1、2015年 12月大学英语六级真题试卷（三）及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should focus on the harm caused by misleading information online. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Section A （ A）
2、She has completely recovered. （ B） She went into shock after an operation. （ C） She is still in a critical condition. （ D） She is getting much better. （ A） Ordering a breakfast. （ B） Booking a hotel room. （ C） Buying a train ticket （ D） Fixing a compartment. （ A） Most borrowers never returned the bo
3、oks to her. （ B） The man is the only one who brought her book back. （ C） She never expected anyone to return the books to her. （ D） Most of the books she lent out came back without jackets. （ A） She left her work early to get some bargains last Saturday. （ B） She attended the supermarkets grand open
4、ing ceremony. （ C） She drove a full hour before finding a parking space. （ D） She failed to get into the supermarket last Saturday. （ A） He is bothered by the pain in his neck. （ B） He cannot do his report without a computer. （ C） He cannot afford to have a coffee break. （ D） He feels sorry to have
5、missed the report. （ A） Only top art students can show their works in the gallery. （ B） The gallery space is big enough for the mans paintings. （ C） The woman would like to help with the exhibition layout. （ D） The man is uncertain how his art works will be received. （ A） The woman needs a temporary
6、 replacement for her assistant. （ B） The man works in the same department as the woman does. （ C） The woman will have to stay in hospital for a few days. （ D） The man is capable of dealing with difficult people. （ A） It was better than the previous one. （ B） It distorted the mayors speech. （ C） It e
7、xaggerated the citys economic problems. （ D） It reflected the opinions of most economists. （ A） To inform him of a problem they face. （ B） To request him to purchase control desks. （ C） To discuss the content of a project report. （ D） To ask him to fix the dictating machine. （ A） They quote the best
8、 price in the market. （ B） They manufacture and sell office furniture. （ C） They cannot deliver the steel sheets on time. （ D） They cannot produce the steel sheets needed. （ A） By marking down the unit price. （ B） By accepting the penalty clauses. （ C） By allowing more time for delivery. （ D） By pro
9、mising better after-sales service. （ A） Give the customer a ten percent discount. （ B） Claim compensation from the steel suppliers. （ C） Ask the Buying Department to change suppliers. （ D） Cancel the contract with the customer. （ A） Stockbroker. （ B） Physicist. （ C） Mathematician. （ D） Economist. （
10、A） Improve computer programming. （ B） Explain certain natural phenomena. （ C） Predict global population growth. （ D） Promote national financial health. （ A） Their different educational backgrounds. （ B） Changing attitudes toward nature. （ C） Chaos theory and its applications. （ D） The current global
11、 economic crisis. Section B （ A） They lay great emphasis on hard work. （ B） They name 150 star engineers each year. （ C） They require high academic degrees. （ D） They have people with a very high IQ. （ A） Long years of job training. （ B） High emotional intelligence. （ C） Distinctive academic qualifi
12、cations. （ D） Devotion to the advance of science. （ A） Good interpersonal relationships. （ B） Rich working experience. （ C） Sophisticated equipment. （ D） High motivation. （ A） A diary. （ B） A fairy tale. （ C） A history textbook. （ D） A biography. （ A） He was a sports fan. （ B） He loved adventures. （
13、 C） He disliked school. （ D） He liked hair-raising stories. （ A） Encourage people to undertake adventures. （ B） Publicize his colorful and unique life stories. （ C） Raise peoples environmental awareness. （ D） Attract people to Americas national parks. （ A） The first infected victim. （ B） A coastal v
14、illage in Africa. （ C） The doctor who first identified it. （ D） A river running through the Congo. （ A） They exhibit similar symptoms. （ B） They can be treated with the same drug. （ C） They have almost the same mortality rate. （ D） They have both disappeared for good. （ A） By inhaling air polluted w
15、ith the virus. （ B） By contacting contaminated body fluids. （ C） By drinking water from the Congo River. （ D） By eating food grown in Sudan and Zaire. （ A） More strains will evolve from the Ebola virus. （ B） Scientists will eventually find cures for Ebola. （ C） Another Ebola epidemic may erupt soone
16、r or later. （ D） Once infected,one will become immune to Ebola. Section C 26 The ideal companion machine would not only look, feel, and sound friendly but would also be programmed to behave in an agreeable manner. Those【 B1】 _that make interaction with other people enjoyable would be simulated as cl
17、osely as possible, and the machine would【 B2】 _charming, stimulating, and easygoing. Its informal conversational style would make interaction comfortable, and yet the machine would remain slightly【 B3】 _and therefore interesting. In its first encounter it might be somewhat hesitant and unassuming, b
