1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 238及答案与解析 Section B 0 The Mystery of the Nazca Lines A If 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, thr
2、ough which run narrow and torrential rivers that originate in the snow capped 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 ex
3、ception of the rainy season in the mountains (from December to March). B Nazca 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
4、found 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. T
5、he Nazca Lines C Across 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
6、 also trapezoidal 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. D The figures come in two types: biomorphs and geoglyphs. The biomorphs are some 70 animal and plant figures that include a spider, hummingbird, m
7、onkey and 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. E There are about 900 geoglyphs on the plain. Geoglyphs are geometric forms that include straight
8、 lines, triangles, spirals, circles and trapezoids. They are enormous in size. The longest straight line goes nine miles across the plain. F The 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 plai
9、n, crisscrossed (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 sub
10、scribe to this 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? G Straight lines can be made easily for great distances with simple tools. Two wooden stakes placed as a straight lin
11、e would be used 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 symbo
12、ls were probably 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? H The American e
13、xplorer Paul Kosok, 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 b
14、y feeding the position 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. T
15、his makes it seem unlikely Nazca is an observatory. I Perhaps 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 p
16、athways. The faithful 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.
17、J Recently two researchers, 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 anci
18、ent aqueducts (引水渠 ) 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. K Other scientists are more skeptical, but admit that in a re
19、gion where finding water 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 pr
20、aying and dancing for rain. Something similar may have been done at the ancient Nasca lines. L The 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 Atacam
21、a stands 393 feet high and is surrounded by lines similar to those at Nazca. M Along 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 picture
22、s including spirals, circles, warriors and a condor. Archaeologists speculate that these figures, clearly visible from the ground, served as guideposts for Inca traders. Preserving the Nazca Lines N It is difficult to keep the Nazca Lines free from outside intervention. As with all ancient ruins, su
23、ch as Machu Piccu, weather by wind and rain, and human tampering will take their toll on these ancient Lines. O In 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
24、. A boom in copper and gold 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 mud
25、slides from the El Nino weather pattern seriously eroded several figures. P The 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
26、 of New World civilization 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
27、 valleys of the Peruvian Pacific 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
28、 discovered by an aircraft 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 wo
29、oden stakes as a straight line first 9 Recently, the Nazca Lines are being damaged by tomb raiders who go there to seek pre-Lnca 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 A Its tha
30、t time of year again. No, not “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
31、the importance of good writing skills and of their rarity. B The 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 c
32、ommunicate clearly with the written word takes no special talent; its a skill like any other. C Well, not 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
33、 writing ability, we improve our ability to think to build an argument, to frame issues in compelling ways, to weave apparently unrelated facts into a coherent whole. D And despite the recurring hand-wringing and chest-beating about the “end of literacy“ and the “death of the printed word“, the real
34、ity is that we write more than 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 ne
35、ar-constant flow of communication. 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, writing creatures. E Its no wonder that businesses repeatedly c
36、ite “communication skills“ as the 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-
37、paragraph essay, let alone how to 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. F It
38、s not just the teachers fault. Teachers 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 t
39、hat reward conformity, not creativity, 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. G That is, alas, a great di
40、sservice. Being able to write well vastly improves studentsand 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, whe
41、ther in giving a presentation to 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.
42、H Writing well is not a gift reserved 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
43、structure are an important part of 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. I Style is rather less teachable than the nuts and bolts o
44、f writing, but it is learnable. It 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
45、 writing. It is how we learn the vastness 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
46、 get far too few opportunities to get that 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 thei
47、r own writing. They dont read it before they 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, be
48、tter yet, avoid those problems. M (4) Repeat: 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, lea
49、rn from it, but dont internalize it theres no shame in writing poorly, only in failing to try to do better next time. N Todays 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
