2019年12月英语六级阅读理解100篇：可再生能源
2019年12月英语六级阅读理解100篇：可再生能源Renewable EnergyIn the past century,it has been seen that the consumption of non-renewable sources of energy has caused more environmental damage than any other human activity. Electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil has led to high concentrations of harmful gases in the atmosphere.This has in turn led to many problems being faced today such as ozone depletion and global warming. Vehicular pollution has also been a major problem.Therefore,alternative sources of energy have become very important and relevant to today's world.These sources,such as the sun and wind,can never be exhausted and therefore arc called renewable.They cause less emission and are available locally.Their use can. to a large extent,reduce chemical,radioactive, and thermalpollution. They stand out as a viable source of clean and limitless energy.These are also known as non-conventional sources of energy.Most of the renewable sources of energy are fairfy non-polluting and considered clean though biomass,a renewable source,is a major polluter indoors.Solar EnergySolar energy is the most readily available source of energy.It does not belong to anybody and is,therefore,free.It is also the most important of the non-conventional sources of energy because it is non-polluting and,therefore.helps in lessening the greenhouse effect.Solar energy has been used since prehistoric times.but in a most primitive manner.Before 1970,some research and development was carried out in a few countries to exploit solar energy more efficiently,but most of this work remained mainly academic.After the dramatic rise in oil prices in the 1970s,several countries began to formulate extensive research and development programmes to exploit solar energy.When we hang out our clothes to dry in the sun,we use the energy of the sun.In the same way, solar panels absorb the energy of the sun to provide heat for cooking and for heating water.Such systems are available in the market and are being used in homes and factories.Solar energy can also be ursed to meet our electricity requirements.Through Solar Photovoltaic(SPV)cells,solar radiation gets converted into DC electricity directly.This electricity can either be used as it is orcan be stored in the battery.This stored electrical energy then can be usedac night.Hydro PowerHydro power is one of the best,cheapest,and cleanest source of energy,although,with big dams,there are many environmental and social problems.Small dams are,however,free from these problems.This is in fact one ofthe earliest known renewable energy sources.in the country(since the beginning of the 20th century).In fact,for the last few hundred years,people living in the hills of the Himalayas have been using water mills.or chakki,to grind wheat.Besides being free from the problem of pollution.small hydropower plants arealso free from issues and controversies that are associated with the bigger ly affecting the lives of thousands of people living along the banks of the rivers.destruction of large areas under forest.and seismological threats.New environmental laws affected by the danger of global warming have made energy from small hydropower plants more relevant.These small hydropower piants can serve the energy needs of remote rural areas independently.The real challenge in a remote area lies in successful marketing of the energy and recovering the dues.Local industries should be encouraged to use this electricity for sustainable development.It is a technology with enormous potential.which could exploit the water resources to supply energy to remote rural areas with little access to conventional energy sources.It also eliminates most of the negative environmental effects associated with large hydro projects.Energy From the Sea-Ocean Thermal,Tidal and Wave Energy On an averaige,the 60 million square kilometre of the tropical seas absorb solar radiation equivalent to the heat content of 245 billion barrels of oil.Scientists feel that if this energy can be tapped a large source of energy will be available to the tropical countries and to other countries as well.The process of harnessing this energy is called OTEC(ocean thermal energy conversion).It uses the temperature differences between the surface of the ocean and the depths of about lOOOm to operate a heat engine.which produces electric power.。
2019年12月英语6级真题及答案三套全(可反复打印使用)
2017年12月英语六级考试真题及答案（第一套） (1)2017年12月英语六级考试真题及答案（第二套） (15)2017年12月英语六级考试真题及答案（第三套） (35)英语六级考试真题及答案（第一套）“考试采取“多题多卷”模式，试题顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对。
”Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: for this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Respect others, and you will be respected. " you can cite examples to ilustrate your views. you should write at least 150 words but no more than 200。
Part IIListening comprehension(30miutes)Section aDirections: in this section, you will hear two long conversations at the end of each comversation you will hear four questions. both the comversation and the questions will be spoken only once. afier you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked a, b) cand d). then mark the corresponding letter on answer Sheet i with a single line through the centre.Questions1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard1.a)they reward businesses that eliminate food wastb)they prohibit the sale of foods that have gone stalec) they facilitate the donation of unsold foods to the needyd) they forbid businesses to produce more foods than needed2. a)it imposed penalties on businesses that waste foodb)it passed a law aiming to stop overproductionC)it voted gainst food import from outside europed) it prohibited the promotion of bulk food sales.3. a) it has warmed its people against possible food shortage.b) it has penalized businesses that keep overproducing foodsc)it has started a nationwide campaign against food waste.d) it has banned supermarkets from dumping edible foods.4 .a)the confusion over food expiration labels.b)the surplus resulting from overproductionc)americans' habit of buying food in bulkd)a lack of regulation on food consumptionQuestions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.5. a) it has started a week-long promotion campaign.b)it has just launched its annual anniversary salesc) it offers regular weekend sales all the year roundd)it specializes in the sale of ladies designer dresses6. a)price reductions for its frequent customers.b)coupons for customers with bulk purchases.c)free delivery of purchases for senior customers.d) price adjustments within seven days of purchase.7. a)mail a gift card to her.b) allow her to buy on credic) credit it to her accountd) give her some coupons.8. a) refunding for goods returnedb) free installing of appliances.c)prolonged goods warranty.d)complimentary tailoringSection bDirections: in this section, you will hear two passages. at the end of each passage, you will hear Iree 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, cand 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 heard9. a)they are thin, tall, and unlike real human beings.b)they have more than twenty different hair texturesc)they have twenty-four different body shapes in totald)they represent people from virtually all walks of life.10.a)they do not reflect young girls aspirationsb)they are not sold together with the originalc) their flat feet do not appeal to adolescentsd) their body shapes have not changed much11. a)in toy storesb) in shopping malls.c)on the internetd)at