1、大学英语六级综合-阅读(二十四)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Section A(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Passage One(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Any brain exercise is better than being a total mental couch potato. But the activities with the most (1) are those that require you to work beyond what is easy and
2、comfortable. Playing (2) rounds of games and watching the latest documentary marathon on the History Channel may not be enough. Just as your muscles grow stronger with use, mental exercise keeps your mental skills and memory in tone. But what kind of exercise is best for the brain? Here are some sug
3、gestions.Be a lifelong learner. Continuing to learn new things can build and (3) the connections between brain cells.(4) your brain. Think of all mental activities as a continuous whole. Watching a TV documentary would be on the passive, mildly challenging end of the (5) , while learning how to conv
4、erse in a new language would be on the active, very challenging end. When it comes to cognitive reserve, (6) challenging tasks have the biggest impact.Get uncomfortable. One stereotype of aging is that young people are bold explorers but older people are (7) homebodies who “know what they like.“ Get
5、ting out of your comfort zone from time to time challenges your mental skills. An example of this would be traveling to a city that you havent been to before, which forces you to (8) unfamiliar surroundings.Be social. Social (9) , aging researchers have discovered, puts people at risk of losing some
6、 of the brain reserves they have built up over a lifetime. There are many ways to be social. One good way is working as a volunteer in a social setting, which allows you to have contact with (10) types of people and puts you in new situations.A. endless B. isolation C. maintain D. spectrum E. eviden
7、tlyF. navigate G. timid H. frantic I. mentally J. diverseK. impact L. deprive M. alternative N. excursion O. strain（分数：10.00）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:_四、Passage Two(总题数：1，分数：10.00)International airlines have rediscovered the business travelers, the man or
8、woman who regularly jets from country to country as part of the job. This does not necessarily mean that airlines ever(1) their business travelers. Indeed, companies like Lufthansa and Swissair would rightly argue that they have always (2) best for the executive class passengers. But many lines coul
9、d be accused of concentrating too heavily in the recent past on attracting passengers by volume, often at the (3) of regular travelers. Too often, they have seemed geared for quantity rather than quality. Operating a major airline in the 1980s is essentially a matter of finding the right mix of pass
10、engers. The airlines need to fill up the back end of their wide-bodied jets with low fare passengers, without forgetting that the front end should be filled with people who pay (4) more for their tickets.It is no (5) that the two major airline bankruptcies in 1982 were among the companies (6) in che
11、ap flights. But low fares require consistently full aircraft to make flights economically viable (可行的), and in the recent recession the volume of traffic has not grown. Equally the large number of airlines jostling for (争夺) the (7) passengers has created a huge excess of capacity. The net result of
12、excess capacity and cut-throat (8) driving down fares has been to push some airlines into (9) and leave many others hovering on the brink.Against this grim background, it is no surprise that airlines are turning increasingly to the business travelers to improve their rates of return. They have (10)
13、much time and effort to establish exactly what the executive demands for sitting apart from the tourists.A. competition B. entertained C. coincidence D. abandoned E. expenseF. centralizing G. collapse H. attachable I. invested J. ultimatelyK. specializing L. available M. substantially N. approach O.
14、 catered（分数：10.00）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:_五、Passage Three(总题数：1，分数：10.00)People who spend a lot of time surfing the Internet are more likely to show signs of depression, British scientists said on Wednesday.But it is not clear whether the Internet causes
15、 depression or whether depressed people are (1) to it. Psychologists from Leeds University found what they said was “striking“ evidence that some net users develop (2) Internet habits in which they replace real life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. “This study (
16、3) the public speculation that over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction,“ the studys lead author, Catriona Morrison, wrote in the journal Psychopathology. “This type of addictive surfing can (4) im
17、pact the mental health.“ In the first large-scale study of Western young people to look at this (5) , the researchers analyzed Internet use and depression levels of 1,319 Britons aged between 16 and 51. Of these, 1.2 percent were “Internet addicted“, they concluded. These “Internet addicts“ spent (6
18、) more time browsing sexually pleasing websites, online gaming sites and online (7) , Morrison said. They also had a higher incidence of moderate to (8) depression than normal users.“Excessive Internet use is (9) with depression, but what we dont know is which comes firstare depressed people drawn t
19、o the Internet or does the Internet cause depression?“ Morrison said. “What is clear is that for a small set of people, excessive use of the Internet could be a warning (10) for depressive tendencies.“A. associated B. gravely C. quantitatively D. reinforces E. signalF. dividends G. drawn H. issue I.
