1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 4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 The Importance of Information Security. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. 1很多人认为信息安全很重要 2有的人认为信息不是实物，所以
2、信息安全无关紧要 3我认为 Section A （ A） Outstanding teachers like Professor Johnson are rare. （ B） Professor Johnson has won a million dollars as an award. （ C） Professor Johnson is likely to get the benefits from the school. （ D） There are many teachers as good as Professor Johnson. （ A） It was misleading. （
3、B） It was rather boring. （ C） It was enjoyable. （ D） It was just so-so. （ A） She has to change the time for the trip. （ B） She hasnt decided where to go next month. （ C） She cant afford the time for the trip. （ D） She will manage to leave this month. （ A） The apartment is better furnished. （ B） The
4、woman prefers to live in a quiet place. （ C） Its less expensive to live in the new apartment. （ D） The womans roommate is hard to get along with. （ A） At home. （ B） In a telephone booth. （ C） At a meeting. （ D） In the hospital. （ A） Customer and salesperson. （ B） Teacher and student. （ C） Boss and s
5、ecretary. （ D） Guest and waitress. （ A） He didnt buy anything while Tommy bought a lot. （ B） He got some medicine for his hurting foot. （ C） He twisted his foot and couldnt go shopping. （ D） He bought everything except the storybook. （ A） She didnt expect her daughter to sing so well. （ B） She sings
6、 better than her daughter. （ C） She doesnt like her daughter singing. （ D） She herself probably doesnt have a good voice. （ A） Providing high-quality products for customers. （ B） Providing good services for customers. （ C） Doing everything you can to please and keep customers. （ D） Establishing dial
7、ogues with the customers. （ A） The relationship the company establishes with its customers. （ B） Legal responsibilities shared by the company and its customers. （ C） Responding to the customers complaints. （ D） Seeking the customers feedback actively. （ A） A bridge between the company and its custom
8、ers. （ B） A way of supervising the companys business. （ C） A way to deal with customers after-sales services. （ D） A way to deal with customers complaints and refunds. （ A） The history of some famous cities. （ B） The population in the whole world. （ C） The difference between Europe and USA. （ D） The
9、 characteristics of some large cities. （ A） Housing and services. （ B） Traffic and resources. （ C） Water and electricity. （ D） Pollution and population. （ A） They controlled the growth. （ B） They grew relatively slowly. （ C） They had the same population. （ D） They were quite different. （ A） To live
10、together with their family. （ B） To bring their skills to cities. （ C） To build a better countryside. （ D） To search a better condition. Section B （ A） Postponement. （ B） Preparation. （ C） Confidence. （ D） Information. （ A） The day before presentation. （ B） Before youre given the assignment. （ C） Ri
11、ght after accepting the assignment. （ D） When youre already on the stage. （ A） It catches every audiences attention. （ B） It makes the audience day dreamers. （ C） It determines listeners understanding level. （ D） It helps the speakers to organize ideas. （ A） Relevant trading and financial background
12、. （ B） Foreign languages and cross-cultural communication. （ C） The ability to persuade and compromise. （ D） Foreign language and eloquence. （ A） They are arrogant. （ B） They are reliable. （ C） They are impersonal. （ D） They are polite. （ A） Because American negotiators have no patience. （ B） Becaus
13、e American negotiators wouldnt compromise. （ C） Because foreign negotiators lack communicating skills. （ D） Because foreign negotiators like indirect interaction. （ A） It happened in the night. （ B） There was no survivor. （ C） A lorry collided with a coach. （ D） The collision was caused by fog. （ A）
14、 Workers long working hours. （ B） Workers poor working conditions. （ C） The low rate of inflation. （ D） The high level of unemployment. （ A） It ended soon when the bus drivers demand was satisfied. （ B） It would continue despite offer for wage increase. （ C） It wouldnt end until next Monday. （ D） It
15、 failed for both sides couldnt reach an agreement. （ A） It burned out 6 towns. （ B） 4 people lost their lives so far. （ C） 24 people were injured. （ D） About 300,000 houses were burnt down. Section C 26 For years, scientists have been studying how music affects the brain and its functions. Classical
16、 music,【 B1】 _songs by Mozart, has produced measurable results that have become known as “The Mozart Effect.“ The theory, essentially, is that listening to the music of Mozart can improve your【 B2】 _capacity. The question is, can listening to classical music make you more successful? If music improv
17、es cognitive functions, it is reasonable to believe you can【 B3】_those same rewards,【 B4】 _increased performance and efficiency at work. Increased efficiency means you get things done quicker. Finishing earlier means you have increased free time to put towards another【 B5】 _or to spend relaxing. Mus
