1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）-试卷 214及答案解析(总分：60.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：8，分数：60.00)1.Part III Reading Comprehension_2.Section A_In 1915 Einstein made a trip to Gottingen to give some lectures at the invitation of the mathematical physicist David Hilbert. He was particularly eager to explain all th
2、e intricacies of relativity to him. The visit was a triumph, and he said to a friend excitedly, “I was able to 1Hilbert of the general theory of relativity.“ Amid all of Einsteins personal turmoil(焦躁)at the time, a new scientific 2was about to emerge. He was struggling to find the right equations th
3、at would 3his new concept of gravity, ones that would define how objects move through space and how space is curved by objects. By the end of the summer, he realized the mathematical approach he had been 4for almost three years was flawed. And now there was a 5pressure. Einstein discovered to his 6t
4、hat Hilbert had taken what he had learned from Einsteins lectures and was racing to come up with the correct equations first. It was an enormously 7task. Although Einstein was the better physicist, Hilbert was the better mathematician. So in October 1915 Einstein threw himself into a month-long fran
5、tic 8in which he returned to an earlier mathematical strategy and wrestled with equations, proofs, corrections and updates that he rushed to give as lectures to Berlins Prussian Academy of Sciences on four 9Thursdays. His first lecture was delivered on Nov. 4, 1915, and it explained his new approach
6、, though he admitted he did not yet have the precise mathematical formulation of it. Einstein also took time off from 10revising his equations to engage in an awkward fandango(方丹戈双人舞)with his competitor Hilbert. A)extinction B)describe C)furiously D)complex E)repetitive F)anxiety G)contending H)comp
7、etitive I)convince J)successive K)endeavor L)darted M)horror N)coarsely O)pursuing（分数：20.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_4.Section B_Baby Boomers Are Killing Themselves at an Alarming Rate AIt has long held true that elderly people have higher suicide rates t
8、han the overall population. But numbers released in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a dramatic rise in suicides among middle-aged people, with the highest increases among men in their 50s, whose rate went up by nearly 50 percent to 30 per 100,000; and women in their early
9、60s, whose rate rose by nearly 60 percent(though it is still relatively low compared with men, at 7 in 100,000). This is an alarming trend among baby boomers. BThere are no large-scale studies yet figuring out the reasons behind the increase in baby boomer suicides. Part of it is likely tied to the
10、recent economic downturn. But the trend started a decade before the 2008 recession, and psychologists and academics say it likely stems from a complex series of issues. C“Weve been a pretty youth-oriented generation,“ said Bob Knight, professor of gerontology(老人医学)and psychology at the University of
11、 Southern California, who is also a baby boomer. “We havent idealized growing up and getting mature in the same way that age groups have.“ Even as they become grandparents and deal with normal signs of getting old, such as hearing and vision losses, many boomers are reluctant to accept the realities
12、 of aging, Knight said. To those growing up in the 1950s and 60s, America seemed to promise a limitless array of possibilities. The Great Depression and World War II were over, medical innovations such as the polio vaccine(脊髓灰质炎疫苗)and antibiotics(抗生素)appeared to wipe out disease and disability; the
13、birth-control pill sparked a sexual revolution. The economy was thriving, and as they came of age, boomers embraced new ways of livingas civil rights activists, as hippies, as feminists, as war protesters. D“There was a sense of rebelliousness, of I dont want to live the way my parents did or their
14、parents did,“ said Patrick Arbore, director and founder of the Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention at San Franciscos Institute on Aging. “There was a lot of movement to different parts of the country. With that came a lot of freedom, but there also came a loss of connections. It was not uncommon t
15、o see people married three or four times.“ EHow did a generation that started out with so much going for it end up so desperate in midlife? It could be that those very advantages made it harder to cope with setbacks, said Barry Jacobs, director of behavioral sciences at the Crozer-Keystone Family Me
16、dicine Residency Program in Pennsylvania. “There was an illusion of choicewhere people thought theyd be able to re-create themselves again and again,“ he said. “These people feel a greater sense of disappointment because their expectations of leading glorious lives didnt come to realization.“ FInste
