1、大学英语六级模拟试卷 393及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 Directions: The following table gives statistics showing the aspects of quality of life in five countries. Write a composition describing the information in the table below. You should write at least 150 words. 二、 Part II Reading Comprehension (S
2、kimming 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 passage; N (for NO) if the statement c
3、ontradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. 1 Is College Really Worth the Money? The Real World Este Griffith had it all figured out. When she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in April 2001, she had her sights set on
4、one thing: working for a labor union. The real world had other ideas. Griffith left school with not only a degree, but a boatload of debt. She owed 15,000 in student loans and had racked up 4,000 in credit card debt for books, groceries and other expenses. No labor union job could pay enough to bail
5、 her out. So Griffith went to work instead for a Washington, D.C. firm that specializes in economic development. Problem solved? Nope. At age 24, she takes home about 1,800 a month, 1,200 of which disappears to pay her rent. Add another 180 a month to retire her student loans and 300 a month to whit
6、tle down her credit card balance. “You do the math,“ she says. Griffith has practically no money to live on. She brown-hags( 自带午餐 ) her lunch and bikes to work. Above all, she fears shell never own a house or be able to retire. Its not that she regrets getting her degree. “Bat they dont tell you tha
7、t the trade-off is the next ten years of your income,“ she says. Thats precisely the deal being made by more and more college students. Theyre mortgaging their futures to meet soaring tuition costs and other college expenses. Like Griffith, theyre facing a one-two punch at graduation: hefty (沉重的 ) s
8、tudent loans and smothering credit card debt-not to mention a job market that, for now anyway, is dismal. “We are forcing our children to make a choice between two evils,“ says Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor and expert on bankruptcy. “Skip college and face a life of diminished opportunity
9、, or go to college and face a life shackled (束缚 ) by debt.“ Tuition Hikes For some time, colleges have insisted their steep tuition hikes are needed to pay for cutting-edge technologies, faculty and administration salaries, and rising health care costs. Now theres a new culprit (犯人 ): shrinking stat
10、e support. Caught in a severe budget crunch, many states have sharply scaled back their funding for higher education. Someone had to make up for those lost dollars. And you can guess who-especially if you live in Massachusetts, which last year hiked its tuition and fees by 24 percent, after funding
11、dropped by 3 percent, or in Missouri, where appropriations (拨款 ) fell by 10 percent, but tuition rose at double that rate. About one-third of the states, in fact, have increased tuition and fees by more then 10 percent. One of those states is California, and Janet Burrells family is feeling the pain
12、. A bookkeeper in Torrance, Burrell has a daughter at the University of California at Davis. Meanwhile, her sons attend two-year colleges because Burrell cant afford to have all of them in four-year schools at once. Meanwhile, even with tuition hikes, Californias community colleges are so strapped f
13、or cash they dropped thousands of classes last spring. The result: 54,000 fewer students. Collapsing Investments Many families thought they had a surefire plan: even if tuition kept skyrocketing, they had invested enough money along the way to meet the costs. Then a fanny thing happened on the way t
14、o Wall Street. Those investments collapsed with the stock market. Among the losers last year: the wildly popular “529“ plans-federal tax-exempt college savings plans offered by individual states, which have attracted billions from families around the country. “We hear from many parents that what the
15、y had set aside declined in value so much that they now dont have enough to see their students through,“ says Penn State financial aid director Anna Griswold, who witnessed a 10 percent increase in loan applications last year. Even. with a market that may be slowly recovering, it will take time, per
16、haps several years, for people to recoup(补偿 ) their losses. Nadine Sayegh is among those who didnt have the luxury of waiting for her college nest egg to grow back. Her father had invested money toward her tuition, but a large chunk of it vanished when stocks want south. Nadine was then only partway
17、 through college. By graduation, she had taken out at least 10,000 in loans, and her mother had borrowed even more on her behalf. Now 22, Nadine is attending law school, having signed for yet more loans to pay for that. “There wasnt any way to do it differently,“ she says, “and Im not happy about it