18、ic Increases Cognitive Function. Several studies have shown cognitive improvements in those who listened to classical music prior to performing certain tasks or taking tests. Functions that【 B6】 _in increase in capacity included: Language skills, reading skills, verbal【 B7】 _, quantitative abilities
19、, concentration, memory, and motor skills. Several studies of students preparing to take the SAT test【 B8】 _test scores of those who listened to classical music prior to taking the test with those who did not. Those who preceded the test with classical music scored higher on the SAT than the student
20、s who did not. A study by the University of Washington showed that copyeditors who listened to classical music for 90 minutes while editing copy found 21% more mistakes than those who did not. Listening to music not only improves functions within your brain, but music has also been shown to have a【
21、B9】 _effect on mood. The style of music【 B10】_the mood experienced by the listener. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 Our bodies experience an ebb and flow of energy throughout the day. This is called a circadian rhythm, and it ha
22、s been studied【 C1】 _by scientists. Our energy level builds gradually to a peak, then【 C2】 _, reaching a trough about 12 hours later. The exact nature of this cycle varies from person to person, and so do our【 C3】_for activity versus rest. Our natural rhythms are【 C4】 _by internal drives and externa
23、l stimulation. Typically, external stimulation wins out over what our internal guide tells us. For example, when we fly across six time zones, we have to fit into a different time frame whether we like it or not. The same is true when we work the night shift. These are【 C5】 _examples of what most of
24、 us experience every day on the job. So here we are, many of us working hours that are【 C6】 _to what our internal rhythms would prefer. Too bad. Or is it? Some forward-looking companies are looking at internal rhythms as they【 C7】_to productivity and are finding that a mid-afternoon nap increases wo
25、rk output and【 C8】 _. But can naptime really fit into the American workday? While experts seem to agree that napping is a good idea, the reality of napping is probably a long shot at best. There are lots of reasons for this. One is the need for predictability and standardization in the workplace,【 C
26、9】 _in companies that do business around the world. Another is the longstanding American work ethic that【 C10】 _total commitment from beginning to end of the workday. Napping is viewed as slacking, a real no-no for the go-getter who wants to get ahead. A)contrary I)especially B)exclaimed J)relate C)
27、extensively K)specifically D)affected L)accuracy E)prior M)extreme F)demands N)declines G)preferences O)appropriate H)impact 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Theres Gold in Them there Landfills A In the movie WALLE, humankind has
28、 left Earth in a bit of a mess. The planet is choked with garbage and all the people have shipped out, leaving robot WALL-E to clean the place up and make it habitable again. Things may not be quite that bad yet, but theres no doubt that we produce a huge amount of waste. Even with increased recycli
29、ng, landfill sites are filling up by the day and in the absence of a brave robot the waste experts of planet Earth are working on the next best thing: landfill mining. B The idea is simple. Instead of disappearing under mountains of our own waste, while paying through the nose for diminishing commod
30、ities, why not dig up and recycle what we have already thrown away? C Next week, industry experts will gather in London for the first global landfill mining conference. Bringing together environmental scientists, economists and landfill operators, the one-day meeting promises to show delegates how t
31、o turn waste into “garbage gold“. D Landfill mining has been tried before. The first scheme began in 1953 at Hiriya garbage dump outside Tel Aviv, Israel, and aimed to reclaim fine-particle waste rich in minerals to improve soil quality at local fruit farms. The landfill closed in 1998, but the recy
32、cling plant that remains on the site still produces soil improver from green waste. Then during the 1960s and 1970s, a handful of sites in the US began separating waste to recycle the steel and to compost food scraps. In the late 1980s, a pilot programme was set up to extract recyclables from a smal
33、l, community landfill in the town of Edinburg, New York, and burn the solid leavings to generate energy. This pilot proved uneconomical but during the oil price rising of the 1990s interest in the economic value of waste soared. Investors claimed to snap up scrap metal companies,. only for the price
