2017年12月英语六级真题(第二套)
Part I
Writing
(30 minutes)
Directions: Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessaycommentingonthesaying
“Seek to understand others, and you will be understood”. You can cite examples
to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200
words.
Part II
Section A
Listening Comprehension
(30 minutes)
Directions: Inthissection,youwillheartwolongconversations.Attheendofeachconversation,
youwillhearfourquestions.Boththeconversationandthequestionswillbespoken
only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four
choicesmarkedA),B),C)andD). ThenmarkthecorrespondingletteronAnswerSheet
I with a single line through the centre.
1. A) Say a few words to thank the speaker.
B) Introduce the speaker to the audience.
C) Give a lecture on the history of the town.
D) Host a talk on how to give a good speech.
2. A) He was the founder of the local history society.
B) He has worked with Miss Bligh for 20 years.
C) He has published a book on public speaking.
D) He joined the local history society when young.
3. A) She was obviously better at talking than writing.
B) She had a good knowledge of the town's history.
C) Her speech was so funny as to amuse the audience.
D) Her ancestors came to the town in the 18th century.
4. A) He read exactly what was written in his notes.
B) He kept forgetting what he was going to say.
C) He made an embarrassing remark.
D) He was too nervous to speak up
Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
5. A) What their retailers demand.
B) What their rivals are doing.
C) How they are going to beat their rivals.
D) How dramatically the market is changing.
6. A) They should be taken seriously.
B) They are rapidly catching up.
C) Their business strategy is quite effective.
D) Their potential has been underestimated.
7. A) She had given it to Tom.
B) It simply made her go frantic.
C) She had not seen it yet.
D) It was not much of a big concern.
8. A) Restructuring the whole company.
B) Employing more forwarding agents.
C) Promoting cooperation with Jayal Motors.
D) Exporting their motorbikes to Indonesia
Section B
Directions:
In this section, you will hear two passages. At the end of each passage, you will
hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After
you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C)
and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.
9. A) It makes claims in conflict with the existing research.
B) It focuses on the link between bedtime and nutrition.
C) It cautions against the overuse of coffee and alcohol.
D) It shows that "night owls" work much less efficiently.
10. A) They pay greater attention to food choice.
B) They tend to achieve less than their peers.
C) They run a higher risk of gaining weight.
D) They stand a greater chance to fall sick.
11. A) Get up late.
B) Sleep 8 hours a day.
C) Exercise more.
D) Go to bed earlier
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.
12. A) All of the acting nominees are white.
B) It has got too much publicity on TV.
C) It is prejudiced against foreign films.
D) Only 7% of the nominees are female.
13. A) 22 percent of movie directors were people of color.
B) Half of the TV programs were ethnically balanced.
C) Only one-fifth of TV shows had black characters.
D) Only 3.4 percent of film directors were women.
14. A) Non-white males.
B) Program creators.
C) Females of color over 40.
D) Asian speaking characters.
15. A) They constitute 17% of Hollywood movie characters.
B) They are most underrepresented across TV and film.
C) They contribute little to the U. S. film industry.
D) They account for 8.5% of the U. S. population
Section C
Directions:
In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by
three or four questions. The recordings will be played only once. After you hear a question,
you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the
corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
16. A) One that can provide for emergency needs.
B) One that can pay for their medical expenses.
C) One that covers their debts and burial expenses.
D) One that ensures a healthy life for their later years.
17. A) Purchase insurance for their children.
B) Save sufficient money for a rainy day.
C) Buy a home with a small down payment.
D) Add more insurance on the breadwinner.
18. A) When their children grow up and leave home.
B) When they have saved enough for retirement.
C) When their family move to a different place.
D) When they have found better-paying jobs.
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19. A) They do more harm than good.
B) They have often been ignored.
C) They do not help build friendship.
D) They may not always be negative.
20. A) Biased sources of information.
B) Ignorance of cultural differences.
C) Misinterpretation of Shakespeare.
D) Tendency to jump to conclusions.
21. A) They are hard to dismiss once attached to a certain group.
B) They may have a negative impact on people they apply to.
C) They persist even when circumstances have changed.
D) They are often applied to minorities and ethnic people.
22. A) They impact people more or less in the same way.
B) Some people are more sensitive to them than others.
C) A positive stereotype may help one achieve better results.
D) A negative stereotype sticks while a positive one does not
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
23. A) Use some over-the-counter medicine instead.
B) Quit taking the medicine immediately.
C) Take some drug to relieve the side effect.
D) Ask your pharmacist to explain why it occurs.
24. A) It may help patients fall asleep.
B) It may lead to mental problems.
C) It may cause serious harm to one's liver.
D) It may increase the effect of certain drugs.
25. A) Tell their children to treat medicines with respect.
B) Keep medicines out of the reach of their children.
C) Make sure their children use quality medicines.