18、. Ive sat down and calculated how long it will take me to pay off everything. Ill be 35 years old.“ Thats if shes very lucky: Nadine based her calculation on landing a job right out of law school that will pay her at least 120,000 a year. Dependent on Loans and Credit Cards The American Council on E
19、ducation has its own calculation that shows how students are more and more dependent on loans. In just five years, from 1995 to 2000, the median loan debt at public institutions rose from 10,342 to 15,375. Most of this comes from federal loans, which Congress made more tempting in 1992 by expanding
20、eligibility (home equity no longer counts against your assets ) and raising loan limits ( a dependent undergraduate can now borrow up to 23,000 from the federal government ). But students arent stopping there. The College Board estimates that they also borrowed 4.5 billion from private lenders in th
21、e 2000 2001 academic year, up from 1.5 billion just five years earlier. For lots of students, the worst of it isnt even the weight of those direct student loans. Its what they rack up on all those plastic cards in their wallets. As of two years ago, according to a study by lender Nellie Mae, more th
22、an eight out of ten uadergrads had their own credit cards, with the typical student carrying four. Thats no big surprise, given the in-your-face marketing by credit card companies, which set up tables on campus to entice(诱惑 ) students to sign up. Some colleges ban or restrict this hawking, but other
23、s give it a boost. You know those credit cards emblazoned with a schools picture or its logo? For sanctioning such a card-a must-have for some students-a college department or association gets payments from the issuer. Meanwhile, from freshman year to graduation, according to the Nellie Mae study, s
24、tudents triple the number of credit cards they own and double their debt on them. As of 2001, they were in the hole an average 2,327. A Wise Choice? One day, Moyer sat down with his mother, Janne ODonnell, to talk about his goal of going to law school. Dont count on it, ODonnell told him. She couldn
25、t afford the cost and Moyer doubted he could get a loan, given how much he owed already. “He said he felt like a failure,“ ODonnell recalls. “He didnt know how he had gotten into such a mess.“ A week later, the 22-year-old hanged himself in his bedroom, where his mother found him. ODonnell is convin
26、ced the money pressures caused his suicide. “Sean tried to pay his debts o12,“ she says. “And he couldnt take it.“ To be sure, suicides arc exceedingly rare. But despair is common, and it sometimes leads students to rethink whether college was worth it. In fact, there are quite a few jobs that dont
27、require a college degree, yet pay fairly well. On average, though, college graduates can expect to earn 80 percent more than those with only a high school diploma. Also, all but two of the 50 highest paying jobs (the exceptions being air traffic controllers and nuclear power reactor operators) requi
28、re a four-year college degree. So foregoing a college education is often not a wise choice. Merit Mikhail, who graduated last June from the University of California, Riverside, is glad she borrowed to get through school. But she left Riverside owing 20,000 in student loans and another 7,000 in credi
29、t card debt. Now in law school, Merit hopes to become a public-interest attorney, yet she may have to postpone that goal, which bothers her. To handle her debt, shell probably need to start with a more lucrative(有利的 ) legal job. Like so many other students, Mikhail took out her loans on a kind of bl
30、ind faith that she could deal with the consequences. “You say to yourself, I have to go into debt to make it work, and whatever it takes later, Ill manage.“ Later has now arrived, and Mikhail is finding out the true cost of her college degree. 2 Griffith worked for a firm that specialized in economi
31、c development in Washington D.C. because she needed money to pay for her debt. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 3 The only problem the students are facing at graduation is the dismal job market. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 4 One reason why colleges increase tuition and fees is that the state support is shrinking. （
32、A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 5 Nearly all the families can manage to meet the soaring tuition costs through various investment plans. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 6 According to Nadines calculation, she can pay off all her debt when she is _ if she can get a salary of 120,000 a year fight out of law school. 7 Stude
