2013年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第1套）
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
（请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试）
Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on happiness by referring to the saying“Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.”You can cite examples to illustrate your point and then explain how you can develop your ability to deal with problems and be happy. You should write at least words but no more than words.
Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes) Section A
Directions:In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At theend of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1 上作答。
1. A) The rock band needs more hours of practice.
B) The rock band is going to play here for a month.
C) Their hard work has resulted in a big success.
D) He appreciates the woman?s help with the band.
2. A) Go on a diving tour in Europe. C) Travel overseas on his own.
B) Add 300 dollars to his budget. D) Join a package tour to Mexico.
3. A) In case some problem should occur. C) To avoid more work later on.
B) Something unexpected has happened. D) To make better preparations.
4. A) The woman asked for a free pass to try out the facilities.
B) The man is going to renew his membership in a fitness center.
C) The woman can give the man a discount if he joins the club now.
D) The man can try out the facilities before he becomes a member.
5. A) He is not afraid of challenge.
B) He is not fit to study science.
C) He is worried about the test.
D) He is going to drop the physics course
6. A) Pay for part of the picnic food. C) Buy something special for Gary.
B) Invite Gary?s family to dinner. D) Take some food to the picnic.
7. A) Bus drivers? working conditions. C)Public transportation.
B) A labor dispute at a bus company. D) A corporate takeover.
8. A) The bank statement. C) The payment for an order.
B) Their sales overseas. D) The check just deposited.
Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9. A) A hotel receptionist. C) A shop assistant.
B) A private secretary. D) A sales manager.
10. A) Voice. C) Appearance.
B) Intelligence. D) Manners.
11. A) Arrange one more interview. C) Report the matter to their boss.
B) Offer the job to David Wallace. D) Hire Barbara Jones on a trial basis.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
12. A) He invented the refrigerator. C) He got a degree in Mathematics.
B) He patented his first invention. D) He was admitted to university.
13. A) He distinguished himself in low temperature physics.
B) He fell in love with Natasha Willoughby.
C) He became a professor of Mathematics.
D) He started to work on refrigeration.
14. A) Finding the true nature of subatomic particles.
B) Their work on very high frequency radio waves.
C) Laying the foundations of modem mathematics.
D) Their discovery of the laws of cause and effect.
15. A) To teach at a university. C) To spend his remaining years.
B) To patent his inventions. D) To have a three-week holiday.
Section B
Directions: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 he 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. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
Passage One
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A) They have fallen prey to wolves.
B) They have become a tourist attraction.
C) They have caused lots of damage to crops.
D) They have become a headache to the community.
17. A) To celebrate their victory. C) To scare the wolves.
B) To cheer up the hunters. D) To alert the deer.
18. A) They would help to spread a fatal disease.
B) They would pose a threat to the children.
C) They would endanger domestic animals.
D) They would eventually kill off the deer.
Passage Two
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19. A) She is an interpreter. C) She is a domestic servant.
B) She is a tourist guide. D) She is from the royal family.
20. A) It was used by the family to hold dinner parties.
B) It is situated at the foot of a beautiful mountain.
C) It was frequently visited by heads of state.
D) It is furnished like one in a royal palace.
21. A) It is elaborately decorated.
B) It has survived some 2,000 years.
C) It is very big, with only six slim legs.
D) It is shaped like an ancient Spanish boat.
22. A) They are uncomfortable to sit in for long.
B) They do not match the oval table at all.
C) They have lost some of their legs.
D) They are interesting to look at.
Passage Three
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
23. A) It in an uncommon infectious disease.
B) It destroys the patient?s ability to think.
C) It is a disease very difficult to diagnose.
D) It is the biggest crippler of young adults.
24. A) Search for the best cure. C) Write a book about her life.
B) Hurry up and live life. D) Exercise more and work harder.
25. A) Aggressive. C) Sophisticated.
B) Adventurous. D) Self-centered.
Section C
Directions:In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read fort the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words youhave just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you shouldcheck what you have written.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
It?s difficult to estimate the number of youngsters involved in home schooling, where childrenare not sent to school and receive their formal education from one or both parents.
(26)_______ and court decisions have made it legally possible in most states for parents to educate their children at home, and each year more people take advantage of that opportunity. Some states require parents or a home tutor to meet teacher certification standards, and many require parents to completelegal forms to verify that their children are receiving (27) _______ in state-approved curricula.
