2009年12月大学英语六级考试阅读理解部分单词注释—茶茶的六级系列.doc

2009年12月大学英语六级考试阅读理解部分单词注释茶茶的六级系列Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)Bosses Say “Yes” to Home WorkRising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the officeall are strong arguments for letting staff work from home.For the small business, there are additional benefits toostaff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide competitive advantage, especially when small businesses want to attract new staff but dont have the budget to offer huge salaries.While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small-and-medium-sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago.The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake.“If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection,” says Andy Poulton, e-business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. “There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.”One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). “This is the enabler,” Poulton says.Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading (伪装) as business-friendly broadband.“Broadband is available for as little as 15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,” says Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet service provider based in the north-east of England. “Providers offering broadband for rock-bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested (拥堵的) networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business-only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support.” Such services dont cost too muchquality services can be found for upwards of 30 a month.The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet-based backup or even internet-based phone services.Internet-based telecoms, or VoIP (Voice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote workerfacilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.By law, companies must “consider seriously” requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with young children that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure (基础设施) to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time.Marketing director Jack OHern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are parents: “One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacitynow she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.”For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee-earners to be able to work at maximum productivity when away from the offices (whether thats from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life.OHern says: “Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we cant see any reason why a parent cant be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the ability to complete a project later in the day.”Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources.Although Wright Vigar hasnt yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of “dead” time in their working days.That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. “With Wi-Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds.The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her companys data management over to a remote hosting company, Datanet, so it can be accessible by all the companys consultants over broadband internet connections.It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realisation that it just didnt need them any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11-year-old,” says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off-site meetings, we didnt need our offices at all. Were now saving 16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting.”stressful strsfladj. 紧张的；有压力的recognition rekgn()nn. 识别；承认，认出；重视；赞誉；公认productive prudktivadj. 