1、大学英语六级模拟试卷 792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 short essay entitled Should the State Interfere with Peoples Smoking Habits? You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below. 1.现在许多国家和地区纷纷颁布禁烟法令，禁止公民在餐厅、酒吧、商店
2、、办公场所等吸烟 2.我对政府颁布禁烟令是支持还是反对，并说出理由 Should the State Interfere with Peoples Smoking Habits? 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 ques
3、tions 1-4, mark： Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; 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 The End of the Cash Era In the spring Adam Smith will rep
4、lace Sir Edward Elgar as the face on Britains 20 note. The first economic thinker to be so honored could well be the last. Not because economists are especially undeserving, but because cash, after millennia as one of mankinds most versatile and enduring technologies, looks set over the next 15 year
5、s or so finally to melt away into an electronic stream of ones and zeros. If an era is represented by its money, the information age is at hand. Notes and coins are already a small fraction of the money in most rich countries. But going by the number of transactions rather than their value, we still
6、 live firmly in a cash society. The European Payments Council estimates that the European Unions 360 billion cash transactions cost at least 50 billion a year; others put the bill at 200 a head. Visa, a huge credit-card alliance, reckons cash accounts for most of the $1.3 trillion spent a year acros
7、s the world on small-ticket items. Whether queuing to get money out and queuing again to spend it, or breaking a $100 bill with an irate (发怒的 ) cab driver one minute and having your pockets and purses fat with coins the next, cash is plainly still king. Yet signs of the new order are everywhere. On
8、February 12th, 19 telephone operators with networks in over 100 countries said that people would be able to use their handsets to send money abroad. MasterCard will operate the system in which remittances (汇款 ) will be sent as text messages. For people without bank accounts, the credit can be conver
9、ted into pre-paid cards which can then be used to buy things. “It will revolutionize the money-transfer business,“ said Sunil Bharti Mittal, boss of Bharti Airtel, one of Indias biggest mobile operators. The idea is to tap into the more than $250 billion a year that immigrants and migrant workers se
10、nd to relatives and friends back home. Britains Vodafone and Americas Citigroup are also launching an international money-transfer service developed from the M-PESA remittance service which is already operating successfully within Kenya. Sir John Bond, formerly chairman of the HSBC banking group and
11、 now chairman of Vodafone, has long been convinced that payments and mobiles would somehow converge. “Mobile phones have the ability to make a dramatic change to village life in Africa,“ he says. He also thinks phones loaded with credit will make many of the payments people use cash for in rich econ
12、omies. For banks with high infrastructure costs, says Sir John, it has always “been hard to make money out of small payments“. But lower-cost business models, some of them from developing countries, are opening up new opportunities. The big attraction of the mobile phone as a purse is that so many p
13、eople have them - even children. Both MasterCard and Visa have recently introduced plastic cards in America that do not have to be swiped for purchases under $25. Later this year a “dual interface“ system will be tested in London. It will involve a single plastic card which combines an Oyster for tr
14、avel, a standard Visa card issued by Britains Barclays Bank for “chip and PIN“ payments and a new “wave and pay“ Visa for instant transactions up to 10. Nobody can be sure how fast bits and bytes will drive out metal and paper. A hundred years ago you could still pay your taxes in Uganda in cowrie s
15、hells. Perhaps hard cash will always find a niche, tucked away in childrens birthday cards and as money for the unbanked and phoneless. But most of the time a phone or a smart card that can be waved over an electronic reader will beat notes and coins hands-down. The doubt - and the remaining obstacl
16、e to digital money - concerns a third property of cash: its anonymity. Greshams law vs Moores law Rendering cash as pure information is the final denial of the notion that money has intrinsic value: what was once a carefully weighed piece of gold, silver or bronze has become simply a token. That is
17、a hard-won truth. As John Maynard Keynes once lamented, when it appears governments are able to deceive their citizens by depreciating the currency. Yet when money is minted (铸造 ) from silicon something remarkable happens. The economics of handling cash - which today involves thick-necked men in cra
