1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 173及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay entitled The Importance of Competition by commenting on the famous remark, “survival of the fittest.“ You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Write your essa
2、y on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） They often take risks. （ B） Theyre too conservative. （ C） They have no sense of security. （ D） They have no self-discipline. （ A） Financial security matters a lot to them. （ B） They chase every mark of the stock market. （ C） Theyre not so concerned with money. （ D
3、） They make decisions based on short-term matters. （ A） Da （ B） Cs. （ C） Bs. （ D） As. （ A） Theyre willing to take risks. （ B） They have long-term financial plans. （ C） They seldom go on instinct. （ D） They buy few stocks. （ A） The goals of the employees. （ B） The objectives of the organization. （ C）
4、 The structure of the organization. （ D） The personal prospect of the leader. （ A） The rewards for the leader. （ B） The reputation of a leader. （ C） The approach to achieving goals. （ D） The payment of employees. （ A） Find something you are passionate about. （ B） Learn how to run a business. （ C） Ma
5、ke a business out of something. （ D） Learn how to manage and lead people. （ A） Avoid the difficult part in the job. （ B） Ask the company for help. （ C） Learn hard by working extra hours. （ D） Find a more experienced counselor. Section B （ A） They worked for long time and nearly had no leisure. （ B）
6、They usually had to work 8 hours each day. （ C） They worked very hard but earned little. （ D） They had to support a large family. （ A） How to deal with stress at work. （ B） How to take care of the aged people. （ C） How to use the leisure time wisely. （ D） How to improve their living conditions. （ A）
7、 More money and less work. （ B） Freedom and good relationship. （ C） Respect and confidence. （ D） Fresh energy and active interest. （ A） It dates back to more than 1800 years ago. （ B） It is liked by men and women of all ages. （ C） It usually gains favor among older men. （ D） It has the same populari
8、ty as pipe smoking. （ A） The cost of growing tobacco increased. （ B） Many people began to give up smoking. （ C） The government banned smoking and cigarette. （ D） The taxes on cigarettes increased greatly. （ A） Go to the designated areas. （ B） Ask for the conductors permission. （ C） Share with other
9、passengers. （ D） Have something else instead of cigarettes. （ A） It shows the components of each cigarette. （ B） It warns us that smoking is dangerous to health. （ C） It tells people the side effects of smoking cigarettes. （ D） It reminds people not to smoke in public places. Section C （ A） It was h
10、er grandfather who gave her the name. （ B） She had a very happy childhood in a large family. （ C） Her marriage with the sailor at sixteen was a failure. （ D） She died in a car accident at the age of thirty-six. （ A） She is recognized as the best actress in history. （ B） A lot of actresses are trying
11、 to imitate her acting. （ C） Her white dress is kept in a Hollywood museum. （ D） Her residence has became a popular tourist site. （ A） Critical. （ B） Prohibitive. （ C） Indifferent. （ D） Appreciative. （ A） It has two airbags or other safety devices. （ B） The maximum speed is 40 km per hour. （ C） It c
12、an work for both long and short trips. （ D） It can be driven anywhere in the world. （ A） Mechanical failure. （ B） Heavy traffic. （ C） Extreme weather. （ D） Human error. （ A） 20% of them think self-driving cars are not safe. （ B） 20% of them have interest in self-driving cars. （ C） Half of them belie
13、ve self-driving cars are not trusted. （ D） Half of them dont know about self-driving cars at all. （ A） It is the only company developing self-driving cars. （ B） It cooperates with Infiniti in developing self-driving cars. （ C） It needs to further inform people of its technology. （ D） It plans to mak
14、e self-driving cars available this year. （ A） It is located in Arizona. （ B） It was established in 1782. （ C） It is the largest national park. （ D） It was the first national park. （ A） The protection of national parks. （ B） The history of national parks. （ C） The service of national parks. （ D） The
15、pollution of national parks. （ A） It can be valid for seven days. （ B） A yearly pass costs only $18. （ C） It varies in different seasons. （ D） It is free for people over 62. Section A 26 People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors are formed It is not easy to explain w
16、hy one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is【 C1】 _and another is competitive. Social scientists are, of course, extremely interested in these types of questions. They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and【 C2】 _certain behaviors. There are no clear answers yet
