1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 103及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “In every end, there is also a beginning.“ You can give examples to illustrate your point and then explain what you will do to keep on making progress. You
2、should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Section A （ A） He is not a qualified teacher. （ B） He does not feel like going to the dinner. （ C） He does not know when the dinner begins. （ D） He has already been married. （ A） Contented. （ B） Regretful. （ C） Skeptical. （ D） Relaxed. （ A）
3、 In a supermarket. （ B） At a post office. （ C） At a library. （ D） At a bank. （ A） He must be tired of paperwork. （ B） He must be a timid person. （ C） He must be tired of repetitive work. （ D） He must be a fearless person. （ A） It does not satisfy the woman. （ B） The printer cannot print photos. （ C）
4、 It can print photos besides articles. （ D） A digital camera is needed when printing articles. （ A） Call her in mornings. （ B） Call her in lunchtime. （ C） Meet her in the classroom. （ D） Meet her in the lunchroom. （ A） Their new house. （ B） An air-conditioner and a big TV set. （ C） Their new washing
5、 machine. （ D） The to-be-bought home appliances. （ A） His wife does well in doing cooking. （ B） His wife likes to use microwave oven to cook. （ C） His wife thinks food in the dining-hall is horrible. （ D） His wife seems to like the fresh food in the dining-hall. （ A） To tell him he has got the post
6、of a manager. （ B） To have a private conversation with him. （ C） To inform him something about the interview. （ D） To discuss the future of the company with him. （ A） His educational background. （ B） The reason why he quitted his previous job. （ C） The turning point in his career. （ D） Examples of p
7、roblems he met with. （ A） It has to be long and in detail. （ B） It will be given in a formal style. （ C） It will include his view on the company. （ D） It will be given next Tuesday morning. （ A） Romantic love. （ B） Mystery murder. （ C） Science fiction. （ D） Ocean adventure. （ A） Visit the stories se
8、tting places. （ B） Look for all the details about the stories. （ C） Have a further talk with persons involved. （ D） Make some character analysis. （ A） Indifferent. （ B） Suspicious. （ C） Favorable. （ D） Critical. （ A） It has been finished. （ B） It will be published this month. （ C） It contains many d
9、etective stories. （ D） It ranks the top of bestseller lists. Section B （ A） How important money is in ones day-to-day life. （ B） How one spends money shows what is important to him. （ C） Money is more important than the philosophy of life. （ D） Ones understanding of life is more important than money
10、. （ A） To test the strength of a friendship. （ B） To bring friends even closer. （ C） To know more people who are in need. （ D） To make your friends feel they are helpful. （ A） Money is proof of ones value. （ B） Money is a means instead of an end. （ C） Making more money is meaningless. （ D） Money can
11、 give great happiness. （ A） It has been selling cupcakes for years. （ B） It sells cupcakes 24 hours everyday. （ C） It only offers one flavor of cupcakes. （ D） It is a sight-seeing spot in New York City. （ A） They see it as a dated concept. （ B） They find it hard to operate. （ C） They appreciate its
12、great service. （ D） They think it has great appeal. （ A） He thinks its stupid to buy a cupcake in the morning. （ B） He has a different opinion from the majority. （ C） He thinks having one cupcake in the morning is enough. （ D） He stood in line with his co-workers for their cupcakes. （ A） It can be a
13、cquired from seafood. （ B） It is good for our bones and teeth. （ C） It is mainly consumed by vegetarians. （ D） It is not as nutritious as it used to be. （ A） Delicious snacks and mineral water. （ B） Foods that contain much calcium. （ C） Noodles with high carbohydrates. （ D） Fruits that contain vitam
14、ins and fibre. （ A） They are allergic to meat, fish and other animal products. （ B） They cannot get over the brutal scenes of killing animals. （ C） Some of them think it is morally wrong to kill animals for food. （ D） Some of them believe it is healthier to eat meat and beans. （ A） They refer to tra
15、nsgenic organisms. （ B） They are harmful to the environment. （ C） They are grown in green and clean ways. （ D） They are grown with less harmful chemicals. Section C 26 Why we dream still remains one of the great mysteries. But in answer to the question of how we dream, scientific researchers have【 B
16、1】 _ some important answers. According to dream researcher Michael Schredl, dream consciousness and consciousness are【 B2】 _ the same. This confirms the experience people have every night that what happens in dreams, no matter how fantastic,【 B3】 _ and lacking in reason or logic, is felt to be exact
17、ly【 B4】 _ life is when a person is awake. A discovery in 1953 called “REM(rapid eye movement)sleep“ initially found that dream phases 【 B5】 _ by rapid eye movements are guided by the brain stem. This is the region of the brain which regulates a persons breathing and body warmth, but has little invol
