1、2014年 12月大学英语六级真题试卷（二）及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start, your essay with a brief description of the picture and then discuss whether there is a shortcut to learning. You should give sound arguments to s
2、upport your views and write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Section A （ A） In a parking lot. （ B） At a grocery. （ C） At a fast food restaurant. （ D） In a car showroom. （ A） Change her position now and then. （ B） Stretch her legs before standing up. （ C） Have a little nap after lunch.
3、（ D） Get up and take a short walk. （ A） The students should practice long-distance running. （ B） The students physical condition is not desirable. （ C） He doesnt quite believe what the woman says. （ D） He thinks the race is too hard for the students. （ A） They will get their degrees in two years. （
4、B） They are both pursuing graduate studies. （ C） They cannot afford to get married right now. （ D） They do not want to have a baby at present. （ A） He must have been mistaken for Jack. （ B） Twins usually have a lot in common. （ C） Jack is certainly not as healthy as he is. （ D） He has not seen Jack
5、for quite a few days. （ A） The woman will attend the opening of the museum. （ B） The woman is asking the way at the crossroads. （ C） The man knows where the museum is located. （ D） The man will take the woman to the museum. （ A） They cannot ask the guy to leave. （ B） The guy has been coming in for y
6、ears. （ C） The guy must be feeling extremely lonely. （ D） They should not look down upon the guy. （ A） Collect timepieces. （ B） Become time-conscious. （ C） Learn to mend clocks. （ D） Keep track of his daily activities. （ A） It is eating into its banks. （ B） It winds its way to the sea. （ C） It is wi
7、de and deep. （ D） It is quickly rising. （ A） Try to speed up the operation by any means. （ B） Take the equipment apart before being ferried. （ C） Reduce the transport cost as much as possible. （ D） Get the trucks over to the other side of the river. （ A） Find as many boats as possible. （ B） Cut tree
8、s and build rowing boats. （ C） Halt the operation until further orders. （ D） Ask the commander to send a helicopter. （ A） Talk about his climbing experiences. （ B） Help him join an Indian expedition. （ C） Give up mountain climbing altogether. （ D） Save money to buy climbing equipment. （ A） He was th
9、e first to conquer Mt. Qomolangma. （ B） He had an unusual religious background. （ C） He climbed mountains to earn a living. （ D） He was very strict with his children. （ A） They are to be conquered. （ B） They are to be protected. （ C） They are sacred places. （ D） They are like humans. （ A） It was his
10、 fathers training that pulled him through. （ B） It was a milestone in his mountain climbing career. （ C） It helped him understand the Sherpa view of mountains. （ D） It was his father who gave him the strength to succeed. Section B （ A） By showing a memorandums structure. （ B） By analyzing the organi
11、zation of a letter. （ C） By comparing memorandums with letters. （ D） By reviewing what he has said previously. （ A） They ignored many of the memorandums they received. （ B） They placed emphasis on the format of memorandums. （ C） They seldom read a memorandum through to the end. （ D） They spent a lot
12、 of time writing memorandums. （ A） Style and wording. （ B） Directness and clarity. （ C） Structure and length. （ D） Simplicity and accuracy. （ A） Inclusion of appropriate humor. （ B） Direct statement of purpose. （ C） Professional look. （ D） Accurate dating. （ A） They give top priority to their work e
13、fficiency. （ B） They make an effort to lighten their workload. （ C） They try hard to make the best use of their time. （ D） They never change work habits unless forced to. （ A） Sense of duty. （ B） Self-confidence. （ C） Work efficiency. （ D） Passion for work. （ A） They find no pleasure in the work the
14、y do. （ B） They try to avoid work whenever possible. （ C） They are addicted to playing online games. （ D） They simply have no sense of responsibility. （ A） He lost all his property. （ B） He was sold to a circus. （ C） He ran away from his family. （ D） He was forced into slavery. （ A） A carpenter. （ B
15、） A master of his. （ C） A businessman. （ D） A black drummer. （ A） It named its town hall after Solomon Northup. （ B） It freed all blacks in the town from slavery. （ C） It declared July 24 Solomon Northup Day. （ D） It hosted a reunion for the Northup family. Section C 26 Intolerance is the art of ign
16、oring any views that differ from your own. It【 B1】_itself in hatred, stereotypes, prejudice, and【 B2】 _. Once it intensifies in people, intolerance is nearly impossible to overcome. But why would anyone want to be labeled intolerant？ Why would people want to be【 B3】 _about the world around them? Why
