1、大学英语六级综合-阅读(十三)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)Once they decided to have children, MiShel and Carl Meissner tackled the next big issue: Should they try to have a girl? It was no small matter. MiShels brother had b
2、ecome blind from a hereditary (遗传的) condition in his early 20s, and the Meissners had learned that the condition is a (1) passed from mothers to sons. If they had a boy, he would have a 50 per cent chance of having the condition. A girl would be (2) .The British couples (3) about gender selection le
3、d them to Virginia, US where a new sperm (精子)-separation technique, called MicroSort, was under (4) . When MiShel became pregnant, she gave birth to a daughter. They will try to have a second daughter using the technique later this year.This is not only a (5) effective way to select a childs gender.
4、 It also brings a host of ethical (伦理的) and practical considerationsespecially for the majority of families who use the technique for (6) reasons.The clinic offers sex selection for two purposes: to help couples (7) passing on a gender linked (8) disease and to allow those who already have a child t
5、o “balance“ their family by having a baby of the opposite sex.The technology is still (9) . However, Blauer says the company has an (10) success rate: 91 per cent of the women who become pregnant after sorting for a girl are successful, while 76 per cent who sort for a boy and get pregnant are succe
6、ssful.A. genetic B. overlapped C. impressive D. unaffected E. perpetuallyF. investigation G. inquiries H. feats I. disorder J. gropesK. experimental L. seemingly M. elicit N. nonmedical O. avoid（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.
7、00)High street shops use a variety of means to attract shoppers, such as striking window displays, huge red “Sale“ signs and special promotions. Online retailers also (1) similar techniques to tempt people to their websites and to make a purchase. “In the Internet (2) years, online retailers compete
8、d on price, but today you just pay the same price online as offline. Any difference is made up by the delivery charge“, says Gavin George, a partner at Itim Group, a consultancy.Todays online retailers are using e-mail marketing, personalized technology, smart search engines and (3) in an effort to
9、increase traffic and sales. Some online retailers are using (4) e-mail services to encourage customers to visit their sites. The travel and leisure retailer L, for example sends more than 2 million emails to customers every week. The content of the email is (5) to fit the recipients age, lifestyle a
10、nd other factors.Carl Lyons, head of marketing at L UK, says: “E-mall is a different medium with its own culture, so you have to know how to use it (6) if its going to be effective. What youre trying to do is to (7) lookers into bookers.“MyPoints is an (8) scheme for online shoppers, which gives the
11、m points for reading e-mails, visiting sites and making purchases. The acquired points can be (9) for a variety of goods and services. In the US, there are more than 10 million MyPoints registered users. The service is free to join and subscribers complete an online (10) that produces 400 data point
12、s about them.A. incentive B. tailored C. diplomatic D. profile E. properlyF. embarked G. boom H. targeted I. indicative J. deployK. recommendation L. convert M. multimedia N. invariably O. redeemed（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、Section B(总题数：0，分数：0.
13、00)六、Passage One(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Can Mix of Teachers, Computers Lead to Pupil Success?AWhen visitors to the Carpe Diem charter school see 175 students wearing headphones and staring into computer screens from small cubicles, principal Mark Forner is ready for a skeptical reaction. “Our critics say it
14、 looks like a telemarketing call center,“ he said, pre-emptively (先发制人). “I tell people it reminds me of a university library.“BThe tightly arranged cubed seating in a large, open room isnt the only way Carpe Diem doesnt look like a traditional school. Theres also this factthere are only five teache
15、rs for 175 students. Thats a 35-1 student-to-teacher ratio, a little out of line for what many middle and high schools offer. Eventually, the five teacherswith the assistance of aideswill be expected to educate 300 students as the school grows, creating a 60-1 ratio more common in Third World countr
16、ies.CThats because Carpe Diem offers a “blended learning“ curriculum. Its a cutting-edge and controversial concept that delivers a big chunk of instruction to students via computer at school and occasionally at home and mixes it with periodic small group discussions and one-on-one instruction.DCarpe
17、 Diem, which serves grades 6 to 12 with a 13-member staff, brought blended learning to Indianapolis for the first time last year. Three more blended learning charter schools recently opened in IndianapolisPhalen Leadership Academy, Nexus Academy and Enlace Academybut the concept is only starting to
18、ramp up. More than a dozen blended learning schools are planned to open here over the next five years.E“Our intuition is that it does work,“ said Earl Martin Phaien, founder of the Phalen Academy charter school. “If you watch a two-year-old grab an iPad and flip through it, you see our kids axe pret
19、ty adept with technology. We certainly understand it can be a learning tool.“FElectronic instruction is hardly newonline-only schools have been around for more than a decade. But blended schools claim to have developed a hybrid they say is more effective for many kids. It allows students to work at
20、their own pace to conquer concepts they can handle and consult a teacher or their peers when they need extra help.Learning model or profit machine?GCritics of blended learning, however, lump this concept in with other online schools and say they have concerns about the quality of the learning experi
21、ence and the true motivations of the purveyors (承办商) of electronic instruction. Some wonder if they care more about learning or profits. After all, it can be far cheaper to teach a student with a computer in a cubicle than with an actual person standing in front of the classroom. That, in turn, can
22、free up dollars that can be paid out in profit that can go to school operators and the testing companies that make several of the hot-selling software programs they buy.HLast year, the consulting firm The Parthenon Group did a study that aimed to estimate the cost of blended learning instruction com
23、pared with a traditional classroom model. It found the difference could be as much as 2,400 per student below what traditional public schools spend on instruction. Thats almost 25% less than what the typical traditional public school spend, the study said.IPhalen, whose charter school opened in Indi