18、vement with consciousness. This led American sleep researcher Allan Hobson to conclude that dreams were a【 B6】 _product of various actions of the nerves. REM could be a mechanism which【 B7】 _ dream events, but one can also dream without this【 B8】 _. Dreams can be produced not from primitive, but rat
19、her from higher regions of the brainthose which handle things like【 B9】 _, emotions, memory and sensory experience. There is no【 B10】 _ difference in dreams, but only a difference in waking experience, which then is reflected again in the dream. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】
20、33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 The human nose is an underrated tool. Humans are often thought to be insensitive smellers compared with animals, but this is largely because, unlike animals, we stand upright This means that our noses are【 C1】 _to perceiving those smells which float
21、through the air, missing the majority of smells which stick to surfaces. In fact, though, we are【 C2】_sensitive to smells, even if we do not generally realize it. Our noses are capable of【 C3】_human smells even when these are diluted to far below one part in one million. Strangely, some people find
22、that they can smell one type of flower but not another, whereas others are sensitive to the smells of both flowers. This may be because some people do not have the genes necessary to generate【 C4】 _smell receptors in the nose. These receptors are the cells which sense smells and send【 C5】 _to the br
23、ain. However, it has been found that even people insensitive to a certain smell at first can suddenly become sensitive to it when【 C6】_to it often enough. The explanation for insensitivity to smell seems to be that the brain finds it【 C7】 _to keep all smell receptors working all the time but can cre
24、ate new receptors if necessary. This may also explain why we are not usually sensitive to our own smellswe【 C8】 _do not need to be. We are not【 C9】 _of the usual smell of our own house, but we notice new smells when we visit someone elses. The brain finds it best to keep smell receptors available fo
25、r unfamiliar and【 C10】 _signals such as the smell of smoke, which might indicate the danger of fire. A)simply B)emergency C)aware D)detecting E)permanently F)limited G)sure H)inefficient I)dedicated J)exposed K)impulses L)messages M)distinguishing N)particular O)extremely 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】
26、40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Trust Me, Im a Robot AWith robots now emerging from their industrial cages and moving into homes and workplaces, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications beyond the factory floor. To address these concerns, l
27、eading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people. Inspired by the Pugwash Conferencesan international group of scientists, academics and activists founded in 1957 to campaign for the non-proliferation of nuclear weaponsthe new group of robo-ethicists
28、met earlier this year in Genoa, Italy, and announced their initial findings in March at the European Robotics Symposium in Palermo, Sicily. B“Security and safety are the big concerns,“ says Henrik Christensen, chairman of the European Robotics Network at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in
29、Stockholm. Should robots that are strong e-nough or heavy enough to crush people be allowed into homes? Is “system malfunction“ a justifiable defence for a robotic fighter plane that contravenes(违反 )the Geneva Convention and mistakenly fires on innocent civilians? C“These questions may seem hard to
30、understand but in the next few years they will become increasingly relevant,“ says Dr. Christensen. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europes World Robotics Survey, in 2002 the number of domestic and service robots more than tripled, nearly surpassing their industrial counterpa
31、rts. By the end of 2003 there were more than 600,000 robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowersa figure predicted to rise to more than 4m by the end of next year. Japanese industrial firms are racing to build humanoid robots to act as domestic helpers for the elderly, and South Korea has set a goal that
32、100% of households should have domestic robots by 2020. In light of all this, it is crucial that we start to think about safety guidelines now, says Dr. Christensen. Stop right there DSo what exactly is being done to protect us from these mechanical menaces? “Not enough,“ says Blay Whitby. This is h
33、ardly surprising given that the field of “safety-critical computing“ is barely a decade old, he says. But things are changing, and researchers are increasingly taking an interest in trying to make robots safer. One approach, which sounds simple enough, is try to program them to avoid contact with pe
