1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 263及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the following drawing. In your essay, you should first describe the drawing and interpret its meanings, and then give your comment on it. You should write at least 150 word
2、s but no more than 200 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） A start-up program. （ B） Anti-virus software. （ C） Computer software for personal use. （ D） Computer software for after-school tutorials. （ A） They are confident of passing the college entrance exams. （ B） They are to t
3、ake college entrance exams this year. （ C） Most of them are not doing very well in maths. （ D） They are forced to take more extra practice. （ A） It is designed for junior school students. （ B） It contains different subjects except maths. （ C） Each course takes 40 hours to complete. （ D） Each course
4、contains 35 lessons. （ A） To satisfy his requirements. （ B） To show how the software works. （ C） To ask him to buy other products. （ D） To let him compare prices and other products. （ A） It was a design school located in Germany. （ B） It was an American art movement. （ C） It was a scenic spot in Ger
5、many. （ D） It was the name of a German artist. （ A） Get further studies in universities. （ B） Work as an assistant in workshops. （ C） Study with a crafts person and an artist. （ D） Learn technical expertise on his own. （ A） Art is separate from technical skills. （ B） Art should be enjoyed by everybo
6、dy. （ C） Art is a form of luxury object. （ D） Art should be based on imagination. （ A） They were individually hand-crafted. （ B） They were produced by machines in large amounts. （ C） They were in Gothic style. （ D） They are out of date now. Section B （ A） Traffic accidents. （ B） Radiation. （ C） Trai
7、n travel. （ D） Air crash. （ A） When the sun is very active and explosions occur. （ B） When it is less than 1,500 miles away from the earth. （ C） When bad weather occurs more frequently. （ D） When there is less forest on the earth. （ A） They are too far away from the earth. （ B） Our skin is immune to
8、 the radiation. （ C） The ozonosphere protects us from it. （ D） The trees can absorb the radiation. （ A） It forces one to form pictures in the mind. （ B） It provides many interesting programs. （ C） It teaches people how to imagine things. （ D） It shows vivid pictures to the listeners. （ A） It can imp
9、rove ones listening skills. （ B） It gives immediate replies to the listeners. （ C） People can get more immediate information. （ D） People can listen to the programs for free. （ A） People in radio programs are more active than in television. （ B） People can call the radio station and express opinions
10、. （ C） Radio stations have more topics and fewer commercials. （ D） Radio stations always accept the opinions of listeners. （ A） The benefit of listening to radio programs. （ B） The main disadvantages of televisions. （ C） The advantages of radio compared with television. （ D） The development of radio
11、 and television. Section C （ A） It was set up as a wholesaler 25 years ago. （ B） It sold camping equipment originally. （ C） It began offering holidays 10 years ago. （ D） It has been providing holidays for 50 years. （ A） In Italy. （ B） In Spain. （ C） In France. （ D） In Switzerland. （ A） A sports matc
12、h. （ B） Singing or dancing. （ C） A poster completion. （ D） Model making. （ A） Be informed of latest holidays. （ B） Get a 20% discount off the holidays. （ C） Book a luxury tent for a lower price. （ D） Get a high-quality thank-you present. （ A） It tastes like rabbit. （ B） Its tough to chew. （ C） It ha
13、s quite a lot of fat. （ D） Its dark in color. （ A） Making dresses. （ B） Decorating hats. （ C） Making fans. （ D） Making fast food. （ A） You need a lot of money to start the business. （ B） Young ostriches are very independent. （ C） Ostriches are always shut in cages. （ D） Special equipment is not need
14、ed for the farming. （ A） It was originally built in 1940s. （ B） It was used by the Smith family. （ C） It got its name from the builder. （ D） It has been built into a university. （ A） Smoking is permitted in the rooms. （ B） No noise is allowed after 9 pm. （ C） Students can smoke on the balconies. （ D
15、） There are fixed meal times. （ A） Give the students the orientation packs. （ B） Hand over the keys to the students. （ C） Answer the students questions. （ D） Guide the students to the dining room. Section A 26 The Internet and cell phones are bringing people together, not【 C1】 _us apart at least, ac
16、cording to a new survey recently by the Pew Internet and American Life project. The research followed up a shocking 2006 study, which found that American social networks were rapidly【 C2】 _and that 25% of Americans reported that they had not one close friend or family member to rely on. In【 C3】 _, P
17、ew researchers found that just 6% of those surveyed reported having no intimate relationships. Unfortunately, the new study did confirm the other findings, showing that Americans today do have far fewer close relationships than they did as recently as 1985. According to both studies, the average soc
