1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 81及答案与解析 Section C 0 There is no better symbol of the benefits of globalization than the container ship. More than 9 billion tonnes of goods and materials were transported by sea in 2012, with trade helping to lift global growth rates. An ever-expanding web of links connects rich
2、and poor; developing countries now account for around 60% of seaborne trade. But ships also show the rotten side of trade: protectionism. Protectionism in shipping is centuries old. In a 1905 study Royal Meeker, an American economist, explained how a system of subsidies developed under Elizabeth I.
3、Rewards were based on tonnage of ship, and included “bounties“ paid to fishing boats heading for the North Sea in search of herring. Adam Smith provided an early economic analysis in “The Wealth of Nations“, lamenting: “It has, I am afraid, been too common for vessels to fit out for the sole purpose
4、 of catching, not the fish, but the bounty.“ The handouts distorted the shipbuilding industry, resulting in an oversize fishing fleet and a wrong allocation of resources. Far from avoiding the distortion Smith spotted, governments have been keen to nurture it. The early logic was military. A strong
5、merchant fleet meant lots of boats that could be commandeered during times of war. One way to bolster shipping has been to grant profitable contracts for postal delivery: Britains Cunard lines benefited hugely from such a deal in the 1830s. Another method, used by both America and Japan in the early
6、 1900s, was easy finance, in the form of cut-price government loans. Modern shipping subsidies are used to build economic heft rather than military might. Governments like shipping due to the knock-on effects of a booming yard. Modern ships are huge(up to 400m long)and include up to 30,000 parts. As
7、sembling them is labour-intensive, and so is making the parts that outside suppliers provide to the shipyards. A recent report by Americas Maritime Administration estimated that more than 107,000 people work in the countrys heavily protected shipyards. Adding in the companies supporting the yards, a
8、nd the shops and services that support these workers, the total ran to 400,000, an employment “multiplier“ of 4. So, the idea is, by helping shipping a government indirectly supports workers in many other industries. Yet economists views on subsidies have hardened over time. In deciding whether a su
9、bsidy violates trade rules, the World Trade Organisation(WTO)uses a “price gap“ approach. The idea is simple: if a country is producing and selling something at a big discount to what others are charging, there is probably something fishy going on. 1 According to the passage, which of the following
10、is the best example of the benefits of the globalization? （ A） Developed countries. （ B） Developing countries （ C） Multinational corporations. （ D） Container ships. 2 Why did Elizabeth I grant Subsidies to ships? （ A） These ships may be helpful to her navy in wartime （ B） It will promote the country
11、 s economy, （ C） It can promote international trades. （ D） She wants to control the sea. 3 How did America and Japan bolster shipping in the early 1900s? （ A） Granting profitable contracts for postal delivery. （ B） Cut-price government loans. （ C） Offering bounties to huge ships. （ D） Reducing taxes
12、. 4 We can learn from the passage that modern shipping subsidies are often used to （ A） build military might （ B） maintain a country s international status （ C） ensure the safety of territorial waters （ D） promote economy and employment 5 Whats the main idea of the passage? （ A） How to distinguish t
13、he protectionism. （ B） Protectionism in shipping. （ C） The importance of shipping industry. （ D） Container ships benefits hugely from globalization. 5 When I read last week that Angela Ahrendts was getting up to $68m as a welcome gift for joining Apple, my mind skipped at once to her husband. This l
14、atest addition to her vast stash of money must catapult her spouse Gregg to the very top of the global my-wife-earns-more-than-me league table. It is quite an achievement. I have no idea if the two of them like each other, but they have stuck it out for a long time. They met at school and he chucked
15、 his job to follow her to the UK when she became head of Burberry; he seems to have spent the last eight years mainly looking after their three children, revamping their home and putting supper on the table for her when she finally staggered in on her five-inch heels. I suspect the real genius of Ms
16、 Ahrendts lies less in the way she persuaded people to buy 22,000 raincoats with peacock feather trims than in persuading Gregg to marry her and to stick with her ever since. It is no longer particularly rare for women to be the main breadwinner in the US a quarter of wives now earn more than their
17、husbands but what is rarer is for such a relationship to work. A book published last week by the journalist Farnoosh Torabi draws together data showing just how hard it is: high-earning women have difficulty finding a husband, and when they do, he is five times as likely to be unfaithful as other hu
