英语六级阅读理解试题精选（附答案）

1、英语六级阅读理解试题精选附答案The standard of living of any country means the average persons share of the goods and services which the country produces. A countrys standard of living, therefore, depends first and foremost on its capacity to produce wealth. Wealth in this sense is not money, for we do not live on

2、money but on things that money can buy: goods such as food and clothing, and services such as transport and entertainment.A countrys capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of which have an effect on one another. Wealth depends to a great extent upon a countrys natural resources,

3、such as coal, gold, and other minerals, water supply and so on. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and have a fertile soil and a favorable climate; other regions possess perhaps only one of these things, and some regions possess none of them. The U. S. A is one of th

4、e wealthiest regions of the world because she has vast natural resources within her borders, her soil is fertile, and her climate is varied. The Sahara Desert, on the other hand, is one of the least wealthy.Next to natural resources comes the ability to turn them to use. China is perhaps as well off

5、 as the U. S. A. in natural resources, but suffered for many years from civil and external wars, and for this and other reasons was. unable to develop her resources. Sound and stable political conditions, and freedom from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully

6、 and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well served by nature but less well ordered. Another important factor is the technical efficiency of a countrys people. Old countries that have, through many centuries, trained up numerous skilled craftsmen and technicians are be

7、tter placed to produce wealth than countries whose workers are largely unskilled. Wealth also produces wealth. As a country becomes wealthier, its people have a large margin for saving, and can put their savings into factories and machines which will help workers to turn out more goods in their work

8、ing day.1. A countrys wealth depends upon_. ,A. its standard of livingB. its moneyC. its ability to provide goods and servicesD. its ability to provide transport and entertainment2. The word foremost means_.A. most importantly B. firstlyC. largely D. for the most part3. The main idea of the second p

9、aragraph is that_.A. a countrys wealth depends on many factorsB. the U. S. A. is one of the wealthiest countries in the worldC. the Sahara Desert is a very poor regionD. natural resources are an important factor in the wealth or poverty of a country4. The third paragraph mentions some of the advanta

10、ges which one country may have over another in making use of its resources. How many such advantages are mentioned in this paragraph?A. 2 B. 3C. 4 D. 55. The second sentence.in Paragraph 3 is_.A. the main idea of the paragraphB. an example supporting the main idea of the paragraphC. the conclusion o

11、f the paragraphD. not related to the paragraph1. C 2. A 3. A 4. B 5. BThe productivity of Americans employed in private businesses has declined. The productivity of workers in countries such as Japan and Germany is increasing. American machine tools, on average, are old, relatively inefficient, and

12、rapidly becoming obsolete, whereas those of our competitors overseas, in comparison, are newer and more efficient. We are no longer the most productive workers in the world. We are no longer the leaders in industrial innovation (革新). We are an immenselywealthy nation of educated men and women who se

13、em to have lost sight of the fact that everythingfrom the simplest necessities to the finest luxuriesmust be produced through our own collective hard work. We have come to expect automatic increases in our collective standard of living, but we seem to have forgotten that these increases are possible

14、 only when our productivity continues to grow.One thing that must change is the rate at which we substitute capital equipment for human labor. Simply put, our labor force has increased at a far greater rate than has our stock of capital investment. We seem to have forgotten that our past productivit

15、y gains, to a large extent, were realized from substitutions of capital for human labor. Today, 3 times as many robots are listed as capital assets by Japanese firms as by United States firms.There is no doubt that robots will become a common sight in American factories. Representing a new generatio

16、n of technology, robots will replace factory labor much as the farm tractor replaced the horse. Robot technology has much to offer. It offers higher levels of productivity and quality at lower costs; in promises to free men and women from the dull, repetitious toil of the factory, it is likely to ha

17、ve an impact on society comparable to that made by the growth of computer technology.1. The word obsolete(Para. 1) most probably means_.A. weak B. oldC. new D. out of date2. The author is anxious about_.A. his people no longer taking the lead in industrial innovationB. his country no longer being a

18、wealthy nationC. his people forgetting to raise their productivityD. his country falling behind other industrial nations3. According to the author, in his country_.A. the proportion of labor force to capital investment is quite lowB. the growth rate of labor force should be greater than that of capi

19、tal investmentC. the productivity increases should be achieved by the increases of labor forceD. capital investment should have increased more rapidly than labor force4. So far as the influence on society is concerned, _.A. robot technology seems to be much more promising than computer technologyB.

