1、大学英语六级分类模拟题 456 及答案解析(总分：337.50，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Section A(总题数：1，分数：71.00)Should Single-Sex Education Be Eliminated?A Why is a neuroscientist here debating single-sex schooling? Honestly, I had no fixed ideas on the topic when I started researching it for my book, Pi
2、nk Brain, Blue Brain. But any discussion of gender differences in children inevitably leads to this debate, so I felt compelled to dive into the research data on single-sex schooling. I read every study I could, weighed the existing evidence, and ultimately concluded that single-sex education is not
3、 the answer to gender gaps in achievementor the best way forward for today“s young people. After my book was published, I met several developmental and cognitive psychologists whose work was addressing gender and education from different angles, and we published a peer-reviewed Education Forum piece
4、 in Science magazine with the provocative title, “The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Education.“ B We showed that three lines of research used to justify single-sex schoolingeducational, neuroscience, and social psychologyall fail to support its alleged benefits, and so the widely-held view that gender
5、 separation is somehow better for boys, girls, or both is nothing more than a myth. The Research on Academic Outcomes C First, we reviewed the extensive educational research that has compared academic outcomes in students attending single-sex versus coeducational schools. The overwhelming conclusion
6、 when you put this enormous literature together is that there is no clear academic advantage of sitting in all-female or all-male classes, in spite of much popular belief to the contrary. I base this conclusion not on any individual study, but on large-scale and systematic reviews of thousands of st
7、udies conducted in every major English-speaking country. D Of course, there“re many excellent single-sex schools out there, but as these careful research reviews have demonstrated, it“s not their single-sex composition that makes them excellent. It“s all the other advantages that are typically packe
8、d into such schools, such as financial resources, quality of the faculty, and pro-academic culture, along with the family background and pre-selected ability of the students themselves that determine their outcomes. E A case in point is the study by Linda Sax at UCLA, who used data from a large nati
9、onal survey of college freshmen to evaluate the effect of single-sex versus coeducational high schools. Commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls“ Schools, the raw findings look pretty good for the fundershigher SAT scores and a stronger academic orientation among women who had attended all gi
10、rls“ high schools (men weren“t studied). However, once the researchers controlled for both student and school attributesmeasures such as family income, parents“ education, and school resourcesmost of these effects were erased or diminished. F When it comes to boys in particular, the data show that s
11、ingle-sex education is distinctly unhelpful for them. Among the minority of studies that have reported advantages of single-sex schooling, virtually all of them were studies of girls. There“re no rigorous studies in the United States that find single-sex schooling is better for boys, and in fact, a
12、separate line of research by economists has shown both boys and girls exhibit greater cognitive growth over the school year based on the “dose“ of girls in a classroom. In fact, boys benefit even more than girls from having larger numbers of female classmates. So single-sex schooling is really not t
13、he answer to the current “boy crisis“ in education. Brain and Cognitive Development G The second line of research often used to justify single-sex education falls squarely within my area of expertise: brain and cognitive development. It“s been more than a decade now since the “brain sex movement“ be
14、gan infiltrating (渗入) our schools, and there are literally hundreds of schools caught up in the fad (新潮). Public schools in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida and many other states now proudly declare on their websites that they separate boys and girls because “research solidly indicates that boys and girl
15、s learn differently,“ due to “hard-wired“ differences in their brains, eyes, ears, autonomic nervous systems, and more. H All of these statements can be traced to just a few would-be neuroscientists, especially physician Leonard Sax and therapist Michael Gurian. Each gives lectures, runs conferences
16、, and does a lot of professional development on so-called “gender-specific learning.“ I analyzed their various claims about sex differences in hearing, vision, language, math, stress responses, and “learning styles“ in my book and a long peer-reviewed paper. Other neuroscientists and psychologists h
17、ave similarly exposed their work. In short, the mechanisms by which our brains learn language, math, physics, and every other subject don“t differ between boys and girls. Of course, learning does vary a lot between individual students, but research reliably shows that this variance is far greater wi
18、thin populations of boys or girls than between the two sexes. I The equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits separation of students by sex in public education that“s based on precisely this kind of “overbroad generalizations about the different talents, capacities, or preferences o
19、f males and females.“ And the reason it is prohibited is because it leads far too easily to stereotyping and sex discrimination. Social Developmental Psychology J That brings me to the third area of research which fails to support single-sex schooling and indeed suggests the practice is actually har
20、mful: social-developmental psychology. K It“s a well-proven finding in social psychology that segregation promotes stereotyping and prejudice, whereas intergroup contact reduces themand the results are the same whether you divide groups by race, age, gender, body mass index, sexual orientation, or a
21、ny other category. What“s more, children are especially vulnerable to this kind of bias, because they are dependent on adults for learning which social categories are important and why we divide people into different groups. L You don“t have to look far to find evidence of stereotyping and sex discr
22、imination in single-sex schools. There was the failed single-sex experiment in California, where six school districts used generous state grants to set up separate boys“ and girls“ academies in the late 1990s. Once boys and girls were segregated, teachers resorted to traditional gender stereotypes t
23、o run their classes, and within just three years, five of the six districts had gone back to coeducation. M At the same time, researchers are increasingly discovering benefits of gender interaction in youth. A large British study found that children with other-sex older siblings (兄弟姐妹) exhibit less
24、stereotypical play than children with same-sex older siblings, such as girls who like sports and building toys and boys who like art and dramatic play. Another study of high school social networks found less bullying and aggression the higher the density of mixed-sex friendships within a given adole
25、scent network. Then there is the finding we cited in our Science paper of higher divorce and depression rates among a large group of British men who attended single-sex schools as teenagers, which might be explained by the lack of opportunity to learn about relationships during their formative years
