1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 23及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then express your views on the burden of students. You should write at least 750 words but no more than 200 w
2、ords. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） She has completely recovered. （ B） She went into shock after an operation. （ C） She is still in a critical condition. （ D） She is getting much better. （ A） Ordering a breakfast. （ B） Booking a hotel room. （ C） Buying a train ticket. （ D） Fixin
3、g a compartment. （ A） Most borrowers never returned the books to her. （ B） The man is the only one who brought her book back. （ C） She never expected anyone to return the books to her. （ D） Most of the books she lent out came back without jackets. （ A） She left her work early to get some bargains la
4、st Saturday. （ B） She attended the supermarkets grand opening ceremony. （ C） She drove a full hour before finding a parking space. （ D） She failed to get into the supermarket last Saturday. （ A） He is bothered by the pain in his neck. （ B） He cannot do his report without a computer. （ C） He cannot a
5、fford to have a coffee break. （ D） He feels sorry to have missed the report. （ A） Only top art students can show their works in the gallery. （ B） The gallery space is big enough for the mans paintings. （ C） The woman would like to help with the exhibition layout. （ D） The man is uncertain how his ar
6、t works will be received. （ A） The woman needs a temporary replacement for her assistant. （ B） The man works in the same department as the woman does. （ C） The woman will have to stay in hospital for a few days. （ D） The man is capable of dealing with difficult people. （ A） It was better than the pr
7、evious one. （ B） It distorted the mayors speech. （ C） It exaggerated the citys economic problems. （ D） It reflected the opinions of most economists. （ A） About one summer. （ B） About one week. （ C） About one month. （ D） About one day. （ A） Canoeing. （ B） Swimming. （ C） Hiking. （ D） Cooking. （ A） He
8、lost interest in camping. （ B） He was drowned. （ C） He was poisoned by food. （ D） He was injured when running. （ A） It is boring. （ B） It is just passable. （ C） It is too dangerous. （ D） It helps him to be mature. （ A） The dog went to find the man. （ B） The man stole the dog. （ C） The man fed the do
9、g. （ D） A friend gave it to him. （ A） It learns quickly. （ B） It comforts its owner. （ C） It barks loudly. （ D） It knows many languages. （ A） He would get another one. （ B） He would be heart-broken. （ C） He would go with the dog. （ D） He would be unconcerned. Section B （ A） The quality of life. （ B）
10、 The local economy. （ C） The friends and relatives. （ D） The natural beauty. （ A） The warm and welcoming community. （ B） The improved natural and social environment. （ C） The rich natural resources. （ D） Low pressure and high income from work. （ A） He regrets living in the Pacific Northwest. （ B） He
11、 now works in international trade. （ C） He feels inconvenient to contact his friends. （ D） He makes a different choice from his career associates. （ A） The disadvantages of living in the rural area. （ B） The importance of improving living environment. （ C） The most important thing in choosing where
12、to live. （ D） The cities which are better-facilitated for outdoor sports. （ A） Young superstars. （ B） Established scholars. （ C） Successful academics. （ D） Masters of a certain field. （ A） During the first half of their careers. （ B） During the first third of their careers. （ C） During the second ha
13、lf of their careers. （ D） During the last third of their careers. （ A） The age of mentors. （ B） The rank of them in the field. （ C） The amount of training time. （ D） The talent of mentors. （ A） First-born children. （ B） The youngest children. （ C） The neglected children. （ D） Later-born children. （
14、A） They tend to be more introverted. （ B） They are more likely to pursue perfection. （ C） They are more open to new experiences. （ D） They are more dependent on parents. （ A） They receive full attention from parents for some time. （ B） They are born to be more competitive. （ C） They are required to
15、be role models. （ D） They gain experience from their siblings. Section C 26 At an event where all eyes are on new cars from world-class designers, budding automotive designers are getting their feet wet with a show of their own. The Transportation Design Department of Detroits College for Creative S
16、tudies(CCS)is【 B1】 _the 2- and 3-D automotive design work of 19 students at the North American International Auto Show this year, as well at the schools A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education. “The【 B2】 _auto industry here is dependent on College for Creative Studies,“ said Ed Welburn, Vice P
17、resident of Global Design at GM and member of the schools Board of Trustees. GM, the large auto company,【 B3】 _, currently has more than 170 CCS graduates on staff. Automakers, including Ford and Honda,【 B4】_programs at the school and have present industry designers teaching classes there. In additi