20、 evaluates J. communitiesK. severe L. sunk M. proportionately N. reckless O. compulsive（分数：10.00）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:_六、Section B(总题数：0，分数：0.00)七、Passage One(总题数：1，分数：10.00)The Mystery of the Nazca LinesAIf you visit the Peruvian coastal desert from n
21、orth to south, you will note that sporadically you come upon a green and fertile valley surrounded by sand. The valleys of the Peruvian Pacific coast are like elongated oasis, through which run narrow and torrential rivers that originate in the snow-capped mountains of the Andes and which flow to th
22、e Pacific Ocean. As you travel more towards the south, these valleys become smaller and the rivers are narrower. Many of these rivers run dry for most part of the year with the exception of the rainy season in the mountains (from December to March).BNazca is one of these valleys. Here an important c
23、ivilization developed during the first six centuries after Christ. It was a culture made up of noteworthy textile weavers and potters (the best paintings of ancient Peru can be found on the ceramics from Nazca). Great desert plains and plateaus extend to the north and south of this region, a land of
24、 complete aridness where there is no vegetation, where the air is very dry and where it seldom rains. Compared to the other nearby valleys, this valley is inhabited by no one. The Nazca LinesCAcross the plain between the Inca and Nazca Valleys, there lies an area measuring 37 miles long and 1 mile w
25、ide, on which there is an assortment of perfectly straight lines, many running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand geometric form. In and around the lines there are also trapezoidal zones, strange symbols, and pictures of birds and beasts all etched (被侵蚀的) on a giant scale that can only b
26、e appreciated from the sky.DThe figures come in two types: biomorphs and geoglyphs. The biomorphs are some 70 animal and plant figures that include a spider, hummingbird, monkey and a 1,000-foot-long pelican. The biomorphs are grouped together in one area on the plain. Some archaeologists believe th
27、ey were constructed around 200 B.C., about 500 years before the geoglyphs.EThere are about 900 geoglyphs on the plain. Geoglyphs are geometric forms that include straight lines, triangles, spirals, circles and trapezoids. They are enormous in size. The longest straight line goes nine miles across th
28、e plain.FThe forms are so difficult to see from the ground that they were not discovered until the 1930s when aircraft, when surveying for water, spotted them. The plain, crisscrossed (交叉的), by these giant lines with many forming rectangles, has a striking resemblance to a modern airport. The Swiss
29、writer, Erich yon Daniken, even suggested they had been built for the convenience of ancient visitors from space to land their ships. As tempting as it might be to subscribe to this theory, the desert floor at Nazca is soft earth and loose stone and would not support the landing wheels of either an
30、aircraft or a flying saucer.How Were They Built?GStraight lines can be made easily for great distances with simple tools. Two wooden stakes placed as a straight line would be used to guide the placement of a third stake along the line. One person would sight along the first two stakes and instructs
31、a second person in the placement of the new stake. This can be repeated as many times as needed to make an almost perfectly-straight line miles in length. The symbols were probably made by drawing the desired figure at some reasonable size, then using a grid system to divide it up. The symbol could
32、then be redrawn at full scale by recreating the grid on the ground and working on each individual square one at a time.So Why Are the Lines There?HThe American explorer Paul Kosok, who made his first visit to Nazca in the 1940s, suggested that the lines were astronomically significant and that the p
33、lain acted as a giant observatory. He called them “the largest astronomy book in the world.“ Gerald Hawkins, an American astronomer, tested this theory in 1968 by feeding the position of a sample of lines into a computer and having a program calculate how many lines coincided with an important astro
34、nomical event. Hawkins showed the number of lines that were astronomically significant were only about the same number that would be the result of pure chance. This makes it seem unlikely Nazca is an observatory.IPerhaps the best theory for the lines and symbols belongs to Tony Morrison, the English