barbie shopsQuestions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. a )moveable metal type began to be used in printingb) chinese printing technology was first introducec)the earliest known book was publishedd) metal type was imported from korea13. a) it had more than a hundred printing presses.b)it was the biggest printer in the 16th century.c) it helped the german people become literate.d) it produced some 20 million volumes in total14. a)it pushed handwritten books out of circulation.b)it boosted the circulation of popular works.c)it made writing a very profitable career.d) it provided readers with more choices.15. a) it accelerated the extinction of the latin language.b) it standardized the publication of grammar books.c) turned translation into a welcome profession.d) it promoted the growth of national languagesSection cDirections: 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 centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.16. a) they get bored after working for a period of time.b) they spend an average of one year finding a job.c)they become stuck in the same job for decades.d) they choose a job without thinking it through.17. a)see if there will be chances for promotion.b)find out what job choices are available.c)watch a film about ways of job hunting.d) decide which job is most attractive to you.18. a)the qualifications you have.b)the pay you are going to get.c)the culture of your target company.d) the work environment you will be in.19. a) it is as important as christmas for african-americans.b) it is a cultural festival founded for african-americans.c) it is an ancient festival celebrated by african-americans.d) it is a religious festival celebrated by african-americans20. a)to urge african-americans to do more for society.b) to call on african-americans to worship their godsc) to help african-americans to realize their goals.d) to remind african-americans of their sufferings.21. a)faith in self-determinationb)the first fruits of the harvestc) unity and cooperative economicsd creative work and achievement.22. a)they recite a principleb)they take a solemn oathc)they drink wine from the unity cupd) they call out their ancestors' names.Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard23. a) it is one of the world's most healthy diets.b) it contains large amounts of dairy products.c)it began to impact the world in recent years.d) it consists mainly of various kinds of seafood.4. a) it involved 13, 000 researchers from asia, europe and america.b) it was conducted in seven mid-eastern countries in the 1950sc) it is regarded as one of the greatest researches of its kind.d)it has drawn the attention of medical doctors the world over.25. a) they care much about their health.b) they eat foods with little fat.c)they use little oil in cookingd) they have lower mortality ratesPart III Reading Comprehension(40 minutes)Section ADirections: 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.In the past 12 months,Nigeria has suffered from a shrinking economy, a sliding currency, and a prolonged fuel shortage. Now, Africa’s largest in facing a food crisis as major tomato fields have been destroyed by an insect,leading to a nationwide shortage and escalating prices.The insect, Tutaabsoluta, has destroyed 80% of farms in Kaduna, Nigeria's largest tomato producing state, leading the government there to declare a state of26 .The insect, also known as the tomato leaf miner, devastates cropsby 27 on fruits and digging into and moving throughstalks.It 28 incredibly quickly,breeding up to 12 generations per year if conditions are favorable. it is believed to have 29 in South America in the early 1900s, and later spread to Europe before crossing over to sub-Saharan Africa.In Nigeria, where tomatoes are a staple of local diets,the insect's effects are devastating. Retail prices for a 30 of tomatoes at local markets have risen from $0. 50 to $2.50. Farmers are reporting steep losses and a new $20 million tomato-paste factory has 31 production due to the shortages.Given the moth's ability also to attack crops like pepper and potatoes, Audu Ogbeh, Nigeria's minister of agriculture, has warned that the pest may"create serious problems for food 32 "in the country.Ogbeh says experts are investigating how to control the pest’s damage and prevent its spread, which has gone largely 33 until now.Despite being the continent's second-largest producer of tomatoes, Nigeria is 34 on $1 billion worth of tomato-paste imports every year.as around 75% of the local harvest goes to waste thanks to a lack of proper storage facilities.A further 35 in local supplies is yet another unwelcome setback to the industry.A) dependent I）originatedB) Embarking J) reductionC) emergenc K) reproducesD) feeding L）securityE) grazes M）terrorF) halted N) uncheckedG) handful O）uncheckedH) multitudeSection BDirections: 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 aparagraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.who's really addicting you to Technology?A."Nearly everyone i know is addicted in some measure to the internet, "wrote tony Schwartz in The New York Times. it's a common complaint these days. A steady stream of similar headlines accuse the net and its offspring apps, social media sites and online games of addicting us to distractionB. There's little doubt that nearly everyone who comes in contact with the net has difficulty concentration than it takes to post a status update. as one person ironically put it in the comments section of Schwartz's online article, "As I was reading this very excellent article.I stopped at least half a dozen times to cheek my email.C.There's something different about this technology: it is both invasive and persuasive. but who's at fault for its overuse？ To find solutions, it's important to understand what we’re dealing with.There are four parties conspiring to keep you connected the tech, your boss, your friends and you.D.The technologies themselves and their makers, are the easiest suspects to blame for our diminishing attention spans. Nicholas Carr,author of The Shallows： what the internet is doing Our brains, wrote, The net is designed to be an interruption system, a machine geared to dividing attention.E.Online services like Facebook, twitter and the like, are called out of manipula-tion--making，products so good that people can't stop using them. after studying these products for several years, I wrote a book about how they do it. I learned it all starts with the business model. since these services rely on advertising revenue, The more frequently you use money they make.It’s no winder these companies employ teams of people focused on engineering their services to be as engaging as possible. these products aren't habit-forming by chance; it's by design. they have an incentive to keep us hooked.F.However, as good as these services are, there are simple steps we can take to keep them at bay.For example, we can change how often we receive the distracting notifications that trigger our urge to check.According to adam marchick, ceo of mobile marketing company kahuna, less than 15 percent of smartphone users ever bother to adjust their notification setlings--meaning the remaining 85 percent of us default to the app makers' every preset trigger.Google and Apple have made it far too difficult to adjust these settings so it's up to us to take steps ensure we set these triggers to suit our own needs, not the needs of the app makers.G.While companies like Facebook harvest attention to generate