34、ople altogether. But this is much harder than it sounds. Getting a robot to navigate across a cluttered room is difficult enough without having to take into account what its various limbs or appendages might bump into along the way. E“Regulating the behaviour of robots is going to become more diffic
35、ult in the future, since they will increasingly have self-learning mechanisms built into them,“ says Gianmarco Veruggio. “As a result, their behaviour will become impossible to predict fully,“ he says, “since they will not be behaving in predefined ways but will learn new behaviour as they go.“ FThe
36、n there is the question of unpredictable failures. What happens if a robots motors stop working, or it suffers a system failure just as it is performing heart surgery or handing you a cup of hot coffee? You can, of course, build in redundancy by adding backup systems, says Hirochika Inoue. But this
37、guarantees nothing, he says. “One hundred per cent safety is impossible through technology,“ says Dr. Inoue. This is because ultimately no matter how thorough you are, you cannot anticipate the unpredictable nature of human behaviour, he says. Or to put it another way, no matter how sophisticated yo
38、ur robot is at avoiding people, people might not always manage to avoid it, and could end up tripping over it and falling down the stairs. Legal problems GIn any case, says Dr. Inoue, the laws really just summarize commonsense principles that are already applied to the design of most modern applianc
39、es, both domestic and industrial. Every toaster, lawn mower and mobile phone is designed to minimize the risk of causing injuryyet people still manage to electrocute(电死 )themselves, lose fingers or fall out of windows in an effort to get a better signal. At the very least, robots must meet the rigor
40、ous safety standards that cover existing products. The question is whether new, robot-specific rules are neededand, if so, what they should say. H“Making sure robots are safe will be critical,“ says Colin Angle of iRobot, which has sold over 2m “Roomba“ household-vacuuming robots. But he argues that
41、 his firms robots are, in fact, much safer than some popular toys. “A radio-controlled car controlled by a six-year old is far more dangerous than a Roomba,“ he says. If you tread on a Roomba, it will not cause you to slip over; instead, a rubber pad on its base grips the floor and prevents it from
42、moving. “Existing regulations will address much of the challenge,“ says Mr. Angle. “Im not yet convinced that robots are sufficiently different that they deserve special treatment.“ IRobot safety is likely to surface in the civil courts as a matter of product liability. “When the first robot carpet-
43、sweeper sucks up a baby, who will be to blame?“ asks John Hallam, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. If a robot is autonomous and capable of learning, can its designer be held responsible for all its actions? Today the answer to these questions is generally “yes“. But as ro
44、bots grow in complexity it will become a lot less clear cut, he says. J“Right now, no insurance company is prepared to insure robots,“ says Dr. Inoue. But that will have to change, he says. Last month, Japans Ministry of Trade and Industry announced a set of safety guidelines for home and office rob
45、ots. They will be required to have sensors to help them avoid collisions with humans; to be made from soft and light materials to minimize harm if a collision does occur, and to have an emergency shut-off button. This was largely prompted by a big robot exhibition held last summer, which made the au
46、thorities realize that there are safety implications when thousands of people are not just looking at robots, but mingling with them, says Dr. Inoue. KHowever, the idea that general-purpose robots, capable of learning, will become widespread is wrong, suggests Mr. Angle. It is more likely, he believ
47、es, that robots will be relatively dumb machines designed for particular tasks. Rather than a humanoid robot maid, “its going to be a heterogeneous(不同种类的 )swarm of robots that will take care of the house,“ he says. 47 It is pointed out there is no absolute safety through technology due to the unpred
48、ictable nature of human behavior. 48 It sounds easier said than done to program robots to avoid contact with people. 49 According to a survey, the number of domestic and service robots was three times over that of industrial robots in 2002. 50 To deal with the rising safety concern about domestic ro
49、bots, robo-ethicists held meetings in Genoa. 51 To a great extent, a robot exhibition contributed to the issue of safety guidelines for home and office robots in Japan. 52 A crew member from iRobot believes the existing regulations can cope with much challenges so robots are not so different as to be treated specially. 53 A university professor points out that the complexity of robots may result in the ambiguous product liability. 54 It
