1、大学英语六级模拟试卷 824及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the topic of Students Starting Their Own Businesses. You should write at least 150 words according to the outline given below. 目 前有不少大学生开始创业 1对此不少人给予了肯定 2也有人有不同的看法 3我认为 Students
2、Starting Their Own Businesses 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 th
3、e 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 Food Inflation Kept Hidden in Tinier Bags Chips are disappearing from bags, candy from boxes and vegetables from cans
4、. As an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages. With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to hide price increases by selling their products in tiny and tinier packages. So far, the c
5、hanges are most visible at the grocery store, where shoppers are paying the same amount, but getting less. For Lisa Stauber, stretching her budget to feed her nine children in Houston often requires careful monitoring at the store. Recently, when she cooked her usual three boxes of pasta for a big f
6、amily dinner, she was surprised by a smaller yield, and she began to suspect something was up. “Whole wheat pasta had gone from 16 ounces to 13.25 ounces,“ she said. “I bought three boxes and it wasnt enough that was a little embarrassing. I bought the same amount I always buy, I just didnt realize
7、it, because who reads the sizes all the time?“ Ms. Stauber, 33, said she began inspecting her other purchases, aisle by aisle. Many canned vegetables dropped to 13 or 14 ounces from 16; boxes of baby wipes went to 72 from 80; and sugar was stacked in 4-pound, not 5-pound, bags, she said. Five or so
8、years ago, Ms. Stauber bought 16-ounce cans of corn. Then they were 15.5 ounces, then 14.5 ounces, and the size is still dropping. “The first time Ive ever seen an 11-ounce can of corn at the store was about three weeks ago, and I was just floored,“ she said. “Its sneaky, because they figure people
9、wont know.“ In every economic downturn in the last few decades, companies have reduced the size of some products, disguising price increases and avoiding comparisons on same-size packages, before and after an increase. Each time, the marketing campaigns are coy; this time, the smaller versions are “
10、greener“(packages good for the environment)or more “portable“(little carry bags for the takeout lifestyle)or “healthier“(fewer calories). Where companies cannot change sizes as in clothing or appliances they have warned that prices will be going up, as the costs of cotton, energy, grain and other ra
11、w materials are rising. “Consumers are generally more sensitive to changes in prices than to changes in quantity,“ John T. Gourville, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School, said. “And companies try to do it in such a way that you dont notice, maybe keeping the height and width the same, b
12、ut changing the depth so the silhouette(轮廓 )of the package on the shelf looks the same. Or sometimes they add more air to the chips bag or a scoop in the bottom of the peanut butter jar so it looks the same size.“ Thomas J. Alexander, a finance professor at Northwood University, said that businesses
13、 had little choice these days when faced with increases in the costs of their raw goods. “Companies only have pricing power when wages are also increasing, and were not seeing that right now because of the high unemployment,“ he said. Most companies reduce products quietly, hoping consumers are not
14、reading labels too closely. But the downsizing keeps occurring. A can of Chicken of the Sea albacore tuna is now packed at 5 ounces, instead of the 6-ounce version still on some shelves, and in some cases, the 5-ounce can costs more than the larger one. Bags of Doritos, Tostitos and Fritos now hold
15、20 percent fewer chips than in 2009, though a spokesman said those extra chips were just a “limited time“ offer. Trying to keep customers from feeling cheated, some companies are introducing new containers that, they say, have terrific advantages and just happen to contain less product. Kraft is int
16、roducing “Fresh Stacks“ packages for its Nabisco Premium saltines and Honey Maid graham crackers. Each has about 15 percent fewer crackers than the standard boxes, but the price has not changed. Kraft says that because the Fresh Stacks include more sleeves of crackers, they are more portable and “th
17、e packaging format offers the benefit of added freshness,“ said Basil T. Maglaris, a Kraft spokesman, in an e-mail. And Procter and “document drops“(who would help them retrieve a pile of “accidentally“ dropped papers?). Along the way, the reporters encountered all types: men and women of different
18、races, ages, professions, and income levels. While 90 percent of the people passed the door test, only 55 percent aced the document drop. Are people less likely to help others when doing so takes extra effort or time? Not always, the reporters found. Take the pregnant woman who thought nothing of be
19、nding down to help us with our papers. Or the woman named Liz who precariously balanced two coffees, her keys and her wallet on a takeout tray with one hand, while picking up papers off the wet pavement with the other. Her reason for helping? “I was there,“ she said matter-of-factly. Overall, men we
20、re the most willing to help, especially when it came to document drops. In those, men offered aid 63 percent of the time, compared to 47 percent among women. Of course, men werent entirely democratic about whom theyd help. All of them held the door for the female reporter, and were more than twice a
21、s likely to help her pick up fallen papers than they were to help our male reporter. By far, the most common reason people cited for being willing to go out of their way to help others was their upbringing. “Its the way I was raised,“ said one young woman who held a door open despite struggling with
22、 her umbrella on a rainy day in Brooklyn. We realize this isnt a rigorous scientific study, but we believe it is a reasonable real-world test of good manners around the globe. And its comforting to know that in a place where millions of people jostle(推挤 )one another each day to get ahead, theyre abl
23、e to do it with a smile and a thank-you. Hey, if they can make nice here, they can make nice anywhere. 48 Plenty of people hold the view that in todays world, good manners are_. 49 The author suggests that less people passed the document drop than the door test not always because the former_. 50 The
24、 experiment of document drops revealed that men were generally_to offer aid. 51 The reporters found that helping others is a behavior that is largely influenced by the way people_. 52 The author believes the results of the experiments have shown that_are still with us. Section B Directions: There ar
25、e 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice. 52 Has your child cracked a book this summer? Although adults often jump at the chance to catch up on
