完整版2018年12月6級真題第二套

1、2018年12月大學英語六級考試真題（第2套）Part IWriti ng(30 min utes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on how to balanee job responsibilities and personal interests. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part IIIReadi ng Comprehe nsion(40 minu tes)Seetio n

2、 ADirections: In this seetion, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices.Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Pl

3、ease mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2with a sin gle line through the cen tre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more tha n once.Questi ons 26 to 35 are based on the follow ing passageSurfing the Internet duri ng class does nft just steal focus from the educato

4、r; it also hurts stude nts whore already struggli ng to 26 the material. A new study from Michiga n State Uni versity, though, argues that allstude nts in cludi ng high achievers see a decli ne in performa nee whe n they browse the Internet duri ng class for non-academic purposes.500 stude nts tak i

5、ng anTo measure the effects of Intern et-based distracti ons duri ng class, researchers 27in troductory psychology class at Michiga n State Uni versity. Researchers used ACT scores as a measure of in tellectual 28 . Because previous research has shown that people with high intellectual abilities are

6、 better at 29 out distracti ons, researchers believed stude nts with high ACT scores would not show a 30 decrease in performa nee due to their use of digital devices. But stude nts who surfed the web duri ng class did worse on their exams regardless of their ACT scores, suggest ing that even the aca

7、demically smartest stude nts are harmed whe n the/re distracted in classCollege professors are in creas in gly 31 alarm bells about the effects smartpho nes, laptops, and tablets have on academic performa nee. One 2013 study of college stude nts found that 80% of stude nts use their phones or laptop

8、s duri ng class, with the average stude nt check ing their digital device 11 times in a 32 class. A quarter of stude nts report that their use of digital devices duri ng class causes their grades to 33stude nts use of digital devices, and some in structorsProfessors sometimes impleme nt policies des

9、ig ned to 34even confiscate (沒收)tablets and phones. In a world where people are increasingly dependent on their phones, though, such strategies ofte n fail. One intern ati onal study found that 84% of people say they could nt go a day without their smartph on es. Un til stude nts are able to 35 the

10、pull of social n etwork ing, text ing, and en dlessly surfi ng the web, they may continue to struggle in their classes.A)aptitudeI) obscureB)eradicati onJ)obsessC) evaluatedK) raisi ngD)evaporatedL) resistE)filteri ngM) significantF)graspN) sufferG)legacyO) typicalH) mi ni mizeSeetio n BDirectio ns:

11、 In this seeti on, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement con tains informatio n given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter

12、. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on An swer Sheet 2.A Pioneering Woman of Scienee Re-Emerges after 300 YearsA Maria Sibylla Merian, like many European women of the 17th century, stayed busy managing a household and rearing childre n. But on top of that, Meria n, a Germa n-b

13、om woman who lived in the Netherla nds, also man aged a successful career as an artist, botanist, naturalist and entomologist （昆蟲學家）.B “ She was a scientist on the level with a lot of people we spend a lot of time talking about, n said Kay Etheridge, a biologist at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania

14、 who has been studying the scientific history of Merian !s work. “ She didnt do as much to change biology as Charles Darwin, but she was significant. ”C At a time when natural history was a valuable tool for discovery, Merian discovered facts about plants and insects that were not previously known.

15、Her observati ons helped dismiss the popular belief that in sects spontan eously emerged from mud. Theknowledge she collected over decades didnt just satisfy those curious about nature, but also provided valuable insights into medicine and scie nee. She was the first to bring together in sects and t

16、heir habitats, i ncludi ng food they ate, into a single ecological compositi on.D After years of pleasing a fascinated audienee across Europe with books of detailed descriptions and life-size paintings of familiar in sects, in 1699 she sailed with her daughter n early 5,000 miles from the Netherland

17、s to South America to study insects in the jungles of what is now known as Suriname. She was 52 years old. The result was her masterpiece, Metamorphosis InsectorumSuri name nsium.E In her work, she revealed a side of n ature so exotic, dramatic and valuable to Europea ns of the time that she receive

18、d much acclaim. But a century later, her findings came under scientific criticism. Shoddy （粗糙的） reproductions of her work along with setbacks to womerfs roles in 18th- and 19th-century Europe resulted in her efforts being largely forgotten. “It was kind of stunning whe n she sort of dropped off into

19、 oblivion （遺忘） J said Dr. Etheridge. “ Victoria ns started putti ng wome n in a box, and theyre still trying to crawl out of it. nF Today, the pioneering woman of the sciences has re-emerged. In recent years, feminists, historians and artists have all praised Merianfs ten acity （堅韌）,tale nt and in s

20、pirati onal artistic compositi ons. And now biologists like Dr. Etheridge are digging into the scientific texts that accompanied her art. Three hundred years after her death, Merian will be celebrated at an international symposium in Amsterdam this June.G And last month, Metamorphosis Insectorum Sur