能生产的；生产的，生产性的；多产的；富有成效的enabling eneibliadj. 授权的v. 使能够；授权给（enable的现在分词）firm fmadj. 坚定的；牢固的；严格的；结实的n. 公司；商号adv. 稳固地vt. 使坚定；使牢固vi. 变坚实；变稳固recruitment rkrtmntn. 补充；征募新兵competitive advantage竞争优势attract trktvt. 吸引；引起vi. 吸引；有吸引力sceptical skeptikladj. 怀疑的；怀疑论的；习惯怀疑的supervision ,supvn; n. 监督，管理concerned about关心；担忧incur nkvt. 招致，引发；蒙受introduce ntrdjusvt. 介绍；引进；提出；采用workforce w:kf:sn. 劳动力；工人总数，职工总数网络释义broadband brdbndn. 宽频；宽波段adj. 宽频带的；宽波段的；宽频通讯的properly prpliadv. 适当地；正确地；恰当地exchange kstend; eks-n. 交换；交流；交易所；兑换vi. 交换；交易；兑换vt. 交换；交易；兑换alternative ltntv; l-n. 二中择一；供替代的选择adj. 供选择的；选择性的；交替的enablern. 使能器，使能者；促成者，赋能者target tgtn. 目标；靶子vt. 把作为目标；规定的指标；瞄准某物warn against警告（.）不要；提醒（.）提防appreciate priet; -s-vi. 增值；涨价vt. 欣赏；感激；领会；鉴别rock-bottom price最低价（等于rock price）notorious n()trsadj. 声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的reliability ri,laibiltin. 可靠性occasional ke()n()ladj. 偶然的；临时的；特殊场合的not necessarily未必，不一定mislead mslidvt. 误导；带错sophisticated sfstketdadj. 复杂的；精致的；久经世故的；富有经验的v. 使变得世故；使迷惑；篡改（sophisticate的过去分词形式）exploit ksplt; ek-vt. 开发，开拓；剥削；开采n. 勋绩；功绩facility fsltn. 设施；设备；容易；灵巧call forwarding电话转接；呼叫转送continuity ,kntnjutn. 连续性；一连串；分镜头剧本company image公司形象；经管 公司商誉accommodate kmdetvi. 适应；调解vt. 容纳；使适应；供应；调解accountancy kant()nsn. 会计工作；会计学；会计师之职connectivity ,knektivtin. 数 连通性relatively reltvladv. 相当地；相对地，比较地trigger trgvi. 松开扳柄n. 扳机；电子 触发器；制滑机vt. 引发，引起；触发maternity leave 劳经 产假intend to打算做，想要retain rtenvt. 保持；雇；记住qualified kwlfadadj. 合格的；有资格的v. 限制（qualify的过去分词）；描述；授权予productivity ,prodktvtin. 生产力；生产率；生产能力strategy strtdn. 战略，策略on hand在手边；在场；即将发生equip kwpvt. 装备，配备quantify kwntfavt. 量化；为定量；确定数量vi. 量化；定量substantial sbstn()ladj. 大量的；实质的；内容充实的n. 本质；重要材料pop up v. 突然出现productive prdktvadj. 能生产的；生产的，生产性的；多产的；富有成效的relocate ril()ketn. 浮动vt. 重新安置；迁移vi. 重新安置；迁移新址disruptive dsrptvadj. 破坏的；分裂性的；制造混乱的renovation ,renuveinn. 革新；修理；恢复活力exactly gzk(t)l; eg-adv. 恰好地；正是；精确地；正确地adopt dptvi. 采取；过继vt. 采取；接受；收养；正式通过dispense with无需；免除；省掉premises premisizn. 前提；经营场址；上述房屋；契约前言（premise的复数）v. 提出为前提；预述（premise的第三人称单数）altogether ltge; l-adv. 完全地；总共；总而言之n. 整个；裸体realisation ,rilaizein, ri:-, -liz-n. 实现，完成（等于realization）motivation ,motvenn. 动机；积极性；推动Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)Section A Many countries have made it illegal to chat into a hand-held mobile phone while driving. But the latest research further confirms that the danger lies less in what a motorists hands do when he takes a call than in what the conversation does to his brain. Even using a “hands-free” device can divert a drivers attention to an alarming extent.Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick, and Todd Horowitz of the Harvard Medical School ran a series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond to a series of moving tasks on a computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was left undistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation using a speakerphone. As Kunar and Horowitz report, those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call had an average reaction time 212 milliseconds slower than those who were not. That, they calculate, would add 5.7 meters to the braking distance of a car travelling at 100kph. They also found that the group using the hands-free kit made 83% more errors in their tasks than those who were not talking.To try to understand more about why this was, they tried two further tests. In one, members of a group were asked simply to repeat words spoken by the caller. In the other, they had to think of a word that began with the last letter of the word they had just heard. Those only repeating words performed the same as those with no distraction, but those with the more complicated task showed even worse reaction timesan average of 480 milliseconds extra delay. This shows that when people have to consider the information they hear carefully, it can impair their driving ability significantly.Punishing people for using hand-held gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even though they can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls.motorist mt()rstn. 