26、. N Whether in nursery school, high school, or the business world, gender segregation narrows our perceptions of each other, facilitating stereotyping and sexist attitudes. It“s very simple: the more we structure children and adolescents“ environment around gender distinctions and separation, the mo
27、re they will use these categories as the primary basis for understanding themselves and others. O Gender is an important issue in education. There are gaps in reading, writing, and science achievement that should be narrower. There are gaps in career choice that should be narrowerif we really want t
28、o maximize human potential and American economic growth. But stereotyping boys and girls and separating them in the name of fictitious (虚构的) brain differences is never going to close these gaps.（分数：71.00）(1).Hundreds of schools separate boys from girls in class on the alleged brain and cognitive dif
29、ferences.（分数：7.10）(2).A review of extensive educational research shows no obvious academic advantage of single-sex schooling.（分数：7.10）(3).The author did not have any fixed ideas on single-sex education when she began her research on the subject.（分数：7.10）(4).Research found men who attended single-sex
30、 schools in their teens were more likely to suffer from depression.（分数：7.10）(5).Studies in social psychology have shown segregation in school education has a negative impact on children.（分数：7.10）(6).Reviews of research indicate there are more differences in brain and cognitive development within the
31、 same sex than between different sexes.（分数：7.10）(7).The findings of the national survey of college freshmen about the impact of single-sex schooling fail to take into account student and school attributes.（分数：7.10）(8).It wasn“t long before most of the school districts that experimented with single-s
32、ex education abandoned the practice.（分数：7.10）(9).Boys from coeducational classes demonstrate greater cognitive abilities according to the economists“ research.（分数：7.10）(10).As careful research reviews show, academic excellence in some single-sex schools is attributed to other factors than single-sex
33、 education.（分数：7.10）三、Section B(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、Passage One(总题数：3，分数：104.50)The idea of public works projects as a device to prevent or control depression was designed as means of creating job opportunities for unemployed workers and as a “pump priming“ device to aid business to revive. It was conce
34、ived 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 peopleabout one third of the nationwere without means of support. At first, direct relief in the form of cash or food was provided f
35、or these people. This made them recipients (接受者) of government charity. In order to remove this stigma (耻辱) and restore to the unemployed some measure of respectability and human dignity, a plan was devised to create governmentally sponsored work projects that private industry would not or could not
36、 provide. This would also stimulate production and revive business activity. The best way to explain how this procedure is expected to work is to explain how it actually worked when it was first tried. The first experiment with it was the creation of the Works Project Administration (WPA). This agen
37、cy set up work projects in various fields in which there were many unemployed. For example, unemployed actors were organized into theater projects; orchestras were organized for unemployed musicians, teaching projects for unemployed teachers, and even writers“ projects for unemployed writers. Unempl
38、oyed laborers were put to building work or maintaining roads, parks, playgrounds, or public buildings. These were all temporary “work relief“ projects rather than permanent work opportunities. More substantial work projects of a permanent nature were organized by another agency, the Public Works Adm
39、inistration (PWA). This agency undertook the planning of construction of schools, houses, post offices, dams, and other public structures. It entered into contracts with private construction firms to erect them, or it loaned money to local or state governments which undertook their construction. Thi
40、s created many jobs in the factories producing the material as well as in the projects themselves, and greatly reduced the number of the unemployed. Still another agency which provided work projects for the unemployed was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This agency provided job opportunities
41、for youths aged 16 to 20 to work in national parks or forests clearing land, guarding against fires, building roads, or doing other conservation work. In the event of a future depression, the federal government might revive any or all of the above methods to relieve unemployment and stimulate busine
42、ss.（分数：72.00）(1).It was at the beginning of the New Deal Era that public works projects _.（分数：14.40）A.were ignored by most American socialistsB.proved its advantages over other plansC.were given a serious considerationD.were put into use immediately(2).According to the passage, during the New Deal E
43、ra, the public works projects might _.（分数：14.40）A.make a great leap in guiding the economic developmentB.help those unemployed to resume respect and dignityC.urge private businesses to employ more workersD.prevent government from lending money to the unemployed(3).The Works Project Administration co
44、uld _.（分数：14.40）A.relieve the burden of both the unemployed and the governmentB.satisfy the need of people from various fields of the societyC.meet the need of most people who were once white-collarsD.not offer people jobs which would support them for a whole life(4).Compared with WPA, the Public Wo
45、rks Administration _.（分数：14.40）A.got private businesses involved in the restoring of economyB.encouraged the local governments to make concrete plansC.offered jobs in all the aspects concerning constructionD.stimulated the economy by lending money to local governments(5).The Civilian Conservation Co
46、rps mainly offered jobs _.（分数：14.40）A.to give more opportunities to various age groupsB.to foster the spirit of American youthsC.that are laborious to youngstersD.under the name of relieving family burdensUntil recently, the University of Kent prided itself on its friendly image. Not any more. Over
47、the past few months it has been working hard, with the help of media consultants, to downplay its cosy reputation in favour of something more academic and serious. Kent is not alone in considering an image revamp (翻新). Changes to next year“s funding regime are forcing universities to justify chargin
48、g students up to 9,000 in fees. Nowadays universities are putting much more of a focus on their brands and what their value propositions are. While in the past universities have often focused on student social life and attractions of the university town in recruitment campaigns, they are now concent
49、rating on more tangible (实在的) attractions, such as employment prospects, engagement with industry, and lecturer contact hours, making clear exactly what students are going to get for their money. The problem for universities is that if those benefits fail to materialise, students notice. That worries Rob Behrens, who deals with student complaints. “Universities need to be extremely careful in describing what“s going to happen to students,“ he says. “As competition is going to get greater for attracting gifted students, there is