20、computer technology has less to offer than robot technologyC. robot technology can be compared with computer technologyD. robot technology cannot be compared with computer technology5. The purpose of the author in writing this passage is to show that_.A. robots will help increase labor productivityB

21、. robots will rule American factoriesC. robots are cheaper than human laborersD. robots will finally replace humans in factories1. D 2. C 3. D 4. C 5. APronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately pr

22、oficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the pr

23、oblem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skillone that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itsel

24、f. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepa

25、red to devote some of the lesson time to this, and should get the student to feel that here is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.Apart from this q

26、uestion of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books

27、 some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the te

28、acher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted.26. What does the writer actually say about pronouncing foreign languages?A. Only a few people are really proficient.B. No o

29、ne is really an expert in the skill.C. There arent many people who are even fairly good.D. There are even some people who are moderately proficient.27. The writer argues that going about the problem of pronunciation in the wrong way isA. an obvious cause of not grasping the problem correctlyB. a fun

30、damental consequence of not speaking wellC. a consequence of not grasping the problem correctlyD. not an obvious cause of speaking poorly28. The best way of learning to speak a foreign language, he suggests, is by_.A. picking it up naturally as a childB. learning from a native speakerC. not concentr

31、ating on pronunciation as suchD. undertaking systematic work29. The value the student puts on correct speech habits depends upon_.A. how closely he attends to the matterB. whether it is English that is being taughtC. his teachers approach to pronunciationD. the importance normally given to grammar a

32、nd spelling30. How might the teacher find himself wasting lesson time?A. By spending lesson time on pronunciation.B. By making ill-informed comments upon pronunciation.C. By not using books on phonetics in the classroom.D. By not giving students a clear mental picture of the difference between sound

33、s.An industrial society, especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain, is heavily dependant on certain essential services: for instance, electricity supply, water, rail and road transport, the harbors. The area of dependency has widened to include removing rubbish, hospital and

34、ambulance services, and, as the economy develops, central computer and information services as well. If any of these services ceases to operate, the whole economic system is in danger.It is this interdependency of the economic system that makes the power of trade unions such an important issue. Sing

35、le trade unions have the ability to cut off many economic blood supplies. This can happen more easily in Britain than in some other countries, in part because the labor force is highly organized. About 55 per cent of British workers belong to unions, compared to under a quarter in the United States.

36、 For historical reasons, Britains unions have tended to develop along trade and occupational lines, rather than on an industry-by-industry basis, which makes wage policy, democracy in industry and the improvement of procedures for fixing wage levels difficult to achieve.There are considerable strain

37、s and tensions in the trade union movement, some of them arising from their outdated and inefficient structure. Some unions have lost many members because of industrial changes. Others are involved in arguments about who should represent workers in new trades. Unions for skilled trades are separate

38、from general unions, which means that different levels of wages for certain jobs are often a source of bad feeling between unions. In traditional trades which are being pushed out of existence by advancing technologies, unions can fight for their members disappearing jobs to the point where the jobs

39、 of other unions members are threatened or destroyed. The printing of newspapers both in the United States and in Britain has frequently been halted by the efforts of printers to hold on to their traditional highly-paid jobs.1. Why is the question of trade union power important in Britain?A. The eco

40、nomy is very much interdependent.B. Unions have been established a long time.C. There are more unions in Britain than elsewhere.D. There are many essential services.2. Because of their out-of-date organization some unions find it difficult to_.A. change as industries change B. get new members to joi

41、n themC. learn new technologies D. bargain for high enough wages3. Disagreements arise between unions because some of themA. try to win over members of other unionsB. ignore agreementsC. protect their own members at the expense of othersD. take over other unions jobs4. It is difficult to improve the

42、 procedures for fixing wage levels because_.A. some industries have no unionsB. unions are not organized according to industriesC. only 55 per cent of workers belong to unionsD. some unions are too powerful5. Which of the following is NOT TRUE?A. There are strains and tensions in the trade union mov

43、ement.B. Some unions have lost many members.C. Some unions exist in the outdated structure.D. A higher percentage of American workers belong to unions than that of British workers.1. A 2. A 3. C 4. B 5. DIts a hot summer day, and you, your family, and friends decide to drive to the beach for a cooko