revenue from advertisers, other technologies have no such agenda. take email, for example. this system couldn't care less how often you use it. Yet to many, email is the most habit-forming medium of all.We check email at all hours of the day--we're obsessed, but why? Because that's what the boss wants.For almost all white-collar jobs, A slowResponse to a message could hurt not only your reputation but also your livelihood.H.Your friends are also responsible.Think about this familiar scene.People gathered around a table, enjoying food and each others company. there's laughter and a bit of kidding. Then, during an interval in the conversation, someone takes out their phone to check who knows what.Barely anyone notices and no one says a thing.I.Now imagine the same dinner,but instead of checking their phone, the person belches(打嗝）-loudly.Everyone notices. unless the meal takes place in a beer house, this is considered bad manners. The impolite act violates the basic rules of etiquette. one has to wonder why don’t we apply the same social norms to checking phones during meals, meetings and conversations as we do to other antisocial behaviors somehow, we accept it and say nothing when someone offends.J.The reality is taking one's phone out at the wrong time is worse than belching because, unlike other minor offense, checking tech is contagious. once one person looks at their phone,other people feel compelled to do the same, starting a chain reaction. the more people are on their phones, the fewer people are talking until finally you are the only one left not reading email or checking twitter. from a societal perspective, phone checking is less like belching in public and more like another bad habit. our phones are like cigarettes-something to do when were bored or when our fingers need something to toy with seeing others enjoy a smoke,or sneak a quick glance, is too tempting to resist and soon everyone is doing it.K.The technology, your boss, and your friends, all influence how often you find yourself using (or overusing )these gadgets. but there's still someone who deserves scrutiny--the person holding the phone.L. I have a confession. even though i study habit-forming technology for a living, disconnecting is not easy for me.I'm online far more than I'd like like Schwartz and so many others, I often find myself distracted and off tack.I wanted to know why so i began self-monitoring to try to understand my behavior. that's when i discovered an uncomfortable truth. i use technology as an escape. when I'm doing something I'd rather not do, or when I'm someplace I'd rather not attention was often a good thing, like when passing time on public transportation, but frequently my tech use was not so benign. when i faced difficult work, like thinking through an article idea or editing the same draft for the hundredth time, for example, a more sinister screen would draw me in. i could easily escape discomfort.temporarlly.by answering email or browsing ing the web under the pretense of so-called"research."though I desperately wanted to lay blame elsewhere, i finally had to admit that my bad habits had less to do with new-age.technology and more to do with old-fashioned procrastination(拖延）M.it's easy to blame technology for being so distracting, but distraction is nothing new. Aristotle and Socrates dehated nature of “akrasia”--our tendency to do things agninst our interests. If we're honest with ourselves, tech is just another way to occupy our time and minds,if we weren’t on our devices. We’d likely do similarly unproductive.N.personal technology is indeed more engaging than ever, and there's no doubt companies are engineering their products and services to be more compelling and attractive but would want it any other way the intended result of making something better is that people use it more. that's not necessarily a problem, that's progress.O.These improvements don't mean we shouldn't attempt to control our use of technology. In order to make sure it doesn't control us, we should come to terms with the fact that it's more than the technology itself that’s responsible for our habits. our workplace culture, social norns and individual behaviors all play a part to put technology in its place, we must be conscious not only of how technology is changing, but also of how it is changing us.36.Online services are so designed that the more they are used, the more profit they generate.37. The author admits using technology as an escape from the task at hand.38. Checking phones at dinners is now accepted as normal but not belching39. To make proper use of technology, we should not only increase our awareness of how it is changing but also how it is impacting us.40. Most of us find it hard to focus on our immediate tasks because of internet distractions41. when one person starts checking their phone, the others will follow suit.42.The great majority of smartphone users don' t take the trouble to adjust their settings to suit their own purposes.43.The internet is regarded by some as designed to distract our attention.44. The author attributes his tech addiction chiefly to his habit of putting off doing what he should45.White-collar workers check email round the clock because it is required by their employersSection BDirections: 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.who's really addicting you to Technology?A."Nearly everyone i know is addicted in some measure to the internet, "wrote tony Schwartz in The New York Times. it's a common complaint these days. A steady stream of similar headlines accuse the net and its offspring apps, social media sites and online games of addicting us to distractionB. There's little doubt that nearly everyone who comes in contact with the net has difficulty concentration than it takes to post a status update. as one person ironically put it in the comments section of Schwartz's online article, "As I was reading this very excellent article.I stopped at least half a dozen times to cheek my email.C.There's something different about this technology: it is both invasive and persuasive. but who's at fault for its overuse？ To find solutions, it's important to understand what we’re dealing with.There are four parties conspiring to keep you connected the tech, your boss, your friends and you.D.The technologies themselves and their makers, are the easiest suspects to blame for our diminishing attention spans. Nicholas Carr,author of The Shallows： what the internet is doing Our brains, wrote, The net is designed to be an interruption system, a machine geared to dividing attention.E.Online services like Facebook, twitter and the like, are called out of manipula-tion--making，products so good that people can't stop using them. after studying these products for several years, I wrote a book about how they do it. I learned it all starts with the business model. since these services rely on advertising revenue, The more frequently you use money they make.It’s no winder these companies employ teams of people focused on engineering their services to be as engaging as possible. these products aren't habit-forming by chance; it's by design. they have an incentive to keep us hooked.F.However, as good as these services are, there are simple steps we can take to keep them at bay.For example, we can change how often we receive the distractingnotifications that trigger our urge to check.According to adam marchick, ceo of mobile marketing company kahuna, less than 15 percent of smartphone users ever bother to adjust their notification