1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 221及答案与解析 Section C 0 Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: what kind of in
2、formation do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave “in the cloud,“ to be accessed as necessary? An increasingly powerful group within education are championing “digital literacy“. In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing “digital literacy“ is more important than lea
3、rning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therefore unworthy of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills wont help students and workers navigate the world if they dont have a broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you fo
4、cus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, youre doing kids a disservice. Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable; thin
5、king well requires knowing facts, and thats true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most critical thinking processes are intimately intertwined (交织 ) with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory. In other words, just because y
6、ou can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesnt mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills cant be se
7、parated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge youve already mastered. So heres a principle for thinking
8、in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundation for building skills, and it cant be outsourced(外包 ) to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers invariable memory, but
9、 also the brains elaborative memory. Computers are great when you want to store information that shouldnt change. But brains are the superior choice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning,
10、 to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew. 1 What is the authors concern about the use of technology? （ A） It may leave knowledge “in the cloud“. （ B） It may misguide our everyday behavior. （ C） It may cause a divide in the circles of educ
11、ation. （ D） It may hinder the development of thinking skills. 2 What is the view of educators who advocate digital literacy? （ A） It helps kids to navigate the virtual world at will. （ B） It helps kids to broaden their scope of knowledge. （ C） It increases kids efficiency of acquiring knowledge. （ D
12、） It liberates kids from the burden of memorizing facts. 3 What does evidence from cognitive science show? （ A） Knowledge is better kept in long-term memory. （ B） Critical thinking is based on factual knowledge. （ C） Study skills are essential to knowledge acquisition. （ D） Critical thinking means c
13、hallenging existing facts. 4 What does the author think is key to making evaluations? （ A） Gathering enough evidence before drawing conclusions. （ B） Mastering the basic rules and principles for evaluation. （ C） Connecting new information with ones accumulated knowledge. （ D） Understanding both what
14、 has happened and why it has happened. 5 What is the authors purpose in writing the passage? （ A） To warn against learning through memorizing facts. （ B） To promote educational reform in the information age. （ C） To explain human brains function in storing information. （ D） To challenge the prevaili
15、ng overemphasis on digital literacy. 5 Americas recent history has been a persistent tilt to the West of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywo
16、od has been the brainier and trendier of the two. Texas has trailed behind: its stereotype has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots. But twins can change places. Is that happening now? It is easy to find evidence that California is in a panic. At the start of this month the once golden stat
17、e started paying creditors in IOUs(欠条 ). The gap between projected outgoings and income for the current fiscal (财政的 ) year has leapt to a horrible $ 26 billion. With no sign of a new budget to close this gulf, one credit agency has already downgraded Californias debt. As budgets are cut, universitie
18、s will let in fewer students, prisoners will be released early and schemes to protect the vulnerable will be rolled back. By contrast, Texas has coped well with the recession, with an unemployment rate two points below the national average and one of the lowest rates of housing repossession. In part
19、 this is because Texan banks, hard hit in the last property bust, did not overexpand this time. Texas also clearly offers a different model, based on small government. It has no state capital-gains or income tax, and a business-friendly and immigrant-tolerant attitude. It is home to more Fortune 500
20、 companies than any other state. Despite all this, it still seems too early to hand over Americas future to Texas. To begin with, that lean Texan model has its own problems. It has not invested enough in education, and many experts rightly worry about a “lost generation“ of mostly Hispanic Texans wi
21、th insufficient skills for the demands of the knowledge economy. Second, it has never paid to bet against a state with as many inventive people as California. Even if Hollywood has gone into depression, it still boasts an unequalled array of sunrise industries and the most brisk venture-capital indu
22、stry on the planet. The state also has an awesome ability to reinvent itself as it did when its defence industry collapsed at the end of the cold war. The truth is that both states could learn from each other. Texas still lacks Californias great universities and lags in terms of culture. California
23、could adopt not just Texass leaner state, but also its more bipartisan(两党的 ) approach to politics. There is no perfect model of government: it is Americas genius to have 50 public-policy laboratories competing to find out what works best. 6 What does the author say about California and Texas in Para
24、graph 1? （ A） They have been competing for the leading position. （ B） California has been superior to Texas in many ways. （ C） They are both models of development for other states. （ D） Texass cowboy culture is less known than Californias. 7 What does the author say about todays California? （ A） Its
25、 debts are pushing it into bankruptcy. （ B） Its budgets have been cut by $ 26 billion. （ C） It is faced with a serious financial crisis. （ D） It is trying hard to protect the vulnerable. 8 In what way is Texas different from California? （ A） It practices small government. （ B） It is home to traditio
26、nal industries. （ C） It has a large Hispanic population. （ D） It has an enviable welfare system. 9 What problem is Texas confronted with? （ A） Its Hispanic population is mostly illiterate. （ B） Its sunrise industries are shrinking rapidly. （ C） Its education cannot meet the needs of the knowledge ec
