1、大学英语六级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 90及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the remark “People are busy doing so many things at a time, so they cannot do anything well.“ You can cite examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least
2、150 words but no more than 200 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） He likes chemistry enough to continue with it. （ B） His grades in science courses are very good. （ C） He has not taken enough courses. （ D） He does not want to take chemistry. （ A） This evening. （ B） This Friday
3、 morning. （ C） Last night. （ D） At eight o clock in the morning. （ A） These boxes are very light. （ B） This bag is very big. （ C） The bag contains many books. （ D） These boxes are very heavy. （ A） The floor is not clean. （ B） There are enough papers on the floor. （ C） He wants to move out the house.
4、 （ D） The woman should pick up the papers. （ A） The fish is very good. （ B） The fish is very hot. （ C） She does not like the fish. （ D） She thinks the salad is delicious. （ A） He is going to write a paper. （ B） He is going to buy a typewriter. （ C） He is about to read the paper again. （ D） He is abo
5、ut to leave the office. （ A） Paul plays too much games. （ B） Paul is a good student. （ C） He likes books very much. （ D） He reads too much books. （ A） She will turn the music down. （ B） She decides to listen to loud music. （ C） She is going to watch TV. （ D） She is going to eat supper. （ A） News abo
6、ut a friend. （ B） Information they read in a newspaper. （ C） An article on the economy. （ D） A classroom lecture. （ A） He is lucky. （ B） He doesn t know much about business. （ C） He is a good businessman. （ D） He shouldnt have moved to Australia. （ A） It is experiencing an economic boom. （ B） It is
7、difficult to make money. （ C） It is very prosperous. （ D） Only good business people can be profitable. （ A） He already knows a lot about painting. （ B） He hopes to become a painter someday. （ C） He s not very familiar with painting. （ D） He hates the class. （ A） She thought it was boring. （ B） She e
8、njoyed the paintings. （ C） She hasn t seen it yet. （ D） She wished she could accompany the man. （ A） Garys sister. （ B） The woman talking with Gary. （ C） The professor of the course. （ D） The painter Desiree. （ A） At the beginning of class. （ B） In the middle of class. （ C） At the end of class. （ D）
9、 Before the midterm exam. Section B （ A） 1.5%. （ B） 1.8%. （ C） 2%. （ D） 0.6%. （ A） The price of food and non-alcoholic beverages. （ B） Prices of bread, fruit and vegetables. （ C） Average earnings. （ D） UK house prices. （ A） A banker. （ B） A member of the UK parliament. （ C） Chief economist at the cu
10、rrency company. （ D） Spokesman of the Bank of England. （ A） The depressing cold weather. （ B） The bad economic situation. （ C） Unhealthy diet. （ D） Drugs and alcohol. （ A） Twenty. （ B） Twenty-four. （ C） Twenty-six. （ D） Twenty-eight. （ A） 10000 （ B） 7950 （ C） 240 （ D） 4750 （ A） The wealthy white chi
11、ldren? （ B） Children from middle class families. （ C） Poor white children. （ D） Poor children from ethnic minorities. （ A） Since the kindergarten. （ B） Since the primary school. （ C） Since the middle school. （ D） Since the high school. （ A） Improvements of childrens achievements in school can be mad
12、e. （ B） Children s heath can be improved. （ C） The school needs to care more about children s special talents. （ D） The educational system can be improved. （ A） Adding some science courses. （ B） Recruiting more good teachers. （ C） Build more labs. （ D） Buying more teaching equipments. Section C 26 T
13、he American economic systemis organized around a basically private【 B1】_. Itsmarket-oriented economy in which consumers determine what shall be produced by spending their money for those goods and services. Private businessmen,【 B2】 _to make their profits, produce these goods and services in【 B3】_wi
14、th other businessmen, and the profit【 B4】 _, operating under competitive pressures, largely【 B5】 _how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers,【 B6】 _with the desire of businessmen to gain more profits and the desire of ind
15、ividual to【 B7】 _their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how【 B8】 _are used to produce it. An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and【 B9】 _to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is prov
16、ided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers. If the product is in short reply relative to the demand, the price will be a bit up and some consumers will be【 B10】_from the market. If, on the other hand, more supply of products results i
17、n reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the products. Thus price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【
18、B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 In 1963, civil rights demonstrations in the U.S. south turned violent. President John Kennedy called the【 C1】 _“a moral crisis“. President Kennedy met civil rights leader Martin Luther King to discuss ending the demonstrations. The meeting was【 C2】 _by Ke
19、nnedy advisor, Harris Wofford. “Martin Luther King【 C3】 _said part of what non-violent direct action does is it creates crisis that people in power, whether it is government or corporations or others, they have to listen to,“ said Wofford President Kennedy responded in a nationally televised【 C4】 _.