setlings--meaning the remaining 85 percent of us default to the app makers' every preset trigger.Google and Apple have made it far too difficult to adjust these settings so it's up to us to take steps ensure we set these triggers to suit our own needs, not the needs of the app makers.G.While companies like Facebook harvest attention to generate revenue from advertisers, other technologies have no such agenda. take email, for example. this system couldn't care less how often you use it. Yet to many, email is the most habit-forming medium of all.We check email at all hours of the day--we're obsessed, but why? Because that's what the boss wants.For almost all white-collar jobs, A slowResponse to a message could hurt not only your reputation but also your livelihood.H.Your friends are also responsible.Think about this familiar scene.People gathered around a table, enjoying food and each others company. there's laughter and a bit of kidding. Then, during an interval in the conversation, someone takes out their phone to check who knows what.Barely anyone notices and no one says a thing.I.Now imagine the same dinner,but instead of checking their phone, the person belches(打嗝）-loudly.Everyone notices. unless the meal takes place in a beer house, this is considered bad manners. The impolite act violates the basic rules of etiquette. one has to wonder why don’t we apply the same social norms to checking phones during meals, meetings and conversations as we do to other antisocial behaviors somehow, we accept it and say nothing when someone offends.J.The reality is taking one's phone out at the wrong time is worse than belching because, unlike other minor offense, checking tech is contagious. once one person looks at their phone,other people feel compelled to do the same, starting a chain reaction. the more people are on their phones, the fewer people are talking until finally you are the only one left not reading email or checking twitter. from a societal perspective, phone checking is less like belching in public and more like another bad habit. our phones are like cigarettes-something to do when were bored or when our fingers need something to toy with seeing others enjoy a smoke,or sneak a quick glance, is too tempting to resist and soon everyone is doing it.K.The technology, your boss, and your friends, all influence how often you find yourself using (or overusing )these gadgets. but there's still someone who deserves scrutiny--the person holding the phone.L. I have a confession. even though i study habit-forming technology for a living, disconnecting is not easy for me.I'm online far more than I'd like like Schwartz and so many others, I often find myself distracted and off tack.I wanted to know why so i began self-monitoring to try to understand my behavior. that's when idiscovered an uncomfortable truth. i use technology as an escape. when I'm doing something I'd rather not do, or when I'm someplace I'd rather not attention was often a good thing, like when passing time on public transportation, but frequently my tech use was not so benign. when i faced difficult work, like thinking through an article idea or editing the same draft for the hundredth time, for example, a more sinister screen would draw me in. i could easily escape discomfort.temporarlly.by answering email or browsing ing the web under the pretense of so-called"research. "though I desperately wanted to lay blame elsewhere, i finally had to admit that my bad habits had less to do with new-age.technology and more to do with old-fashioned procrastination(拖延）M.it's easy to blame technology for being so distracting, but distraction is nothing new. Aristotle and Socrates dehated nature of “akrasia”--our tendency to do things agninst our interests. If we're honest with ourselves, tech is just another way to occupy our time and minds,if we weren’t on our devices. We’d likely do similarly unproductive.N.personal technology is indeed more engaging than ever, and there's no doubt companies are engineering their products and services to be more compelling and attractive but would want it any other way the intended result of making something better is that people use it more. that's not necessarily a problem, that's progress.O.These improvements don't mean we shouldn't attempt to control our use of technology. In order to make sure it doesn't control us, we should come to terms with the fact that it's more than the technology itself that’s responsible for our habits. our workplace culture, social norns and individual behaviors all play a part to put technology in its place, we must be conscious not only of how technology is changing, but also of how it is changing us.36.Online services are so designed that the more they are used, the more profit they generate.37. The author admits using technology as an escape from the task at hand.38. Checking phones at dinners is now accepted as normal but not belching39. To make proper use of technology, we should not only increase our awareness of how it is changing but also how it is impacting us.40. Most of us find it hard to focus on our immediate tasks because of internet distractions41. when one person starts checking their phone, the others will follow suit.42.The great majority of smartphone users don' t take the trouble to adjust their settings to suit their own purposes.43.The internet is regarded by some as designed to distract our attention.44. The author attributes his tech addiction chiefly to his habit of putting off doing what he should45.White-collar workers check email round the clock because it is required by their employersPart IVTranslation (30 minutes)Directions: for this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from chinese into English. you should write your answer on answer sheet 2.太湖是中国东部的一个淡水湖,占地面积2250平方公里,是中国第三大淡水湖,仅次于鄱阳和洞庭。
2019年12月英语六级仔细阅读练习及答案(5)
2019年12月英语六级仔细阅读练习及答案(5)The typical pre-industrial family not only had a good many children, but numerous other dependents as well---grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousions. Such "extended" families were suited for survival in slow paced __1__ societies. But such families are hard to __2__. They are immobile.Industrialism demanded masses of workers ready and able to move off the land in pursuit of jobs, and to moveagain whenever necessary. Thus the extended family __3__ shed its excess weight and the so-called "nuclear" family emerged---a stripped-down, portable family unit __4__ only of parents and a small set of children. This new style family, far more__5__ than the traditional extended family, became the standard model in all the industrial counties. Super-industrialism, however, the next stage of eco-technological development, __6__ even higher mobility. Thus we may expect many among the people of the future to carry thestreamlinling process, a stePfurther by remaining children, cutting the family down to its more __7__ components, amanand a woman. Two people, perhaps with matched careers, will prove more efficient at navigating through education andsocial status, through job changes and geographic relocations, than teh ordinarily child-cluttered family.A __8__ may be the postponement of children, rather than childlessness. Men and women today are often torn in __9__ between a commitment to career and a commitment to children. In the future, many__10__ will sidestePthis problem by deferring the entire task of raising children until after retirement.A)transplantB)solutionC)gaduallyD)transportE)elementalF)conflictG)continuallyH)mobileI)couplesJ)agricultural K)including L)compromise M)requiresN)primaryO)consisting。
