2006年12月23日英语六级真题及答案

1、2006年12月23日英语六级真题及答案Part I Listening Comprehension (20 minutes)Section ADirections:In this section, you will hear 10 short conversations. At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the question will be spoken only once. After each questio

2、n there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) or D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.1.A) The foggy weather has affected Marys mood.B) They are puzzled abou

3、t Marys low spirits.C) Mary is dissatisfied with her promotion.D) Mary cares too much about her looks.（B）2.A) Go to an art exhibition.B) Attend the opening night of a play.C) Dine out with an old friend.D) See his paintings on display.（A）3.A) Her mother was quite outstanding in academic word.B) She

4、was not particularly interested in going to school.C) Her parents laid great emphasis on academic excellence.D) She helped upgrade the educational level of immigrants.（C）4.A) The machines there were ill maintained.B) Tickets for its members were cheaper.C) It was filled with people all the time.D) I

5、t had a reputation for good service.（C）5.A) Both Sarah and Tom have been awarded doctoral degrees.B) Tom has arranged to meet his bride Sarah in Hawaii.C) Tom was more excited than Sarah at the wedding.D) A double blessing has descended upon Tom.（D）6.A) There were too many questions in the examinati

6、on.B) The examination was well beyond the course content.C) The examination questions were somewhat too difficult.D) The course prepared him adequately for the examination.（B）7.A) Its less time consuming.B) His wife is tired of cooking.C) Its part of his job.D) He is sick of home-cooked meals.（C）8.A

7、) He has just started to teach piano lessons.B) He seldom takes things seriously.C) He is very proud of his piano skills.D) He usually understates his achievements.（D）9.A) Its tedious.B) Its absurd.C) Its justifiable.D) Its understandable.（B）10.A) Arrange accommodation for her.B) Explain the cause o

8、f the cancellation.C) Compensate her for the inconvenience.D) Allow her to take another flight that night.（A）Section BDirections:In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. Aft

9、er you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) or D). Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.11.A) Producing legendary pai

10、nting.B) Making a fortune from decorative arts.C) Manufacturing quality furniture.D) Setting up a special museum.（D）12.A) To show his fascination with Asian culture.B) To tell the story of the American Revolution.C) To promote interest in American decorative arts.D) To increase the popularity of the

11、 DuPont Company.（C）13.A) By theme of period.B) By style of design.C) By manufacturer of origin.D) By function of purpose.（A）Passage TwoQuestions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.14.A) People may use two or more languages.B) People will choose Chinese rather than English.C) The p

12、ercentage of native speakers of English will increase.D) The number of people relying on their mother tongue will drop.（A）15.A) The number of Spanish speakers is far greater than that of Arabic speakers.B) Arabic spoken in one Arab country may not be understood in another.C) Arabic spoken in Egypt d

13、iffers from Arabic spoken in Morocco in origin.D) The number of Arabic speakers is declining because of the invasion of English.（B）16.A) It is impossible for Arab countries to standardize their language.B) Most people in the world will learn to speak Chinese in the future.C) It is uncertain whether

14、English will be the world language in the future.D) Spanish is very likely to become the top language of the world by 2050.（C）Passage ThreeQuestions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.17.A) Because they believe blind students prefer to mix with students who can see.B) Because it w

15、ould cost lots of money to build such special colleges.C) Because it would constitute discrimination against blind students.D) Because they think blind people should learn to live among sighted people.（D）18.A) By encouraging the to be more self-reliant.B) By showing them proper care and respect.C) B

16、y offering them more financial assistance.D) By providing them with free medical service.（A）19.A) Financial aid from the American government.B) Modern technology.C) Professional support.D) Help from the National Federation of the Blind.（B）20.A) Ask American professors to write recommendations on the

17、ir behalf.B) Obtain American citizenship before they reach the age of 30.C) Turn to special institutions in their own country for assistance.D) Apply to the national federation of the Blind for scholarships.（D）Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)Directions:There are 4 passages in this part. Ea

18、ch passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A) B) C) and D).You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 21 to 25 are based on th

19、e following passage.Each summer, no matter how pressing my work schedule, I take off one day exclusively for my son. We call it dad-son day. This year our third stop was the amusement park, where be discovered that he was tall enough to ride one of the fastest roller coasters (过山车) in the world. We

20、blasted through face-stretching turns and loops for ninety seconds. Then, as we stepped off the ride, be shrugged and, in a distressingly calm voice, remarked that it was not as exciting as other rides hed been on. As I listened, I began to sense something seriously out of balance.Throughout the sea