20、 “In too many communities in too many parts of the country wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no【 C5】 _of law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is the street. I am therefore asking the Congress to enact【 C6】 _giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities that
21、 are open to the public,“ he said. The Civil Rights Act outlaws racial【 C7】 _in schools, the workplace and at public accommodations such as restaurants. The legislation faced strong【 C8】_from mostly white southern lawmakers who tried to block its passage. Harris Wofford said the ongoing demonstratio
22、ns and President Kennedys assassination created the conditions for passing the Civil Rights Act. “I dont think it would have necessarily been passed if he(President Kennedy)had not been killed and a wave of sympathy and understanding【 C9】 _the majority of the people in the United States,“ he said. J
23、uly 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Former Congressman Ron Dellums said it is a【 C10】 _achievement for so many African Americans. A)decide B)legislation C)interaction D)constructed E)mission F)arranged G)deliberately H)situation I)crowning J)address K)remedies L)
24、segregation M)evolved N)opposition O)sweep 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Whats So Funny? A)The joke comes over the headphones: “Which side of a dog has the most hair? The left.“ No, not funny. Try again. “Which side of a dog h
25、as the most hair? The outside.“ Hah! The punchline is silly yet fitting, tempting a smile, even a laugh. Laughter has always struck people as deeply mysterious, perhaps pointless. The writer Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: “unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose.“ B)The
26、ories about humour have an ancient pedigree. Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others. Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline. But most modern h
27、umour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle s belief that jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either a nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever second meaning. C)Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the
28、 linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines. He says that while there is no single format for jokes, many revolve around a sudden and surprising conceptual shift. A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpec
29、ted interpretation that is also apt. D)So even if a punchline sounds silly, the listener can see there is a clever semantic fit and that sudden mental Aha! is the buzz that makes us laugh. Viewed from this angle, humour is just a form of creative insight, a sudden leap to a new perspective. E)Howeve
30、r, there is another type of laughter, the laughter of social appeasement and it is important to understand this too. Play is a crucial part of development in most young mammals. Rats produce ultrasonic squeaks to prevent their scuffles turning nasty. Chimpanzees have a play-face a gaping expression
31、accompanied by a panting ah, ah noise. In humans, these signals have mutated into smiles and laughs. Researchers believe social situations, rather than cognitive events such as jokes, trigger these instinctual markers of play or appeasement. People laugh on fairground rides or when tickled to flag a
32、 play situation, whether they feel amused or not. F)Both social and cognitive types of laughter tap into the same expressive machinery in our brains, the emotion and motor circuits that produce smiles and excited vocalisations. However, if cognitive laughter is the product of more general thought pr
33、ocesses, it should result from more expansive brain activity. G)Psychologist Vinod Goel investigated humour using the new technique of single event functional magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). An MRI scanner uses magnetic fields and radio waves to track the changes in oxygenated blood that accompany
34、mental activity. Until recently, MRI scanners needed several minutes of activity and so could not be used to track rapid thought processes such as comprehending a joke. New developments now allow half-second snapshots of all sorts of reasoning and problem-solving activities. H)Although Goel felt bei
35、ng inside a brain scanner was hardly the ideal place for appreciating a joke, he found evidence that understanding a joke involves a widespread mental shift. His scans showed that at the beginning of a joke the listeners prefrontal cortex lit up, particularly the right prefrontal believed to be crit
36、ical for problem solving. I)But there was also activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head(consistent with attempts to rouse stored knowledge)and in many other brain areas. Then when the punchline arrived, a new area sprang to lifethe orbital prefrontal cortex. This patch of brain tucked
37、behind the orbits of the eyes is associated with evaluating information. J)Making a rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment is an extremely demanding job for the brain, animal or human. Energy and arousal levels may need, to be retuned in the blink of an eye. These abrupt changes will
38、 produce either positive or negative feelings. The orbital cortex, the region that becomes active in Goel s experiment, seems the best candidate for the site that feeds such feelings into higher-level thought processes, with its close connections to the brain s sub-cortical arousal apparatus and cen
39、tres of metabolic control. K)All warm-blooded animals make constant tiny adjustments in arousal in response to external events, but humans, who have developed a much more complicated internal life as a result of language, respond emotionally not only to their surroundings, but to their own thoughts.
40、 Whenever a sought-for answer snaps into place, there is a shudder of pleased recognition. L)Creative discovery being pleasurable, humans have learned to find ways of milking this natural response. The fact that jokes tap into our general evaluative machinery explains why the line between funny and
41、disgusting, or funny and frightening, can be so fine. Whether a joke gives pleasure or pain depends on a person s outlook. M)Humour may be a luxury, but the mechanism behind it is no evolutionary accident. As Peter Derks, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, says, “I like to think
42、 of humour as the distorted mirror of the mind. Its creative, perceptual, analytical and lingual. If we can figure out how the mind processes humour, then well have a pretty good handle on how it works in general.“ 47 However, contemporary humour theorists have agreed on Aristotle s idea that based
43、on response to incongruity, jokes appears stupid at first but it turns out to be a nonsense or a wisdom. 48 Instead, provided that cognitive type of laughter requires more thinking, it is supposed to be originated from more extensive brain activity. 49 Humour might be luxurious; however, it is not a
44、n accident that formulates the process during evolution. 50 Compared with the way those warm-blooded animals respond to external events, human beings react to their internal life as well as surroundings as a result of development of language. 51 Even though Goel realized a brain scanner might not se
45、ttle up the questions of joke appreciation, he figured out understanding a joke requires a mental shift. 52 No matter who you are, animal or human, it is exceedingly challenging for brain to make a quick emotional evaluation of the event at once. 53 Rats produce squeaks and chimpanzees have a play f
46、ace while human being use signals like smiles and laughs as social appeasement. 54 Up till now, MRI scanners are unable to track quick thought processes like a joke within several minutes. 55 According to writer Arthur Koestler, laughter is characterized as its uniqueness for no transparent biologic
47、al purpose. 56 From this perspective, humour needs listener to have creative insight and a new angle. Section C 56 I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun. You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about
48、 the nature of happiness. Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion. Going to an amusement par
49、k or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends. I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, an