44、ut.When you get to the beach, the sand and the rocks are so hot that they hurt your bare feet. You put on sneakers in a hurry. The water is so bright and shining in the sun that you can hardly look at it. While the charcoal (木炭) fire is starting to burn in the cookout stove, every one goes for a swi

45、m. The water feels goodwarm at the top, but cooler down around your toes.A little wind is blowing when you come out. The fire isnt quite ready for cooking yet, so you play tag (儿童捉人游戏) or read.For lunch there are hot dog, corn, salad and rolls, sodas, fruit, and coffee for the adults. By the time th

46、e coffee water boils and the corn and hot dogs are cooked, all the bathing suits are dry. So are the towels spread out on the rocks, in the sun.Lunch is good. Just as you are finishing, it starts to rain so you pack up and run. But nobody minds the rain. It will cool things off.At the same time you

47、were having fun at the beach, work was being done. Energy from the sun was doing work. Energy, in one form or another, does all the work in the world.Heat energy from the sun dried the towels. It heated the sand and the rocks, the water and the air. It even made the rain and the wind. Heat from the

48、sun does small work and big work, all over the earth.Light energy from the sun was working on the beach too. It supplied the daylight.It lit the earth and made the sand bright and the water sparkling.The sun also supplied the energy that grew the food you ate.Plants use light energy from the sun to

49、make food for themselves. The food is a kind of sugar. It is also a kind of energy called chemical energy. Green plants change light energy from the sun into chemical energy.Plants use some of that energy for everyday living and growing. They store the rest in their leaves and seeds, in fruit, roots

50、, stems, and berries.The salad and the corn, the rolls, fruit, and coffee all came from plants. You and all animals depend on plants for food.The charcoal you used for cooking began as a plant too. Once, that charcoal was a living tree that used sunlight to make food and then stored part of the food

51、 it made. The energy in this stored food remained, even after the tree died. You used that energy when you burned the charcoal.The gasoline you used for driving to the beach began with energy from the sun, too. It was made from oil.Oil was formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived on

52、earth millions of years ago. The remains of ancient living things are called fossils. This is why oil is called a fossil fuel. Coal and natural gas are fossil fuels, too.Now fossil fuels are beginning to be used up.Thats why people worry about running out of energy.But as long as the sun shines, the

53、 earth will not run out of energy. The sun pours more energy on earth than we can ever use. Most of that energy comes to us as heat and light. Energy from the sun is called solar energy.Solar energy is a safe kind of energy. It doesnt make pollution or have dangerous leftovers. That is why scientist

54、s and inventors are experimenting with ways of harnessing the sun to do some of the jobs fossil fuels have been doing.But to make the sun do work like that, they have to solve some problems.They have to collect the suns energy. Collecting sunshine isnt easy, unless you are a plant.Sunshine isnt easy

55、 to store, either. You cant fill a tank with it or put it in the wood box. You cant move it through a pipe or a wire. You cant turn it on.Still, people have been using solar energy to help do their work for a long time. There are old ways and new ways of catching sunshine and putting it to work.Supp

56、ose you were living in a cold place and going to spend the winter in a cave. Would you choose a cave that faced the winter sun or a cave that faced away from it?You might make the same choice if you were building a house in a cold place. You would probably build the house, so the winter sun would po

57、ur in the windows to warm it. People have been building houses that way for a long time.Is it possible to catch still more of the suns heat in a house? Yes, Some houses also collect heat on the roof, move it indoors, store some, use some to make hot water and the rest for heating. A house like that

58、is called a solar house.People who build solar houses have learned how to do those things by observing how the earth itself uses solar energy.Remember the beach?Remember the hot sand and the hot rocks?Some materials take in heat energy from the sun and hold it. They absorb the heat. Sand and rocks d

59、o this. So do some other solid materials, such as metals. Water absorbs the suns heat too.Color can also be important. Dark, dull colors absorb heat. Light-colored, shiny surfaces reflect heat. They bounce it back. Thats why dark clothes are warmer in the winter and light colored clothes are cooler

60、in the summer.The longer it takes something to heat up, the longer that thing holds the heat. Materials that heat up fast cool off fast.If you go back to the beach in the evening after sunset, the sand and the rocks, which heated up fast, will be cool. But the water, which heated up slowly, will sti