21、inamensium was republished. It contains 60 plates （插圖） and original descriptions, along with stories about Merianfs life and updated scientific descriptions. Before writing Metamorphosis, Merian spent decades docume nting Europea n plants and in sects that she published in a series of books. She beg

22、a n in her 20s, making textless, decorative pain tings of flowers with in sects “The n she got really serious, ” Dr. Etheridge said. Meria n started raising in sects at home, mostly butterflies and caterpillars. u She would sit up all night until they came out of the pupa （蛹） so she could draw them

23、she said.H The results of her decades1 worth of careful observatio ns were detailed paintin gs a nd descripti ons of Europea n in sects, followed by unconventional visuals and stories of in sects and animals from a land that most at the time could only imagi ne. I Vs possible Meria n used a magnifyi

24、 ng glass to capture the detail of the split ton gues of sphi nx moths （斯芬克 斯飛蛾） depicted in the pain ting. She wrote that the two tongues combine to form one tube for drinking nectar （花蜜）.Some criticized this detail later, saying there was just one tongue, but Merian wasnt wrong. She may have obser

25、ved the adult moth just as it emerged from its pupa. For a brief moment during that stage of its life cycle, the tongue consists of two tiny half-tubes before merging into one.I It may not have been ladylike to depict a giant spider devouring a hummingbird, but when Merian did it at the turn of the

26、18th cen tury, surprisi ngly, no body objected. Dr. Etheridge called it revolutio nary. The image, which also contained no vel descripti ons of ants, fascinated a European audienee that was more concerned with the exotic story unfolding before them than the gender of the person who painted it.J “ Al

27、l of these things shook up their nice, neat little view,” Dr. Etheridge said. But later, people of thethought differe ntly. Her work had bee n reproduced, sometimes in correctly. A few observati ons were deemed impossible.“ Shed been called a silly woman for saying that a spider could eat a bird,fri

28、end of Charles Darwin, observed it and put it in book in 1863, proving Merian was correct. K In the same plate, Merian depicted and described leaf- cutter ants for the first time.” Dr. Etheridge said. But Henr“ In America there are largwhich can eat whole trees bare as a broom handle in a single nig

29、ht, n she wrote in the description. Merian noted how the ants took the leaves below ground to their young. And she would nt have know n this at the time, but the ants use the leaves to farm fungi （菌類）underground to feed their developing babies.L Merian was correct about the giant bird-eating spiders

30、, ants building bridges with their bodies and other details. But in the same drawing, she incorrectly lumped together army and leaf-cutter ants. And instead of showing just the typical pair of eggs in a hummingbird nest, she painted four. She made other mistakes in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamen

31、sium as well: not every caterpillar and butterfly matchedMPerhaps one explanation for her mistakes is that she cut short her Suriname trip after getting sick, and completed the book at home in Amsterdam. And errors are comm on among some of histor/s most-celebrated scie ntific min ds, too. “ These e

32、rrors no more in validate Ms. Merianfs work than do well-k nown misconcepti ons published by Charles Darwin or Isaac Newton, ” Dr. Etheridge wrote in a paper that argued that too many have wrongly focused on the mistakes of her work.NMeria ns paintings in spired artists and ecologists. In an 1801 dr

33、awing from his book, Gen eral Zoology Amphibia, George Shaw, an English botanist and zoologist, credited Merian for describing a frog in the account of her South American expedition, and named the young tree frog after her in his portrayal of it. It would nt be fair to give Meria n all the credit. S

34、he received assista nee naming plants, maki ng sketches and ref ere ncing the work of others. Her daughters helped her color her drawings.OMerian also made note of the help she received from the natives of Suriname, as well as slaves or servants that assisted her. In some instan ces she wrote moving

35、 passages that in eluded her helpers in descripti ons. As she wrote in her descriptio n of the peacock flower, “ The Indians, who are not treated well by their Dutch masters, use the seedsr to abortchildren, so that they will not become slaves like themselves. The black slaves from Guin ea a nd Ango

36、la have dema nded to be well treated, threatening to refuse to have children. In fact, they sometimes take their own lives because they are treated so badly, and because they believe they will be born again, free and living in their own land. They told me this themse Ives. nPLonda Schiebinger, a pro

37、fessor of the history of scienee at Stanford University, called this passage rather astonishing. Ifs particularly striking centuries later when these issues are still prominent in public discussions about social justice and wo men 1 s rights.“ She was ahead of her time,n Dr. Etheridge said.36. Meria

38、n was the first scientist to study a type of American ant.37. The European audience was more interested in MeriarYs drawings than her gender.38. Merians masterpiece came under attack a century after its publication.39. Merian 1 s mistakes in her drawings may be attributed to her shortened stay in So

