1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 126及答案与解析 Section A 0 According to a scientific study published in April, 2007, birds have shown they can plan for a future state of mind. Hoarding【 C1】 _for future use is not unique to humans. Birds, squirrels and monkeys do it. But the ability to think not just about tomorrow, b
2、ut to realize how tomorrows feelings might differ from todays, was thought to be the【 C2】 _of people. This week researchers demonstrated that Western scrub-jays, a type of crow, can do it, too. The researchers, led by Nicky Clayton of the University of Cambridge, wanted to test an idea proposed by W
3、olfgang Kohler, Norbert Bischof and Doris Bischof Kohler, three German psychologists. The Bischof Kohler hypothesis says that only humans can mentally separate themselves from what they are experiencing to【 C3】 _how they might feel about future events. To test whether this is so, Dr. Clayton and her
4、 colleagues sought to tease apart scrub-jays【 C4】 _desires from their planning for future needs. They let the birds eat as much of one food as they wanted, exploiting a condition called specific satiety(饱足 )once the birds are full of one food, they show strong【 C5】 _for something different. They the
5、n offered the birds that same food or a second one to store for later.【 C6】 _the scrub-jays behaved as predicted, choosing to stow away the second food, which they had not just eaten. But minutes before allowing the birds to【 C7】_their storage, the researchers fed the birds to satiety with that seco
6、nd food the one they had already stored. The birds changed their hoarding preferences on the very next trial. Even though they had just had their fill of the first food, they still hoard it, presumably because they thought it would be their preferred choice later. The results are published in this w
7、eeks Current Biology. The finding matters because the birds seem to plan ahead for what they will want later, even though their choice conflicts with what they want now. It could prompt a【 C8】_of how animals perceive the world around them. Without the benefit of【 C9】_subjects who can explain their t
8、hinking? However, Dr. Clayton and her colleagues will have to develop ever more cunning experiments to【 C10】 _complex mental processes from simple behavior. A)experimental I)contend B)preference J)momentary C)incidentally K)infer D)conceive L)initially E)reassessment M)homogeneous F)explicit N)prese
9、rve G)recover O)predecessor H)provisions 1 【 C1】 2 【 C2】 3 【 C3】 4 【 C4】 5 【 C5】 6 【 C6】 7 【 C7】 8 【 C8】 9 【 C9】 10 【 C10】 Section B 10 Does the Internet Make You Dumber? AThe Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: “To be everywhere is to be nowhere. “ Today, the Internet gra
10、nts us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into disrupted and superficial thinkers. BThe picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at l
11、east to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity(速度 ), of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in infor
12、mation in a more sedate(镇定的 )and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by e-mails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle(尽力同时应付 )many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time. C
13、The common thread in these disabilities is dispersing our attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it “ me
14、aningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory,“ writes the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist(神经科学家 )Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts. DWhen were constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are
15、 unable to generalize the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our contemplating. We become mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory. EIn an article published in Science last year
16、, Patricia Greenfield, a leading developmental psychologist, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities. Some of the studies indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, can enhance “ visual literacy skills“ , increasing the s
17、peed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and “ more automatic“ thinking. FIn one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example, half
18、a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lectures content. While its hardly surprising that Web surfing would
19、 distract students, it should be a note of caution to schools that are wiring their classrooms in hopes of improving learning. GMs. Greenfield concluded that “ every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others. “ Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened vi
20、sual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by “ new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes,“ including “ abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection,
21、inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination. “ Were becoming, in a word, shallower. HIn another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford Universitys Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, a team of researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lo
22、t of media multitasking and 52 people who multitask much less frequently. The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivial. IThe researchers wer
23、e surprised by the results. They had expected that the intensive multitaskers would have gained some unique mental advantages from all their onscreen juggling. But that wasnt the case. In fact, the heavy multitaskers werent even good at multitasking. They were considerably less adept at switching be
24、tween tasks than the more infrequent multitaskers. “Everything distracts them,“ observed Clifford Nass, the professor who heads the Stanford lab. JIt would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cellphones. But they dont. The cellular structure of the hu
25、man brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we t
26、hink even when were not using the technology. KThe pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being “massively remodeled“ by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of Californi
27、a in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. When, for example, Mr. Merzenich rearranged the nerves in a monkeys hand, the nerve cells in the animals sensory cortex quickly r
28、eorganized themselves to create a new “mental map“ of the hand. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellect
29、ual lives, he said, could be “deadly“. LWhat we seem to be sacrificing in all our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of
30、perpetual mental locomotion. It is revealing, and distressing, to compare the cognitive effects of the Internet with those of an earlier information technology, the printed book. Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness.
