1、大学英语六级综合-阅读(六)及答案解析(总分：25.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Passage 6(总题数：1，分数：5.00)The Pensions Regulator has warned employers not to cook up plans to dump their pension schemes. Companies have been warned they may be breaking the law if they transfer their schemes to new employers without meeting their financial ob
2、ligations.The Regulator says it has seen a number of plans to do this without making sure the pension scheme is properly funded. Pension scheme trustees (托管人) have been told to make sure employers do not get away with it. The Regulators Chief Executive Tony Hobman said, “We are starting to see propo
3、sed corporate transactions involving schemes where the primary intent behind the transaction is for the employer to abandon the scheme.“We do not consider that abandonment of a scheme by its employers is usually likely to be in the best interests of scheme members,“ he added.He told trustees that th
4、ey should apply an “extremely high level of scrutiny(详细 审查)“ if any such plan came their way. What the Regulator is worried about are attempts to transfer a pension scheme to a new, nominal employer which in reality does not have the finances to properly support the pension scheme it is taking on.If
5、 the scheme later runs into trouble the new employer will be in no position to avoid it.A spokesman for the Regulator said that so far it had seen fewer than five examples of employers who had suggested abandoning their schemes this way. But the fact that such a public warning is being made is a cle
6、ar indication of the dangers of what might be an emerging trend.Section 25 of the Pensions Act 1995 says that if an employer capable of meeting financial obligations wishes to stop running a scheme altogether, then it must pay the cost of transferring it, fully funded, to an insurance company to gua
7、rantee that accrued (逐渐增加的) pensions can always be paid.This would always be extremely expensive, even for a scheme with a surplus, because the insurance company would charge a large amount of money, based on the assumption that the pension schemes assets would be invested largely in bonds, plus a m
8、argin for its own profit on top. However, earlier this year the Regulator gave its blessing to a plan apparently similar to the one which it is now warning against. The Regulator has refused to explain exactly why it took this decision.（分数：5.00）(1).On the issue of transferring schemes to new employe
9、rs, what is the consequence if the companies fail to meet their financial obligations?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(2).By saying “make sure employers do not get away with it“(Line 3, Para. 2), what does the Pensions Regulator imply?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(3).According to Tony Hobman, the employers abandonment of a sche
10、me is often not considered _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(4).According to the passage, the Regulator worries that the scheme may later run into trouble if the new employer could not _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(5).If an employer wants to stop running a scheme wholly, it must pay the cost of transferring it to _ to make s
11、ure accrued pensions can always be paid.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_二、Passage 7(总题数：1，分数：5.00)Remember when kids used to just go out and play, and grown-ups spent evenings sharing stories on the front porch? When the outdoors didnt compete with video games, and “stranger danger“ wasnt such a grave concern for p
12、arents?At some point, we all seemed to decide that letting children tear down the street on a dirt bike without a helmet didnt seem like such a good idea anymore. Thats smart. But we also started to lock the gate and move our fun from the front yard to the backyard (or the TV room). We stopped meeti
13、ng our neighbors; we became less friendly and more suspicious.Theres nothing more important than protecting your family, but isolation doesnt equal protection. Connecting with your neighbors not only lets you know the personalities that surround you, it also provides you with surprisingly positive a
14、nd helpful resources in times of need.So heres your task: make a map of your neighborhood (or better yet, print one out! GoogleMaps can provide an aerial photo of most U.S. neighborhoods and all the houses in it) and “fill it out“. Can you write down the names of the occupants of every household, in
15、cluding children, pets, and parents? See how many you can do, and then take a walk through the neighborhood and meet people. Find out who has children at the same school as yours or which homes have adults who stay at home all day. Learn who is the friendliest and who is lonely and in need of a neig
16、hborly hand. You may even discover who has a magic touch at gardening, or a great movie or music collection, or the best “crisis“ kitchen (just in case you need a cup of sugar, a splash of olive oil, or a mug of freshly imported darkroast Costa Rican coffee ).If you live in an apartment, do exactly
17、the same. Learn with whom you share a floor or a building. Have a casual mixer or just go door to door and introduce yourself with a smile and a handshake. Sharing the true reason for your visit-that you feel its important to meet your neighbors and want them to know you as well-should dispel any su
18、spicions.Whether you live in an urban high-rise, or a suburban tract, or on a rural lane, chances are your neighbors will be thrilled by your friendliness. Perhaps a few dinners will come out of it. Perhaps youll find a baby-sitter or a way to help a neighbor who is in need. And a year or two later,
19、 you may just find that your neighborhood has become a friendlier, more caring place.（分数：5.00）(1).According to the passage, what happened to people who stopped meeting with their neighbors?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(2).According to the author, some people used to consider that _ is an important way to protect
20、 their families.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(3).To begin connecting with your neighbors, first you can _ with the help of GoogleMaps.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(4).How to dispel doubts of your neighbors while you are trying to get acquainted with them?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(5).No matter where you live, there are possibilities t
21、hat your neighbors are amazed by _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_三、Passage 8(总题数：1，分数：5.00)In America alone, tipping is now a $11 billion-a-year industry. Consumers acting rationally ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips should not exist. So why do they? The conventional wisdom is that
22、 tips both reward the efforts of good service and reduce uncomfortable feelings of inequality. The better the service, the bigger the tip.Such explanations no doubt explain the supposed origin of tipping-in the 11th century, boxes in English taverns (酒管) carried the phrase “To Insure Promptitude“ (l
23、ater just “TIP“).But according to new research from Cornell University, tipping no longer serves any useful function.The paper analyses data from 2,542 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The correlation between larger tips and better service was very weak: only a tiny part of the variability
24、 in the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service. Customers who rated a meal as “excellent“ still tipped anywhere between 3% and 32% of the meal price.Tipping is better explained by culture than by economics. In America, the custom has become institutionalized : it is regarded