17、 would one want to be part of the problem in America, instead of the solution? There are many explanations for intolerant attitudes, some【 B4】 _childhood. It is likely that intolerant folks grew up【 B5】 _intolerant parents and the cycle of prejudice has simply continued for【 B6】 _. Perhaps intoleran
18、t people are so set in their ways that they find it easier to ignore anything that might not【 B7】 _their limited view of life. Or maybe intolerant students have simply never been【 B8】_to anyone different from themselves. But none of these reasons is an excuse for allowing the intolerance to continue
19、. Intolerance should not be confused with disagreement. It is, of course, possible to disagree with an opinion without being intolerant of it. If you understand a belief but still dont believe in that specific belief, thats fine. You are【 B9】 _your opinion. As a matter of fact,【 B10】 _dissenters(持异议
20、者 )are important for any belief. If we all believed the same things, we would never grow, and we would never learn about the world around us. Intolerance does not stem from disagreement. It stems from fear. And fear stems from ignorance. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】
21、 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 His future subjects have not always treated the Prince of Wales with the respect one might expect. They laughed aloud in 1986 when the heir to the British【 C1】_told a TV reporter that he talked to his plants at his country house, Highgrove, to stimulate thei
22、r growth. The Prince was being humorous “My sense of humor will get me into trouble one day,“ he said to his aids(随从 )but listening to Charles Windsor can indeed prove stimulating. The royal【 C2】 _has been promoting radical ideas for most of his adult life. Some of his【 C3】 _, which once sounded a b
23、it weird, were simply ahead of their time. Now, finally, the world seems to be catching up with him. Take his views on farming. Prince Charles Duchy Home Farm went【 C4】_back in 1986, when most shoppers cared only about the low price tag on suspiciously blemisit-free(无瑕疵的 )vegetables and【 C5】 _large
24、chickens piled high in supermarkets. His warnings on climate change proved farsighted, too. Charles began【 C6】_action on global wanning in 1990 and says he has been worried about the【 C7】_of man on the environment since he was a teenager. Although he has gradually gained international【 C8】 _as one o
25、f the worlds leading conservationists, many British people still think of him as an【 C9】_person who talks to plants. This year, as it happens. South Korean scientists proved that plants really do【 C10】 _to sound. So Charles was ahead of the game there, too. A)conform I)recognition B)eccentric J)resp
26、ond C)environmentalist K)subordinate D)expeditions L)suppressing E)impact M)throne F)notions N)unnaturally G)organic O)urging H)originally 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 High School Sports Arent Killing Academics AIn this month
27、s Atlantic cover article, “The Case Against High-School Sports.“ Amanda Ripley argues that school-sponsored sports programs should be seriously cut. She writes that, unlike most countries that outperform the United States on international assessments, American schools put too much of an emphasis on
28、athletics. “ Sports are embedded in American schools in a way they are not almost anywhere else,“ she writes. “ Yet this difference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about Americas international mediocrity(平庸 )in education. “ BAmerican student-athletes reap many benefits from participating in
29、 sports, but the costs to the schools could outweigh their benefits, she argues. In particular, Ripley contends that sports crowd out the academic missions of schools: America should learn from South Korea and Finland and every other country at the top level of international test scores, all of whom
30、 emphasize athletics far less in school. Even in eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kids spend playing sports,“ she writes, citing a 2010 study published in the Journal of Advanced Academics. CIt might well be true that sports are far more rooted in American high schoo
31、ls than in other countries. But our reading of international test scores finds no support for the argument against school athletics. Indeed, our own research and that of others lead us to make the opposite case. School-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to increase, not detract(减少
32、 )from, academic success. DRipley indulges a popular obsession(痴迷 )with international test score comparisons, which show wide and frightening gaps between the United States and other countries. She ignores, however, the fact that states vary at least as much in test scores as do developed countries.