18、sh-helmets - is suddenly embodied by Moores law, which has seen the cost of computer-processing power fall by half every 18 months or so. Electronic information is instantaneous, weightless and exact. No longer the miserable fumbling through coat pockets while a line of waiting customers quietly fum
19、es. Shopkeepers can do away with expensive cash floats and elaborate ruses to stop cash fraud - such as charging $4.99 so that the $5 bill most people hand over has to pass through the till (现金出纳机 的抽屉 ) for one cent change rather than being trousered by a shop assistant. Information-money can be han
20、dled by any information-processing device. That includes the mobile phone, which can add to moneys utility in that its screen can display information clearly and it can link to your bank as a mobile ATM at any time. Visa thinks a contactless digital transaction takes less than half the time of a cas
21、h one and that people liberated from what happens to be in their wallets spend a fifth more. Which is why digital cash is now solving its chicken-and-egg problem. In the past shopkeepers would not install systems unless shoppers had electronic cash. And shoppers would not use electronic cash unless
22、they had something to buy. But smart cards and readers have become cheap and consumers now possess mobile phones in droves. The trillions of payments that are too small to bear the fees of paying by credit card have come within reach and almost everyone stands to gain. Some Japanese merchants have a
23、lready begun to offer discounts to people using electronic cash. Others will follow. The buck stops here Except there is that nagging question of anonymity. It is well known that privacy has a lot going for it. The firms running payment systems might sell information about what you buy and when. Pre
24、pare yourself for a barrage of e-coupons and offers designed to fit your profile and uploaded to your phone. And there are more serious concerns. In the cash world, anonymity can be a cloak for wrong doing. The suspicion clings that where you find anonymity you find drugs, fraud, money laundering, t
25、errorist financing and a huge amount of tax evasion. No wonder governments have long sought to control anonymous financial instruments. The state is certain to limit the amount that can pass through an anonymous card, phone, or other means of business. Eager to collect taxes from builders and nannie
26、s, it will also be tempted to monitor electronic-cash payments. Whether it does so is a political question, not a technological one. You can design payment systems that protect against fraud and yet preserve anonymity, just as you can design open systems or those that keep your identity secret unles
27、s the authorities demand that it be revealed. When it comes to trading convenience against privacy, most people seem to back convenience every time. With cash, however, it might be different. The more the state intrudes into electronic cash, the more it encourages inefficient notes and coin. From th
28、e first slave who bought his freedom, money has been what Dostoyevsky called “coined liberty“. As Adam Smith would no doubt have observed, just because the state can pry into electronic cash does not mean it should. 2 Why could Adam Smith be the last economist as the face on a bank note? （ A） No eco
29、nomic thinker could be more honorable. （ B） Cash is very versatile and enduring. （ C） We will not need money in the near future. （ D） Electronic money will replace cash in the future. 3 The second paragraph mainly indicates that _. （ A） notes and coins play a less important role than before （ B） cas
30、h still dominates the economic life in the society （ C） we dont need as much money in flow as goods value （ D） there are many inconveniences in cash transactions 4 According to Sunil Bharti Mittal, what will revolutionize the traditional money-transfer business? （ A） Alliance of telephone operators
31、and MasterCard. （ B） The large demand of immigrants and migrant workers. （ C） Sending money by text messages. （ D） International telephone networks. 5 What does the chairman of Vodafone John Bond think of banks? （ A） They can hardly get profit out of small payments. （ B） They may disappear in the ne
32、ar future just like cash. （ C） They have greatly changed village life in Africa. （ D） They hold a primary role in the money-transfer business. 6 Visa will introduce a new “wave and pay“ card in London for purchases _. （ A） under $25 （ B） under 10 （ C） abroad （ D） in traveling 7 According to John May