18、ut as it came to know the user it would progress to a more【 B4】 _and intimate style. The machine would not be a passive【 B5】_but would add its own suggestions, information, and opinions: it would sometimes【 B6】 _developing or changing the topic and would have a personality of its own. The machine wo
19、uld convey presence. We have all seen how a computers use of personal names often【 B7】 _people and leads them to treat the machine as if it were almost human. Such features are easily written into the software. By introducing【 B8】 _forcefulness and humor, the machine could be presented as a vivid an
20、d unique character. Friendships are not made in a day, and the computer would be more acceptable as a friend if it【 B9】 _the gradual changes that occur when one person is getting to know another. At an【 B10】 _time it might also express the kind of affection that stimulates attachment and intimacy. 2
21、7 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 As it is, sleep is so undervalued that getting by on fewer hours has become a badge of honor. Plus, we live in a culture that【 C1】 _to the late-nighter, from 24-hour grocery stores to online shoppi
22、ng sites that never close. Its no surprise, then, that more than half of American adults dont get the 7 to 9 hours of shut-eye every night as【 C2】_by sleep experts. Whether or not we can catch up on sleep on the weekend, say is a hotly【 C3】_topic among sleep researchers. The latest evidence suggests
23、 that while it isnt【 C4】 _, it might help. When Liu, the UCLA sleep researcher and professor of medicine, brought【 C5】 _sleep-restricted people into the lab for a weekend of sleep during which they logged about 10 hours per night, they showed【 C6】 _in the ability of insulin(胰岛素 )to process blood sug
24、ar. That suggests that catch-up sleep may undo some but not all of the damage that sleep【 C7】 _causes, which is encouraging, given how many adults dont get the hours they need each night. Still, Liu isnt【 C8】 _to endorse the habit of sleeping less and making up for it later. Sleeping pills, while he
25、lpful for some, are not【 C9】 _an effective remedy either. “A sleeping pill will【 C10】 _one area of the brain, but theres never going to be a perfect sleeping pill, because you couldnt really replicate(复制 )the different chemicals moving in and out of different parts of the brain to go through the dif
26、ferent stages of sleep,“ says Dr. Nancy Collop, director of the Emory University Sleep Center. A)alternatively I)negotiated B)caters J)pierce C)chronically K)presumption D)debated L)ready E)deprivation M)recommended F)ideal N)surpasses G)improvements O)target H)necessarily 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】
27、 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Climate change may be real, but its still not easy being green How do we convince our inner caveman to be greener? We ask some outstanding social scientists. AThe road to climate hell is paved with our good intentions. Pol
28、iticians may tackle polluters while scientists do battle with carbon emissions. But the most pervasive problem is less obvious: our own behaviour. We get distracted before we can turn down the heating. We break our promise not to fly after hearing about a neighbours trip to India. Ultimately, we can
29、t be bothered to change our attitude. Fortunately for the planet, social science and behavioural economics may be able to do that for us. BDespite mournful polar bears and charts showing carbon emissions soaring, most people find it hard to believe that global warming will affect them personally. Re
30、cent polls by the Pew Research Centre in Washington, DC, found that 75-80 per cent of participants regarded climate change as an important issue. But respondents ranked it last on a list of priorities. CThis inconsistency largely stems from a feeling of powerlessness. “When we cant actually remove t
31、he source of our fear, we tend to adapt psychologically by adopting a range of defence mechanisms, says Tom Crompton, change strategist for the environmental organisation World Wide Fund for Nature. DPart of the fault lies with our inner caveman. Evolution has programmed humans to pay most attention
32、 to issues that will have an immediate impact. “We worry most about now because if we dont survive for the next minute, were not going to be around in ten years time,“ says Professor Elke Weber of the Centre for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University in New York. If the Thames we
33、re lapping around Big Ben, Londoners would face up to the problem of emissions pretty quickly. But in practice, our brain discounts the risks and benefits associated with issues that lie some way ahead. EMatthew Rushworth, of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, see
