1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 189及答案与解析 Section B 0 The Mystery of the Nazca Lines AIf you visit the Peruvian coastal desert from north to south, you will note that sporadically you come upon a green and fertile valley surrounded by sand. The valleys of the Peruvian Pacific coast are like elongated oasis, thro
2、ugh which run narrow and torrential rivers that originate in the snowcapped mountains of the Andes and which flow to the Pacific Ocean. As you travel more towards the south, these valleys become smaller and the rivers are narrower. Many of these rivers run dry for most part of the year with the exce
3、ption of the rainy season in the mountains(from December to March). BNazca is one of these valleys. Here an important civilization developed during the first six centuries after Christ It was a culture made up of noteworthy textile weavers and potters(the best paintings of ancient Peru can be found
4、on the ceramics from Nazca). Great desert plains and plateaus extend to the north and south of this region, a land of complete aridness where there is no vegetation, where the air is very dry and where it seldom rains. Compared to the other nearby valleys, this valley is inhabited by no one. The Naz
5、ca Lines CAcross the plain between the Inca and Nazca Valleys, there lies an area measuring 37 miles long and 1 mile wide, on which there is an assortment of perfectly straight lines, many running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand geometric form. In and around the lines there are also t
6、rapezoidal zones, strange symbols, and pictures of birds and beasts all etched(被侵蚀的 )on a giant scale that can only be appreciated from the sky. DThe figures come in two types: biomorphs and geoglyphs. The biomorphs are some 70 animal and plant figures that include a spider, hummingbird, monkey and
7、a 1,000-foot-long pelican. The biomorphs are grouped together in one area on the plain. Some archaeologists believe they were constructed around 200 B.C., about 500 years before the geoglyphs. EThere are about 900 geoglyphs on the plain. Geoglyphs are geometric forms that include straight lines, tri
8、angles, spirals, circles and trapezoids. They are enormous in size. The longest straight line goes nine miles across the plain. FThe forms are so difficult to see from the ground that they were not discovered until the 1930s when aircraft, when surveying for water, spotted them. The plain, crisscros
9、sed(交叉的 ), by these giant lines with many forming rectangles, has a striking resemblance to a modern airport. The Swiss writer, Erich von Daniken, even suggested they had been built for the convenience of ancient visitors from space to land their ships. As tempting as it might be to subscribe to thi
10、s theory, the desert floor at Nazca is soft earth and loose stone and would not support the landing wheels of either an aircraft or a flying saucer. How Were They Built? GStraight lines can be made easily for great distances with simple tools. Two wooden stakes placed as a straight line would be use
11、d to guide the placement of a third stake along the line. One person would sight along the first two stakes and instructs a second person in the placement of the new stake. This can be repeated as many times as needed to make an almost perfectly-straight line miles in length. The symbols were probab
12、ly made by drawing the desired figure at some reasonable size, then using a grid system to divide it up. The symbol could then be redrawn at full scale by recreating the grid on the ground and working on each individual square one at a time. So Why Are the Lines There? HThe American explorer Paul Ko
13、sok, who made his first visit to Nazca in the 1940s, suggested that the lines were astronomically significant and that the plain acted as a giant observatory. He called them “the largest astronomy book in the world.“ Gerald Hawkins, an American astronomer, tested this theory in 1968 by feeding the p
14、osition of a sample of lines into a computer and having a program calculate how many lines coincided with an important astronomical event. Hawkins showed the number of lines that were astronomically significant were only about the same number that would be the result of pure chance. This makes it se
15、em unlikely Nazca is an observatory. IPerhaps the best theory for the lines and symbols belongs to Tony Morrison, the English explorer. By researching the old folk ways of the people of the Andes mountains, Morrison discovered a tradition of wayside shrines(神殿 )linked by straight pathways. The faith
16、ful would move from shrine to shrine praying and meditating. Often the shrine was as simple as a small pile of stones. Morrison suggests that the lines at Nazca were similar in purpose and on a vast scale. The symbols may have served as special enclosures for religious ceremonies. JRecently two rese