Supports of home education claim that it?s less expensive and far more (28)_______ thanmass public education. Moreover, they cite several advantages: alleviation of school overcrowding, strengthened family relationships, lower (29) _______ rates, the fact that students
are allowed to learn at their own rate, increased (30) _______, higher standardized test scores, and reduced (31) _______ problems.
Critics of the home schooling movement (32) _______ that it creates as many problems as it solves. They acknowledge that, in a few cases, home schooling offers educational opportunities superior to those found in most public schools, but few parents can provide such educational advantages. Some parents who withdraw their children from the schools (33) _______ homeschooling have an inadequate educational background and insufficient formal training to provide a satisfactory education for their children. Typically, parents have fewertechnological resources (34) _______ than do schools. However, the relatively inexpensivecomputer technology that is readily available today is causing some to challenge the notion that home schooling is in any way (35) _______ more highly structured classroom education.
Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Directions:In this section, 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. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
Some performance evaluations require supervisors to take action. Employees who receive a very favorable evaluation may deserve some type of recognition or even a promotion. If Supervisors should acknowledge high performance so that the employee will continue to perform well in the future.
Employees who receive unfavorable evaluations must also be given attention. Supervisors must the reasons for poor performance. Some reasons, such as a family illness, may have a may not be temporary. When supervisors give employees an unfavorable evaluation, they must the unfavorable evaluation can pinpoint(指出) the deficiencies that employees must correct. In this case, the supervisor may simply need to monitor the employees and ensure that the deficiencies are corrected.
If the employees were already aware of their deficiencies before the evaluation period, however, they may be unable or unwilling to correct them. This situation is more serious, and the with the firm?s guidelines and may include reassigning the employees to new jobs, them temporarily, or firing them. A supervisor?s action toward a poorly performing worker can their productivity as well.
注意：此部分题请在答题卡2上作答。
Section B
Directions:In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information 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. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
The College Essay: Why Those 500 Words Drive Us Crazy
A) Meg is a lawyer-mom in suburban Washington, D.C., where lawyer-moms are thick on the ground. Her son Doug is one of several hundred thousand high-school seniors who had a painful fall. The deadline for applying to his favorite college was Nov. 1,and by early October he had yet to fill out the application. More to the point, he had yet to settle on a subject for the personal essay accompanying the application. According to college folklore, a well-turned essay has the power to seduce (诱惑) an admissions committee. “He wanted to do one thing at a time,” Meg says, explaining her son?s delay. “But really, my son is a huge procrastinator (拖延者). The essay is the hardest thing to do, so he?s put it off the longest.” Friends and other veterans of the process have warned Meg that the back and forth between editing parent and writing student can be traumatic (痛苦的).
B) Back in the good old dayssay, two years ago, when the last of my children suffered the ordeal (折磨)a high-school student applying to college could procrastinate all the way to New Year?s Day of their senior year, assuming they could withstand the parental pestering (烦扰).But things change fast in the nail-biting world of college admissions.The recent trend toward early decision and early action among selective colleges and universities has pushed the traditional deadline of January up to Nov. 1 or early December for many students.
C) If the time for heel-dragging has been shortened, the true source of the anxiety and panic remains what it has always been. And it?s not the application itself. A college application is a relatively straightforward questionnaire asking for the basics: name, address, family history employment history. It would all be innocent enough20 minutes of busy workexcept it comes attached to a personal essay.
D) “There are good reasons it causes such anxiety,” says Lisa Sohmer, director of college counseling at the Garden School in Jackson Heights, N.Y. “It?s not just the actual writing. By noweverything else is already set. Your course load is set, your grades are set, your test scores are set. But the essay is something you can still control, and it?s open-ended. So the temptation is to write and rewrite and rewrite.” Or stall and stall and stall.
E) The application essay, along with its mythical importance, is a recent invention. In the 1930s,when only one in 10 Americans had a degree from a four-year college, an admissionscommittee was content to ask for a sample of applicants? school papers to assess
their writing ability. By the 1950s, most schools required a brief personal statement of why the student had chosen to apply to one school over another.
F) Today nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors go off to college, including two-year and four-year institutions. Even apart from the increased competition, the kids enter a process that has been utterly transformed from the one baby boomers knew. Nearly all application materials are submitted online, and the Common Application provides a one-size-fits form accepted by more than 400 schools, including the nation?s most selective.
