1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 184及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled On Child Obesity. Your essay should start with a brief description of the picture. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. On Child Obesity Sec
2、tion A （ A） Sightseeing. （ B） Lying on the beach. （ C） Taking photographs of the beaches. （ D） Deep water diving. （ A） He was on a field trip. （ B） He was vacationing in Florida. （ C） He was studying most of the time. （ D） He was vacationing at home. （ A） Biology. （ B） Photography. （ C） Swimming. （
3、D） Painting. （ A） Jellyfish. （ B） Oceanic snails. （ C） Different plants. （ D） Sunken treasures. （ A） Films most exciting for them to see. （ B） Film tickets suitable to buy. （ C） Showing time of the films. （ D） Various ways to get film tickets. （ A） Ten. （ B） Eight. （ C） Six. （ D） Five. （ A） His frie
4、nds will be available to see the movie. （ B） The tickets are cheaper than the Thursdays. （ C） There will be more friends to go to the cinema. （ D） The film will be more moving than the Thursdays. （ A） By ordering them. （ B） By paying the money now. （ C） By calling the clerk. （ D） By sending an e-mai
5、l. Section B （ A） Automobile safety. （ B） Increasing fuel efficiency. （ C） Californias pollution laws. （ D） Electric cars. （ A） They are cheaper. （ B） They dont pollute. （ C） They are simpler to drive. （ D） They are faster. （ A） Its not comfortable. （ B） It is difficult to steer. （ C） It cant go lon
6、g distances without recharging. （ D） Its engine easily overheats. （ A） When they are three years old. （ B） Before the age of six. （ C） After they are six years old. （ D） Between three and six years old. （ A） They are much wiser than the left-handed persons. （ B） They are as clever as the left-handed
7、 persons. （ C） They are not as creative as lefties. （ D） They are more athletic. （ A） Computer. （ B） Calculation. （ C） Architecture. （ D） Literature. （ A） Because they have a quicker response. （ B） Because they are usually more strongly built. （ C） Because they seem to be men of greater endurance. （
8、 D） Because they have a better sense of space. Section C （ A） Reasons for increased productivity. （ B） How wrist watches are manufactured. （ C） The industrialization of the United States. （ D） The development of individual timepieces. （ A） They were common in the United States, but not in Europe. （
9、B） Only a few people had them. （ C） People considered them essential. （ D） They were not very accurate. （ A） They were a sign of wealth. （ B） It was important to be on time. （ C） It was fashionable to wear them. （ D） They were inexpensive. （ A） Watches were of higher quality than ever before. （ B） M
10、ore clocks were manufactured than watches. （ C） The availability of watches increased. （ D） Watches became less important because factories had clocks. （ A） Because of its smell. （ B） Because of its eyes. （ C） Because of its size. （ D） Because of its behavior. （ A） How sea animals manage to exist. （
11、 B） How large sea animals can be. （ C） How frightening the squid is. （ D） How little is known about the sea. （ A） In fossils on land. （ B） Resting on the ocean floor. （ C） In the nets of fishermen. （ D） In written records by early marine biologists. （ A） To destroy tree roots. （ B） To digest its foo
12、d. （ C） To protect its territory. （ D） To find its way. （ A） To hear a translation cf her talk. （ B） To hear signals produced by electric fish. （ C） To hear sounds used to train electric fish. （ D） To hear a tape about electric fish. （ A） Improved understanding of diseases of the nervous system. （ B
13、） Improved understanding of a type of malnutrition. （ C） Improved understanding of some types of bone disease. （ D） Improved understanding of disease of the internal organs. Section A 26 Apples have been as not only a delicious fruit, but also as an effective way to improve your health. Research sug
14、gests that eating apples can【 C1】 _your heart, your teeth, and your energy level. Eating a higher amount of fruits and vegetables in general has also been【 C2】 _with a lower risk for【 C3】 _diseases including coronary heart disease(冠心病 ), asthma(哮喘 ), diabetes, cancer and perhaps even Alzheimers dise
15、ase(阿尔茨海默症 ). So, is it true that apples are a super fruit? Do they impact the health and【 C4】_of your brain? The research is limited, but it does show some promise. One study published in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease【 C5】 _older mice who were fed a deficient diet. These mice then demonstrated
16、a(n) 【 C6】 _in their cognitive ability shown by poor performance in navigating a maze. However, after apple juice was added to their drinking water for a month, their memory was restored and they were able to efficiently navigate the maze again. A second study found that the actual brain structure w
17、as affected in mice whose drinking water included apple juice. The mices brains were examined and found to contain a(n) 【 C7】 _level of beta amyloid proteinic(淀粉状蛋白 ), as【 C8】 _to the brains of mice whose drinking water had not contained apple juice. The【 C9】_and excess of this protein in the brain