17、archers, David Johnson and Steve Mabee, have advanced a theory that the geo-glyphs may be related to water. The Nazca plain is one of the driest places on Earth, getting less than one inch of rain a year. Johnson, while looking for sources of water in the region, noticed that ancient aqueducts(引水渠 )
18、seemed to be connected with some of the lines. Johnson thinks that the shapes may be a giant map of the underground water sources traced on the land. Mabee is working to gather evidence that might confirm this theory. KOther scientists are more skeptical, but admit that in a region where finding wat
19、er was vital to survival, there might well be some connection between the ceremonial purpose of the lines and water. Johan Reinhard, a cultural anthropologist with the National Geographic Society, found that villagers in Bolivia walk along a straight pathway to shrines while praying and dancing for
20、rain. Something similar may have been done at the ancient Nasca lines. LThe lines at Nazca arent the only landscape figures Peru boasts. About 850 miles south of the plain is the largest human figure in the world laid out upon the side of Solitary Mountain. The Giant of Atacama stands 393 feet high
21、and is surrounded by lines similar to those at Nazca. MAlong the Pacific Coast in the foothills of the Andes Mountains is etched a figure resembling a giant candelabrum. Further south, Sierra Pintada, which means “the painted mountain“ in Spanish, is covered with vast pictures including spirals, cir
22、cles, warriors and a condor. Archaeologists speculate that these figures, clearly visible from the ground, served as guideposts for Inca traders. Preserving the Nazca Lines NIt is difficult to keep the Nazca Lines free from outside intervention. As with all ancient ruins, such as Machu Piccu, weathe
23、r by wind and rain, and human tampering will take their toll on these ancient Lines. OIn recent years the Nazca Lines have suffered gradual destruction, as tomb raiders seeking pre-Inca artifacts scar the terrain with hundreds of burrows, garbage, among other waste material. A boom in copper and gol
24、d mining is defacing parts of the Nazca lines with tracks from truck traffic. Over the past decade, advertisers and political campaigns have carved huge messages in the rock and sand between the ancient designs in this region 250 miles south of Lima. In 1998, floods and mudslides from the El Nino we
25、ather pattern seriously eroded several figures. PThe damage to the lines underscores Perus desperate struggle to preserve its national patrimony. Archaeologists say they are watching helplessly as the quest for scholarship and conservation in a country viewed as the cradle of New World civilization
26、is losing out to commercial interests, bleak poverty and the growing popularity of heritage sites as tourist attractions. 1 The properties of the desert floor at Nazca make it impossible to serve as a spot for the landing of plane or flying saucer. 2 The river water in the valleys of the Peruvian Pa
27、cific coast comes from mountains of the Andes. 3 The American explorers theory that Nazca was an observatory has been tested unreasonable. 4 According to some archaeologists, the biomorphs were constructed earlier than the geoglyphs. 5 The geometric forms on the plain were discovered by an aircraft
28、which made a survey for water. 6 In comparison with other nearby valleys, Nazca has no residents. 7 The figures at Sierra Pintada are believed to have been made in purpose of directing the Inca traders. 8 To build a straight line miles in length, people should place two wooden stakes as a straight l
29、ine first 9 Recently, the Nazca lines are being damaged by tomb raiders who go there to seek pre-Inca artifacts. 10 A researcher named Mabee is working to collect evidence to confirm the theory that the geoglyphs are related to water. 10 The Value of Writing Well AIts that time of year again. No, no
30、t “the holiday season“. I mean, it is holiday time, but for professors it doesnt start feeling like holiday time until final grades are in and the books are closed on another semester. No, for me, its paper-grading time, the time of year when Im reminded over and over of the importance of good writi
31、ng skills and of their rarity. BThe ability to write well is not a gift. Sure, the special something that sets apart a Tolstoy or Shakespeare or Salman Rushdie or Isabel Allende is a gift, a talent born of disposition, experience, and commitment. But just to be able to communicate clearly with the w
32、ritten word takes no special talent; its a skill like any other. CWell, hot exactly like any other. Because the words we use to write with are the same words we use to think with, learning to write well has outcomes that go beyond the merely technical. As we improve our writing ability, we improve o
33、ur ability to think to build an argument, to frame issues in compelling ways, to weave apparently unrelated facts into a coherent whole. DAnd despite the recurring hand-wringing and chest-beating about the “end of literacy“ and the “death of the printed word“, the reality is that we write more than
