law firms now use artificial i
42、ntelligence software to scan and read mountains of legal documents, work that previously was performed by highly-paid human lawyers. “Robots continue to have an impact on blue-collar jobs, and white-collar jobs are under attack by micro-processors,“ says economies professor Edward Learner. The reces
43、sion permanently wiped out 2.5 million jobs. U.S. gross domestic product has climbed back to pre-recession levels, meaning we“re producing as much as before, only with 6% fewer workers. To be sure, robotics are not the only job killers out there, with outsourcing (外包) stealing far more jobs than aut
44、omation. Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotics Industry Association, argues that robots actually save U. S. jobs. His logic: companies that embrace automation might use fewer workers, hut that“s still better than firing everyone and moving the work overseas. It“s not that robots are cheaper than
45、 humans, though often they are. It“s that they“re better. “In some cases the quality requirements are so exacting that even if you wanted to have a human do the job, you couldn“t,“ Burnstein says. Same goes for surgeons, who“re using robotic systems to perform an ever-growing list of operationsnot b
46、ecause the machines save money but because, thanks to the greater precision of robots, the patients recover in less time and have fewer complications, says Dr. Myriam Curet. Surgeons may survive the robot invasion, but others at the hospital might not be so lucky, as iRobot, maker of the Roomba, a r
47、obot vacuum cleaner, has been showing off Ava, which could be used as a messenger in a hospital. And once you“re home, recovering, Ava could let you talk to your doctor, so there“s no need to send someone to your house. That “mobile telepresence“ could be useful at the office. If you“re away on a tr
48、ip, you can still attend a meeting. Just connect via videoconferencing software, so your face appears on Ava“s screen. Is any job safe? I was hoping to say “journalist“, but researchers are already developing software that can gather facts and write a news story. Which means that a few years from no
49、w, a robot could be writing this column. And who will read it? Well, there might be a lot of us hanging around with lots of free time on our hands.（分数：20.00）(1).What do we learn from the first few paragraphs?（分数：4.00）A.The over-use of robots has done damage to American economy.B.It is hard for robots to replace humans in highly professional work.C.Artificial intelligence is key to future technological innovations.D.The robotic industry has benefited from the economic recession.(2).What caused the greatest loss of jobs in America?（分数：4.00）A.Using microprocessors extensiv