24、anapolis this year, acknowledged that there are those who use online tools to cut costs. But he said his schools and others like them are trying to do what every business aims to dofind ways to deliver services that are cheaper and better at the same time. Phalen Academy is not entirely a blended le
25、arning school but uses some blended learning techniques in its classes.JRick Ogston, who founded Carpe Diem in Arizona, said cost-cutting was the last thing on his mind when he began experimenting with blended learning at his first school. His motivation, he said, was to find a way to tailor instruc
26、tion to the point where it was personalized to each student.Personalized instructionKCarpe Diems Indianapolis principal, Mark Forner, is a former insurance agent who changed careers to become a teacher by joining Teach for America, a program that places new teachers in needy schools nationwide. Forn
27、er, 47, said he studied blended learning in graduate school. “The great thing about blended learning is no two kids move at the same pace,“ he said. “In traditional school if you are a kid who gets it, you have to wait until the next year to move up to the grade. Here you dont have to wait for the c
28、ohort (大部队).“LThats what brought student Sydney Pedigo to Carpe Diem from Western Boone High School last year as a 10th-grader. A math genius, she said she was often bored in math class. Even when teachers gave her more advanced work to do on her own she would often zip through it and be stuck waiti
29、ng for the rest of the class.MCarpe Diems approach is sometimes called the “flipped“ classroom. Lectures that used to take place in class are instead routinely watched online on video. Students then work their way through exercises based on the lecture content and take a short quiz. A lesson typical
30、ly takes about 40 minutes to complete. Then, when students go to class, their work is focused on discussion, group work and individual help, said Liz Retana, the schools English teacher. So far, the results are impressive.NMost new charter schools start with low student scores, and the good ones rai
31、se them over time. In its first year, Carpe Diem saw 73% of its students pass English and math on Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress, just a half-point below the state average. By comparison, Indianapolis Public School 27, which two years ago converted to the highly regarded Center f
32、or Inquiry curriculum, saw just 54.7% pass. The two schools have very similar demographics. Carpe Diem has slightly more poor and minority students and slightly fewer students learning English as a second language or in special education.Moving too quickly?OButler University education professors She
33、lly Furuness and Kelli Esteves, who have experimented with blended learning in their college classes and support the idea, nonetheless worry about the workload for teachers such as Retana.PFuruness and Esteves have used blended learning for core foundation courses in learning theories, education con
34、cepts and educational history at Butler. Their decision to try blended learning was also influenced by the goal of individualized instruction. But the two were quick to point out that they co-teach a class with 25 students when they do blended learninga 12-1 ratio of students to teacherand only for
35、select classes. The two are skeptical of blended learning as a central concept for a whole school.QFuruness said she worries when she hears about students who quickly complete high school courses by relying heavily on online tools. At college level, she said, students often struggle not because they
36、 havent passed tests on basic concepts but because they cant connect those concepts through critical thinking. That sort of skill is typically polished up in conversation with teachers and peers. “Sometimes theyre collecting gold stars when they should be connecting dots,“ Furuness said.RForner, Car
37、pe Diems principal, doesnt disagree. “We are very clear with parents we are not an online school and that we have high-quality teachers,“ he said. “There are some things you can not get from an online-only school that you can only get with a high-quality teacher. That includes real-world application
38、. You can only get that from a great teacher down in the classroom.（分数：20.00）(1).Several schools with blended-learning method have opened recently in Indianapolis.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(2).For some visitors, Carpe Diem resembles a call center, even though the principal disagrees.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(3).In Car
39、pe Diem, its expected to offer only one teacher for about sixty students in the future.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(4).Some teachers worry about the quick-learning speed in blended learning because students may not acquire the skills necessary at college level.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(5).Even though blended schools app
40、ear later than online-only schools, they claim to be a more effective approach.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(6).According to a study conducted by a consulting firm, the cost of blended learning could be much lower than that of traditional public schools.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(7).For the founder of Carpe Diem in Arizon
41、a, his motivation is to create a personalized instruction instead of cutting cost.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(8).A flipped classroom consists of video-watching, exercising and in-class learning, which has excellent results for now.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(9).For two schools with similar demographics, when it comes to
42、the pass in English and math, the one with blended learning stands out.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(10).Founder of a charter school admitted some schools try to cut cost through online tools.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_七、Passage Two(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Baby Boomers Are Killing Themselves at an Alarming RateAIt has long held tru
43、e that elderly people have higher suicide rates than 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 per
44、cent to 30 per 100,000; and women in their early 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 b
45、oomer suicides. Part of it is likely tied to the 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 gero
46、ntology (老人医学) and psychology at the University of 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,
47、many boomers are reluctant to accept the realities 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 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 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