17、, but two【 C3】 _schools of thought on the matter have developed. As one might expect, the two【 C4】 _are very different from one another, and there is a great deal of debate between proponents(支持者 )of each theory. The controversy is often【 C5】 _to as “nature vs nurture“. Those who support the “nature
18、“ side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological and【 C6】 _factors. That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to an extreme, this theory maintai
19、ns that our behavior is predetermined to such a great degree that we are almost completely【 C7】_by our instincts. Proponents of the “nurture“ theory, or, as they are often called, behaviorists, claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we w
20、ill act. A behaviorist, B. F. Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely【 C8】 _by their surroundings. Neither of these theories can yet【 C9】 _explain human behavior. In fact, it is quite likely that the【 C10】_to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes. That the
21、 controversy will continue for a long time is certain. A)governed E)consulted I)scarcely M)cooperative B)referred F)genetic J)approaches N)resolution C)strategies G)reveal K)key O)distinct D)fully H)shaped L)exhibit 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36
22、【 C10】 Section B 36 Can Tony Blair Save the World of Books? AAt the beginning of A Journey, Tony Blair boasts that he has “the soul of a rebel“. Last week, he made good on that boast by conducting a gravity-defying act of literary presumption publishing a hardback of some 720 pages, priced at 25, tr
23、icked out with index, acknowledgments and 32 pages of photographic plates. BAccording to Cathy Rentzenbrink, manager of the Richmond Waterstones: “These sales are brilliant and really exciting. You dont often have customers almost breaking down the door to buy a book, but Blair is totally outselling
24、 Mandelson. Ive not seen anything this big since Harry Potter or Dan Brown. This looks like the Christmas book of the year.“ She adds: “Its very rare for a hardback to outsell a future paperback, but this might be one of those exceptions.“ Rentzenbrink says she does not know its Amazon discount, or
25、if theres a significant ebook and audiobook sale. What matters is that a fat hardback with a big print run is actually selling. CGo into any bookshop today and you will find the unmistakable evidence of a business in the midst of a collective nervous breakdown: hardbacks discounted at 50%: heaped ta
26、bles of “3 for 2“: and other hints of the death of print: audiobooks and advertisements for the Sony Reader, or the Elonex touch screen, or the Cybook Opus. This year, there are more than 20 competing e-readers. DAcross the Atlantic, Blairs chunky memoir(回忆录 )will seem even more antique. The America
27、n reading public is adopting the ebook with the enthusiasm of a great consumer society. Wherever you go in the US, the electronic print of the hand-held screen glows like fairytale magic. Ebook sales are soaring, accompanied by terrible predictions about the future of publishing. The picture is all
28、the more disturbing because its so hard to interpret, with competing diagnoses. Are we in intensive care or the morgue(太平 间 )? ESince 2000, the Anglo-American book business has been rocked by great disturbance. Google has digitised some 10 million titles. Barnes and Noble is for sale. Borders, bankr
29、upt in the UK, clings on in the US. Here, Waterstones parent company, HMV, wants to sell. Amazons market share continues to soar. Asda, Tesco and the supermarket chains are said to be draining the life out of independent bookselling. In the US, its claimed that ebooks are now outselling many hardbac
30、ks. By the end of this year, 10.3 million Americans are expected to own e-readers, buying an estimated 100m ebooks. FIn the UK, electronic publishing lags behind the US, but many of the brightest publishing brains, notably Enhanced Editions, are looking hard at the potential of the book as applicati
31、on. Only a few people would dispute that its a matter of time before the ebook joins the iPod and the mobile phone as a vital component of the way we live. Ebooks, indeed, are already integral to the iPad and last week Amazon launched a sales campaign for its latest Kindle. Deplore this if you must,
32、 but be prepared: even the Oxford English Dictionary is now conceding that its third edition, 21 years in the making, will be published not on paper but online. GThe 25 hardback of Blairs A Journey will certainly become a traditional bestseller. But many nervous industry observers are watching to se
33、e how many ebooks it sells. Within the book trade itself, all the main players(agents, editors, booksellers)have converted to e-reading, and now some authors are exploring the potential of the new technology. Stephen Fry is said to be developing a revolutionary application for his forthcoming autobi