18、ial network shrunk by one-third since 1985 and more people today are relying only on spouses or family members for emotional support. Intriguingly,【 C4】 _, Internet and cell phone use didnt replace close【 C5】_with more superficial contacts. Instead, people who most relied on these communication tool
19、s had a larger and more【 C6】 _group of close friends and family members. They were more likely to be close to someone of another race, for example. And,【 C7】 _to net opposers worries, Internet use didnt replace involvement in local activities. In fact, bloggers and cell users are more likely to【 C8】
20、 _to local organizations like youth groups and charities, not less so. Such【 C9】 _effects of the Internet are good news for public health. Studies have shown repeatedly that the number and quality of peoples relationships affects many aspects of well-being. The more connected people are, the healthi
21、er they tend to be. Consequently, the shrinkage in network size remains a serious cause for concern but these results suggest that mobile and Internet communication are not【 C10】_problematic and can even be part of the solution. A)surely E)however I)necessarily M)positive B)compare F)ties J)contrast
22、 N)tearing C)single G)negative K)contrary O)diverse D)cutting H)belong L)contracting 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Life Begins at 100 AThis year, the number of pensioners in the UK exceeded the number of minors for the first t
23、ime in history. Thats remarkable in its own right, but the real “population explosion“ has been among the oldest of the old the centenarians(百岁老人 ). In fact, this is the fastest-growing group in much of the developed world. In the UK, their numbers have increased by a factor of 60 since the early 20
24、th century. And their ranks are set to swell even further, thanks to the ageing baby-boomer generation: by 2030 there will be about a million worldwide. BThese trends raise social, ethical and economic dilemmas. Are medical advances artificially prolonging life with little regard for the quality of
25、that life? Old age brings an increased risk of chronic disease and disability, and if growing numbers of elderly people become dependent on state or familial support, society faces soaring costs and commitments. This is the dark cloud outside the silver lining of increasing longevity(长寿 ). Yet resea
26、rchers who study the oldest old have made a surprising discovery that presents a less bleak vision of the future than many anticipate. CIt is becoming clear that people who break through the 90-plus barrier represent a physical elite, markedly different from the elderly who typically die younger tha
27、n them. Far from gaining a longer burden of disability, their extra years are often healthy ones. They have a remarkable ability to live through, delay or entirely escape a host of diseases that kill off most of their peers. Supercentenari-ans people aged 110 or over are even better examples of agei
28、ng gracefully. “According to the statistical study, they basically didnt exist in the 1970s or 80s,“ says Craig Willcox of the Okinawa Centenarian Study in Japan. “They have some sort of genetic booster rocket and they seem to be functioning better for longer periods of time than centenarians.“ The
29、average supercentenarian had freely gone about their daily life until the age of 105 or so, some five to 10 years longer even than centenarians, who are themselves the physical equivalent of people eight to 10 years their junior. This isnt just good news for the oldest old and for society in general
30、: it also provides clues about how more of us might achieve a long and healthy old age. DOne of the most comprehensive studies comes from Denmark. In 1998, Kaare Christensen at the University of Southern Denmark, in Odense, exploited the countrys exemplary registries to contact every single one of t
31、he 3,600 people born in 1905 who was still alive. Assessing their health over the subsequent decade, he found that the proportion of people who managed to remain independent throughout was constantly around one-third of the total: each individual risked becoming more infirm, but the unhealthiest one
32、s passed away at earlier ages, leaving the strongest behind. In 2005, only 166 of the people in Christensens sample were alive, but one-third of those were still entirely self-sufficient. This is good news from both personal and societal perspectives, for it means that exceptional longevity does not
33、 necessarily lead to exceptional levels of disability. EChristensens optimistic findings are echoed in studies all over the world. In the US, almost all of the 700-plus people recruited to the New England Centenarian Study since it began in 1994 had lived independently until the age of 90, and 40 pe