D) Ask their children to use legitimate medicines.
Part III
Section A
Reading Comprehension
(40 minutes)
Directions: Inthissection,thereisapassagewithtenblanks.Youarerequiredtoselectone
wordforeachblankfromalistofchoicesgiveninawordbankfollowingthepassage.
Readthepassagethroughcarefullybeforemakingyourchoices.Eachchoiceinthebank
isidentifiedbyaletter.PleasemarkthecorrespondingletterforeachitemonAnswer
Sheet 2 with 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.
The Pacific island nation of Palau has become home to the sixth largest marine sanctuary
in the world. The new marine reserve, now the largest in the Pacific, will
26
no fishing
or mining. Palau also established the world’s first shark sanctuary in 2009.
The tiny island nation has set aside 500,000 square kilometres—80 percent—of its maritime
27
, for full protection.That’s the highest percentage of an
28
economic zone devoted
to marine conservation by any country in the world. The remaining 20 percent of the Palau seas
will be reserved for local fishing by individuals and small-scale
29
fishing businesses
with limited exports.
“Island
30
have been among the hardest hit by the threats facing the ocean,” said
President Tommy Remengesau Jr. in a statement. “Creating this sanctuary is a bold move that
the people of Palau recognize as
31
to our survival. We want to lead the way in restoring
the health of the ocean for future generations.”
Palau has only been an
32
nation for twenty years and has a strong history of
environmental protection. It is home to one of the world’s finest marine ecosystems, with
more than 1,300 species of fish and 700 species of coral.
Senator HokkonsBaules, lead
33
of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary Act, said the
sanctuary will “help build a
34
future for the Palauan people by honoring the conservation
traditions of our past”. These include the centuries-old custom of “bul”, where leaders
would call a temporary stop to fishing for key species in order to give fish
35
an
opportunity to replenish (补充).
注意:此部分试题在答题卡上作答。
A)allocate
B)celebrities
C)commercial
D)communities
E)essential
F)exclusive
G)independent
H)indulge
Section B
I)permit
J)secure
K)solitary
L)spectacle
M)sponsor
N)stocks
O)territory
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to
it.Eachstatementcontainsinformationgiveninoneoftheparagraphs.Identifythe
paragraphfromwhichtheinformationisderived.Youmaychooseaparagraphmorethan
once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the
corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Data Sharing: An Open Mind on Open Data
[A] It is a movement building steady momentum: a call to make research data, software code and
experimental methods publicly available and transparent. A spirit of openness is gaining
acceptance in the science community, and is the only way, say advocates, to address a ‘crisis’
in science whereby too few findings are successfully reproduced. Furthermore, they say, it is
the best way for researchers to gather the range of observations that are necessary to speed
up discoveries or to identify large-scale trends.
[B] The open-data shift poses a confusing problem for junior researchers.On the one hand, the
drive to share is gathering official steam. Since 2013, global scientific bodies have begun to
back policies that support increased public access to research. On the other hand, scientists
disagree about how much and when they should share data, and they debate whether sharing it is
more likely to accelerate science and make it more robust, or to introduce vulnerabilities and
problems. As more journals and funders adopt data-sharing requirements, and as a growing number
of enthusiasts call for more openness, junior researchers must find their place between adopters
and those who continue to hold out, even as they strive to launch their own careers.
[C] One key challenge facing young scientists is how to be open without becoming scientifically
vulnerable. They must determine the risk of jeopardizing a job offer or a collaboration proposal
from those who are wary of—or unfamiliar with—open science. And they must learn how to capitalize
on the movement’s benefits, such as opportunities for more citations and a way to build a
reputation without the need for conventional metrics, such as publication in high-impact
journals.
[D] Some fields have embraced open data more than others. Researchers in psychology, a field
rocked by findings of irreproducibility in the past few years, have been especially vocal
supporters of the drive for more-open science. A few psychology journals have created incentives
to increase interest in reproducible science—for example, by affixing an ‘open-data’ badge
to articles that clearly state where data are available. According to social psychologist Brian
Nosek, executive director of the Center for Open Science, the average data-sharing rate for the
journal PsychologicalScience, which uses the badges, increased tenfold to 38% from 2013 to 2015.
[E] Funders, too, are increasingly adopting an open-data policy.Several strongly encourage, and
some require a data-management plan that makes data available. The US National Science Foundation
is among these. Some philanthropic(慈善的) funders, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
in Seattle, Washington, and the Wellcome Trust in London, also mandate open data from their grant
recipients.
[F] But many young researchers, especially those who have not been mentored in open science,
are uncertain about whether to share or to stay private. Graduate students and postdocs, who
often are working on their lab head’s grant, may have no choice if their supervisor or another
senior colleague opposes sharing.
