2017年12月英语六级真题(第三套)
Part I
Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessaycommenting
on the saying “Respect others, and you will be respected”. You can
cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150
words but no more than 200 words.
Part II
Listening Comprehension
(30 minutes)
卷三听力部分与卷二相同
Part III
Reading Comprehension
(40 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there isa passagewithten blanks.Youarerequired
toselectonewordforeachblankfromalistofchoicesgiveninaword
bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before
makingyourchoices.Eachchoiceinthebankisidentifiedbyaletter.
PleasemarkthecorrespondingletterforeachitemonAnswerSheet2with
a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in
the bank more than once.
Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and
Germany has just stated that they plan to ban the sales of vehicles using gasoline
and diesel as fuel by 2030. The country is also planning to reduce its carbon
footprint by 80-95% by 2050, ___26___ a shift to green energy in the country.
Effectively, the ban will include the registration of new cars in the country as
they will not allow any gasoline ___27___ vehicle to be registered after 2030.
Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and ___28___ is because energy
officials see that they will not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not
___29___ a large portion of vehicle emissions. The country is still ___30___ that
it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the
___31___ of electric cars in the country has not occurred as fast as expected.
Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build
over 1 million hybrid and electric car battery charging stations across the country.
By 2030, Germany plans on having over 6 million charging stations ___32___. According
to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase
as Volkswagen is still recovering from its emissions scandal.
There are ___33___ around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on
German roads, dwarfed by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now.
As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to
be taken to have a ___34___ effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts
are certainly not ___35___, the results of such bans will likely only start to be
seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡 2 上作答。
I) incidentally
J) installed
K) noticeable
L) powered
M) restoration
N) skeptical
O) sparking
A) acceptance
B) currently
C) disrupting
D) eliminate
E) exhaust
F) futile
G) hopeful
H) implemented
Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements
attachedtoit.Eachstatementcontainsinformationgiveninoneofthe
paragraphs.Identifytheparagraphfromwhichtheinformationisderived.
Youmaychooseaparagraphmorethanonce.Eachparagraphismarkedwith
a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on
Answer Sheet 2.
Apple’s Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Teach Industry
[A] The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a
terrorist’s smartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between
the technology industry and the United States government.
[B] After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J.
Snowden in 2013 that the government both coziedupto(讨好) certain tech companies
and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, tech
giants began to recognize the United States government as a hostile actor. But if
the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading
toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are destined
to emerge victorious.
[C] It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United
States government’s mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the
most sympathetic sort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer’s phone. The
action stems from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the
two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.
[D] In the other corner is the world’s most valuable company, whose chief executive,
Timothy Cook, has said he will appeal the court’s order. Apple argues that it is
fighting to preserve a principle that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones
can defend: Weaken a single iPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American
government and you risk weakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.
[E] There will probably be months of legal confrontation, and it is not at all clear
which side will prevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative
favor. Yet underlying all of this is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and
other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data,
and their businesses depend on the global public’s collective belief that they will
do everything they can to protect that data.
[F] Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate
worldwide. If Apple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement
investigation, what is to prevent it from doing so for a request from the Russians
or the Iranians? If Apple is forced to write code that lets the FBI get into the
Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the male attacker in the San Bernardino attack,
who would be responsible if some hacker got hold of that code and broke into its
other devices?
[G] Apple’s stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started
putting in place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption(加
密) to limit access to people’s data. More than that, Apple, and, in different ways,
other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft, have made
their opposition to the government’s claims a point of corporate pride.
[H] Apple’s emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputation,
not to mention the investment of considerable technical and financial resources,
on limiting the sort of mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now,
for many cases involving governmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy
advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.
[I]“A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption,” said Kurt Opsahl,
general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group.
“Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest companies in
the world coming out with a lengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from
Timothy Cook. Its profile has really been raised.”
[J] Apple and other tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep
making their devices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple’s public
opposition to the government’s request is itself a hindrance to mass government
intrusion. And to get at the contents of a single iPhone, the government says it
needs a court order and Apple’s help to write new code; in earlier versions of the
iPhone, ones that were created before Apple foundreligionon(热衷于) privacy, the
FBI may have been able to break into the device by itself.
[K] You can expect that noose(束缚) to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether
or not Apple loses this specific case, measures that it could put into place in the
future will almost certainly be able to further limit the government’s reach.
[L] That’s not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant.
As Apple and several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write
software that gives the FBI access to the iPhone in question would establish an
unsettling precedent. The order essentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and
once it is in place, the precedent could be used to justify law enforcement efforts
to get around encryption technologies in other investigations far removed from
national security threats.
[M] Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could
ask to use it proactively(先发制人地), before a suspected terrorist attack—leaving
Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations
nightmare. “This is a brand-new move in the war against encryption,” Mr. Opsahl
said. “We’ve had plenty of debates in Congress and the media over whether the
government should have a backdoor, and this is an endrun(迂回战术) aroundthat—here
they come with an order to create that backdoor.”
