1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 271及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should focus on the demoralization of society. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Section A （ A） The injur
2、y of some students. （ B） A school bus crash on the way. （ C） The collapse of a school building. （ D） A fire that broke out on a school campus. （ A） Teaching. （ B） On vacation. （ C） Having lunch. （ D） Holding a meeting. （ A） A malfunctioning stove. （ B） Cigarettes butts left by workers. （ C） Violatio
3、n of traffic rules. （ D） Negligence in school maintenance. （ A） Sent a story to the local newspaper. （ B） Threw a small Thanksgiving party. （ C） Baked some cookies as a present. （ D） Wrote a personal letter of thanks. （ A） Go to summer school. （ B） Take a vacation. （ C） Stay at home. （ D） Earn some
4、money. （ A） They hired someone to stay in their home. （ B） They left their pets with their neighbors. （ C） They rented their house to a student. （ D） They asked their gardener to watch their home. （ A） He should just sit around. （ B） He just needed to live in their house. （ C） He had to mow and wate
5、r the houseplants. （ D） He had to take care of the pets. （ A） They attend a house-sitter s party. （ B） They check a house-sitter s references. （ C） They interview a house-sitter s friends. （ D） They look at a house-sitter s transcripts. Section B （ A） Blur, Gorillaz and Norm. （ B） Gorillaz, Blur and
6、 Queen. （ C） The Good, The Bad and The Gorillaz. （ D） The Good, The Bad and The Queen. （ A） They got success with the track Parklife. （ B） They were defeated by Oasis. （ C） They were the rough working class rockers. （ D） They ranked No. 2 among the bands of the time. （ A） A four-man band, wearing ca
7、rtoon characters custom. （ B） A virtual band, composed of fictional animated members. （ C） A cyber band, winning the Guinnes Music Reward. （ D） A teenager band, publishing their music on their website. （ A） A documentary called Parklife. （ B） A drama directed by Keith Edwards. （ C） A TV series calle
8、d North Whale. （ D） A movie starred Clint Eastwood. （ A） They were expensive. （ B） No one believed them. （ C） They were unsuccessful. （ D） They were often not welcomed. （ A） They realized some companies exploited the movement. （ B） They didn t know what to do. （ C） They didnt realize some companies
9、made false claims. （ D） They didnt like green advertisement. （ A） They became more popular. （ B） They were more regulated. （ C） They became better produced. （ D） They became less honest. Section C （ A） Shipments of goods from China. （ B） Detection trees. （ C） The seeds from ash trees. （ D） The invas
10、ion of the emerald ash borer. （ A） To Michigan. （ B） To China. （ C） To Maryland. （ D） To Canada. （ A） To clear up the eggs of insects. （ B） To help trees deliver water. （ C） To look for the signs of insects. （ D） To prepare for cutting down trees. （ A） Collect ash tree seeds for experiment. （ B） Pre
11、serve the healthy ash tree seeds. （ C） Set up a new seed bank for research. （ D） Develop a new breed of ash tree. （ A） March 29. （ B） July 14. （ C） August 9. （ D） September 11. （ A） Our people and our future. （ B） A final farewell. （ C） The Singapore story. （ D） The threats of ISIS. （ A） Challenges.