25、as part of the accepted cost of a service. In a New York restaurant, failing to tip at least 15% could well mean abuse from the waiter. Hairdressers can expect to get 1520%, the man who delivers your groceries $2. In Europe, tipping is less common; in many restaurants, casual tipping is being replac
26、ed by a standard service charge. In many Asian countries, tipping has never really caught on at all.How to account for these national differences? Look no further than psychology. According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell papers co-author, countries in which people are more extrovert (外向的), sociable or
27、 neurotic tend to tip more. Tipping relieves anxiety about being served by strangers. And, says Mr. Lynn, “In America, where people are outgoing and expressive, tipping is about social approval. If you tip badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off.“ Icelanders, by contras
28、t, do not usually tip-a measure of their introversion(内向), no doubt.While such explanations may be crude, the hard truth seems to be that tipping does not work. It does not benefit the customer. Nor, in the case of restaurants, does it actually encourage the waiter, or help the restaurant manager to
29、 monitor and assess his staff. The cry of stingy tippers that service people should “just be paid a decent wage“ may actually make economic sense.（分数：5.00）(1).According to the conventional wisdom, what are the functions of tips?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(2).According to the paper analysis, there was little re
30、lationship between _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(3).By saying “the custom has become institutionalized“, the author means that in the United States _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(4).According to Michael Lynn, which kind of people are more likely to pay more tips?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(5).The author believes that tipping in rest
31、aurants neither does good to customers nor helps _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_四、Passage 9(总题数：1，分数：5.00)Mobile office is the mutual product of economic, scientific, and social progress. Mobile office has become a solution that provides users with convenient, prompt, safe, reliable, and reasonably priced commun
32、ications and office faculty anywhere anytime via the support of mobile interconnection platform(MIP ) and its applications systems. Using mobile office and WAP technology, people can do their work anywhere anytime, can send and receive data via terminals such as mobile phone, palm computer, and PDA,
33、 and can surf the Internet. Integrating Internet and mobile communications network, and providing powerful applications support capacity for wireless interconnection, mobile interconnection platform is an important network support technology to accomplish mobile office.When you leave your office to
34、attend meetings or travel on business, what would happen to your business routine? Of course, faxes and e-mails would be still sent to your fax machine or e-mail box, but you cannot read them and make prompt reaction timely. When your clients need you to make some urgent modifications on your work a
35、nd you are neither in the office nor carrying relevant documents, what can you do? Maybe you have to say “sorry“ to the clients. But, your business will be affected, the clients will be unhappy and disappointed because of your delay, and you will lose a lot of business opportunities.In fact, very fr
36、equently, you need to check, reply, distribute, display, modify, or read some materials when you are not in your office. You must get out of this dilemma. The best solution to normally handle your business anywhere anytime and not to disappoint your clients is to let your office “move“ with you. Wit
37、h the development of communications technology, network application, and wireless interconnection, mobile office has become simpler and smaller, and even can be realized via one mobile phone with data communications function. Thus, mobile office has already been put into your pocket, and office mobi
38、lity has been realized.Mobile office has provided people with convenient, casual working environment, hut at the same time it still has some unsatisfactory aspects such as mismatching equipment interface and inadequate battery. Nevertheless, we believe that with technical progress, people can certai
39、nly overcome all kinds of difficulties. Mobile office will make your career unimpeded, and will realize the dream of completely free communication.（分数：5.00）(1).The mobile office and WAP technology enable people to deal with their work without time and space limitation by means of terminals like _.（分
40、数：1.00）填空项 1:_(2).What is the problem if one leaves his office to attend meetings or take a business trip?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(3).According to the passage, what is the best solution not to disappoint your clients by timely handling your business anywhere anytime?（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(4).Office mobility has b
41、een realized by way of one mobile phone _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(5).According to the author, though mobile office has brought people great convenience, it still has some defects such as _.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_五、Passage 10(总题数：1，分数：5.00)The desire to venture into unexplored “landscape“ guides the direction of n
42、ew genres. With the advent of the Internet, information-based technology has enabled artists to investigate a new art form, a cerebral (大脑的) “medium for creative expression“, web art. Web art surfaced in the mid-1990s to receive, almost immediately, much support and encouragement by museums, foundat
43、ions and other traditional institutions. Institutions such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, as well as the Dia Foundation and the Walker Art Center have openly accepted this new genre of art through purchasing web art for permanent collections, funding web art pr
44、ojects and creating exhibitions solely comprised of web based media. Even though the fast-developing art medium is in its infancy and the “criteria for artistic evaluation are still being developed“, curators, critics and the art public have not only embraced the web aesthetic but the conceptual ele
45、ments encoded within as well.The phenomenon of acceptance and support enjoyed by such an emerging art form can be assertively attributed to our culture in general, but more specifically the underlying ideas manifested over time through postmodernism. Postmodernism gave birth to “conceptual art“, an
46、art practice which suggested that the art had traversed from object to idea, from a tangible thing to a “system of thought“. Technology has created a new reproductive medium, which by its very nature confirms the ideas and canons of postmodernism both aesthetically as well as contextually, even more
47、 absolutely than photography. Web art has enabled the artist to interrogate the conventional codes embedded in the materiality of the art and thus transcend traditional stylistic conventions. The movement and ideals of postmodernism systematically dismantled the values created by the formalist estab
48、lishment. Formal values, which governed art throughout modernism, concerning originality, uniqueness, authenticity, autonomy, transcendence and aesthetic quality, were questioned and thus deconstructed by art theorists who embraced the writings of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin.The format and content of web art concisely encompass the postmodern concept of representation and the ideas of copy vs. original, artist vs. viewer, spatial vs. temporal and visua