33、nard Keynes, when can governments use devaluation of currency to take in people? （ A） When value is inherent in money. （ B） When metal currency becomes a token. （ C） When cash cant be used anonymously. （ D） When Moores law begins to work. 8 According to Visa, transactions by mobile ATMs can encourag
34、e spending by _. （ A） 18% （ B） 5% （ C） 4O% （ D） 2O% 9 More and more Japanese shopkeepers encourage using electronic cash by _. 10 To limit wrong doing, governments have long been trying to control _. 11 More people would use notes and coin to protect _ when electronic cash payments are under strict
35、monitoring. 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 will
36、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） The jacket was cut by the woman. （ B） The jacket doesnt fit the woman around arm and leg area. （ C） The jacket was designed by the woman. （ D） The woman spent a lot of money o
37、n the jacket. （ A） The man should schedule an ear examination without delay. （ B） The man should do some listening practice. （ C） The women should order an appointment book. （ D） The woman should make a list of what he needs to do. （ A） The woman should buy a famous brand. （ B） The washing machine s
38、hould have worked longer. （ C） The woman should consider buying a new one. （ D） The washing machine was not a good investment. （ A） She is too busy with her work and can not go. （ B） She wants him to check whether it is going to rain. （ C） She will surely enjoy the picnic tomorrow. （ D） She wants th
39、e man to help her. （ A） She will go the exhibit with the man. （ B） She will stay at home and rest. （ C） She will find out when the exhibit opens. （ D） She will help the man to prepare the exhibit. （ A） The man is painting a bookcase. （ B） The woman is choosing a new bed. （ C） The woman is looking ou
40、t of the window. （ D） The woman is rearranging her furniture. （ A） The work is hard job with low salary. （ B） The job is easy work with good income. （ C） The job is challenging but rewarding. （ D） The only good thing about the work is to meet new people. （ A） At a concert. （ B） At the campus canteen
41、. （ C） In a supermarket. （ D） At a museum entrance. （ A） Buy it. （ B） Rent it. （ C） Borrow it. （ D） Make it. （ A） Camping is unsafe. （ B） Camping isnt fun. （ C） He needs a lot of experience. （ D） He can camp anywhere he wanted. （ A） Buses. （ B） Bicycles. （ C） Showers. （ D） Schools. （ A） Yesterday mo
42、rning. （ B） Yesterday noon. （ C） Yesterday afternoon. （ D） Yesterday evening. （ A） He doesnt have good qualifications. （ B） His resume hasnt outlined his past in a proper way. （ C） He is not nervous when taking an interview. （ D） He always thinks that the interviewer is like an enemy. （ A） He should
43、 outline his past better. （ B） He should send his resume directly to the manager. （ C） He should create a new area in his resume called “value offered“. （ D） He neednt write different resumes to different employers. （ A） A shipping company. （ B） A consulting company. （ C） An accounting company. （ D）
44、 A headhunting company. 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 hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marke
45、d A, B, C and D. （ A） A little girl. （ B） A little boy. （ C） A secretary. （ D） A dog. （ A） The medical treatment in Sweden. （ B） Keeping a dog in Sweden. （ C） The daily life of the Swedes. （ D） Social welfare in Sweden. （ A） Dog owners in Sweden neednt to pay any taxes on their pets. （ B） Dog owners
46、 in Sweden are greatly subsidized by government. （ C） Dog owners in Sweden must pay for any damage their dog does. （ D） Two thirds of people in Sweden keep pets. （ A） The internet address. （ B） A giant network of computers. （ C） An electronic mail. （ D） The US postal service. （ A） Because it can sen
47、d email. （ B） Because it offers online discussion. （ C） Because it is visible and audible. （ D） Because it provides chatting service. （ A） The local government. （ B） The internet user. （ C） Some special organization. （ D） None has been mentioned. （ A） Two years ago, in a taxicab. （ B） Two years ago,
48、 in a coffeehouse. （ C） One year ago, in a taxicab. （ D） One year ago, in a coffeehouse. （ A） The cab company. （ B） The number of the cab. （ C） The name of the driver. （ D） Nothing. （ A） Because someone may like it and then keep it. （ B） Because it is trivial compared to crimes and cases alike, （ C）
49、 Because the police are not supposed to help people do this. （ D） Because there are hundreds of similar guitars. （ A） The police. （ B） The taxi driver. （ C） A coffeehouse owner. （ D） A person unknown. Section C Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you