2019年12月六级考试阅读理解训练题(6)
2019年12月六级考试阅读理解训练题(6)Lesson6★文章中的并列关系怎样对付阅读的长句小的并列：成分并列，不容易出题。
如果出题，选项应该概括所有并列成分，否则是错误选项。
大的并列：只出一题，应该提纲挈领。
What has the telephone done to us, or for us, in the hundred years of its existence? A few effects suggest themselves at once. ①It has saved lives by getting rapidword of illness, injury, or fire from remote places. ②By joining with the elevator to make possible the multistory residence or office building, it has made possible - forbetter or worse - the modern city. ③By bringing about agreat leap in the speed and ease with which information moves from place to place, it has greatly accelerated the rate of scientific and technological changes and growth in industry. Beyond doubt ④it has seriously weakened if not killed the ancient art of letter writing. ⑤It has made living alone possible for persons with normal social impulses; by so doing, it has played a role in one of the greatest social changes of this century, the breakup of the multi-generational household.⑥It has made the war chillingly more efficient than formerly. Perhaps, though not provably (可证实), it has prevented wars that might have arisen out of international misunderstanding caused by written communication. Or perhaps - again not provable - by magnifying and extending irrational personal conflicts based on voice contact, it has caused wars.Certainly it has extended the scope of human conflicts, sinceit impartially disseminates (传播) the useful knowledge of scientists and the nonsense of the ignorant, the affection of the affectionate and the malice (恶意) of the malicious.22. According to the passage, it is the telephone that______.A) has made letter writing an artB) has prevented wars by avoiding written communicationC) has made the world different from what it wasD) has caused wars by magnifying and extending human conflicts注：A应该是削弱To protect the interests of their members in the era of automation, unions have adopted a number of new policies. One of these is the ①promotion of supplementary unemployment benefit plans. It is emphasized that since the employer involved in such a plan has a direct financial interest in preventing unemployment, he will have a strong drive for planning new installations so as to cause the least possible problems in jobs and job assignments. Some unions are working for dismissal pay agreements, requiring that permanently dismissed workers be paid a sum of money based on length of service. Another approach is the idea of the "improvement factor", which calls for wage increases based on increases in productivity. It is possible, however, that labour will rely mainly on reduction in working hours in order to gain a full share in the fruits of automation.32. From the third paragraph of the passage, we can conclude that young adults t end to believe that certain types of clothing can __________.A) change people's conservative attitudes toward their lifestyleB) help young people make friends with the opposite sexC) make them competitive in the job marketD) help them achieve success in their interpersonal relationshipsPeople tend to agree on what certain types of clothes mean. Adolescent girls can easily agree on the lifestyles of girls who wear certain outfits(套装), including the number of boyfriends they likely have had and whether they smoke or d rink. Newscasters, or the announcers who read the news on TV, are considered to be more convincing, honest, and competent when they are dressed conservatively. And collage students who view themselves as taking an active role in their inter personal relationships say they are concerned about the costumes they must wear to play these roles successfully. Moreover, many of us can relate instances in which the clothing we wore changed the way we felt about ourselves and how we act ed. Perhaps you have used clothing to gain confidence when you anticipated a stressful situation, such as a job interview, or a court appearance.[Page 71]考试大－全国教育类网站(www．Examda。
2019年12月六级真题卷(三套全)
2019年12月六级真题卷(三套全)-CAL-FENGHAI-(2020YEAR-YICAI)_JINGBIAN2019年12月六级第一套Part I Writing(30 minutes)Directions: For this part you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on the importance of having a sense family responsibility. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part II Listening Comprehension(30 minutes)Section ADirections:In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation 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 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.1. A) Magazine reporter. B) Fashion designer.C) Website designer. D) Features editor.2. A) Designing sports clothing. B) Consulting fashion experts.C) Answering daily emails. D) Interviewing job-seekers.3. A) It is challenging. B) It is fascinating.C) It is tiresome. D) It is fashionable.4. A) Her persistence. B) Her experience.C) Her competence. D) Her confidence. Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversations you have just heard.5. A) It is enjoyable. B) It is educational.C) It is divorced from real life. D) It is adapted from a drama.6. A) All the roles are played by famous actors and actress.B) It is based on the real-life experiences of some celebrities.C) Its plots and events reveal a lot about Frankie’s actual life.D) It is written, directed, edited and produced by Frankie himself.7. A) Go to the theater and enjoy it. B) Recommend it to her friends.C) Watch it with the man. D) Download and watch it.8. A) It has drawn criticisms from scientists. B) It has been showing for over a decade.C) It is a ridiculous piece of satire. D) It is against common sense. Section BDirections: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 youhear 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 I with a single line through the center. Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.9. A) They are likely to get hurt when moving too fast.B) They believe in team spirit.C) They need to keep moving to avoid getting hurt.D) They have to learn how to avoid body contact.10. A) They do not have many years to live after retirement.B) They tend to live longer with early retirement.C) They do not start enjoying life until full retirement.D) They keep themselves busy even after retirement.11. A) It prevents us from worrying. B) It slows down our aging process.C) It enables us to accomplish in life. D) It provides us with more chances to learn.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. A) It tends to dwell upon their joyous experiences.B) It wanders for almost half of their waking time.C) It has trouble concentrating alter a brain injury.D) It tends to be affected by their negative feelings.13. A) To find how happiness relates to daydreaming.B) To observe how one’s mind affects one’s behavior.C) To see why daydreaming impacts what one is doing.D) To study the relation between health and daydreaming.14. A) It helps them make good decisions. B) It helps them tap their potentials.C) It contributes to their creativity. D) It contributes to their thinking.15. A) Subjects with clear goals in mind outperformed those without clear goals.B) The difference in performance between the two groups was insignificant.C) Non-daydreamers were more confused on their tasks than daydreamers.D) Daydreamers did better than non-daydreamers in task performance.