34、 of commodities to drop through the floor in the mid-1990s. E Yet now that commodities prices are rising once more, environmental issues are high on everyones list of priorities and land prices are increasing, every square kilometre is worth too much to use for landfill. Raiding the dump seems like
35、a good idea again. This time the prospects are more promising. Thanks to a decade of innovation by the recycling industry, the technology to process landfill waste is more readily available. F So whats in a landfill worth recycling? For a start, the average landfill is filled with valuable and somet
36、imes even precious metals. Aluminium, from drinks cans, is just one example. According to Patrick Atkins, environmental consultant for private equity fund Pegasus Capital Advisors, and until recently director of energy innovation at US aluminium producer Alcoa, Americans throw away 317 aluminium can
37、s every second of every day. Around half of these, totalling 680,000 tonnes of aluminium each year, dodge the recycling basket and end up in landfill. Given that the cost of aluminium peaked at $2,700 per tonne in July this means America is burying up to $1.83 billion worth of metal per year. Atkins
38、 estimates that there is now more aluminium in US landfills than can be produced from ores globally in one year. And its not only aluminium that is hiding down there with the used diapers(尿布 )and grocery bags. One tonne of scrap from discarded PCs contains more gold than can be produced from 16 tonn
39、es of ore, he says. And the world throws away 18 million tonnes of electronic waste each year. G Nowadays it is relatively easy to separate the metal you want from the junk you dont using recycling technologies. Eddy current(漩涡流 )magnets, for example, can avert aluminium and other metals from a flow
40、ing stream of waste. Plastic, too, is becoming easier to pick out. Rather than the more expensive process of doing it by hand, some plastic sorting plants are now using some scanners, which sort different types based on the spectrum of light they absorb. And since rising prices are making oil seem l
41、ike an expensive raw material to produce plastics, recycling existing plastic from landfill seems sensible. H Metals and plastics are only part of it, says William Hogland, an environmental engineer at the University of Kalmar in Sweden. All that smelly food and other organic waste rots down sooner
42、or later. And as the TelAviv project discovered back in the 1950s, even this can be worth digging up. I “The earth fraction of landfill can be one of the most profitable as coverage material, compost(堆肥 )and for lawn improvement,“ Hogland says. Theres also plenty of flammable material in landfills.
43、One kilogram of the coarse earth fraction containing particles greater than 50 millimetres across yields between 6 and 10 megajoules(兆焦 )of energy, Hogland says, and the average Swedish landfill has 40 million tonnes of the stuff. Burning that waste is a controversial idea because of toxins(毒素 )that
44、 may be released in the process. But, Hogland says, thanks to new technology for cleaning flue gases, Sweden is building new incinerators(焚烧炉 )to provide heat and light for local communities. J So if landfill sites are, sometimes literally, gold mines, why arent companies tearing into them already?
45、For its part, Alcoa has invested heavily in stopping as many cans as it can from reaching a landfill, but has stopped short of digging them up again. “Its not something we are doing at this point,“ said Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery. “If we thought it was the most efficient thing, wed do it.“ K Part
46、of the reason for this is that while aluminium can be recycled at a fraction of the cost of producing it from ore, and using 94 per cent less energy, thats only the case once you have collected the cans. Getting them out of landfill is more expensive than buying aluminium directly from a recycling p
47、lant. Plus no two landfill sites are the same. Each has a different blend of useful materials, mixed with all kinds of less useful or dangerous materials. And when you consider that companies would likely want to mine more than one site, covered perhaps by different state or national regulations, it
48、 starts to look like too much trouble. L Reid Lifset, an industrial ecologist at Yale University who has investigated the prospect of extracting copper from landfills, has come to a similar conclusion. “With current technology and prices, landfill mining is generally not economically feasible,“ he s
49、ays. “The benefits such as revenue from sale of recovered metals, and reduction in regulatory costs, generally did not outweigh the costs.“ In other words, there may be a lot of copper buried in landfills, but if copper is your thing, a huge mine with gigantic equipment makes more sense than picking your way through several different landfill sites. M Advocates of landfill mining argue that with more imagina
