1、大学英语六级模拟试卷 377及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic: Salary or Interest. You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below: 1. 1. 如今大学毕业生面 临的职业选择：兴趣重要还是工资重要 2. 你的观点 3. 结论 Salary or Interes
2、t 二、 Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes) Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions attached to the passage. For questions 1-4, mark： Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the p
3、assage; N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. 1 Earth: Melting in the Heat? Glaciers are melting; the ice caps are disappearing into the oceans; sea levels may rise by many meters as a conseque
4、nce. Indigenous (本土的 ) Arctic peoples will find their food stocks gone, while fresh water supplies in Asia and south America will disappear as the glaciers which provide them melt away; penguins, polar bears and seals will find their habitats gone, their traditional lives unlivable. But how realisti
5、c is this picture? Is the worlds ice really disappearing, or is it unscientific hot air? A European satellite named Cryosat was designed to provide definitive answers to some of these questions. A launcher fault destroyed the mission in October 2005, but the European Space Agency has approved a repl
6、acement. In the meantime, here is our global snapshot. The Antarctic Huge, pristine (质朴的 ), dramatic, unforgiving the Antarctic is where the biggest of all global changes could begin. There is so much ice here that if it all melted, sea levels globally would rise hugelyperhaps as much as 80m. Say go
7、odbye to London, New York, Sydney, Bangkok.in fact, the majority of the worlds major cities. But will it happen? Scientists divide the Antarctic into three zones: the east and west Antarctic ice sheets; and the Peninsula, the tongue of land which points up towards the southern tip of South America.
8、“Everybody thinks that the Antarctic is shrinking due to climate change, but the reality is much more complex,“ says David Vaughan, a principal investigator at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, U.K. “Parts of it appear to be thickening as a result of snowfall increases, but the Peninsula is
9、 thinning at an alarming rate due to warming. The West Antarctic sheet is also thinning, and were not sure of the reason why.“ On the Up Temperatures in the Peninsula appear to be increasing at around twice the global average about 2 over the last 50 years. Those figures are based on measurements ma
10、de by instruments at scientific stations. Earlier this year, David Vaughans group published research showing that the vast majority of glaciers along the Peninsula 87% of the 244 studied are in retreat. The ice dumped into the ocean as the glaciers retreat should not make much difference to global s
11、ea levels perhaps a few centimeters. More worrying, potentially, are the vast ice sheets covering the rest of Antarctica. Making temperature measurements for the continent as a whole is difficult; it is a vast place more than 2,000 km across there are few research stations, and temperatures vary nat
12、urally by 2 3 from year to year. But measurements indicate that in the west, melting is underway. “About one-third of the West Antarctic ice sheet is thinning,“ says Dr. Vaughan, “on average by about 10 cm per year, but in the worst places by 3 4m per year.“ The rock on which the West Antarctic ice
13、rests is below sea level, and British Antarctic Survey researchers believe the thinning could be due to the ice sheet melting on its underside. “It may be that the ocean is warming and thats causing the ice to melt, but there may be other masons as well; for example, theres lots of volcanism in that
14、 area and so that could change how much heat is delivered to the underside of the ice sheet.“ Cryosat should help to pin down what is happening at the West Antarctic fringe. The radar altimeters on board its predecessors ERS1 and ERS2 have been unable to map the steep slopes at the coast, whereas Cr
15、yosats instrument should be able to cope. If the entire West Antarctic ice sheet did melt, sea levels globally would rise, by around 5m. But at the moment, there is no sign of that happening. One recent scientific paper attempted to calculate probabilities for how much West Antarctic melting would c
16、ontribute to global sea-level rises during this century. The conclusions: a 30% probability of a 20 cm rise, and a 5% chance of a 1m rise. Eastern Mass And what of the big monster, the much larger East Antarctic sheet? A recent study using altimeter data suggested it is getting thicker, by about 1.8
17、 cm/yr; another, using the gravity satellite mission Grace indicates its mass remains stable. But could rising temperatures in time drain the ice away? “It is not going to happen on any realistic human timescale,“ says David Vaughan. “Its so cold that you could raise temperatures by 5 10 without hav