驾车旅行的人，开汽车的人divert davt; d-vt. 转移；使欢娱；使转向vi. 转移an alarming extent 惊人的程度reckon rek()nvt. 测算，估计；认为；计算vi. 估计；计算；猜想，料想equivalent kwv()l()ntn. 等价物，相等物adj. 等价的，相等的；同意义的undistracted ndstrktdadj. 注意力集中的；不分心的；心神不烦乱的engage in从事于（参加）meter mitn. 米；仪表；计量 公尺；韵律vt. 用仪表测量vi. 用表计量kit ktvt. 装备n. 工具箱；成套工具vi. 装备consider knsdvi. 考虑；认为；细想vt. 考虑；认为；考虑到；细想impair mpevt. 损害；削弱；减少significantly signifkntliadv. 意味深长地；值得注目地punish pnvt. 惩罚；严厉对待；贪婪地吃喝vi. 惩罚persuade pswedvt. 说服，劝说；使某人相信；劝某人做（不做）某事adj. 空闲的，有闲的vi. 说服；被说服altogether ltge; l-n. 整个；裸体adv. 完全地；总共；总而言之Section B Passage OneThere is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over-educated, eco-conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality around the nations schools singled out those in the smugly（自鸣得意的）green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The citys public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratorys worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists（活跃分子）and various parent-teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel-casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus childrens health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how todays parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safewhether its possible to keep them safein what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, “safe” could even mean.“Theres no way around the uncertainty,” says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies childrens health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means you arent going to know if they do.” A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. Its the dangers parents cantand may neverquantify that occur all of sudden. Thats why Ive rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential cancer-causing substance, but although Ive lived blocks from a major fault line(地质断层) for more than 12 years, I still havent bolted our bookcases to the living room wall.scare skevi. 受惊vt. 惊吓；把吓跑n. 恐慌；惊吓；惊恐eco-conscious 环保的；环保人士investigation n,vestge()nn. 调查；调查研究preschool priskuln. 幼儿园，育幼院adj. 未满学龄的；就学前的，入学前的elementary elment()radj. 基本的；初级的；化学 元素的supposedly spzdladv. 可能；按照推测；恐怕heavy metal 重金属manganese mgnizn. 化学 锰chromium krmmn. 化学 铬（24号元素，符号Cr）nickel nk()lvt. 镀镍于n. 镍；镍币；五分镍币cafeterian. 自助餐厅；自助食堂（cafeteria的复数）organic gnkadj. 有化 有机的；组织的；器官的；根本的toxic tkskadj. 有毒的；中毒的mayor me n. 市长associationsn. 协会，关联（association复数）；关联分析，协会组织engaged in从事于；忙于fierce fsadj. 凶猛的；猛烈的；暴躁的validity vldtn. 计 有效性；正确；正确性guilt gltn. 犯罪，过失；内疚steel-cast钢铸的union junjn; -nn. 联盟，协会；工会；联合versus vssprep. 对；与.相对；对抗present prez()ntvt. 提出；介绍；呈现；赠送n. 现在；礼物；瞄准adj. 现在的；出席的vi. 举枪瞄准conflict knflktn. 冲突，矛盾；斗争；争执vi. 冲突，抵触；争执；战斗drop off 减少；让下车；睡着perpetual ppetl; -tjladj. 永久的；不断的；四季开花的；无期限的confront knfrntvt. 面对；遭遇；比较panic over对感到惊慌失措：lead in导入；引入线；开场白synthetic snetkadj. 综合的；合成的，人造的n. 合成物athletic field运动场，田径场地weird wdadj. 怪异的；不可思议的；超自然的n. （苏格兰）命运；预言protest prtestvi. 抗议；断言vt. 抗议；断言n. 抗议adj. 表示抗议的；抗议性的drama drmn. 戏剧，戏剧艺术；剧本；戏剧性事件trial traln. 试验；审讯；努力；磨炼adj. 试验的；审讯的perceive psivvt. 察觉，感觉；理解；认知vi. 感到，感知；认识到matter mtvi. 有关系；要紧n. 物质；原因；事件pediatrics ,pidtrksn. 小儿科drowning drauniv. 淹没；（使）外科 淹溺；浸没（drown的ing形式）n. 溺死adj. 溺水的exposure ksp; ek-n. 暴露；曝光；揭露；陈列concrete kkritadj. 混凝土的；实在的，具体的；有形的n. 具体物；凝结物vt. 使凝固；用混凝土修筑vi. 凝结hazard hzdn. 危险，冒险；冒险的事vt. 赌运气；冒的危险，使遭受危险quantify kwntfavt. 量化；为定量；确定数量vi. 量化；定量rid rdvt. 使摆脱；使去掉cupboard kbdn. 碗柜；食橱coated with涂有substance sbst()nsn. 物质；实质；资产；主旨bolt bltvt. 栓；囫囵吞下；上门闩vi. 逃跑；冲出adv. 直立地；突然地bookcase 书架Passage Two Crippling health care bills, long emergency-room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the