[N] Yet it’s worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has
plenty of technical means to close a backdoor over time. “If they’re anywhere near
worth their salt as engineers, I bet they’re rethinking their threat model as we
speak,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, a digital expert who studies the iPhone and its
vulnerabilities.
[O] One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future
versions of the iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will
accept the sort of modified operating system that the FBI wants Apple to create.
That way, Apple could not unilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone—a
user would have to consent to it.
[P]“Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof,” Mr. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out
that the judge’s order in this case required Apple to provide “reasonable security
assistance” to unlock Mr. Farook’s phone. If Apple alters the security model of
future iPhones so that even its own engineers’ “reasonable assistance” will not
be able to crack a given device when compelled by the government, a precedent set
in this case might lose its lasting force. In other words, even if the F.B.I. wins
this case, in the long run, it loses.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡 2 上作答。
36. It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their
customers’ private data.
37. The US government believes that its access to people’s iPhones could be used
to prevent terrorist attacks.
38. A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a terrorist’s iPhone.
39. Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government
access to personal data.
40. Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private
data on a massive scale.
41. The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without
Apple’s help.
42. After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government
intrusion into personal data by means of encryption.
43. According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.
44. Timothy Cook’s long web post has helped enhance Apple’s image.
45. Apple’s CEO has decided to appeal the federal court’s order to unlock a user’s
iPhone.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by
somequestionsorunfinishedstatements.Foreachofthemtherearefour
choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice
and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line
through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
At the base of a mountain in Tanzania’s Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright
red, surrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into
the salty water. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in
which they perished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The
lake’s landscape is bizarre and deadly—and made even more so by the fact that it’s
the place where nearly 75percent of the world’s flamingos(火烈鸟) are born.
The water is so corrosive that it can burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals.
Flamingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of
all that death. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake
is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed. Three-quarters of the
world’s flamingos fly over from other salt lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on
salt-crystal islands that appear when the water is at specific level—too high and
the birds can’t build their nests, too low and predators can more briskly across
the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level,the baby birds are kept
safe form predators by a corrosive ditch.
“Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate
the salt water,” says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester.
“Humans cannot, and would die if their legs were exposed for any length of time.”
So far this year, water levels have been too high for the flamingos to nest.
Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty
lagoons (泻湖) form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron.
Three species of tilapia (罗非鱼) thrive there part-time. “Fish have a refuge in
the streams and can expand into the lagoons when the lake is low and the lagoons
are separate,” Harper said. “All the lagoons join when the lake is high and fish
must retreat to their stream refuges or die.” Otherwise, no fish are able to survive
in the naturally toxic lake.
This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has
once again started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass
and detergents. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles
away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could
still upset the natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now, though, life
prevails—even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡 2 上作答。
46. What can we learn about Lake Natron?
A) It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.
B) It remains little known to the outside world.
C) It is a breeding ground for a variety of birds.
D) It makes an ideal habitat for lots of predators.
47. Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their
babies can ______.
A) find safe shelter more easily
B) grow thick feathers on their feet
C) stay away from predators
D) get accustomed to the salty water
48. Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that _______.
A) they can move swiftly across lagoons
B) they can survive well in salty water
C) they breed naturally in corrosive ditches
D) they know where and when to nest
49. Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?
A) They can take refuge in the less salty waters.
B) They can flee quick enough from predators.
C) They can move freely from lagoon to lagoon.
D) They can stand the heat of the spring water.
50. What may be the consequence of Tanzanian government’s planned operation?
A) The accelerated extinction of flamingos.
B) The change of flamingos’ migration route.
C) The overmining of Lake Natron’s soda ash.
D) The disruption of Lake Natron’s ecosystem.
Passage two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
It is the season for some frantic last-minute math—across the country,
employees of all stripes are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how
much paid time-off they have left it their reserves. More of them, though, will skip
those calculations altogether and just power through the holidays into 2017: More
than half of American workers don’t use up all of their allotted vacation days each
year.
Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of
dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and
Anat Keinan recently explained in HarvardBusinessReview (HBR), leisure time was
once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those
at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the
opposite way—these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are
seen as the mark of someone important.
In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much
we’ve come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read
two passages, on about a man who led a life of leisure and another about a man who
was over-worked and over-scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had
a higher social status, the majority of the participants said the latter. The same
held true for people who used products that implied they were short on time: In one
experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery service Peapod were seen
as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally
expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further
up on the social ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were
just used to listen to music.
In part, the authors wrote in HBR, this pattern may have to do with the way
work itself has changed over the past several decades.
We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to busyness-as-status may be
linked to the development of knowledge-intensive economies. In such economies,
individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or clients
value (e.g., competence and ambition) are expected to be in high demand and short
supply on the job market. Thus, by telling others that we are busy and working all
the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our
perceived status.