18、ing much of an impact; its on rock above sea level, so warming in the ocean cant affect it.“ Largely insulated from global trends and so big as to generate its own climatic systems, most of Antarctica appears to be immune to the big melt for now, though answers to what is happening in the west are e
19、agerly awaited. The Arctic At the top of the world, the Arctic is a region built on water. Around the North Pole is ocean, with ice floes crowding in each winter and thinning again in the summers. In September, we learned from scientists at the U.S. National Snow and lee Data Center that the extent
20、of ocean covered by ice is getting smaller each year, the current rate of shrinkage they calculate at around 8% per decade. Their projection is that within about 60 years, there will be no summer ice at all on the Arctic Ocean. “Overall, the extent has been declining, with some oscillations (摆动 ), s
21、ince the 1970s when satellites were able to map it,“ comments Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge University, U.K., and currently at the Laboratoire Oce anographique in Villefranche-sur-mer, France. “Theres been a slow decline, but now the thinning appears to be more rapid. In the
22、 last two decades, not only has the area shrunk but the ice has got thinner by about 40%; the prediction is that it will vanish altogether during summers in the second half of this century.“ Military Records Measurements of thickness come mainly from military submarines, which spent long periods und
23、er the Arctic ice during the Cold War. Peter Wadhams was one of the scientists who afterwards persuaded the authorities in Britain and the United States to declassify their data. But as a method of measurement, it is far from perfect; and satellites have given only limited help. The existing satelli
24、te fleet gives good measurements of ice extent, but is not so good at detecting thickness, partly because the orbits of satellites with radar altimeters do not cover every portion of the ocean. This data deficit has led to a rival theory that the ice is not melting at all; it is simply piling up in
25、another part of the ocean, perhaps along the north Canadian coast. Peter Wadhams believes he has now disproved this idea. “We did an experiment where we installed a set of buoys (浮标 ) in that region which measure the thickness of the ice and transmit it back via satellite,“ he says. “The buoy sits o
26、n the ice, and as waves pass under it they make it rise and fall, just by a millimeter or two; measuring this allows you to calculate the thickness of the ice.“ The preliminary results, announced at a scientific meeting in April 2005, show that the extra ice is not them; it really has melted away. W
27、ider Impact To people living in the region, the melting brings mixed news. Current lifestyles and staple foods will almost certainly change, but the open ocean may permit new opportunities for trade and agriculture. A bigger question is what it means for the rest of the planet, Ice reflects the suns
28、 radiation; water absorbs it. More water and less ice a lower albedo (反照率 ) mean that the pace of warming could increase. In this scenario, the Earth would be losing one of its “natural checks and balances“ against warming another positive feedback mechanism. The Arctic is intimately tied to the glo
29、bal climate system, and disruptions here have the potential to create worldwide changes albeit (虽然 ) over long timescales. Possibly the most powerful link is via the thermohaline (热盐的 ) circulation, the global conveyor taking warm water along ocean surfaces and returning colder water at depth. “One
30、very sensitive place is the middle of the Greenland Sea,“ says Peter Wadhams. “That has been ice-free in the summer, but usually in winter it would be covered by a lobe of ice growing out from the Greenland coast. As it formed, it rejected salt back into the water, making the water heavier and helpi
31、ng it to sink. Since 1997, the ice tongue has never formed. That will be having an impact on the thermohaline circulation.“ Back in geological history, about 55 million years ago, the Arctic was a warm (possibly 20 ) shallow sea that would have been ice-free without the intervention of a human-enhan
32、ced greenhouse effect. Natural variations may be playing a role in the picture seen now; but, as with other parts of the planet, it is the speed of change that alarms many researchers as much as the change itself. 2 Fresh water supplies in Asia and south America is disappearing as the glaciers melt
