英语六级冲刺阅读训练及答案(20篇).doc

一The Earth comprises three principal layers: the dense, iron-rich core, the mantle made of silicate (硅酸盐) that are semi-molten at depth, and the thin, solid-surface crust There are two kinds of crust, a lower and denser oceanic crust and an upper，lighter continental crust found over only about 40 percent of the Earths surface. The rocks of the crust are of very different ages. Some continental rocks are over 3,000 million years old, while those of the ocean floor are less than 200 million years old. The crusts and the top, solid part of the mantle, totaling about 70 to 100 kilometers in thickness, at present appear to consist of about 15 rigid plates, 7 of which are very large. These plates move over the semi-molten lower mantleto produce all of the major topographical(地形学的)features of the Earth. Active zones where intense deformation occur are confined to the narrow, interconnecting boundaries of contact of the plates.There are three main types of zones of contact: spreading contacts where plates move apart, converging contacts where plates move towards each other, and transform contacts where plates slide past each other. Newoceanic crust is formed along one or more margins of each plate by material issuing from deeper layers of the Earth s crust, for example, by volcanic eruptions (爆发) of lava (火山熔岩) at mid-ocean ridges. If at such a spreading contact the two plates support continents，a rift(裂缝) is formed that will gradually widen and become flooded by the tea. The Atlantic Ocean formed like this as the American and Afro-European plates moved in opposite directions. When two plates carrying continents collide, the continental blocks,too light to be drawn down, continue to float and therefore buckle (起褶皱) to form a mountain chain along the length of the margin of the plates.练习题：Choose correct answers to the question:1.The Earths crust_.A.can be classified into two typesB.is formed along the margins of the platesC.consists of semi-molten rocksD.is about 70 to 100 kilometers thick2.The 15 plates of the Earth are formed from _.A.the oceanic crusts and continental crustsB.the crusts and the mantleC.the crusts and the top and solid part of the mantleD.the continental crusts and the solid part of the mantle3.Seriously-deformed zones appear _A.whenever the crusts move over mantleB.when the plates move towards each otherC.in the narrow boundaries where two plates meetD.to be the major topographical feature of the Earth4.According to the second paragraph, the formation of the Atlantic Ocean is the example of_.A.spreading contactsB.the influence of volcanic eruptionsC.converging contactsD.transform contacts5.This passage is probably_.A.a newspaper advertisementB.a chapter of a novelC.an excerpt from a textbookD.a scientific report of new findings二A remarkable variety of insects live in this planet More species of insects exist than all other animal species together. Insects have survived on earth for more than 300 million years, and may possess the ability to survive for millions more.Insects can be found almost everywhere - on the highest mountains and on the bottom of rushing streams, in the cold South Pole and in bubbling hot springs. They dig through the ground, jump and sing in the trees,and run and dance in the air. They come in many different colors and various shapes. Insects are extremely useful to humans, pollinating (授粉)our crops as well as flowers in meadows, forests, deserts and other areas. But licks and some insects, such as mosquitoes and fleas, can transmit disease.There are many reasons why insects are so successful at surviving. Their amazing ability to adapt permits them to live in extreme ranges of temperatures and environments. The one place they have not yet been found to any major extent is in the open oceans. Insects can survive on a wide range, of natural and artificial foodspaint, pepper, glue, books, grain, cotton，other insects, plants and animals Because they are small they can hide in tiny spaces.A strong, hard but flexible shell covers their soft organs and is resistant to chemicals, water and physical impact. Their wings give them the option of flying away from dangerous situations or toward food or males. Also, insects have an enormous reproductive capacity: An African ant queen can lay as many as 43,000 eggs a day.Another reason for their success is the strategy of protective color. An insect may be right before our eyes, but nearly invisible because it is cleverly disguised like a green leaf, lump of brown soil, gray lichen (青苔),a seed or some other natural object Some insects use bright, bold colors to send warning signals that they taste bad,sting or are poison.Others have wing patterns that look like the eyes of a huge predator, bitter-tasting insects; hungry enemies are fooled into avoiding them.练习题：Choose correct answers to the question:1.Insects can be found in large amounts in the following places EXCEPT _.A.on the mountains with little airB.in the cold polar areasC.in the hot desert areasD.in the open oceans2.Insects protect themselves from chemicals by _A.hiding in tiny spacesB.having a strong shellC.flying away when necessaryD.changing colors or shapes3.Some insects disguise like natural objects so as to _A.frighten away their enemiesB.avoid being discoveredC.send warning signalsD.look bitter-tasting4.The passage mentions that insects _.A.can be found in any extreme environmentsB.have survived longer than any other creaturesC.can be fed on any natural or man-made foodsD.are important for the growth of crops and flowers5.The passage is mainly about _A.how insects survive in different placesB.why insects can survive so successfullyC.what insects can do to the environmentD.where insects can be found in quantity三The fridge is considered necessary. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food list appeared with the label: Store in the refrigerator.In my fridge less Fifties childhood, 1 was fed well and healthy. The milkman came every day, the grocer, the butcher (肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times each week. The Sunday meat would last until Wednesday and surplus(剩余的) bread and milk became all kinds of cakes. Nothing was wasted, and we were never troubled by rotten food. Thirty years on food deliveries have ceased, fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country.The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of food preservation. Many well-tried techniques already existed - natural cooling, drying, smoking, salting, sugaring, bottling.What refrigeration did promote was marketing - marketing hardware and electricity, marketing soft drinks, marketing dead bodies of animals around the world in search of a good price.Consequently, most of the worlds fridges are to be found, not in the tropics where they might prove useful, but in the rich countries with mild temperatures where they are climatically almost unnecessary. Every winter, millions of fridges hum away continuously, and at vast expense, busily maintaining an artificially-cooled space inside an artificially-heated house - while outside, nature provides the desired temperature free of charge.The fridges effect upon the environment has been evident, while its contribution to human happiness has been not important. If you dont believe me, try it yourself, invest in a food cabinet and mm off your fridge next winter. You may not eat the hamburgers(汉堡包), but at least youll get rid of that terrible hum.