18、sbands. The woman will probably do more than her share of chores; though in the unusual event that he starts ironing and cooking, he is likely to end up feeling so unmanly. Either way, divorce beckons. If I think of my many female friends who have out-earned their husbands, a suspiciously large numb
19、er are divorced. One friend complained that she no longer knew what her husband was for as he neither made much money nor showed any desire to help out at home. Hardly surprisingly, his version of events was different: as she insisted on dominating both at work and at home, he d been left un-manned
20、and without a role. I know of only two sets of good friends where the woman earns more and where the marriage seems solid. In one there are no children, so the two spend their spare time being nice to each other. In the second, the man is so good at child-rearing and cooking while the woman is so ho
21、peless around the house, so everyone seems happy. The majority of colleagues, even very young ones, still seem to be in relationships where the man makes more. One fiercely clever young male colleague says his equally clever feminist girlfriend has told him she could never marry a man who earned les
22、s as she didn t fancy a life spent propping up his ego. 6 What can we infer from the first two paragraphs? （ A） Angela Ahrendts and her spouse Gregg love each other. （ B） The marriage is hard to sustain when she earns more than him. （ C） Angela Ahrendts is an extraordinary woman. （ D） Gregg devotes
23、himself to his family. 7 The word “chucked“(Line 2, Para. 2)can be replaced by_. （ A） gave up （ B） changed （ C） dreamed of （ D） was fed up with 8 Which of the following is not the problem when the wife earns more than her husband? （ A） The man may be more likely to be unfaithful than other husbands.
24、 （ B） The woman will probably do ore than her share of housework. （ C） The man will feel that he is badly in need of manliness. （ D） The wife may look down on her husband. 9 What does the last sentence of this passage mean? （ A） The girl didn t want to respect men. （ B） The girl looked down on men w
25、ho earned less than her. （ C） When she earns more than him, losing of self-esteem is a key factor leading to divorce. （ D） How to sustain a man s self-esteem is a kind of knowledge that is hard to grasp. 10 What is the main idea of the passage? （ A） Women look down upon men who earn less than him. （
26、 B） Divorce is a risk when she earns more than him. （ C） Men s self-esteem is hard to figure out. （ D） Get married with the ones who earn the same. 10 More and more gadgets seek to replicate the sorts of things your mother used to needle you about: getting exercise, eating more slowly or brushing yo
27、ur teeth. Now one company has decided to embrace that image it has named its product “Mother“. The device, from a firm called Sense, caught my eye at a press preview for the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in part because of its unique design. It looks like a cross between WALL-E s girl
28、friend EVE and Russian nesting dolls. Mother has slightly creepy glowing eyes but surely has your best interest at heart? Mothers potential use is intriguing: Each Mother unit talks wirelessly to a set of smaller tracking devices, dubbed cookies, which can sense motion and temperature. You can put c
29、ookies on things and people on your body to gather data about how much you walk, on your coffee machine to track many espressos you drink, on your front door to track whenever it is opened, on your toothbrush to see how often and how long you brush . and so forth. Whenever the cookies get close to t
30、he Mother unit, they wirelessly send back their data to the Internet. The company says users of Mother, which is supposed to start shipping in the spring, will be able look at all their information at once, or drill down on certain topics. And if something is really important, you can have an alert
31、sent to your phone when a sensor detects a change. So what does all that data do for you? That s a question that bedevils many Internet of Things gadgets on display here at CES. Mothers makers say the data she tracks can help you gain peace of mind by answering specific questions in your life, such
32、as, “Am I drinking enough water?“ or, “Did somebody open my secret drawer?“ Lots of companies want to connect parts of your body, home and life to the Internet a trend called the “Internet of Things“. Mothers maker, Rafi Haladjian, told me he thinks having separate devices for all these things is to
33、o expensive and too cumbersome because they cant talk to each other. “There are not so many needs that are worth $200“ for a distinct Internet-connected device, he said. Mother, which costs $222 for a base unit and four cookies, is designed to be repurposed as new challenges or needs spring to mind,