34、ever these days. While its a rare person who sits down with pen and paper in hand and writes a letter to a friend or loved one, we pour emails at an astounding rate. We text message, tweet, instant message, blog, comment, and otherwise shoot words at each other in a near-constant flow of communicati
35、on. At work, we write letters, proposals, PowerPoint presentations, business requirement documents, memos, speeches, mission statements, and dozens of more specialized types of documents. We are, it seems, writihg creatures. EIts no wonder that businesses repeatedly cite “communication skills“ as th
36、e single most desirable trait in new employees. The kicker, though, is that we are as a society incredibly bad at writing. Public schools do a poor job of teaching students hoW to write well they barely manage to instill the basic rules of grammar and the miserable 5-paragraph essay, let alone how t
37、o write with style and verve, how to put together an argument that moves steadily from one point to the next to persuade a reader of some crucial point, how to synthesize ideas and data from multiple sources into something that takes those ideas one step further. FIts not just the teachers fault. Te
38、achers do the best they can with what theyre given, and all too often what theyre given is inadequate resources with which to teach classrooms full of unmotivated students who could care less about writing. Add to that the requirements of mandatory nationwide tests that reward conformity, not creati
39、vity, and the threat of punishment for any school whose students fail to fall within the fairly rigid boundaries of the tests requirements, and youve got a pretty bad situation all around for instilling in students the power to write well. GThat is, alas, a great disservice. Being able to write well
40、 vastly improves students and others potential for success, regardless of the field they find themselves in. The skills that make us better writers make us better explainers and better persuaders. They are the skills that allow us to “sell“ our ideas effectively, whether in giving a presentation to
41、potential funders of our company, proposing a new project to our corporate leadership, or transmitting a new policy to our employees. Being able to write well lessens the chance that well be misunderstood, and increases the likelihood that our ideas will be adopted. HWriting well is not a gift reser
42、ved for the few but a set of skills that can be learned by anyone. The technical aspects can be learned in any of several ways: by taking a class, by studying books on writing, by working with a partner or a group and acting on their feedback. But while grammar and structure are an important part of
43、 writing, to write well also demands some effort to develop style. Style is what keeps people reading past the first sentence, and what keeps what youve written on their minds, impelling them to take action. IStyle is rather less teachable than the nuts and bolts of writing, but it is learnable. It
44、demands patience, attention, and most of all practice, but it is possible for anyone who has something to say to learn how to say it well. Here are some tips to help you move from being merely capable to being a good writer. J(1)Read: Reading is essential to good writing. It is how we learn the vast
45、ness of the language and the limits of the grammar and how to push those limits. The more you read, the greater your understanding of languages potential becomes. K(2)Write: Good writing takes practice. Unfortunately, unless we create opportunities to write, we get far too few opportunities to get t
46、hat practice after weve left school. Start a journal, a blog, a newsletter, or whatever else you can think of to get you writing on at least a semi-regular basis. L(3)Read Again: Most people who fail to become better writers fail because they do not read their own writing. They dont read it before t
47、hey post/mail/submit/publish/otherwise finish it, and they dont read it after theyre done with it. That means they dont see the awkward parts, the flat bits, the pieces that say something different from what was intended and they never learn how to fix or, better yet, avoid those problems. M(4)Repea
48、t: Writing is personal, and seeing your writing ill-received can strike a blow to the strongest of egos. The only answer for it, though, is persistence the goal is to become a better writer, not to be perfect out of the gate. Pay attention to criticism, learn from it, but dont internalize it theres
49、no shame in writing poorly, only in failing to try to do better next time. NTodays world is a world of text; it is the lifeblood of the information economy. In Ancient Rome, it was the orators who ruled, those who could compel obedience, loyalty, and devotion with their spoken words. Today, the written word is dominant, not only because so much of the information that shapes our lives is written down, but because the habits that make us good writers are the same habits that allow us to flouri