34、s this in his lab every day. “ One of the ways in which all agents seem to make decisions is that they assign a lower weighting to outcomes that are going to be further away in the future,“ he says. “This is a very sensible way for an animal to make decisions in the wild and would have been very hel
35、pful for humans for thousands of years. “ FNot any longer. By the time we wake up to the threat posed by climate change, it could well be too late. And if were not going to make rational decisions about the future, others may have to help us to do so. GFew political libraries are without a copy of N
36、udge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. They argue that governments should persuade us into making better decisions such as saving more in our pension plans by changing the default options. Professor Weber believes that environmental policy
37、can make use of similar tactics. If, for example, building codes included green construction guidelines, most developers would be too lazy to challenge them. HDefaults are certainly part of the solution. But social scientists are most concerned about crafting messages that exploit our group mentalit
38、y(心态 ). “ We need to understand what motivates people, what it is that allows them to make change,“ says Professor Neil Adger, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Norwich. “ It is actually about what their peers think of them, what their social norms are, what is seen as desirable i
39、n society. “ In other words, our inner caveman is continually looking over his shoulder to see what the rest of the tribe are up to. IThe passive attitude we have to climate change as individuals can be altered by counting us in and measuring us against our peer group. “ Social norms are primitive a
40、nd elemental,“ says Dr.“ Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. “Birds flock together, fish school together, cattle herd together.just perceiving norms is enough to cause people to adjust their behaviour in the direction of the crowd. “ JThese norms can take us beyond go
41、od intentions. Cialdini conducted a study in San Diego in which coat hangers bearing messages about saving energy were hung on peoples doors. Some of the messages mentioned the environment, some financial savings, others social responsibility. But it was the ones that mentioned the actions of neighb
42、ours that drove down power use. KOther studies show that simply providing the facility for people to compare their energy use with the local average is enough to cause them to modify their behaviour. The Conservatives plan to adopt this strategy by making utility companies print the average local el
43、ectricity and gas usage on peoples bills. LSocial science can also teach politicians how to avoid our collective capacity for self-destructive behaviour. Environmental campaigns that tell us how many people drive SUVs unwittingly(不经意地 )imply that this behaviour is widespread and thus permissible. Ci
44、aldini recommends some careful framing of the message. “Instead of normalising the undesirable behaviour, the message needs to marginalise it, for example, by stating that if even one person buys yet another SUV, it reduces our ability to be energy-independent. “ MTapping into how we already see our
45、selves is crucial. The most successful environmental strategy will marry the green message to our own sense of identity. Take your average trade union member, chances are they will be politically motivated and be used to collective action much like Erica Gregory. A retired member of the Public and C
46、ommercial Services Union, she is setting up one of 1,100 action groups with the support of Climate Solidarity, a two-year environmental campaign aimed at trade unionists. NErica is proof that a great-grandmother can help to lead the revolution if you get the psychology right in this case, by matchin
47、g her enthusiasm for the environment with a fondness for organising groups. “I think its a terrific idea,“ she says of the campaign. “The union backing it makes members think there must be something in it. “ She is expecting up to 20 people at the first meeting she has called, at her local pub in th
48、e Cornish village of Polperro. ONick Perks, project director for Climate Solidarity, believes this sort of activity is where the future of environmental action lies. “ Using existing civil society structures or networks is a more effective way of creating change.and obviously trade unions are one of
49、 the biggest civil society networks in the UK,“ he says. The “Love Food, Hate Waste“ campaign entered into a collaboration last year with another such network the Womens Institute. Londoner Rachel Taylor joined the campaign with the aim of making new friends. A year on, the meetings have made lasting changes to what she throws away in her kitchen. “ Its always more of an incentive if youre doing it with other peop