26、 their reading during vacations, many children and teenagers, particularly those from low-income families, read few, if any, books during the summer break from school. But the price for keeping the books closed is a high one. Several studies have documented a “summer slide“ in reading skills once sc
27、hool lets out each spring. The decline in reading and spelling skills are greatest among low-income students, who lose the equivalent of about two months of school each summer, according to the National Summer Learning Association, an education advocacy group. And the loss compounds each year. Now n
28、ew research offers a surprisingly simple, and affordable, solution to the summer reading slide. In a three-year study, researchers at the University of Tennessee found that simply giving low-income children access to books at spring fairs and allowing them to choose books that most interested them h
29、ad a significant effect on the summer reading gap. The study, financed by the Department of Education, tracked the reading habits and test scores of more than 1,300 Florida children from 17 low-income schools. At the start of the study, 852 randomly selected first- and second-graders attended a scho
30、ol book fair in the spring where they were allowed to browse from 600 book titles. A variety of books were offered. The children chose 12 books. The researchers also selected at random a control group of 478 children who werent given reading books. Those children were offered free activity and puzzl
31、e books. The book fairs and activity book giveaways continued for three summers until the study participants reached the fourth and fifth grades. Then the researchers compared reading test scores for the two groups. Children who had received free books posted significantly higher test scores than th
32、e children who received activity books. The difference in scores was twice as high among the poorest children in the study. One of the most notable findings was that children improved their reading scores even though they typically werent selecting the curriculum books or classics that teachers norm
33、ally assigned for summer reading. That conclusion confirms other studies suggesting that children learn best when they are allowed to select their own books. But giving children a choice in the books they read is a message many parents resist. At a bookstore recently, a study co-author, Anne McGill-
34、Franzen, professor and director of the reading center at the University of Tennessee, said she witnessed an exchange between some mothers encouraging their fifth- and sixth-grade daughters to read biographies of historical figures, when the girls wanted to select books about Hannah Montana, a charac
35、ter played by the pop star Miley Cyrus. “If those books get them into reading, that has great repercussions(影响 )for making them smarter,“ Dr. McGill-Franzen said. “Teachers and middle-class parents undervalue kids preferences, but I think we need to give up being so uptight about childrens choices i
36、n books.“ 53 Several studies reveal that during summer vacations,_. （ A） parents are eager to choose books for their children （ B） slide enjoys greater popularity among poor children （ C） many schools choose to close the library to save money （ D） childrens reading skills decline without book readin
37、g 54 To solve the summer reading slide, researchers at the University of Tennessee suggest_. （ A） schools provide free books to children （ B） children read in company with their parents （ C） children discuss with friends after reading （ D） parents buy some classics for their children 55 In the study
38、, children were divided into two groups according to whether_. （ A） they came from low-income families （ B） the books were offered to them for free （ C） #NAME? （ D） they read much and performed well in tests 56 What conclusion of the study is worthy of notice according to the passage? （ A） Children
39、tend not to read the curriculum books in summer. （ B） Poor students get the lowest scores in the reading test. （ C） Children given choice in books improve their reading. （ D） Teachers summer reading assignment fails to work on children. 57 What does Anne McGill-Franzens experience in the bookstore i
40、llustrate? （ A） Parents oppose giving children a choice in books. （ B） Reading about fictional figures makes children smarter. （ C） Many children books are undervalued in bookstores. （ D） There exists generation gap in selecting reading material. 57 Amid weak job and housing markets, consumers are s
41、aving more and spending less than they have in decades, and industry professionals expect that trend to continue. Consumers saved 6.4 percent of their after-tax income in June. Before the recession, the rate was 1 to 2 percent for many years. In June, consumer spending and personal incomes were esse
42、ntially flat compared with May, suggesting that the American economy, as dependent as it is on shoppers opening their wallets and purses, isnt likely to rebound anytime soon. On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could make them h
43、appier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses. If consumers end up sticking
44、with their newfound spending habits, some tactics(策略 )that retailers and marketers began using during the recession could become lasting business strategies. Among those strategies are offering goods that makes being at home more entertaining and trying to make consumers feel special by giving them
45、access to exclusive events and more personal customer service. While the current round of stinginess may simply be a response to the economic downturn, some analysts say consumers may also be permanently adjusting their spending based on what theyve discovered about what truly makes them happy or fu
46、lfilled. “This actually is a topic that hasnt been researched very much until recently,“ says Elizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia, who is at the forefront of research on consumption and happiness. “Theres massive literature on
47、income and happiness. Its amazing how little there is on how to spend your money.“ Studies over the last few decades have shown that money, up to a certain point, makes people happier because it lets them meet basic needs. The latest round of research is, for lack of a better term, all about emotion
48、al efficiency: how to reap the most happiness for your dollar. So just where does happiness reside for consumers? Scholars and researchers havent determined whether Armani will put a bigger smile on your face than Dolce at least it is for me. 84 He said surprisingly, “He is_(我们最不可能怀疑的人 ).“ 85 We don
49、t_(嘲笑那些敢于尝试的人 )no matter how many errors they make. 86 In no case_(任何人应该出卖自己的良心 ). 87 Mrs. Beck_(一直受她丈夫照看 )since she was collapsed. 大学英语六级模拟试卷 824答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 【正确答案】 Students Starting Their Own Businesses (1)Many college students are now seeing(2)self-employment as the more attractive option as the job market continues to be competitive.(3)To some people, the idea of(2)being a student entrepreneur is a good one.(2)Bei