G) Those schools usually require essays of their own, but the longest essay, 500 words maximum, is generally attached to the Common Application. Students choose one of six questions. Applicants are asked to describe an ethical dilemma they?ve faced and its impact on them, or discuss a public issue of special concern to them, or tell of a fictional character or creative work that has profoundly influenced them. Another question invites them to write about the importance (to them, again) of diversity—a word that has assumed magic power in American higher education. The most popular option: write on a topic of your choice.
H) “Boys in particular look at the other questions and say, ?Oh, that?s too much work,?” says John Boshoven, a counselor in the Ann Arbor, Mich., public schools. “They think if they do a topic of their choice, “I?ll just go get that history paper I did last year on the Roman Empire and turn it into a first-person application essay!? And they end up producing something utterly ridiculous.”
I) Talking to admissions professionals like Boshoven, you realize that the list of “don?ts” in essay writing is much longer than the “dos.”“No book reports, no history papers, no character studies,”says Sohmer.
J) “It drives you crazy, how easily kids slip into clichés(老生常谈),”says Boshoven. “They don?t realize how typical their experiences arc. ?I scored the winning goal in soccer against our arch-rival.??My grandfather served in World War II, and I hope to be just like him someday.? That may mean a lot to that particular kid. But in the world of the application essay, it?s nothing. You?ll lose the reader in the first paragraph.”
K) “The greatest strength you bring to this essay,” says the College Board?s how-to book, “is 17 years or so of familiarity with the topic: YOU. The form and style are very familiar, and best of all, you are the world-class expert on the subject of YOU ... It has been the subject of your close scrutiny every morning since you were tall enough to see into the bathroom mirror.” Thekey word in the Common Application prompts is “you.”
L) The college admission essay contains the grandest American themes—status anxiety, parental piety (孝顺), intellectual standardsand so it is only a matter of time before it becomes infected by the country?s culture of excessive concern with self-esteem. Even if the question isostensibly (表面上) about something outside the self (describe a fictional character or solve a problem of geopolitics), the essay invariably returns to the favorite topic: what is its impact on YOU?
M)“For all the anxiety the essay causes,” says Bill McClintick of Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, “it?s a very small piece of the puzzle. I was in college admissions for 10 years. I saw kids and parents beat themselves up over this. And at the vast majority of places, it is simply not a big variable in the college?s decision-making process.”
N) Many admissions officers say they spend less than a couple of minutes on each application, including the essay. According to a recent survey of admissions officers, only one in four
private colleges say the essay is of “considerable importance” in judging an application. Among public colleges and universities, the number drops to roughly one in 10. By contrast, 86 percent place “considerable importance” on an applicant?s grades, 70 percent on “strength of curriculum.”
O) Still, at the most selective schools, where thousands of candidates may submit identically high grades and test scores, a marginal item like the essay may serve as a tie-breaker between two equally qualified candidates. The thought is certainly enough to keep the pot boiling under parents like Meg, the lawyer-mom, as she tries to help her son choose an essay topic. For a moment the other day, she thought she might have hit on a good one. “His father?s from France,” she says. “I said maybe you could write about that, as something that makes you different. You know: half French, half American. I said, ?You could write about your identity issues.? He said, ?I don?t have any identity issues!? And he?s right. He?s a well-adjusted, normal kid. But that doesn?t make for a good essay, does it?”
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46. Today many universities require their applicants to write an essay of up to five hundred words.
47. One recent change in college admissions is that selective colleges and universities have movedthe traditional deadline to earlier dates.
48. Applicants and their parents are said to believe that the personal essay can sway the admissions committee.
49. Applicants are usually better off if they can write an essay that distinguishes them from the rest.
50. Not only is the competition getting more intense, the application process today is also totally different from what baby boomers knew.
51. In writing about their own experiences many applicants slip into clichés, thus failing to engage the reader.
52. According to a recent survey, most public colleges and universities consider an applicant?s grades highly important.
53. Although the application essay causes lots of anxiety, it does not play so important a role in the college?sdecision-making process.
54. The question you aresupposed to write about may seem outside the self, but the theme of the essay should center around its impact on you.