27、onomy. （ D） Its immigrants have a hard time adapting to its cowboy culture. 10 What do we learn about American politics from the passage? （ A） Each state has its own way of governing. （ B） Most states favor a bipartisan approach. （ C） Parties collaborate in drawing public policies. （ D） All states b
28、elieve in government for the people. 10 “Deep reading“ as opposed to the often superficial reading we do on the Web is an endangered practice, one we ought to take steps to preserve as we would a historic building or a significant work of art. Its disappearance would jeopardize the intellectual and
29、emotional development of generations growing up online, as well as the preservation of a critical part of our culture: the novels, poems and other kinds of literature that can be appreciated only by readers whose brains, quite literally, have been trained to understand them. Recent research in cogni
30、tive science and psychology has demonstrated that deep reading slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexityis a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words. Although deep reading does not, strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the
31、 built-in limits of the printed page are uniquely helpful to the deep reading experience. A books lack of hyperlinks(超链接 ) , for example, frees the reader from making decisions Should I click on this link or not? allowing her to remain fully immersed in the narrative. That immersion is supported by
32、the way the brain handles language rich in detail, indirect reference and figures of speech: by creating a mental representation that draws on the same brain regions that would be active if the scene were unfolding in real life. The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of liter
33、ature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy (认同 ) . None of this is likely to happen when were browsing through a website. Although we call the activity by the same nam
34、e, the deep reading of books and the information-driven reading we do on the Web are very different, both in the experience they produce and in the capacities they develop. A growing body of evidence suggests that online reading may be less engaging and less satisfying, even for the “digital natives
35、“ to whom it is so familiar. Last month, for example, Britains National Literacy Trust released the results of a study of 34,910 young people aged 8 to 16. Researchers reported that 39% of children and teens read daily using electronic devices, but only 28% read printed materials every day. Those wh
36、o read only onscreen were three times less likely to say they enjoy reading very much and a third less likely to have a favorite book. The study also found that young people who read daily only onscreen were nearly two times less likely to be above-average readers than those who read daily in print
37、or both in print and onscreen. 11 What does the author say about “deep reading“ ? （ A） It serves as a complement to online reading. （ B） It should be preserved before it is too late. （ C） It is mainly suitable for reading literature. （ D） It is an indispensable part of education. 12 Why does the aut
38、hor advocate the reading of literature? （ A） It helps promote readers intellectual and emotional growth. （ B） It enables readers to appreciate the complexity of language. （ C） It helps readers build up immersive reading habits. （ D） It is quickly becoming an endangered practice. 13 In what way does
39、printed-page reading differ from online reading? （ A） It ensures the readers cognitive growth. （ B） It enables the reader to be fully engaged. （ C） It activates a different region of the brain. （ D） It helps the reader learn rhetorical devices. 14 What do the studies show about online reading? （ A）
40、It gradually impairs ones eyesight. （ B） It keeps arousing readers curiosity. （ C） It provides up-to-date information. （ D） It renders reading less enjoyable. 15 What do we learn from the study released by Britains National Literacy Trust? （ A） Onscreen readers may be less competent readers. （ B） Th
41、ose who do reading in print are less informed. （ C） Young people find reading onscreen more enjoyable. （ D） It is now easier to find a favorite book online to read. 15 Many current discussions of immigration issues talk about immigrants in general, as if they were abstract people in an abstract worl
42、d. But the concrete differences between immigrants from different countries affect whether their coming here is good or bad for the American people. The very thought of formulating immigration laws from the standpoint of what is best for the American people seems to have been forgotten by many who f
43、ocus on how to solve the problems of illegal immigration. It is hard to look for “the ideal outcome“ on immigration in the abstract. Economics professor Milton Friedman once said, “The best is the enemy of the good,“ which to me meant that attempts to achieve an unattainable ideal can prevent us fro
44、m reaching good outcomes that are possible in practice. Too much of our current immigration controversy is conducted in terms of abstract ideals, such as “We are a nation of immigrants.“ Of course we are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of people who wear shoes. Does it follow that w
45、e should admit anybody who wears shoes? The immigrants of today are very different from those who arrived here a hundred years ago. Moreover, the society in which they arrive is different. To me, it is better to build a wall around the welfare state than the country. But the welfare state is already
46、 here and, Jar from having a wall built around it, the welfare state is expanding in all directions. We do not have a choice between the welfare state and open borders. Anything we try to do as regards immigration laws has to be done in the context of a huge welfare state that is already a major, in
47、escapable fact of life. Among other facts of life utterly ignored by many advocates of de facto amnesty(事实上的大赦 ) is that the free international movement of people is different from free international trade in goods. Buying cars or cameras from other countries is not the same as admitting people from
48、 those countries or any other countries. Unlike inanimate objects, people have cultures and not all cultures are compatible with the culture in this country that has produced such benefits for the American people for so long. Not only the United States, but the Western world in general, has been dis
49、covering the hard way that admitting people with incompatible cultures is an irreversible decision with incalculable consequences. If we do not see that after recent terrorist attacks on the streets of Boston and London, when will we see it? “Comprehensive immigration reform“ means doing everything all together in a rush, without time to look before we leap, and basing ourselves on abstract notions about abstract people. 16 What does the author say about immigrants in America? （ A） They all hope to gain citizenship and enjoy the welfare.