[G] Some fear that the potential impact of sharing is too high, especially at the early stages
of a career. “Everybody has a scary story about someone getting scooped (被抢先),” says New
York University astronomer David Hogg. Those fears may be a factor in a lingering hesitation
to share data even when publishing in journals that mandate it.
[H] Researchers at small labs or at institutions focused on teaching arguably have the most to
lose when sharing hard-won data. “With my institution and teaching load, I don’t have postdocs
and grad students,” says Terry McGlynn, a tropical biologist at California State University,
Dominguez Hills. “The stakes are higher for me to share data because it’s a bigger fraction
of what’s happening in my lab.”
[I] Researchers also point to the time sink that is involved in preparing data for others to
view. Once the data and associated materials appear in a repository(存储库), answering questions
and handling complaints can take many hour.
[J] The time investment can present other problems. In some cases, says data scientist Karthik
Ram, it may be difficult for junior researchers to embrace openness when senior colleagues—many
of whom head selection and promotion committees—might ridicule what they may view as misplaced
energies. “I have heard this recently—that embracing the idea of open data and code makes
traditional academics uncomfortable,” says Ram. “The concern seems to be that open advocates
don’t spend their time being as productive as possible.”
[K] An open-science stance can also add complexity to a collaboration. Kate Ratliff, who studies
social attitudes at the University of Florida, Gainesville, says that it can seem as if there
are two camps in a field—those who care about open science and those who don’t. “There is
a new area to navigate—‘Are you cool with the fact that I’ll want to make the data open?’—when
talking with somebody about an interesting research idea,” she says.
[L] Despite complications and concerns, the upsides of sharing can be significant. For example,
when information is uploaded to a repository, a digital object identifier (DOI) is assigned.
Scientists can use a DOI to publish each step of the research life cycle, not just the final
paper. In so doing, they can potentially get three citations—one each for the data and software,
in addition to the paper itself. And although some say that citations for software or data have
little currency in academia, they can have other benefits.
[M] Many advocates think that transparent data procedures with a date and time stamp will protect
scientists from being scooped. “This is the sweet spot between sharing and getting credit for
it, while discouraging plagiarism (剽窃),” says Ivo Grigorov, a project coordinator at the
National Institute of Aquatic Resources Research Secretariat in Charlottenlund, Denmark. Hogg
says that scooping is less of a problem than many think. “The two cases I’m familiar with didn’t
involve open data or code,” he says.
[N] Open science also offers junior researchers the chance to level the playing field by gaining
better access to crucial data. Rose Mounce, a postdoc studying evolutionary biology at the
University of Cambridge, UK, is a vocal champion of open science, partly because his fossil-based
research depends on access to others’ data. He says that more openness in science could help
to discourage what some perceive as a common practice of shutting out early-career scientists’
requests for data.
[O] Communication also helps for those who worry about jeopardizing a collaboration, he says.
Concerns about open science should be discussed at the outset of a study. “Whenever you start
a project with someone, you have to establish a clear understanding of expectations for who owns
the data, at what point they go public and who can do what with them,” he says.
[P] In the end, sharing data, software and materials with colleagues can help an early-career
researcher to gain recognition—a crucial component of success. “The thing you are searching
for is reputation,” says Titus Brown, a genomics(基因组学) researcher at the University of
California, Davis. “To get grants and jobs, you have to be relevant and achieve some level of
public recognition. Anything you do that advances your presence—especially in a larger sphere,
outside the communities you know—is a net win.”
36. Astronomer David Hogg doesn’t think scooping is as serious a problem as generally thought.
37. Some researchers are hesitant to make their data public for fear that others might publish
something similar before them.
38. Some psychology journals have offered incentives to encourage authors to share their data.
39. There is a growing demand in the science community that research data be open to the public.
40. Sharing data offers early-career researchers the chance to build a certain level of
reputation.
41. Data sharing enables scientists to publish each step of their research work, thus leading
to more citations.
42. Scientists hold different opinions about the extent and timing of data sharing.
43. Potential problems related to data sharing should be made known to and discussed by all
participants at the beginning of a joint research project.
44. Sharing data and handling data-related issues can be time-consuming.
45. Junior researchers may have no say when it comes to sharing data.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions
or unfinished statements. Foreach of them there are four choices marked A), B),C)
andD). YoushoulddecideonthebestchoiceandmarkthecorrespondingletteronAnswer
Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
In the beginning of the movie I, Robot, a robot has to decide whom to save after two cars
plunge into the water—Del Spooner or a child. Even though Spooner screams “Save her! Save her!”
the robot rescues him because it calculates that he has a 45 percent chance of survival compared
to Sarah’s 11 percent. The robot’s decision and its calculated approach raise an important
question: would humans make the same choice? And which choice would we want our robotic
counterparts to make?
Isaac Asimov evaded the whole notion of morality in devising his three laws of robotics,