34、ography. Yet many traditional publishers privately say that printed books will continue to be manufactured, bought and cherished. HThe buzz surrounding last weeks Kindle launch raises the possibility that the book is about to become swallowed up by an “iPod moment“ for literature, similar to the tra
35、nsformation wrought on the music industry by downloading. Who knows? Heres where gazing into the crystal ball for the biggest IT revolution in 500 years gets really difficult. ITim Waterstone, who has had an unusual sense of what the British book buyer wants, remains sceptical. He concedes that the
36、reference book market(dictionaries, encyclopedias)is “certain to go online“. But what about fiction? Biography? Poetry? Childrens books? “Personally,“ he says, “I dont think so.“ JLike many great booksellers, Waterstone is a cultural conservative. As he talks, he spots a paperback classic on his 17-
37、year-old daughters bookshelves, and launches into the old defence of ink and paper. “Thats incredible value,“ says Waterstone. “Shes a child of the digital age and shes still buying books.“ So whats the future? A long pause. “The only honest thing to say is: I really dont know.“ KAnother innovator,
38、the writer Will Self whose Walking to Hollywood, an introduction for the movie business, has just been published is in no doubt. “Ive unknowingly acquired a Kindle,“ says Self, “and I find that everything I read on it, especially Stieg Larsson, becomes nonsense. Im inclined to blame the technology.
39、With no physical similarity I think the text loses its weight.“ Self confesses to being unsure how much of his own backlist is available in ebook form. LSelfs response to the e-reader is echoed on the shop floor of Waterstones. Next to a discreet sign advertising “reading accessories“ I found Elizab
40、eth Squires, a mother of two, hesitated to buy Blair. This would be a departure for her because she buys “20 or 30 new books a year, all paperback, all fiction“. Half of these she gets from Amazon. Audiobooks? “Strictly for the kids.“ An ebook? “No. Why should I? I havent got anything to read it on.
41、“ Is she tempted? “Ive been thinking about buying the Kindle, but it would never replace my book collection. Book lovers will always love books. Theres something irreplaceable about a book. It gives you a physical, even an aesthetic, experience. For me, its an emotional thing. My books are my friend
42、s. Theres something about having a book in bed, about holding it, even smelling it, that I could never get from an e-reader. Isnt the first thing you do when you move house, to rearrange your books?“ MElsewhere, the rearrangement of the book trade continues quickly. Last weeks New York Times Book Re
43、view contained no fewer than three separate items about the death of print. But paradoxically, the age of digitisation is both a golden age of ink and a boom time for narrative, in many media, on countless “platforms“, from blogs, audiobooks to television soaps and Facebook. NBookshops are changing.
44、 The worst are becoming novelty item and greetings card booth, but the good ones are selling more books than ever, and the publishers, cursing the climate and moaning as usual about the state of the harvest, show few signs of cutting back on their output. Blairs success suggests that the book-buying
45、 public may talk digital but actually buy printed books. 37 The sales of Blairs 720-page-book are excellent and exciting. 38 Now authors are exploring the potential of the ebook technology. 39 An innovator considers everything he read in e-reader nonsense. 40 The new era of digitisation is also a go
46、lden age of ink and narrative. 41 It is widely accepted that ebooks will become a vital component of the way we live. 42 The campaign of digitising 10 million books has a tremendous impact on book business. 43 The high discount of printed books in stores indicate that the paper book business is coll
47、apsing. 44 Blairs memoir is even more antique in the US because ebooks are embraced by most US readers. 45 A bookseller believes that compared with reference book, books like fiction are less likely to go online. 46 Unwilling to give up her book collection, a woman thinks there is something irreplac
48、eable in a physical book. Section C 46 It is a familiar scene these days: employees taking newly laid-off co-workers out for a consolation drink. But which side deserves sympathy more, the jobless or the still employed? On March 6, researchers at a conference at the University of Cambridge heard dat
49、a suggesting its the latter: compared with people who are straight-up laid off, those who keep their job but are under a constant threat of losing it suffer a greater decline in mental well-being. Brendan Burchell, a Cambridge sociologist, presented his analysis based on various surveys conducted across Europe. The data suggest that employed people who feel insecure in their job display similar levels of anxiety and depression as those who are unemployed.