34、 he said. It s kind of like a mobile device that can run an ever-changing array of apps. Where did the name come from? “We need a device that does all sort of things,“ Haladjian said. “The metaphor that matched this noble caring figure is the mother. She is not a nurse, a gardener or a cop she is ev
35、erything at the same time.“ 11 What can we infer from the first paragraph? （ A） The company that produces “Mother“ is better than others. （ B） The electronic devices today are more and more humanized. （ C） Mother can do everything what your mothers can. （ D） Mother must be more caring than other sim
36、ilar devices. 12 What is the relationship between “dubbed cookies“ and “mother“? （ A） Dubbed cookies can sense motion and temperature of things or people. （ B） Dubbed cookies can be put on things and people. （ C） Dubbed cookies are a set of smaller tracking devices. （ D） Dubbed cookies can help “mot
37、her“ collect data and unit talks wirelessly. 13 What are the disadvantages of “Things of Internet“ according to Rafi Haladjian? （ A） Different things can t communicate with each other. （ B） They are too expensive and without utility. （ C） The safety of them can t be ensured. （ D） They may threaten p
38、eople s privacy. 14 Which of the following is not the design goal of “mother“? （ A） To answer the questions suddenly appeared in users mind. （ B） To meet users needs anywhere and anytime. （ C） To fulfil users ever-changing requirements. （ D） To attract more users by its name “Mother“. 15 The best ti
39、tle of the passage may be_. （ A） A New “Mother“ to Digitally Nag You （ B） A New Electronic Device Come into Being （ C） Mother is Better than Other Devices （ D） Mother is to Care for You 15 India topped a list of countries in its hopefulness about retirement, according to a recent report by HSBC of p
40、eople s expectations about their post-work life. As many as 78% of Indian respondents said they expected to be better off than their parents when they retire. The next most optimistic people were the Chinese, while the French were the least hopeful, with the vast majority of them answering that they
41、 would be less well off than their parents, the annual survey said. About 74% of Indian respondents also said they felt very or at least partially financially prepared for retirement, again putting it near the top of the list, well above the global average of 56% who feel that way. The study questio
42、ned around 17,000 working people across 17 countries, which included both developed nations like the U.S. and France and emerging economies like Brazil, China and India. It probably helps that for most Indians, retirement is quite far off(the study noted that optimism about retirement was in inverse
43、 proportion to the age of the respondent). While many other countries in the survey are rapidly aging, India, the worlds second-most populous nation, has a working-age population that is likely to increase for at least the next three decades. In general, Asians were among the most optimistic people
44、when it came to their outlook on retirement, while developed countries were pessimistic. Respondents in North America and Europe felt that their parents were enjoying “a golden age of retirement“ that is not likely to be repeated, says the report. One factor that could be contributing toward this pe
45、ssimism is the difference in household savings rates, says the study. While Indian households save the equivalent of around 35 % of their GDP, U.S. households save only 3.9 % of their GDP. After the United Arab Emirates, India was the country where people were least likely to expect government help
46、in retirement only 3% of respondents said they expected a state pension to be their biggest source of income after retirement. China was at the other end of the scale, with 40% expecting to rely on a government pension. Family plays a much more prominent role in India than the government both as a s
47、ource of post-retirement worry and help. Of Indians who said they are worried about coping financially when they stop working, a quarter said they were concerned about supporting parents, putting it near the top of the list of countries who fret about this, just behind China and Singapore. About 85%
48、)of Indians ranked extended family “very important“ or “quite important“ to their retirement plans, while about a third said they expected to be living with relatives in their old age. 16 Which of the following is not the factor that leads to Indians optimism towards retirement? （ A） They felt very
49、or at least partially financially prepared for retirement. （ B） There is a large working-age population which will rise in India. （ C） Most Indians rely on a state pension after their retirements. （ D） Household savings rates in India are higher than developed countries. 17 The phrase “fret about“(Line 4, Para. 9)may be replaced by_. （ A） were curious about （ B） worried about （ C） were satisfied of （ D） dreamed of 18 Which of the following sentences is Not True? （ A） Indian respondents estimated that their life will be better than