18、on to【 B5】 _up-and-coming talent, getting a look at automotive design student work also【 B6】 _car companies in other ways. GM regards the design【 B7】 _and tastes of students as one way to【 B8】 _what young car buyers want. “Were getting a better understanding of what young people are looking for in a
19、 vehicle at this moment,“ Welburn said. This is really a double-winning way. Mark West, who chairs the Transportation Design Department,【 B9】 _the role the mentioned auto company has played in this program, from sponsoring projects to partnering with the college. According to West, the back-and-fort
20、h between the auto industry and CCS【 B10】_in jobs for students. Car companies sponsor 15-week projects that offer the manufacturers a chance to “test drive“ students and their work. Future employers then have an eye on new talent before the students have even graduated. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30
21、 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 For those anxious about committing to a master s degree, there is the post-baccalaureate(学士后 )certificate. Usually a four- to seven-course, self-contained certificate provides【 C1】 _academic study, or job-specific skills trai
22、ning, with a minimum【 C2】 _of time and money, and potentially significant payback. Nearly 51 000 people earned the certificate in 2010 a 46 percent increase in five years. For men, having the certificate adds an average 25 percent in earnings; for women, who tend toward less【 C3】 _fields such as tea
23、ching and health care, the【 C4】_is an average 13 percent, according to research from Georgetown Universitys Center on Education and the Workforce. About 3 percent of the workforce or 4 million workers have certificates. Certificates are market-driven. Colleges and universities, alert to evolving wor
24、kplace requirements(and business opportunities in higher ed.),【 C5】 _gaps in education and training that appeal to adult students looking for a way to stand out or retool their careers. In some fields, especially health care, education, counseling, engineering and technology, certificates provide co
25、mpulsory training for certain jobs or promotions, or make one【 C6】 _for higher pay scales. In other fields(arts management, interior design, public relations), the certificate shows interest and acquired knowledge in an area that is likely helpful in performing a job. Other certificates reflect【 C7】
26、 _in areas so new, or quickly changing, that a demonstrated specialty can put a job applicant in front of the pack: homeland security, sports industry management. Some are purely【 C8】_ (African American studies), and some are training-specific(clinical research administration). If you can think of a
27、 specialty or job skill you want, there is probably a certificate, and a school-on-ground or online that will qualify you in the subject. But it is a buyer-beware marketplace, education experts say. A certificate can run into the thousands of dollars(American Universitys 15-credit online digital med
28、ia skills certificate costs $ 12 000), so job【 C9】 _and schools should be researched before【 C10】 _on. A)boost F)involvement K)academic B)investment G)insisting L)signing C)technical H)limitations M)strengths D)specified I)specialized N)prospects E)distinguish J)eligible O)identify 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】
29、 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Paying for Nature A)How much are the birds of heaven worth? How about the lilies of the field? Or clean air and water, verdant forests and untouched grassland, healthy coral reefs and lush mangroves? By the enviro
30、nmentalists accounting, theyre invaluable because nature has a worth all its own. But to business, untouched nature typically hasnt had a value at least not one that could be put in a ledger. B)Until now. Many greens and a growing chorus of corporate suits are arguing that nature in its own right pr
31、ovides economically valuable services that underpin(巩固 )business. A virgin forest is pleasant to look at, of course, but it also prevents soil erosion and improves water quality at no cost valuable if you happen to own a beverage plant downstream that depends on clean water. That same forest might p
32、rovide a habitat for bees, which can pollinate(授粉 )plants in surrounding cropland a vital function if you run a coffee plantation nearby. By this reckoning, nature provides “ecosystem services“ whose benefits for business are increasingly measurable in hard, cold dollar figures. “All the things that
33、 nature does for us fuel our prosperity,“ says Peter Kareiva, chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy(TNC), a Washington-based environmental group. C)Until recently, the concept of ecosystem services was mentioned only in obscure scientific journals, the province of a few ecologists trying to fig