17、ad, compared with their parents generation, boomers have higher rates of weight problems, prescription and illegal drug abuse, alcoholism, divorce, depression and mental disorders. As they age, many add to that list of chronic illness, disabilities and the strains of caring for their parents and for
18、 adult children who still depend on them financially. GPerhaps a little more adversity in youth could have helped prepare them for the inevitable indignities of aging, Knight suggested, adding that “the earlier-born are sort of tougher in the face of stress.“ Despite the hardships of life in the fir
19、st half of the 20th century, he said, older generations didnt have the same kind of concept of being stressed out. HOlder generations also had clearer milestones for success. “They won the Great War, they saved the world,“ said David Jobes, a professor of psychology at Catholic University and a clin
20、ician at the Washington Psychological Center in Friendship Heights. IBaby boomers, on the other hand, have struggled more with existential questions of purpose and meaning. Growing up in a post-Freudian society, they were raised with a new vocabulary of emotional awareness and an emphasis on self-ac
21、tualization. But that did not necessarily translate into an increased ability to cope with difficult emotionsespecially among men. Women tend to be better connected socially and share their feelings more freelyprotective factors when looking at their risk for suicide. And African Americans and Hispa
22、nics tend to have lower rates of suicide than whites, possibly because of stronger community connections, or because of different expectations. JCombine high expectations with a weaker economy, and the risk goes up. “We know that what men want to do is workthats a very strong ethic for them,“ Arbore
23、 said. “When their jobs are being threatened, they see themselves as still needing to be in that role; they feel ashamed when theyre not able to find another job. The idea that so many of us in this country have been brought up withthat you work hard, you get your house, you get your American dream,
24、 everything is sunnyhasnt worked out. A lot of these boomers arent going to earn as much money as their parents did. They arent going to be as secure as their parents were. And thats quite troubling for the boomers.“ KMike Murray of Rising Sun, Md., struggled with major depression for most of his ad
25、ult years, even as he married, raised two children and owned a successful grass-mowing business. His wife, Becky Murray, who ran the business with him, describes him as a perfectionist. “He always did well in school, he was a straight-A student; anything he did, he did well,“ she said. LBut in 2004
26、a back injury forced him to go on disabilityand on powerful pain medications. In 2010 he made two attempts to overdose, and in early 2011, two days after his 49th birthday, he killed himself with a shotgun. “He was handsome, he was smart, people loved him,“ Murray said, but added that he felt increa
27、singly depressed. And while he was grateful for his disability checks, she said, “It was very hard for him to accept this and to not contribute to his family.“ MNor are women immune. When Liz Strands 53-year-old friend killed herself two years ago in California, her house was underwater and needed r
28、epairs, she had a painful ankle that was made worse by being overweight, and although she had tried to find a partner, she was unmarried, like one-third of baby boomers. N“When everything started exploding on her it was too much for her,“ Strand said, adding that as a boomer she herself recalls the
29、shock of realizing that the good times were not eternal. “I just thought everything was going to continue to improve. I remember hearing at one point in a college class that, No, its a pendulum. It was a real wake-up call.“ OWhat makes boomers anxiety worse is a sense that the world is more hazardou
30、s than when they were young, Arbore said. Then, the atom bombs seemed large, but they were distant and abstract; attacks like the ones on the World Trade Center and the Boston Marathon have changed the pattern. “These events used to happen 6,000 miles away; now they happen here,“ He said. PIt is unc
31、lear whether younger generations will follow or resist the boomer trend as they age, or if boomers will continue to kill themselves at such high rates as they move into retirement.（分数：20.00）(1).Women are inclined to have better social connections and share their feelings more freely.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_
32、(2).The sense that the world is getting more dangerous makes boomers more anxious.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(3).According to psychologists and academics, the increase in baby boomer suicides might originate from a complex series of issues.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(4).The American dream does not seem to work out on the