练习题：Choose correct answers to the question:1.The statement In my fridgeless fifties childhood, I was fed well and healthily. suggests that_.A.the author was well-fed and healthy even without a fridge in his fifties.B.the author was not accustomed to fridges even in his fifties.C.there was no fridge in the authors home in the 1950s.D.the fridge was in its early stage of development in the 1950s.2.Why does the author say that nothing was wasted before the invention of fridges?A.People would not buy more food than was necessary.B.Food was delivered to people two or three times a week.C.Food was sold fresh and did not get rotten easily.D.People had effective ways to preserve their food.3.Who benefited the least from fridges according to the author?A. Inventors.B. Consumers.C. Manufacturers.D. Travelling salesmen.4.Which of the following phrases in the fifth paragraph indicates the fridges negative effect on the environment?A.“Hum away continuously”.B.“Climatically almost unnecessary”.C.“Artificially-cooled space”.D.“With mild temperatures”.5.What is the authors overall attitude toward fridges?A. Neutral.B. Critical.C. Objective.D. Compromising.四Moreover, insofar as any interpretation of its author can be made from the five or six plays attributed to him, the Wake field Master is uniformly considered to be a man of sharp contemporary observation. He was, formally, perhaps clerically educated, as his Latin and music, his Biblical and patristic lore indicate. He is, still, celebrated mainly for his quick sympathy for the oppressed and forgotten man, his sharp eye for character, a ready ear for colloquial vernacular turns of speech and a humor alternately rude and boisterous, coarse and happy. Hence despite his conscious artistry as manifest in his feeling for intricate metrical and stanza forms, he is looked upon as a kind of medieval Steinbeck, indignantly angry at, uncompromisingly and even brutally realistic in presenting the plight of the agricultural poor.Thus taking the play and the author together, it is mow fairly conventional to regard the former as a kind of ultimate point in the secularization of the medieval drama. Hence much emphasis on it as depicting realistically humble manners and pastoral life in the bleak hills of the West Riding of Yorkshire on a typically cold bight of December 24th. After what are often regarded as almost “documentaries” given in the three successive monologues of the three shepherds, critics go on to affirm that the realism is then intensified into a burlesque mock-treatment of the Nativity. Finally as a sort of epilogue or after-thought in deference to the Biblical origins of the materials, the play slides back into an atavistic mood of early innocent reverence. Actually, as we shall see, the final scene is not only the culminating scene but perhaps the raisond etre of introductory “realism.”There is much on the surface of the present play to support the conventional view of its mood of secular realism. All the same, the “realism” of the Wake field Master is of a paradoxical turn. His wide knowledge of people, as well as books indicates no cloistered contemplative but one in close relation to his times. Still, that life was after all a predominantly religious one, a time which never neglected the belief that man was a rebellious and sinful creature in need of redemption, So deeply (one can hardly say “naively” of so sophisticated a writer) and implicitly religious is the Master that he is less able (or less willing) to present actual history realistically than is the author of the Brome “Abraham and Isaac”. His historical sense is even less realistic than that of Chaucer who just a few years before had done for his own time costume romances, such as The Knights Tale, Troilus and Cressida, etc. Moreover Chaucer had the excuse of highly romantic materials for taking liberties with history.1. Which of the following statements about the Wake field Master is NOT True?A. He was Chaucers contemporary.B. He is remembered as the author of five or six realistic plays.C. He write like John Steinbeck.D. HE was an accomplished artist.2. By “patristic”, the author meansA. realistic. B. patrioticC. superstitious. C. pertaining to the Christian Fathers.3. The statement about the “secularization of the medieval drama” refers to theA. introduction of mundane matters in religious plays.B. presentation of erudite material.C. use of contemporary introduction of religious themes in the early days.4. In subsequent paragraphs, we may expect the writer of this passage toA. justify his comparison with Steinbeck.B. present a point of view which attack the thought of the second paragraph.C. point out the anachronisms in the play.D. discuss the works of Chaucer.五The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photographs fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselvesanything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.Photographers disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expression ist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photographys prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the1960s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist paintingthat is, abstract art as developed indifferent ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matissepresupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activityin short, an art.1. What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned withA. defining the Modernist attitude toward art.B. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.C. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.D. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.2. Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 1213?A. Objective B. Mechanical. C. Superficial. D. Paradoxical.3. Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?A. He wants to provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.B. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.C. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.D. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.4. How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?A. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.B. It was art for recording the world.C. It was a device for observing the world impartially.D. It was an art comparable to painting.六The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like Palaeolithic Man, Neolithic Man, etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label Legless Man. Histories of the time will go something like this: in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didnt use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of