34、ure out the dollar value of the atmosphere. But the threat of government action on carbon emissions, insistent shareholder pressure on green issues and growing concern over limited natural resources have prompted an increasing number of companies to examine their ecological numbers just as closely a
35、s they would any other part of their balance sheets. Last month, Dow Chemical took the trend to a new level, announcing a five-year, $ 10 million collaboration with TNC to eventually tally up the ecosystem costs and benefits of every business decision. The Michigan:headquartered company will look to
36、 make environmental factors part of its profit-and-loss statements a move that could signal to other companies that nature can no longer be ignored. “Our planets natural resources are more and more under threat,“ says Dow CEO Andrew Liveris. “But protecting nature can be a profitable corporate prior
37、ity and a smart global business strategy.“ D)Historically, conservationists and corporations were usually on opposite sides of the environmental debate, and few greens wanted to see the nature they loved tainted by consideration of dollar figures. Yet as climate change emerged as a concern in the 19
38、90s and, with it, the accounting of carbon dioxide emissions even the deepest green began to understand that natures value would really be understood only once it was quantified. A 1997 study in the journal Nature attempted to estimate the value of the planets ecosystem services: forests and oceans,
39、 air and climate regulation, even cultural and recreational benefits. The researchers came up with a very rough figure of $ 33 trillion nearly twice the global gross national product at the time. The Flowers of the Forest E)More recently, scientists working for the UNs Millennium Ecosystem Assessmen
40、t and a just published study, “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity,“ have drilled down to find hard numbers on specific natural services. Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund(WWF)looked at a coffee plantation in Costa Rica and found that flowers near forests received twice as many bee vi
41、sits and twice as much pollen as flowers far from trees meaning that extra bee pollination was worth an additional $62 000 a year, or 7% of the farms income. Razing those trees to allow cattle grazing would earn only $24 000 a year. “Theres a library of similar case studies that show the economic im
42、pact of nature conservation,“ says Taylor Ricketts, WWFs director of conservation science. “We only value something when we measure it.“ F)Dow and TNC have already been involved in a smaller ecosystem-services project in Sao Paulo, which helped lay the groundwork for their new partnership. Some 9 mi
43、llion people in the city get their drinking water from the nearby Cantareira system in Brazils Atlantic Forest. The forest has been under pressure from logging, agriculture and ranching for decades, and the resulting deforestation harms both water quality and the wildlife that depends on the forest.
44、 So Dow donated $1.5 million through its charitable foundation to support a joint effort with TNC and Sao Paulo water utilities to restore 865 acres of forest surrounding the Cachoeira reservoir. Not only will that money protect biodiversity, generate carbon credits and create green jobs for locals
45、living near Cachoeira, but it should also cut the amount of sediment(沉淀物 )flowing into the water system by over 60%. That will benefit people and businesses in Sao Paulo including Dow. G)The details of the larger collaboration between TNC and Dow are still being worked out, but Dow will donate $ 10
46、million to TNC over the next five years. In exchange, TNC scientists will apply scientific models, biodiversity analysis and ecosystem services estimates to assess Dows business decisions. If Dow decides to build or expand a plant, TNC will be able to advise the company about the economic value of t
47、he ecosystem impacts of those plans, positive and negative. The partnership will begin with pilot programs at three Dow manufacturing plants at least one of which will be in the USbut the ultimate aim is to make ecosystem services an essential part of Dows entire business model. Numbers are hard to
48、come by, in part because the collaboration is meant to generate fresh data on ecosystem services, but Liveris sees that $ 10 million as an investment in Dows future one he expects will pay off by preparing the company for the prospect of tighter environmental regulations and scarcer natural resource
49、s. “I think that in 10 years well look back and wonder why we didnt do this earlier,“ he says. H)The Dow-TNC collaboration is just the latest piece of business news to suggest that environmental responsibility and corporate success arent always opposed. In 2007, Goldman Sachs released a landmark report showing that companies that were considered leaders in environmental, social and governance policies tended to outperform the gener