34、r cent of supercentenarians in the study could still look after themselves. In the UK, Carol Brayne at the University of Cambridge studied 958 people aged over 90 and found that only one-quarter of them were living in institutions or nursing homes. Likewise, research in China reveals that before the
35、ir deaths, centenarians and nonagenarians(九旬老人 )spend fewer days ill than younger elderly groups, though the end comes quickly when it finally comes. FNot all of the oldest old survive by delaying illness or disability, though many soldier through it. Jessica Evert of Ohio State University in Columb
36、us examined the medical histories of over 400 centenarians. She found that those who achieve extreme longevity tend to fall into three categories. About 40 per cent were “delayers“, who avoided chronic diseases until after the age of 80. This “compression of illness“, where chronic illness and disab
37、ility are squeezed into ever-shorter periods at the end of life, is a recent trend among ageing populations. Another 40 per cent were “survivors“, who suffered from chronic diseases before the age of 80 but lived longer to tell the tale. The final 20 per cent were “escapers“, who hit their century w
38、ith no sign of the most common chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension and stroke. Intriguingly, one-third of male centenarians were in this category, compared with only 15 per cent of women. GThe “centenarian genome(基因组 )“ is a key resource in identifying longevity
39、 genes. Such genes have been found in abundance in other organisms. Unfortunately, its a different story in humans. While many candidate genes have been suggested to affect lifespan, very few have been consistently verified in multiple populations. HUntil recently, the only exception was ApoE, and i
40、n particular a variant of this gene known as e4, which gives carriers a much higher than average risk of developing Alzheimers and heart disease. Across the world, this unfortunate version of ApoE is about half as common in centenarians as in younger adults. Last year, a second promising candidate e
41、merged a variant of a gene called FOX03A. At the University of Hawaii, a team led by Bradley Willcox, Craigs identical twin, found that people who carried two copies of a particular form of the gene were almost three times as likely to make it to 100 than those without the variation, and also tended
42、 to start their journey into old age with better health and lower levels of stroke, heart disease and cancer. “There are so many false positives in this field that FOX03A is very exciting,“ says Bradley Willcox. IFOX03A is involved in several signalling pathways that are conserved across animal spec
43、ies. It controls the insulin/IGF-1 pathway, which influences how our bodies process food. It also controls genes that protect cells from highly reactive oxygen radicalsmolecules often thought to drive human ageing through the cumulative damage they work on DNA FOX03A could even protect against cance
44、r by encouraging apoptosis(细胞凋亡 ), whereby compromised cells commit suicide. The variant of FOX03A associated with longevity is much more prevalent in 100-year-olds even than in 95-year-olds, which clearly demonstrates the value of studying the centenarian genome. JSo far the search for longevity ge
45、nes in humans has been extremely difficult, but prospects brighten as genomic technologies become faster and there are more centenarians to study. Only a lucky few win the genetic lottery of longevity, but if we understand what sets them apart, we may be able to make the rest of us more like them by
46、 using lifestyle or therapeutic interventions to manipulate physiological pathways. Such medical advances will not only extend our lives, but also help us remain healthy and independent for as long as possible. 37 Centenarians dying days are fewer than younger elderly groups. 38 The centenarian geno
47、me is very helpful in finding longevity genes. 39 The centenarian is regarded as the fastest-growing group in Britain. 40 According to an analysis, one fifth of centenarians didnt develop any chronic illness even when they reached the age of 100. 41 Exceptional longevity does not necessarily mean ex
48、ceptional levels of disability. 42 The growing numbers of elderly people become economic burdens to the society. 43 FOX03A influences how our bodies process food by controlling insulin pathway. 44 People with two copies of FOX03A are more likely to be healthy in their old age. 45 According to the st
49、atistical study, the supercentenarians often lead a healthy life without chronic diseases. 46 With faster genomic technologies and more centenarians, the prospects of searching for longevity genes become brighter. Section C 46 Both the Senate and House health care bills propose incentives to boost corporate wellness programs that aim to help employees stay healthier and to control a companys insurance costs. But those programs were slowed down with the recent enactment(颁布 )of a