55. In the old days, applicants only had to submit a sample of their school papers to show their writing ability.
Section C
Directions:There are 2 passages in this section. Each 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 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
Among the government?s most interesting reports is one that estimates what parents spend on their children. Not surprisingly, the costs are steep. For a middle-class, husband-and-wife family
(average pretax income in 2009: $76,250), spending per child is about $12,000 a year. With inflation the family?s spending on a child will total $286,050 by age 17.
The dry statistics ought to inform the ongoing deficit debate, because a budget is not just a catalog of programs and taxes. It reflects a society?s priorities and values. Our society does not despite rhetoric(说辞) to the contraryput much value on raising children. Present budget policies tax parents heavily to support the elderly. Meanwhile, tax breaks for children are modest. If deficit reduction aggravates these biases, more Americans may choose not to have children or to have fewer children. Down that path lies economic decline.
Societies that cannot replace their populations discourage investment and innovation. They have stagnant (萧条的) or shrinking markets for goods and services. With older populations, theyresist change. To stabilize its populationdiscounting immigrationwomen must have an average of two children. That?s a fertility rate of 2.0.Many countries with struggling economies are well below that.
Though having a child is a deeply personal decision, it?s shaped by culture, religion, economics, and government policy. “No one has a good answer” asto why fertility varies among countries, says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of The Johns Hopkins University. Eroding religious belief in Europe may partly explain lowered birthrates. In Japan young women may be rebelling against their mothers? isolated lives of child rearing. General optimism and pessimism count. Hopefulness fueled America?s baby boom. After the Soviet Union?s collapse, says Cherlin, “anxiety for the future” depressed birthrates in Russiaand Eastern Europe.
In poor societies, people have children to improve their economic well-being by increasing the number of family workers and providing supports for parents in their old age. In wealthy societies, the logic often reverses. Government now supports the elderly, diminishing the need for children. By some studies, the safety nets for retirees have reduced fertility rates by 0.5 children in the United States and almost 1.0 in Western Europe, reports economist Robert Stein in the journal National Affairs. Similarly, some couples don?t have children because they don?t want to sacrifice their own lifestyles to the lime and expense of a family.
Young Americans already face a bleak labor market that cannot instill (注入) confidence about having children. Piling on higher taxes won?t help, “If higher taxes make it more expensive to raise children,” says Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, “people will think twice about having another child.” That seems like common sense, despite the multiple influences on becoming parents.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
56. What do we learn from the government report?
A) Inflation increases families? expenses.
B) Raising children is getting expensive.
C) Budget reduction in around the corner.
D) Average family expenditure is increasing.
57. What is said to be the consequence of a shrinking population?
A) Weakened national strength. C) Economic downturn.
B) Increased immigration. D) Social instability.
58. What accounted for America?s baby boom?
A) Optimism for the future. C) Religious beliefs.
B) Improved living conditions. D) Economic prosperity.
59. Why do people in wealthy countries prefer to have fewer children?
A) They want to further improve their economic well-being.
B) They cannot afford the time and expenses of rearing children.
C) They are concerned about the future of the coming generation.
D) They don?t rely on their children to support them in old age.
60. What is the author?s purpose in writing the passage?
A) To instill confidence in the young about raising children.
B) To advise couples to think twice before having children.
C) To encourage the young to take care of the elderly.
D) To appeal for tax reduction for raising children.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Space exploration has always been the province of dreamers: The human imagination readily soars where human ingenuity (创造力)struggles to follow. A Voyage to the Moon,often cited as the first science fiction story, was written by Cyrano de Bergerac in 1649. Cyrano was dead and buried for a good three centuries before the first manned rockets started to fly.
In 1961, when President Kennedy declared that America would send a man to the moon by the decade?s end, those words, too, had a dreamlike quality. They resonated(共鸣) with optimism and ambition in much the same way as the most famous dream speech of all, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. two years later. By the end of the decade, both visions had yielded concrete results and transformed American society. And yet in many ways the two dreams ended up at odds with each other. The fight for racial and economic equality is intensely pragmatic (讲求实用的) and immediate in its impact. The urge to explore space is just the opposite. It is figuratively and literally otherworldly in its aims.
When the dust settled, the space dreamers lost out. There was no grand follow-up to the Apollo missions. The technologically compromised space shuttle program has just come to an end, with no successor. The perpetual argument is that funds are tight, that we have more pressing problems here on Earth. Amid the current concerns about the federal deficit, reaching toward the stars seems a dispensable luxuryas if saving one-thousandth of a single year?s budget would solve our problems.