21、son, I noticed similar events all around me. Parents seemed hard pressed to find new thrills for indifferent kids. Surrounded by ever-greater stimulation, their young faces were looking disappointed and bored.Facing their childrens complaints of “nothing to do“, parents were shelling out large numbe

22、rs of dollars for various forms of entertainment. In many cases the money seemed to do little more than buy transient relief from the terrible moans of their bored children. This set me pondering the obvious question:“ How can it be so hard for kids to find something to do when theres never been suc

23、h a range of stimulating entertainment available to them?”What really worries me is the intensity of the stimulation. I watch my little daughters face as she absorbs the powerful onslaught (冲击) of arousing visuals and bloody special effects in movies.Why do children immersed in this much excitement

24、seem starved for more? That was, I realized, the point. I discovered during my own reckless adolescence that what creates excitement is not going fast, but going faster. Thrills have less to do with speed than changes in speed.Im concerned about the cumulative effect of years at these levels of feve

25、rish activity. It is no mystery to me why many teenagers appear apathetic (麻木的) and burned out, with a “been there, done that” air of indifference toward much of life. As increasing numbers of friends children are prescribed medications-stimulants to deal with inattentiveness at school or anti-depre

26、ssants to help with the loss of interest and joy in their lives-I question the role of kids boredom in some of the diagnoses.My own work is focused on the chemical imbalances and biological factors related to behavioral and emotional disorders. These are complex problems. Yet Ive been reflecting mor

27、e and more on how the pace of life and the intensity of stimulation may be contributing to the rising rates of psychiatric problems among children and adolescents in our society.21.The author tell surprised in the amusement park at fact that _.A) his son was not as thrilled by the roller coasters ri

28、de as expectedB) his son blasted through the turns and loops with his face stretchedC) his son appeared distressed but calm while riding the roller coastersD) his son could keep his balance so well on the fast moving roller coasters（A）22.According to the author, children are bored _.A) unless their

29、parents can find new thrills for themB) when they dont have any access to stimulating fun gamesC) when they are left alone at weekends by their working parentsD) even if they are exposed to more and more kinds of entertainment（D）23.From his own experience, the author came to the conclusion that chil

30、dren seem to expect _.A) a much wider variety of sports facilitiesB) activities that require sophisticated skillsC) ever-changing thrilling forms of recreationD) physical exercises that are more challenging（C）24.In Para 6 the author expresses his doubt about the effectiveness of trying to change chi

31、ldrens indifference toward much of life by _.A) diverting their interest from electronic visual gamesB) prescribing medications for their temporary reliefC) creating more stimulating activities for themD) spending more money on their entertainment（B）25.In order to alleviate childrens boredom, the au

32、thor would probably suggest _.A) adjusting the pace of life and intensity of stimulationB) promoting the practice of dad-son daysC) consulting a specialist in child psychologyD) balancing school work with extracurricular activities（A）Passage TwoQuestions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.I

33、t used to be that people were proud to work for the same company for the whole of their working lives. Theyd get a gold watch at the end of their productive years and a dinner featuring speeches by their bosses praising their loyalty. But todays rich capitalists have regressed (倒退) to the “survival

34、of the fittest” ideas and their loyalty extends not to their workers or even to their stockholders but only to themselves. Instead of giving out gold watches worth a hundred or so dollars for forty or so years of word, they grab tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars as they sell for their ow

35、n profit the company they may have been with for only a few years.The new rich selfishly act on their own to unfairly grab the wealth that the country as a whole has produced. The top 1 percent of the population now has wealth equal to the whole bottom 95 percent and they want more. Their selfishnes

36、s is most shamelessly expressed in downsizing and outsourcing (将产品包给分公司做) because these business maneuvers dont act to created new jobs as the founder of new industries used to do, but only out jobs while keeping the money value of what those jobs produced for themselves.To keep the money machine wo

37、rking smoothly the rich have bought all the politicians from the top down. The president himself is constantly leaving Washington and the business at the nation because he is summoned to “fundraising dinners” where fat cats pay a thousand or so dollars a plate to worm their way into government not t

38、hrough service but through donations of vast amounts of money. Once on the inside they have both political parties busily tearing up all the regulations that protect the rest of us from the greed of the rich.The middle class used to be loyal to the free enterprise system. In the past, the people of

39、the middle class mostly thought theyd be rich themselves someday or have a good shot at becoming rich. But nowadays income is being distributed more and more unevenly and corporate loyalty is a thing of the past. The middle class may also wake up to forget its loyalty to the so-called free enterpris