12、 （ B） Disappointments. （ C） Sorrows. （ D） Intolerance. （ A） 15. （ B） 20. （ C） 25. （ D） 50. （ A） America. （ B） Russia. （ C） Boston. （ D） Springfield. （ A） Games are tragically boring. （ B） Games are full of fun. （ C） Games can make people cry. （ D） Games mean something more to us. Section A 26 In las
13、t year s Science study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined the relationship between stem-cell divisions and cancer development. They reported that the higher the number of stem-cell divisions in a given tissue, the higher risk for【 C1】_cancer. At the time, they said that their findings
14、 suggested “65% of cancer. appears to be explained by the number of stem-cell divisions“. That stem-cell activity, the researchers suggested, could explain why some people without【 C2】 _factors like smoking will still get lung cancers. “ I was startled by their conclusion,“ Dr. Yusuf Hannun says, a
15、cancer researcher at Stony Brook University in New York and author of the new Nature study. Hannun and his team【 C3】 _that the first study assumed that stem-cell division and other environmental factors were【 C4】 _of each other. Hannun s team wanted to assess the【 C5】 _to which stem-cell division or
16、 environmental factors contribute to developing the disease. To do this, the researchers looked at a variety of data including epidemiological evidence that people living in different regions have different rates of cancer development. They also looked at cell-mutation patterns【 C6】 _with certain ca
17、ncers, as well as mathematical models that helped parse how much a cancer was due to【 C7】 _factors like cell division versus extrinsic factors like environment or lifestyle. The new study reported that while intrinsic factors did have a【 C8】 _in cancer development, environmental factors had a more【
18、C9】 _effect and were responsible for 70% -90% of cancer cases. This isn t the last study to be published on the topic, but as scientists refine their【 C10】 _of the many things that can contribute to cancer risk, more information is needed. A)argue I)intrinsic B)associated J)relation C)considering K)
19、risk D)derived L)robust E)developing M)role F)extent N)seizes G)full O)understanding H)independent 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 The Amazon Mystery: What America s Strangest Tech Company Is Really Up to A If there s a sentence
20、 that sums up Amazon, the weirdest major technology company in America, it s one that came from its own CEO, Jeff Bezos, speaking at the Aspen Institute s 2009 Annual Awards Dinner in New York City: “ Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood. “ In other words: if you don t yet
21、get what I m trying to build, keep waiting. B Four years later, Amazon s annual revenue and stock price have both nearly tripled, but for many onlookers, the long wait for understanding continues. Bezos s company has grown from its humble Seattle beginnings to become not only the largest bookstore i
22、n the history of the world, but also the world s largest online retailer, the largest Web-hosting company in the world, the most serious competitor to Netflix in streaming video, the fourth-most-popular tablet(平板电脑 )maker, and a sprawling international network of fulfillment centers for merchants ar
23、ound the world. It is now rumored to be close to launching its own smartphone and television set-top box. The every-bookstore has become the store for everything, with the global ambition to become the store for everywhere. C Seriously: What is Amazon? A retail company? A media company? A logistics(
24、物流 )machine? The mystery of its strategy is deepened by two factors. First is the company s communications department, which famously excels at not communicating.(Three requests to speak with Amazon officials for this article were delayed and, inevitably, declined.)This moves discussions of the comp
25、any s intentions into the realm of mind reading, often attempted by the research departments of investment banks, where even optimistic analysts aren t really sure what Bezos is up to. “ It s very difficult to define what Amazon is,“ says R. J. Hottovy, an analyst with Morningstar, who nonetheless c
26、hampions the company s future. D Second, investors have developed a seemingly unconditional love for Amazon, despite the company s reticence(沉默寡言 )and, more to the point, its financial performance. Some 19 years after its founding, Amazon still barely turns a profitwhen it makes money at all. The co
27、mpany is pinched between its low margins as a discount retailer and its high capital spending as a global logistics company. Last year, it lost $39 million. By comparison, in its latest annual report, Apple announced a profit of almost $42 billionnearly 22 times what Amazon has earned in its entire
28、life span. And yet Amazon s market capitalization, the value investors place on the company, is more than a quarter of Apple s, placing Amazon among the largest tech companies in the United States. E “I think Amazon s efforts, even the seemingly eccentric ones, are centered on securing the customer
29、relationship,“ says Benedict Evans, a consultant with Enders Analysis. The Kindle Fire tablet and the widely rumored phone aren t boring experiments, he told me, but rather purchasing devices that put Amazon on the coffee table so consumers can never escape the tempting glow of a shopping screen. F
30、In a way, this strategy isn t new at all. It s ripped from the mildewed playbooks of the first national retail stores in American history. Amazon appears to be building nothing less than a global Sears Roebuck of the 21st centurya large-scale operation that aims to dominate the future of shopping an