33、 generation of baby boomers.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(5).The reality that baby boomers fail to reach their expectations of leading a splendid life leads to their great despair.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(6).Although older generations led a hard life in the first half of the 20th century, they didnt have the feeling of
34、being stressed out.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(7).Men in their 50s show the fastest growth in suicide rates.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(8).Hardships in young age might have done good to baby boomers when they are facing the unavoidable indignities of aging.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(9).Many baby boomers are unwilling to accept the
35、 fact of getting old.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(10).Compared with the older generation, baby boomers were confronted with a lot more problems, including providing financial support to their adult children.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_5.Section C_The need for solar electricity is clear. It is safe, ecologically sound, effi
36、cient, continuously available, and it has no moving parts. The basic problem with the use of solar photovoltaic devices is economics, but until recently very little progress had been made toward the development of low-cost photovoltaic devices. The larger part of research funds has been devoted to t
37、he study of single crystal silicon solar cells, despite the evidence that this technique holds little promise. The reason for this pattern is understandable and historical. Crystalline silicon, however, is particularly unsuitable to terrestrial solar cells. Crystalline silicon solar cells work well
38、and are successfully used in the space program, where cost is not an issue. While single crystal silicon has been proven in extraterrestrial use with efficiencies as high as 18 percent, and other more expensive and rare materials can have even higher efficiencies, costs must be reduced by a factor o
39、f more than 100 to make them practical for commercial uses. Besides the fact that the starting crystalline silicon is expensive, 95 percent of it is wasted and does not appear in the final device. Recently, there have been some imaginative attempts to make polycrystalline and ribbon silicon which ar
40、e lower in cost than high-quality single crystals; but to date the efficiencies of these apparently lower-cost materials have unacceptably small. This difficulty can be avoided by preparing completely disordered or amorphous materials. Amorphous materials have disordered atomic structure as compared
41、 to crystalline materials: that is, they have only short-range order rather than the long-range periodicity of crystal. The advantages of amorphous solar cells are impressive. Crystalline silicon must be made 200 microns thick to absorb a sufficient amount of sunlight for efficient energy conversion
42、, whereas only 1 micron of the proper amorphous materials is necessary. Crystalline silicon solar cells cost in excess of 100 per square foot, but amorphous films can be created at a cost of about 50 cents per square foot. Although many scientists were aware of the very low cost of amorphous solar c
43、ells, they felt that they could never be manufactured with the efficiencies necessary to contribute significantly to the demand for electric power. This was based on a misconception about the feature which determines efficiency. For example, it is not the conductivity of the material in the dark whi
44、ch is relevant, but only the photoconductivity, that is, the conductivity in the presence of sunlight. Already, solar cells with efficiencies well about 6 percent have been developed using amorphous materials, and further research will doubtlessly find even less costly amorphous materials with highe
45、r efficiencies.（分数：10.00）(1).What does the author suggest about crystal silicon?（分数：2.00）A.It has long been studied for its terrestrial use.B.It is of little use in solar photovoltaic devices.C.It is so economical that it is widely used in the space program.D.It has been efficiently used in extrater
46、restrial solar cells.(2).By saying that “this technique holds little promise“(Line 5, Para. 1), the author means that_.（分数：2.00）A.crystal silicon is impractical for commercial useB.little progress will be made on the research of crystal siliconC.research funds will be cut down on the study of crysta
47、l siliconD.researches will not continue to study crystal silicon(3).Which of the following accounts for the high cost of crystal silicon?（分数：2.00）A.It is mostly used in the space program.B.It has higher efficiency than other materials.C.It is most difficult to find in nature.D.It has a very low utilization rate.(4).Many scientists believed that the efficiency of amorphous materials is related to _.（分数：2.00）A.their conductivi