35、 explorer. By researching the old folk ways of the people of the Andes mountains, Morrison discovered a tradition of wayside shrines (神殿) linked by straight pathways. The faithful would move from shrine to shrine praying and meditating. Often the shrine was as simple as a small pile of stones. Morri
36、son suggests that the lines at Nazca were similar in purpose and on a vast scale. The symbols may have served as special enclosures for religions ceremonies.JRecently two researchers, David Johnson and Steve Mabee, have advanced a theory that the geoglyphs may be related to water. The Nazca plain is
37、 one of the driest places on Earth, getting less than one inch of rain a year. Johnson, while looking for sources of water in the region, noticed that ancient aqueducts (水渠) seemed to be connected with some of the lines. Johnson thinks that the shapes may be a giant map of the underground water sour
38、ces traced on the land. Mabee is working to gather evidence that might confirm this theory.KOther scientists are more skeptical, but admit that in a region where finding water was vital to survival, there might well be some connection between the ceremonial purpose of the lines and water. Johan Rein
39、hard, a cultural anthropologist with the National Geographic Society, found that villagers in Bolivia walk along a straight pathway to shrines while praying and dancing for rain. Something similar may have been done at the ancient Nazca lines.LThe lines at Nazca arent the only landscape figures Peru
40、 boasts. About 850 miles south of the plain is the largest human figure in the world laid out upon the side of Solitary Mountain. The Giant of Atacama stands 393 feet high and is surrounded by lines similar to those at Nazca.MAlong the Pacific Coast in the foothills of the Andes Mountains is etched
41、a figure resembling a giant candelabrum. Further south, Sierra Pintada, which means “the painted mountain“ in Spanish, is covered with vast pictures including spirals, circles, warriors and a condor. Archaeologists speculate that these figures, clearly visible from the ground, served as guideposts f
42、or Inca traders.Preserving the Nazca LinesNIt is difficult to keep the Nazca Lines free from outside intervention. As with all ancient ruins, such as Machu Piccu, weather by wind and rain, and human tampering will take their toll on these ancient Lines.OIn recent years the Nazca Lines have suffered
43、gradual destruction, as tomb raiders seeking preInca artifacts scar the terrain with hundreds of burrows, garbage, among other waste material. A boom in copper and gold mining is defacing parts of the Nazca Lines with tracks from truck traffic. Over the past decade, advertisers and political campaig
44、ns have carved huge messages in the rock and sand between the ancient designs in this region 250 miles south of Lima. In 1998, floods and mudslides from the El Nino weather pattern seriously eroded several figures.PThe damage to the Lines underscores Perus desperate struggle to preserve its national
45、 patrimony. Archaeologists say they are watching helplessly as the quest for scholarship and conservation in a country viewed as the cradle of New World civilization is losing out to commercial interests, bleak poverty and the growing popularity of heritage sites as tourist attractions.（分数：10.00）(1)
46、.The properties of the desert floor at Nazca make it impossible to serve as a spot for the landing of plane or flying saucer.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(2).The river water in the valleys of the Peruvian Pacific coast comes from mountains of the Andes.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(3).The American explorers theory that Nazca
47、 was an observatory has been tested unreasonable.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(4).According to some archaeologists, the biomorphs were constructed earlier than the geoglyphs.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(5).The geometric forms on the plain were discovered by an aircraft which made a survey for water.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(6).In comparison with other nearby valleys, Nazca has no residents.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(7).The figures at Sierra Pintada are believed to have been made in purpose of directing the Inca traders.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(8).To build a straight line miles in length, peop