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.19. A) Similarities between human babies and baby animals.B) Cognitive features of different newly born mammals.C) Adults’ influence on children.D) Abilities of human babies.20. A) They can distinguish a happy tune from a sad one.B) They love happy melodies more than sad ones.C) They fall asleep easily while listening to music.D) They are already sensitive to beats and rhythms.21. A) Infants’ facial expressions. B) Babies’ emotions.C) Babies’ interaction with adults. D) Infants’ behaviors.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.22. A) It may harm the culture of today’s workplace.B) It may hinder individual career advancement.C) It may result in unwillingness to take risks.D) It may put too much pressure on team members.23. A) They can hardly give expression to their original views.B) They can become less motivated to do projects of their own.C) They may find it hard to get their contributions recognized.D) They may eventually lose their confidence and creativity.24. A) They can enlarge their professional circle. B) They can get chances to engage in research.C) They can make the best use of their expertise. D) They can complete the project more easily.25. A) It may cause lots of arguments in a team.B) It may prevent making a timely decision.C) It may give rise to a lot of unnecessary expenses.D) It may deprive a team of business opportunities.Part III Reading Comprehension(40 minutes)Section ADirections: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.When considering risk factors associated with serious chronic diseases, we often think about health indicators such as cholesterol, blood pressure, and body weight. But poor diet and physical inactivity also each increase the risk of heart disease and have a role to play in the development of some cancers. Perhaps worse, the 26 effects of an unhealthy diet and insufficient exercise are not limited to your body. Recent research has also shown that 27 in a high-fat and high-sugar diet may have negative effects on your brain, causing learning and memory 28 .Studies have found obesity is associated with impairments in cognitive functioning, as 29 by a range of learning and memory tests, such as the ability to remember a list of words presented some minutes or hours earlier. There is also a growing body of evidence that diet-induced cognitive impairments can emerge 30 -within weeks or even days. For example, one study found healthy adults 31 to a high-fat diet for five days showed impaired attention, memory, and mood compared with a low-fat diet control group. Another study also found eating a high-fat and high-sugar breakfast each day for as little as four days resulted in problems with learning and memory 32 to those observed in overweight and obese individuals.Body weight was not hugely different between the groups eating a healthy diet and those on high fat and sugar diets. So this shows negative 33 of poor dietary intake can occur even when body weight has not changed 34 . Thus, body weight is not always the best indicator of health and a thin person still needs to eat well and exercise 35 .Section BDirections: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 question by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Increased Screen Time and Wellbeing Decline in Youth[A] Have young people never had it so good Or do they face more challenges than any previous generationOur current era in the West is one of high wealth. This means minors enjoy material benefits and legal protections that would have been the envy of those living in the past. But there is an increasing suspicion that all is not well for our youth. And one of the most popular explanations, among some experts and the popular media, is that excessive “screen time” is to blame (This refers to all the attention young people devote to their phones, tablets and laptops). However, this is a connection theory and such claims have been treated skeptically by some scholars based on their reading of the relevant data.[B] Now a study in the journal Emotion has provided another contribution to the debate, uncovering strong evidence that adolescent wellbeing in the United States really is experiencing a decline and arguing that the most likely cause is the electronic riches we have given them. The background to this is that from the 1960s into the early 2000s, measures of average wellbeing went up in the US. This was especially true for younger people. It reflected the fact that these decades saw a climb in general standards of living and avoidance of mass societal traumas like full-scale war or economic deprivation. However, the “screen time” hypothesis, advanced by researchers such as Jean Twenge, is that electronic devices and excessive time spent online may have reversed these trends in recent years, causing problems for young people’s psychological health.[C] To investigate, Twenge and her colleagues dived into the “Monitoring The Future” dataset based on annual surveys of American school students from grades 8, 10, and 12 that started in 1991. In total, 1.1 million young people answered various questions related to their wellbeing. Twenge’s team’s analysis of the answers confirmed the earlier, well-established wellbeing climb, with scores rising across the 1990s, and into the later 2000s. This was found across measures like self-esteem, life satisfaction, happiness and satisfaction with individual domains like job, neighborhood, or friends. But around 2012 these measures started to decline. This continued through 2016, the most recent year for which data is available.[D] Twenge and her colleagues wanted to understand why this change in average wellbeing has occurred. However, it’s very hard to demonstrate causes in non-experimental data such as this. In fact, when Twenge previously used this data to suggest a screen time effect, some commentators were quick to raise this problem. They argued that her causal-sounding claimsrested on correlational data, and that she had not adequately accounted for other potential causal factors. This time around, Twenge and her team make a point of saying that that they are not trying to establish causes as such, but that they are assessing the plausibility of potential causes.[E] First, they explain that if a given variable is playing a causal role in affecting wellbeing, then we should expect any change in that variable to correlate with the observed changes in wellbeing. If not, it isn’t plausible that the variable is a causal factor. So the researchers looked at time spent in a number of activities that could plausibly be driving the wellbeing decline. Less sport, and fewer meetings with peers correlated with lower wellbeing, as did less time reading print media (newspapers) and, surprisingly, less time doing homework (This last finding would appear to contradict another popular hypothesis that it is our burdening of students with assignments that is causing all the problems). In addition, more TV watching and more electronic communication both correlated with lower wellbeing. All these effects held true for measures of happiness, life satisfaction and self-esteem, with the effects stronger in the 8th and 10th-graders.