33、nts get money from not only federal loans but also_. 8 The college department or association can get payments from the issuer if it sanctions credit cards decorated with _. 9 ODonnell thinks that the cause of her 22-year-old sons suicide is _. 10 The author says that foregoing a college education is
34、 often not a wise choice because _ of the 50 highest paying jobs require a four-year college degree except for air traffic controllers and nuclear power reactor operators. 11 Merit will have to start with a more lucrative legal job instead of her favorite position a public-interest attorney because
35、she has to _. Section A Directions: In this section, you 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 wil
36、l be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. （ A） Robert survived the plane crash. （ B） All the passengers were killed in the plane crash. （ C） Robert was killed in the air crash. （ D） Robert is a wonder-working person. （ A
37、） Because she feels very hot in the room. （ B） Because she wants to avoid meeting people. （ C） Because she wants to smoke a cigarette outside. （ D） Because she doesnt like the smell of smoke inside. （ A） He thinks David is not reliable. （ B） Hes willing to trust David. （ C） He has told his doubts to
38、 David. （ D） He thinks David will benefit from this experience. （ A） The man can have his pants at the end of the day. （ B） Cleaning the pants will take longer than usual. （ C） She doesnt think the stain can be removed. （ D） The man should go to a different location. （ A） The man should start runnin
39、g daily. （ B） She also prefers to exercise in the afternoon. （ C） Its important to warm up before exercising. （ D） The man should continue his exercise program. （ A） The professor postponed the exam and will inform everyone later. （ B） The professor phoned him about the postponing of the exam. （ C）
40、The professor canceled the exam. （ D） The professor put off the exam. （ A） The woman had been planning for the conference. （ B） The woman called the man but the line was busy: （ C） The woman didnt come back until midnight. （ D） The woman had guests all evening. （ A） They should wait patiently. （ B）
41、They should ask that man to leave. （ C） They should serve that man immediately. （ D） That man is old enough to order things he likes. （ A） Because he cant find an ideal date. （ B） Because he is too common a person. （ C） Because he has failed to realize his dreams. （ D） Because be is deceived by Mrs.
42、 Right. （ A） Entering a large company without application, （ B） Programming human feelings into machines. （ C） Deciding ones best partner through internet. （ D） Matching up people with questionnaires. （ A） It isnt reliable. （ B） It needs checking. （ C） It is definitely trustworthy. （ D） It wont hurt
43、 to try. （ A） She needs some information, （ B） She wants packing materials. （ C） She is checking her package. （ D） She is moving to California. （ A） Fresh fruit. （ B） A girl certificate. （ C） Homemade candy. （ D） A wedding present. （ A） The next day. （ B） On Saturday. （ C） In three days. （ D） In one
44、 week. （ A） Regular service. （ B） Overnight express. （ C） Same day delivery. （ D） Priority service. Section B Directions: In this section, 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
45、hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D. （ A） The opening up of new markets. （ B） The printing of high quality copies. （ C） The increased use of the Internet. （ D） The rapid development of small businesses. （ A） To plant more fast growing trees. （
46、B） To find new materials for making paper. （ C） To develop new printers using recycled paper. （ D） To encourage printing more quality documents. （ A） Because they see a growing market for printers. （ B） Because small companies need more hard copies. （ C） Because people are concerned about the enviro
47、nment. （ D） Because printers in many offices are working overtime. （ A） Nancy set up “Dress for Success“ to make money. （ B） Nancys office gathers used clothes from women. （ C） Nancys grandfather lent her the money to set up the office. （ D） Low-income women can get jobs at “Dress for Success“. （ A）
48、 Because they like the design of the dresses （ B） Because they like to wear different clothes （ C） Because they prefer buying clothes at a low price （ D） Because they need to look smart when looking for a job （ A） That she got a lot of good ideas from Nancy （ B） That she is working happily at her pr
49、esent job. （ C） That clothes from Nancys office helped to get her a job （ D） That “Dress for Success“ has a good business relation with her firm （ A） Foreign words are best suited for announcements. （ B） The ideas expressed in foreign words sound new. （ C） Foreign words make new subjects easier to understand. （ D） The use of foreign words makes the media more popular. （ A） They trust the media. （ B） They respect experts. （ C）