31、 MReading a long sequence of pages helps us develop a rare kind of mental discipline. The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted. Our predisposition is to be aware of as much of whats going on around us as possible. Our fast-paced, reflexive shifts in focus were once crucial
32、to our survival. They reduced the odds that a predator would take us by surprise or that wed overlook a nearby source of food. NTo read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought. It requires us to place ourselves at what T. S. Eliot, in his poem “Four Quartets“ , called “the still point
33、of the turning world“. We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind. OIt is this control, this mental discipline, which we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning an
34、d skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with
35、. Nicholas Carr is the author, most recently, of “The Shallows; What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains“. 11 Rapid shifts in focus on screens during computer tasks can cause more automatic but less intensive thoughts. 12 From the texts filled with Internet links, people can get less information tha
36、n from normal reading. 13 According to Ms. Greenfield, our growing use of screen-based media has improved visual-spatial intelligence. 14 The richness of our memories relies on our ability to focus on something. 15 Unprecedented amounts of information makes us have scattered thoughts. 16 When we tur
37、n off our computers and cellphones, the ill effects will not disappear. 17 When we are online, our brains cannot form distinctive and profound thinking. 18 Whereas the Internet distracts our attention, the book makes us concentrate on it. 19 The experiment conducted at Cornell University indicates t
38、hat web surfing would distract students. 20 According to the experiment at Stanford University, the multitaskers attention was easily scattered. Section C 20 There is, of course, no reason in logic why a transaction that involves moving goods across a border should be treated differently from a tran
39、saction within a border. Throughout history, states have also had recourse(求助 )to taxes on domestic transactions. Ancient Athens had an excise on sales of slaves. Rome had a similar 4 percent sales tax, as well as a tax on the manumission(解 放 )of slaves and a 1 percent sales tax on other goods. In m
40、edieval France the Ordonance of December 1360 “revolutionized“ royal finance by imposing a duty(the gabelle)on salt and aides of 5 percent on the sale of most commodities apart from wine, which was taxed at a higher rate(at first 8, later 5 percent). Renaissance Florence depended for a fifth of its
41、revenue on a similar salt duty, levied at the citys gates. Habsburg Castile had the alcabala, a 10 percent sales tax. Even before the introduction of the vodka monopoly, the excise on spirits was one of the Russian states principal sources of revenue, accounting for as much a third of the total in 1
42、815. Few states in history have relied as heavily on the taxation of domestic consumption as Hanoverian Britain; and this is of particular interest as it was the regime that presided over the first industrial revolution. In fact, the excise-defined succinctly in Dr. Johnsons dictionary as “a hateful
43、 tax levied upon commodities“ had its origins in the Stuart period: Charles I had levied duties on cloth, starch, soap, spectacles, gold and silver wire and playing cards; and in 1643, parliament had introduced excises on tobacco, wine, cider, beer, furs, hats, leather, lace, linen and imported silk
44、s. By 1660, excises were also being levied on salt, saffron, hops, lead tin, iron and glass. In the course of the next hundred years, these taxes became the British states principal source of revenue. To help finance the war with revolutionary France, the Younger Pitt added hats, gloves, mittens, pe
45、rfumery, shops and female servants to the list of dutiable goods, to say nothing of bricks, horses and hunting. By the end of the Napoleonic wars, it seemed that scarcely anything in Britain was not taxed. 21 We can infer from Paragraph 1 that_. （ A） it will be equal to import and export in a countr
46、y （ B） we will treat the goods of inland as well as the outland （ C） well appeal to the export goods and business （ D） every person likes goods across a border 22 By saying “this is of particular interest“(Line 2, Para. 2), the author wants to show that_. （ A） the Hanoverian relied on the most heavi
47、ly taxation （ B） taxation built an obstacle to the first industrial revolution （ C） Hanoverian Britain is a powerful government （ D） the government took a new measure to levy taxes 23 What can we learn from the definition of tax in the Dr. Johnsons dictionary? （ A） It is injuring the common people i
48、n the country. （ B） He is opposing the tax measure in the country. （ C） Different people have different attitudes to the heavy tax. （ D） It is an objective description. 24 In order to emphasize the heavy tax in Britain, what kind of way is used to support the idea? （ A） Listing details. （ B） Contras
49、ting. （ C） Giving out process. （ D） With echo appearing in the end. 25 Which of the followings is the best title for the passage? （ A） Heavy Taxes （ B） Taxes on Every Article （ C） Getting the Taxes （ D） British Famous Taxes 25 J. Craig Venter and his colleagues recently announced that they had created the first cell to run on a fully artificial genome(基因组 ). So whats next for this man-made strain of microscopic(精微的 )Mycoplasma mycoides(丝状支原体 )and the new techno