18、is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimers disease. A third study tested the immediate effects of apples and spinach(菠菜 )and found no change in the cognitive functioning of the【 C10】 _right after eating the foods. The study did not, however, measure if a sustained diet that included apples affected cogni
19、tion or risk of dementia(痴呆 )over time. A)accompanying B)accumulation C)associated D)benefit E)chronic F)collection G)compared H)decline I)decreased J)functioning K)involved L)members M)opposed N)participants O)prolonged 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9
20、】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Coffee in crisis: The bitter end of our favorite drink? A)As we sip our lattes(拿铁咖啡 )and espressos(浓缩咖啡 )and read the daily headlines, climate change can seem like a distant threat. But travel a few thousand miles to the source of your caffeine fix, and the turbulenee is all
21、 too real. B)Consider the coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, recently interviewed by researcher Elisa Frank from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Compared to the gentler showers they were used to, they are now seeing violent downpours that waterlog(使浸透水 )the plants in their care. “When w
22、e were growing up, the rains didnt fall this much,“ one interviewee told Frank. “The plants produce less. The leaves and fruit fall because of the wetness. “Where farmers once enjoyed stable, mild conditions, the temperature now seesaws between cold that stunts growth, and heat that dries the berrie
23、s before they can be harvested. Then there are the hurricanes and landslides: sometimes, the mud can swallow up plantations. As one fanner put it: “The weather is very strange. Strange things come that we didnt see before. “ C)These problems are by no means confined to Mexico. Farmers across South A
24、merica, Asia and Africa are watching coffee plants dwindle as droughts, downpours, and plagues of pests attack their crops, as a result of global wanning. D)The consequences of this unrest could soon work their way through the pipeline to your local coffee shop. The world currently enjoys a two-bill
25、ion-cup-a-day habit. How can we ensure that the coffee still flows, when the crops are being ravaged by extreme weather? And if the farmers cant meet that demand, will we soon reach “peak coffee“? E)Some worry that our efforts to combat these challenges will only create further environmental devasta
26、tion. Others suggest that the only solution is to change the beloved flavour of the drink itself. Whatever the answers, savour(使有风味 )your espresso while you can: we may be facing the end of coffee as we know it. F)The problem arises, in part, from the refinement of our palette. There are two main br
27、eeds of commercial coffee: the more aromatic Coffea Arabica, and the more bitter Coffea Robusta variety. Thanks to its complex flavours, Arabica is by far the worlds favourite, accounting for about 70% of the coffee we drink. G)Those genteel qualities that we favour come at the price of the plants p
28、hysical strength, however: it is far more sensitive to stress than its more robust cousin. As BBC Magazine recently explained, almost all the commercial Arabica plants have been bred from a very small stock taken from the mountains of Ethiopiagiving it very little genetic diversity and making it par
29、ticularly vulnerable to climate change. The plant grows best between a very narrow range of relatively mild temperatures18 to 22 and needs gentle, regular rainfall. “It needs a very particular climate that you can only find in a few locations around the globe,“ says Christian Bunn at the Humboldt Un
30、iversity in Berlin. That makes it very different from other crops, like cornplants bred for thousands of years to adapt to many different environments. H)The delicate Arabica plants just cant cope with the new and unpredictable conditions that come with global warming. In Mexico, for instance, the r
31、ising temperature seems to have brought heavier rainfall, which is battering the plants before they have time to seed. “The coffee plant only flowers for 48 hours, so if something happens during floweringif theres a big stormthen the whole crop is destroyed,“ explains Ainhoa Magrach at the Institute
32、 of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich. I)Other places have the exact opposite problem: drought. When Oxfam questioned coffee producers in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda, they complained that hotter, drier seasons were causing the plants to drop their flowers before they had turned to fruit. Even
33、when the plants blossomed, the beans were shriv-elled(褶皱的 )and small. Further stresses come from the fact that the coffee plants enemies can thrive in hotter weatherincluding pests such as leaf miners, coffee berry borers, mealy bugs and diseases like leaf rust, all of which ravage crops. During one