40、e system altogether and the government which governs only the rest of us while letting the corporations do what they please with our jobs. As things stand, if somebody doesnt wake up, the middle class is on a path to being downsized all the way to the bottom of society.26.It can be inferred from the

41、 first paragraph that people used to place a high value on _.A) job securityB) bosses praiseC) corporate loyaltyD) retirement benefits（C）27.The author is strongly critical of todays rich capitalists for _.A) not giving necessary assistance to laid-off workersB) maximizing their profits at the expens

42、e of workersC) not setting up long-term goals for their companiesD) rewarding only those who are considered the fittest（B）28.The immediate consequence of the new capitalists practice is _.A) loss of corporate reputationB) lower pay for the employeesC) a higher rate of unemploymentD) a decline in bus

43、iness transactions（C）29.The rich try to sway the policy of the government by _.A) occupying important positions in both political partiesB) making monetary contributions to decision-makersC) pleasing the public with generous donationsD) constantly hosting fundraising dinners（B）30.What is the authors

44、 purpose in writing this passage?A) to call on the middle class to remain loyal to the free enterprise systemB) to warn the government of the shrinking of the American middle classC) to persuade the government to change its current economic policiesD) to urge the middle class to wake up and protect

45、their own interests（D）Passage ThreeQuestions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.Intel chairman Andy Grove has decided to cut the Gordian knot of controversy surrounding stem cell research by simply writing a check.The check, which he pledged last week, could be for as much as 55 million, de

46、pending on how many donors make gifts of between 550,000 and 5,500,000, which he has promised to match. It will be made out to the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF).Thanks in part to such private donations, university research into uses for human stem cellsthe cells at the earliest stage

47、s of development that can form any body partwill continue in California. With private financial support, the state will be less likely to lose talented scientists who would be tempted to leave the field or even leave the country as research dependent on federal money slows to glacial (极其缓慢的) pace.Hi

48、ndered by limits President Bush placed on stem cell research a year age, scientists are turning to laboratories that can carry out work without using federal money. This is awkward for universities, which must spend extra money building separate labs and keeping rigor cots records proving no federal

49、 funds were involved. Groves donation, a first step toward a $20 million target at UCSF, will ease the burden.The presidents decision a year ago to allow research on already existing stem cell lines was portrayed as a reasonable compromise between scientists needs for cells to work with, and concern

50、s that this kind of research could lead to wholesale creation and destruction of human embryos (胚胎), cloned infants and a general contempt for human life.But Bushs effort to please both sides ended up pleasing neither. And it certainly didnt provide the basis for cutting edge research. Of the 78 exi

51、sting stem cell lines which Bush said are all that science would ever need, only one is in this country (at the University of Wisconsin) and only five are ready for distribution to researchers. All were grown in conjunction with mouse cells, making future therapeutic (治疗的) uses unlikely.The Bush adm

52、inistration seems bent on satisfying the small but vocal group of Americans who oppose stem cell research under any conditions. Fortunately, Grove and others are more interested in advancing scientific research that could benefit the large number of Americans who suffer from Parkinsons disease, nerv

53、e injuries, heart diseases and many other problems.31.When Andy Grove decided to cut the Gordian knot, he meat to _.A) put an end to stem cell researchB) end Intels relations with GordianC) settle the dispute on stem cell research quicklyD) expel Gordian from stem cell research for good（C）32.For UCS

54、F to carry on stem cell research, new funds have to come from _.A) interested businesses and individualsB) the United States federal governmentC) a foundation set up by the Intel CompanyD) executives of leading American companies（A）33.As a result of the limit Bust placed on stem cell research. Ameri

55、can universities will _.A) conduct the research in laboratories overseasB) abandon the research altogether in the near futureC) have to carry out the research secretlyD) have to raise money to build separate labs（D）34.We may infer from the passage that future therapeutic uses of stem cells will be u

56、nlikely unless _.A) human stem cells are used in the researchB) a lot more private donations can be securedC) more federal money is used for the researchD) talented scientists are involved in the research（A）35.The reason lying behind President Bushs placing limits on stem cell research is that _.A)

57、his administration is financially pinchedB) he did not want to offend its opponentsC) it amounts to a contempt for human lifeD) it did not promise any therapeutic value（B）Passage FourQuestions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.This looks like the year that hard-pressed tenants in Californi

58、a will relief-not just in the marketplace, where tents have eased, but from the state capital Sacramento.Two significant tenant reforms stand a good chance of passage. One bill, which will give more time to tenants being evicted (逐出), will soon be heading to the governors desk. The other, protecting security deposits, faces a vote in the Senate on Monday.For more than