But human ingenuity struggles on. NASA is developing a series of robotic probes that will get the most bang from a buck. They will serve as modem Magellans, mapping out the solar system for whatever explorers follow, whether man or machine. On the flip side, companies like Virgin Galactic are plotting a bottom-up assault on the space dream by making it a reality to the public. Private spaceflight could lie within reach of rich civilians in a few years. Another decade or two and it could go mainstream.
The space dreamers end up benefiting all of usnot just because of the way they expand human knowledge, or because of the spin-off technologies they produce, but because the two types of dreams feed off each other. Both Martin Luther King and John Kennedy appealed to the idea that humans can transcend what were once considered inherent limitations. Today we face seeming challenges in energy, the environment, health care. Tomorrow we will transcend these as well, and the dreamers will deserve a lot of the credit. The more evidence we collect that our species is capable of greatness, the more we will actually achieve it.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
61. The author mentions Cyrano de Bergerac in order to show that_________.
A) imagination is the mother of invention
B) ingenuity is essential for science fiction writers
C) it takes patience for humans to realize their dreams
D) dreamers have always been interested in science fiction
62. How did the general public view Kennedy?s space exploration plan?
A) It symbolized the American spirit.
B) It was as urgent as racial equality.
C) It sounded very much like a dream.
D) It made an ancient dream come true.
63. What does the author say about America?s aim to explore space?
A) It may not bring about immediate economic gains.
B) It cannot be realized without technological innovation.
C) It will not help the realization of racial and economic equality.
D) It cannot be achieved without a good knowledge of the other worlds.
64. What is the author?s attitude toward space programs?
A) Critical. C) Unbiased.
B) Reserved. D) Supportive.
65. What does the author think of the problems facing human beings?
A) They pose a serious challenge to future human existence.
B) They can be solved sooner or later with human ingenuity.
C) Their solutions need joint efforts of the public and privatesectors.
D) They can only be solved by people with optimism andambition.
Part IV Translation(30 minutes)
Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese intoEnglish. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2. 中国园林（the Chinese garden）是经过三千多年演变而成的独具一格的园林景观（landscape）。它既包括为皇室成员享乐而建造的大型花园，也包括学者、商人和卸任的政府官员为摆脱嘈杂的外部世界而建造的私家花园。这些花园构成了一种意在表达人与自然之间应有的和关系的微缩景观。典型的中国园林四周有围墙，园内有池塘、假山（rockwork）、树木、花草以及各种各样由蜿蜒的小路和走廊连接的建筑。漫步在花园中，人们可以看到一系列精心设计的景观犹如山水画卷（scroll）一般展现在面前。
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
答案
1~5 CDADB 6~10 ABCAC 11~15 BDCBA 16~20 DDCBA 21~25 CADBB
26. Legislation 27. instruction 28. efficient 29. dropout 30. motivation
31. discipline 32. contend 33. in favor of 34. at their disposal 35. inferior to
36~40 HLIJA 41~45 FGNBK 46~50 GBAOF 51~55 JNMLE 56~60 BCADD 61~65 ACADB
（作文）Happiness, as the saying has it, is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them. In other words, people can never be happy if they focus on their difficulties and challenges. Simple as the remark may sound, it conveys a thought-provoking notion that happiness is a state of mind not an absence of problems.
First and foremost, it is well known that in order to be a strong individual, one needs
obstacles to develop one?s strength, just like butterflies which struggle to be free of their cocoon in order for their wings to become strong enough to fly. Furthermore, just because people have a disadvantaged childhood, it does not mean they cannot be successful. Steve Jobs is a case in point. He was abandoned by his biological parents and dropped out of university but still managed to change the world.
To conclude, as the saying goes “You cannot run away from your problems. There is not a place far enough away.” Consequently, it is advisable for everyone to have a positive attitude toward their problems if they really want to be happy.
（翻译）After 3,000 years of evolvement, Chinese gardens have become a unique landscape. This includes both large gardens built as entertainment venues for royal family, and private gardens built as secluded retreats for scholars, merchants and retired government officials. These gardens have constituted a miniature that is designed in praise of the harmony between man and nature. A typical Chinese garden is surrounded by walls and consists of various buildings linked by winding trails and corridors, with ponds, rockeries, trees, and flowers scattered in it. Wandering in such a well-designed garden, people may feel that they are walking in a landscape painting.