34、 of the most recent epidemics, Central America saw its harvests drop by 20% in 2013 , after an onset of leaf rustand such events may be more common as the climate warms even more. J)Calculating the long-term costs isnt straightforwardit can be difficult to separate single, freak events from broader
35、trendsbut looking at coffee yields in Tanzania since the 1960s, one team has found that the crops fell from a high of 500kg per hectare to just over 300kg today. Importantly, the drop seems to closely follow a temperature rise of about 0.3 per decade, and an associated reduction in rainfall. K)All o
36、f which paints a bleak picture for the future. Using the latest figures for climate change across the globe, Bunns calculations predict that the land suited to farming Arabica could drop by as much as 50% by 2050. Classic coffee-producing regions, such as Vietnam, India and most of Central America,
37、will be hit particularly hard. L)The consequences will be serious for fanners and coffee lovers alike. For one thing, we can expect coffee to become more of a luxury, with prices shooting up by around 25% by 2050 according to Bunns calculations for his PhD thesis. It will be particularly noticeable,
38、 he says, considering that most other crops are set to become cheaper and cheaper as technology and productivity continues to improve. When thats taken into account, coffee will in fact be 50% more expensive than it would have been without climate change, Bunn says. Its unlikely the farmers will see
39、 the profit. After years of turmoil, many may just choose to switch to more stable crops. “ When we take our results and confront coffee producers, everyone tells us this is truepeople in low-elevation Central America are already giving up on coffee production.“ Bunn says. “Everyone is shifting to r
40、ubber plantations. M)Given the money on offer, others will almost certainly move to fill our empty cupsand that could come at a huge cost to the environment. Magrach recently mapped out the areas suitable for Arabica farming and compared it to areas of natural interest. In the worst case scenario, s
41、he found that we will need to encroach on 2.2 million hectares of rainforest to meet the predicted demandan area about the size of Wales. The result would be a significant loss of biodiversity. N)There may be better solutions. Given its hardiness, Robusta will be better able to weather the changes:
42、Magrachs models even suggest that its preferred habitat may grow as a result of the rising temperatures. If so, a simple change in taste may offset the coffee crashprovided we can grow to love its bitterness. “It would definitely be better for the forests,“ says Magrach. At the very least, she hopes
43、 that food labelling will make it clear in future whether the beans were fanned from vulnerable areas, so that consumers are aware of the environmental cost and can shop more ethically. O)Others hope that improved farming techniques will instead keep the coffee flowing. Along these lines, the Coffee
44、 and Climate initiative is helping more than a dozen different coffee producers to join forces and share notes on the best ways to deal with the oncoming challenges. One option, for instance, is to graft Arabica strains to the roots of Robusta plants, making a hybrid that is more resistant to drough
45、t while retaining the preferred aromatic flavour. Alternatively, selective breeding could help produce a variety that combines the best of both Robusta and Arabica. “Its something people are working on, but were not sure when the new strains will be available,“ adds Magrach. P)The livelihoods of far
46、mers and others in the coffee businessat least 25 million people according to one estimatedepend on us finding an answer, fast. For the time being, the farmers face daily uncertainty, as Elisa Frank found during her interviews in Mexico. It can be hard to weather. Although many of the farmers listen
47、 to the TV forecasts, and try to prepare for the oncoming downpours, they cant help but feel helpless, swept away by forces beyond their control. Some of the farmers feel that the subject has almost become a taboo. “We talk very little about climate,“ one told Frank. “We already know how it is herea
48、nd there is nothing we can do. “ 37 Currently, Mexico coffee growers have no idea of when the downpours will come and thus feel helpless. 38 Despite its popularity, Coffea Arabica is vulnerable to climate change and not as strong as Coffea Ro-busta. 39 It is expected that coffee will become a thing
49、of luxury, with its prices rocking up by about one fourth by the mid of this century. 40 If people can change their preference and love the taste of bitterness of Robusta, it may work as a better solution to coffee crash. 41 It is believed that the efforts to fight against the issue of coffee crisis will lead to environmental devastation. 42 Mexico experienced heavy rain which consequently led to the decrease of coffee. 43 Provided that more farmers give up on coffee production and shift