33、away. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 3 If all the ice in the Antarctic melted, global sea levels would rise hugely. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 4 According to David Vaughan, the Antarctic is shrinking due to climate change. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 5 David Vaughans group found that most of the glaciers along the Peni
34、nsula were in retreat. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 6 Cryosat should help figure out what is happening at the West Antarctic fringe because its radar altimeters should be able to _. 7 Most of Antarctica appears to be immune to the big melt for now because its largely insulated from global trends and its so
35、 big as to generate _. 8 According to scientists at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. within about 60 years, there will be _ on the Arctic Ocean. 9 The existing satellites are not good at detecting the thickness of the ice partly because the orbits of satellites with _ do not cover every p
36、ortion of the ocean. 10 To people living in the Arctic. the melting of some glaciers may permit new opportunities for _. 11 The ice tongue growing out from the Greenland coast used to reject salt back into the water, making _ heavier and helping it to sink. Section A Directions: In this section, you
37、 will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four c
38、hoices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. （ A） He forgot about the hockey game. （ B） He doesnt like to go to hockey games. （ C） He missed the hockey game because he was ill. （ D） Hell go with the woman to the next hockey game. （ A） The mans nervous but believes he will be bet
39、ter tomorrow. （ B） The man is begging the woman to let him pass the presentation. （ C） The mans nervous about his presentation because hes unprepared. （ D） The man left his presentation on the window edge but hell get it tomorrow. （ A） The cafeteria food is very bad. （ B） The cafeteria food is so sc
40、arce. （ C） The cafeteria food is quite delicious. （ D） The cafeteria food is much like home-cooked meal. （ A） The womans camera is broken. （ B） He wasnt at Dan and Lindas wedding. （ C） Someone else at the wedding took good pictures. （ D） Dan and Linda didnt hire a professional photographer. （ A） Jen
41、ny wont be getting a new roommate after all. （ B） Jenny wouldnt give specific reasons for her feelings. （ C） He hadnt heard that Jenny had a new roommate at all. （ D） He couldnt talk Jenny into getting well with her new roommate. （ A） Leave the hotel the next morning. （ B） Ask the hotel clerk for hi
42、s room key. （ C） Stay in the hotel for at least two nights. （ D） Complain to the manager about the extra charges. （ A） Shell definitely get a good grade because she didnt use Internet sources. （ B） Shell probably do badly on her paper since she used nothing but Internet sources. （ C） Shell get a bad
43、 grade because she used Internet sources rather than anything else. （ D） She wonders how well shell perform on her paper for using Internet sources. （ A） Take the job offer. （ B） Try another job. （ C） Bargain a little bit. （ D） Concentrate on her studies. （ A） She couldnt go to Spain for holiday thi
44、s summer. （ B） She couldnt communicate with Spanish people very well. （ C） She didnt learn enough Spanish vocabulary. （ D） She had few chances to speak Spanish in Spain. （ A） By reading the BBC book. （ B） By going to an evening class by BBC. （ C） By watching BBC programs. （ D） By going to Spain to t
45、alk with Spanish people. （ A） Learn more grammar and vocabulary. （ B） Watch more BBC television programs. （ C） Understand Spanish cultures well. （ D） Do more practice in speaking Spanish. （ A） A new fuel for buses. （ B） The causes of air pollution. （ C） Careers in environmental engineering. （ D） A w
46、ay to improve fuel efficiency in buses. （ A） Her car is being repaired. （ B） Parking is difficult in the city. （ C） The cost of fuel has increased. （ D） She wants to help reduce pollution. （ A） A fuel that burns cleanly. （ B） An oil additive that helps cool engines. （ C） A material from which filter
47、s are made. （ D） An insulating material sprayed on engine parts. （ A） The high temperatures required for its use. （ B） The lack of trained environmental engineers. （ C） The opposition of automobile manufacturers. （ D） The high cost of materials used in its production. Section B Directions: In this s
48、ection, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D. （ A） Three kinds of motivation and its
49、 different effectiveness. （ B） Negative outcomes of three kinds of motivation. （ C） The combination of three forms of motivation. （ D） How to make full use of three forms of motivation. （ A） External motivation can sometimes bring about negative outcomes. （ B） People are likely to do their work without enthusiasm because of threat; （ C） Students often study in order to please their parents and teachers. （ D） The second form of motivation can be dangerous if the studen