39、uth America.40. Merian often sat up the whole night through to observe and draw insects41 Meria n ack no wledged the help she got from n atives of South America.42. Merian contributed greatly to peoples better understanding of medicine and scienee.43. Meria n occasi on ally made mistakes in her draw

40、i ngs of insects and birds.44. Now, Merians role as a female forerunner in sciences has been re-established.45. Meria n made a long voyage to South America to study jungle in sects over three cen turies ago.Section CDirections: T here are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some

41、question 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 corresp on ding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.While

42、human achievements in mathematics continue to reach new levels of complexity, many of us who arent mathematicians at heart (or engineers by trade) may struggle to remember the last time we used calculus (微積分 ).It fs a fact not lost on American educators, who amid rising math failure rates are debati

43、ng how math can better meet the real-life needs of students. Should we change the way math is taught in schools, or eliminate some courses entirely?An drew Hacker, Queens College political science professor, thinks that adva need algebra and other higher-level math should be cut from curricula in fa

44、vor of courses with more routine usefulness, like statistics.“ We hear on all sides that we1 re not teachi ng eno ugh mathematics, and the Chinese are running rings around us,Hacker says. nsuggesti ng were teachi ng too much mathematics to too many people not everybody has to know calculus. If youre

45、 going to become an aeronautical (航空的)engineer, fine. But most of us arent”In stead, Hacker is pushi ng for more courses like the one he teaches at Quee ns College： Numeracy 101. There, his students of “ citizen statistics n learn to analyze public information like the federal budget and corporate r

46、eports. Such courses, Hacker argues, are a remedy for the numerical illiteracy of adults who have completed high-level math like algebra but are unable to calculate the price of, say, a carpet by area.Hackers argument has met with opposition from other math educators who say whaVs needed is to help

47、students develop a better relati on ship with math earlier, rather than teaching them less math altogether.Maria Droujkova is a founder of Natural Math, and has taught basic calculus concepts to 5-year-olds. For Droujkova, high-level math is imports nt, and what it could use in America n classrooms

48、is an in jecti on of childlike won der.“ Make mathematics more available, ” Droujkova says. u Redesign it so its more accessible to more kinds of people: young children, adults who worry about it, adults who may have had bad experiences. ”Pamela Harris, a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austi

49、n, has a similar perspective. Harris says that American education is suffering from an epidemic of“fake math” 一an emphasis on rote memorization (死記召更背)of formulas andsteps, rather than an understanding of how math can influence the ways we see the world.An drew Hacker, for the record, remai ns skept

50、ical.“ Im going to leave it to those who are in mathematics to work out the ways to make their subject interesting and exciting so stude nts want to take it, Hacker says. “ All that I ask is that alter natives be offered in stead of putti ng all of us on the road to calculus. nC)lt doesnft help stud

51、ents develop their literacy.has hardly been any innovation for years.48. What does Andrew Hackers Numeracy 101 aim to do?A) Allow students to learn high-level math step by step. C)Lay a solid foundation for advanced math studies.B) Enable students to make practical use of basic math. D)Help students

52、 to develop their analytical46. What does the author say about ordinary America ns?A)C)They find high-level math of little use.They struggle to solve math problems. B)They think math is a complex subject. D)They work hard to learn high-level math.47. What is the general complaint about Americas math

53、 education according to Hacker?A) America is not doing as well as China.B) Math professors are not doing a good job. D)There49. What does Maria Droujkova suggest math teachers do in class?A) Make complex con cepts easy to un derstand. B)Start teachi ng childrenmath at an early age.C) Help children w

54、ork wonders with calculus. D)Try to arouse students1curiosity in math.50. What does Pamela Harris think should be the goal of math education?A) To enable learners to understand the world better. B)To help learners to tell fake math from real math.C)To broaden America ns perspectives on math.D)To exe

55、rt in flue nee onworld development.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passageFor years, the U.S. has experienced a shortage of registered nurses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that while the number of n urses will in crease by 19 perce nt by 2022, dema nd will grow fa

56、ster tha n supply, and that there will be over one million unfilled nursing jobs by then.So whats the solution? Robots.Japan is ahead of the curve when it comes to this trend. Toyohashi University of Technology has developed Terapio, a robotic medical cart that can make hospital rounds, deliver medi

57、cations and other items, and retrieve records. It follows a specific individual, such as a doctor or nurse, who can use it to record and access patient data. This type of robot will likely be one of the first to be implemented in hospitals because it has fairly minimal patie nt con tact.Robots capab

58、le of social engagement help with loneliness as well as cognitive functioning, but the robot itself doesnft have to engage directlyit can serve as an intermediary for human communication. Telepresenee robots such as MantaroBot, Vgo, and face 1 woGiraff can be controlled through a computer, smartphone, or tablet, allowing family members or doctors to remotely monitor patients or Skype them, often via a screen where the robotsthe nursing home to visit gra ndma, you can use a teleprese nee robot to hang out with her. A 2016 study found that users had a “con si