33、 A 2011 report from Harvard University shows that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable to South Korea and Finland, while Mississippi scores are closer to Trinidad and Tobago. Ripleys thesis about sports falls apart in light of this fact. Schools in Massachusetts provide sports programs whil
34、e schools in Finland do not. Schools in Mississippi may love football while in Tobago interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent. Sports cannot explain these similarities in performance. They cant explain international differences either. EIf it is true that sports undermine the academic m
35、ission of American schools, we would expect to see a negative relationship between the commitment to athletics and academic achievement. However, the University of Arkansass Daniel Bowen and Jay Greene actually find the opposite. They examine this relationship by analyzing schools sports winning per
36、centages as well as student-athletic participation rates compared to graduation rates and standardized test score achievement over a five-year period for all public high schools in Ohio. Controlling for student poverty levels, demographics(人口统计状况 ), and district financial resources, both measures of
37、 a schools commitment to athletics are significantly and positively related to lower dropout rates as well as higher test scores. FOn-the-field success and high participation in sports is not randomit requires focus and dedication to athletics. One might think this would lead schools obsessed with w
38、inning to deemphasize academics. Bowen and Greenes results contradict that argument. A likely explanation for this seemingly counterintuitive(与直觉相反的 )result is that success in sports programs actually facilitates or reflects greater social capital within a schools community. GRipley cites the writin
39、gs of renowned sociologist James Coleman, whose research in education was groundbreaking. Coleman in his early work held athletics in contempt, arguing that they crowded out schools academic missions. Ripley quotes his 1961 study, The Adolescent Society, where Coleman writes, “Altogether, the trophy
40、(奖品 )case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic club, not an educational institution. “ HHowever, in later research Coleman would show how the success of schools is highly dependent on what he termed social capital, “ the norms, the social networks, and the relations
41、hips between adults and children that are of value for the childs growing up. “ IAccording to a 2013 evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, a program called Becoming a ManSports Edition creates lasting improvements in the boys study habits and grade point averages. Durin
42、g the first year of the program, students were found to be less likely to transfer schools or be engaged in violent crime. A year after the program, participants were less likely to have had an encounter with the juvenile justice system. JIf school-sponsored sports were completely eliminated tomorro
43、w, many American students would still have opportunities to participate in organized athletics elsewhere, much like they do in countries such as Finland, Germany, and South Korea. The same is not certain when it comes to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In an overview of the research on
44、 non-school based after-school programs, researchers find that disadvantaged children participate in these programs at significantly lower rates. They find that low-income students have less access due to challenges with regard to transportation, non-nominal fees, and off-campus safety. Therefore, r
45、educing or eliminating these opportunities would most likely deprive disadvantaged students of the benefits from athletic participation, not least of which is the opportunity to interact with positive role models outside of regular school hours. KAnother unfounded criticism that Ripley makes is brin
46、ging up the stereotype that athletic coaches are typically lousy(蹩脚的 )classroom teachers. “American principals, unlike the vast majority of principals around the world, make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mind, which does not always end well for students. “ she writes. Educators wh
47、o seek employment at schools primarily for the purpose of coaching are likely to shirk(推卸 )teaching responsibilities, the argument goes. Moreover, even in the cases where the employee is a teacher first and athletic coach second, the additional responsibilities that come with coaching likely come at
48、 the expense of time otherwise spent on planning, grading, and communicating with parents and guardians. LThe data, however, do not seem to confirm this stereotype. In the most rigorous study on the classroom results of high school coaches, the University of Arkansass Anna Egalite finds that athleti
49、c coaches in Florida mostly tend to perform just as well as their non-coaching counterparts, with respect to raising student test scores. We do not doubt that teachers who also coach face serious tradeoffs that likely come at the expense of time they could dedicate to their academic obligations. However, as with sporting events, athletic coaches gain additional opportunities for communicating and serving as mentors(导师 )that potentia