31、d shipping. The question is, can it succeed? G In the late 19th century, soon after a network of rail lines and telegraph wires had stitched together a rural country, mail-order companies like Sears built the first national retail corporations. Today the Sears catalog seems about as innovative as th
32、e prehistoric handsaw(手锯 ), but in the 1890s, the 500-page “Consumer s Bible“ popularized a truly radical shopping concept: The mail would bring stores to consumers. H But in the early 1900s, as families streamed off farms and into cities, chains like J. C. Penney and Woolworth sprang up to greet th
33、em. Sears followed. The company s focus on the emerging middle-class market paid off so well that by mid-century, Sears s revenue approached 1 percent of the entire U. S. economy. But its dominance had deflated by the late 1980s, after more competitors arose and as the blue-collar consumer base it h
34、ad leaned on collapsed. I Now that Internet cables have replaced telegraph wires, American consumers are reverting to their turn-of-the-century shopping habits. Families have rediscovered the Consumer s Bible while sitting on their couches, and this time, it s in a Web browser. E-commerce has nearly
35、 doubled in the past four years, and Amazon now takes in revenue of more than $60 billion annually. The Internet means to the 21st century what the postal service meant to the late 1800s: it welcomes retailers like Amazon into every living room. J “Sears took advantage of the U. S. postal system and
36、 railways in the early 20th century just as transportation costs were falling,“ says Richard White, a historian at Stanford, “ and Amazon has done the same with the Web. “ Its national logistics machine imitates Sears s pneumatic-tube-powered(气动管驱动的 )Chicago warehouse, but is more powerful, and much
37、 faster. Its instinct to sell tablets stuffed with ebooks echoes Sears s decision to create Allstate to bundle insurance with the company s car parts. K Like the mail-order giants did a century ago, Amazon is moving to the city. In the past few years, the company has added warehouses in the most-pop
38、ulous metros to cut shipping time to urban customers. People subscribing to Amazon Prime or Amazon Fresh(which, in exchange for an annual payment, provides fast delivery of most goods or groceries you d like to order)commit themselves financially, with Prime members spending twice as much as other b
39、uyers. If those subscriptions grow numerous enough, Amazon s search bar could become the preferred retail-shopping engine. L At least, that s the vision. Defenders say Amazon is trading the present for the future, spending all its revenue on a global scatter plot of warehouses that will make the com
40、pany indomitable. Eventually, the theory goes, investors expect Amazon to complete its construction project and, having swayed enough customers and destroyed enough rivals, to “ flip the switch“ , raising prices and profits greatly. In the meantime, they re happy to keep buying stock, offering an un
41、qualified thumbs-up for heavy spending. M But this theory assumes a practically infinite life span for Amazon. The modern history of retail innovation suggests that even the giants can be overtaken suddenly. Sears was still America s largest retailer in 1982, but just nine years later, its annual re
42、venues were barely half those of Walmart. N Amazon is not as insulated from its rivals as some think it is. Walmart, eBay, and lots of upstarts(新贵 )are all in the race to dominate online retail. Amazon s furious spending on new buildings and equipment isn t an elective measure: it s a survival plan.
43、 The truth is Amazon has won investors trust with a reputation for spending everybody to death, and it can spend everybody to death because it has won investors trust. For now. O Amazon, as best I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefi
44、t of consumers,“ Slate s Matthew Yglesias joked earlier this year. Of course, Amazon is not a charity, and its investors are not philanthropists(慈善家 Today, they are funding an effort to fulfill the dreams of the turn-of-the-century retail kings: to build the perfect personalized shopping experience
45、for the modern urban household. For once, families are reaping the dividends of Wall Street s generosity. The longer investors wait for Amazon to fulfill their orders, the less we have to wait for Amazon to fulfill ours. 37 Nowadays, even leading companies can be surpassed by new ones all of a sudde
46、n. 38 Amazon s mysterious strategy makes it hard to define what kind of company it is. 39 According to Benedict Evans, Amazon s Kindle Fire tablet is a kind of purchasing device that may stimulate consumers to shop online. 40 The now seemingly outdated Sears catalog made a radical shopping concept p
47、opular among consumers in the 1890 s. 41 Investors unconditional love for Amazon makes it one of the biggest tech companies in America. 42 Sears became less dominant in the 1980s due to an increasing number of competitors and the collapse of its blue-collar consumer base. 43 Amazon is the largest bo
48、okstore in the history of the world and also the largest online retailer in the world. 44 Supporters think Amazon s large spending on its warehouses will benefit the company in the future. 45 As an online retailer, Amazon has various rivals, such as Walmart, eBay, and lots of new companies. 46 Amazo
49、n is building warehouses in those densely populated cities to reduce shipping time to urban customers. Section C 46 We usually think of payday lenders, pawn shops(典当行 )and other high-cost loan operations as alternative forms of financing for people who are short of cash. But that s merely a false appearance: They couldn t operate without billions of dollars in cheap capital from the nation s biggest banks. It starts with some history: Back in the