[F] Next, Twenge’s team dug a little deeper into the data on screen time. They found that adolescents who spent a very small amount of time on digital devices—a couple of hours—had the highest wellbeing. Their wellbeing was even higher than those who never used such devices. However, higher doses of screen time were clearly associated with lower happiness. Those spending 10-19 hours per week on their devices were 41 percent more likely to be unhappy than lower-frequency users. Those who used such devices 40 hours a week or more (one in ten of teenagers) were twice as likely to be unhappy. The data was slightly complicated by the fact that there was a tendency for kids who were social in the real world to also use more online communication, but by bracketing out different cases it became clear that the real-world sociality component correlated with greater wellbeing, whereas greater time on screens or online only correlated with poorer wellbeing.[G] So far, so plausible. But the next question is, are the drops in average wellbeing happening at the same time as trends toward increased electronic device usage? It looks like it—after all, 2012 was the tipping point when more than half of Americans began owning smartphones. Twenge and her colleagues also found that across the key years of 2013-16, wellbeing was indeed lowest in years where adolescents spent more time online, on social media, and reading news online, and when more youth in the US had smartphones. And in a second analysis, they found that where technology went, dips in wellbeing followed. For instance, years with a larger increase in online usage were followed by years with lower wellbeing, rather than the other way around. This does not prove causality, but is consistent with it. Meanwhile, TV use didn’t show this tracking. TV might make you less happy, but this is not what seems to be driving the recent declines in young people’s average happiness.[H] A similar but reversed pattern was found for the activities associated with greater wellbeing. For example, years where people spent more time with friends were better years for wellbeing (and followed by better years). Sadly, the data also showed face-to-face socializing and sports activity had declined over the period covered by the survey.[I] There is another explanation that Twenge and her colleagues wanted to address: the impactof the great recession of 2007-2009, which hit a great number of American families and might be affecting adolescents. The dataset didn’t include economic data, so instead the researchers looked at whether the 2013-16 wellbeing decline was tracking economic indicators. They foundsome evidence that some crude measures, like income inequality, correlated with changes in wellbeing, but economic measures with a more direct impact, like family income and unemployment rates (which put families into difficulties), had no relationship with wellbeing. The researchers also note that the recession hit some years before we see the beginning of the wellbeing drop, and before the steepest wellbeing decline, which occurred in 2013.[J] The researchers conclude that electronic communication was the only adolescent activity that increased at the same time psychological wellbeing declined. I suspect that some experts in the field will be keen to address alternative explanations, such as unassessed variables playing a role in the wellbeing decline. But the new work does go further than before and suggests that screen time should still be considered a potential barrier to young people’s flourishing.36. The year when most Americans began using smartphones was identified as a turning point inyoung Americans’ level of happiness.37. Scores in various wellbeing measures began to go downward among young Americans in recent years.38. Unfortunately, activities involving direct contact with people, which contributed to betterwellbeing, were found to be on the decline.39. In response to past critics, Twenge and her co-researchers stress they are not trying to provethat the use of digital devices reduces young people’s wellbeing.40. In the last few decades of the 20th century, living standards went up and economicdepressions were largely averted in the US.41. Contrary to popular belief, doing homework might add to students’ wellbeing.42. The author believes the researchers’ new study has gone a step further regarding the impactof screen time on wellbeing.43. The researchers found that extended screen time makes young people less happy.44. Data reveals that economic inequality rather than family income might affect people’swellbeing.45. Too much screen time is widely believed to be the cause of unhappiness among today’s young people.Section CDirections: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 OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.“The dangerous thing about lying is people don’t understand how the act changes us,” said Dan Ariely, behavioral psychologist at Duke University. Psychologists have documented children lying as early as the age of two. Some experts even consider lying a developmental milestone, like crawling and walking, because it requires sophisticated planning, attention and the ability to see a situation from someone else’s perspective to manipulate them. But, for most people, lying gets limited as we develop a sense of morality and the ability to self-regulate.Harvard cognitive neuroscientist Joshua Greene said, for most of us, lying takes work. In studies, he gave study subjects a chance to deceive for monetary gain while examining their brains in a functional MRI machine, which maps blood flow to active parts of the brain. Some people told the truth instantly and instinctively. But others opted to lie, and they showed increased activity in their frontal parietal control network, which is involved in difficult or complex thinking. This suggests that they were deciding between truth and dishonesty—and ultimately opting for the latter. For a follow-up analysis, he found that people whose neural reward centers were more active when they won money were also more likely to be among the group of liars—suggesting that lying may have to do with the inability to resist temptation.External conditions also matter in terms of when and how often we lie. We are more likely to lie, research shows when we are able to rationalize it, when we are stressed and fatigued or see others being dishonest. And we are less likely to lie when we have moral reminders or when we think others are watching. “We as a society need to understand that, when we don’t punish lying, we increase the probability it will happen again,” Ariely said.In a 2016 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Ariely and colleagues showed how dishonesty alters people’s brains, making it easier to tell lies in the future. When people uttered a falsehood, the scientists noticed a burst of activity in their amygdala. The amygdala is a crucial part of the brain that produces fear, anxiety and emotional responses—including that sinking, guilty feeling you get when you lie. But when scientists had their subjects play a game in which they won money by deceiving their partner, they noticed the negative signals from the amygdala began to decrease. Not only that, but when people faced no consequences for dishonesty, their falsehoods tended to get even more sensational. This means that if you give people multiple opportunities to lie for their own benefit, they start with little lies and get bigger and bigger over time.46. Why do some experts consider lying a milestone in a child’s development?A) It shows they have the ability to view complex situations from different angles.B) It indicates they have an ability more remarkable than crawling and walking.C) It represents their ability to actively interact with people around them.D) It involves the coordination of both their mental and physical abilities.47. Why does the Harvard neuroscientist say that lying takes work?A) It is difficult to sound natural or plausible. B) It is hard to choose from several options.C) It involves lots of sophisticated mental activity. D) It requires speedy blood flow into one’s brain.48. Under what circumstances do people tend to lie?A) When they become too emotional. B) When they face too much peer pressure.C) When the temptation is too strong. D) When the consequences are not imminent.49. When are people less likely to lie?A) When they are worn out and stressed. B) When they are under watchful eyes.C) When they think in a rational way. D) When they have a clear conscience.50. What does the author say will happen when a liar does not get punished?A) They may feel justified. B) They will tell bigger lies.C) They will become complacent. D) They may mix lies and truths. Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Here’s how the Pacific Northwest is preparing for “The Big One”. It’s the mother of all disaster drills for what could be the worst disaster in American history. California has spent years preparing for “The Big One”—the inevitable earthquake that will undoubtedly unleash all kinds of havoc along the famous San Andreas fault. But what if the fault that runs along the Pacific Northwest delivers a gigantic earthquake of its ownIf the people of the Cascadia region have anything to do with it, they won’t be caught unawares.The region is engaged in a multi-day earthquake and tsunami drill involving around 20,000 people. The Cascadia Rising drill gives area residents and emergency responders a chance to practice what to do in case of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami along one of the nation’s dangerous—and underestimated—faults.The Cascadia Subduction Zone is big enough to compete with San Andreas (it’s been called the most dangerous fault in America), but it’s much lesser known than its California cousin. Nearly 700 miles long, the earthquake zone is located by the North American Plate off the coast of Pacific British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Northern California.Cascadia is what’s known as a “megathrust” fault. Megathrusts are created in subduction zones—land plate boundaries where two plates converge. In the areas where one plate is beneath another, stress builds up over time. During a megathrust event, all of that stress releases and some of the world’s most powerful earthquakes occur. Remember the 9.1 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean off of Sumatra in 2004 It was caused by a megathrust event as the India plate moved beneath the Burma micro-plate.The last time a major earthquake occurred along the Cascadia fault was in 1700, so officials worry that another event could occur at any time. To prevent that event from becoming a catastrophe, first responders will join members of the public in rehearsals that involve communication, evacuation, search and rescue, and other scenarios.Thousands of deaths and other casualties are expected if a 9.0 earthquake were to occur. First, the earthquake would shake metropolitan areas including Seattle and Portland. This could trigger a tsunami that would create havoc along the coast. Not all casualties can necessarily be prevented—but by coordinating across local, state, and even national borders, officials hope that the worst-case scenario can be averted. On the exercise’s website, officials explain that the report they prepare during this rehearsal will inform disaster management for years to come.For hundreds of thousands of Cascadia residents, the big one isn’t a question of if, only when. And it’s never too early to get ready for the inevitable.51. What does “The Big One” refer to?A) A gigantic geological fault. B) A large-scale exercise to prepare for disasters.C) A massive natural catastrophe. D) A huge tsunami on the California coast.52. What is the purpose of the Cascadia Rising drill?A) To prepare people for a major earthquake and tsunami.B) To increase residents’ awareness of imminent disasters.C) To teach people how to adapt to post-disaster life.D) To cope with the aftermath of a possible earthquake.53. What happens in case of a megathrust earthquake according to the passage?A) Two plates merge into one. B) Boundaries blur between plates.C) A variety of forces converge. D) Enormous stress is released.54. What do the officials hope to achieve through the drills?A) Coordinating various disaster-relief efforts. B) Reducing casualties in the event of a disaster.C) Minimizing property loss caused by disasters. D) Establishing disaster and emergency management.55. What does the author say about “The Big One”A) Whether it will occur remains to be seen. B) How it will arrive is too early to predict.C) Its occurrence is just a matter of time. D) It keeps haunting Cascadia residents.Part IV Translation(30 minutes)Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.牡丹花色艳丽，形象高雅，象征这和平与繁荣，因而在中国被称为”花中之王”。
2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案(31)
2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案(31)Passage 1What Will Space People Look Like?Once we are in space, the question arises—will we be the only ones? Will we find other intelligent beings plying (往返于) the space ways, and if so, what will they be like? We cannot predict everything, of course, but we do have a good idea of what space people might look like.Suppose that this evening a spaceship from somewhere outside the solar system landed unnoticed in your neighborhood. Suppose you saw three beings from that ship walk down the road in front of your house at dusk. Would you run screaming to the telephone to call the police? No, the chances are that you wouldn't even give them a second look.来源：考试大的美女编辑们We can be almost certain that our visitors from spacewill not have three eyes, webbed (有蹼的) feet, or television antennae growing out of their foreheads. Instead, scientists theorize, they will probably bear a strong resemblance to the man next door.The reason we can make this assumption is that science has shown that the shape of a living body is not accidental.There are rules of "biological construction" that help us picture presumed visitors before they actually step out of their spaceship.In applying the rules, we have to make just two assumptions. The first is that the bodies of spacemen consist of protoplasm (原生质) like ours. The second is that they are intelligent, which is an inescapable fact once we accept the idea that they are capable of building a spaceship.With those assumptions in mind, we can paint thisportrait of the man from Planet X. ：He breathes air. Water breathers might develop some intelligence, but they could not smelt (熔炼) metals under water. This means that any development above the level of our own Stone Age is the accomplishment of air breathers.He eats both plants and meat. A strict plant-eater spends too much time stuffing himself with food to build the kind of civilization which is necessary to produce a spaceship. Animals which can digest meat only would not be likely to survive the occasional adverse periods which very likely occur on all planets and wipe out the less adaptable forms of life.He's probably not much larger than the largest human being. The limiting factor here is something called thespare-cube law. If you double the height of a, person without changing his proportions, you have a being with weight times the weight. This means that a person 12 feet tall, for example, must be clumsy and cannot perform precision work. And precision work will be essential, of course, in building the spaceship.He weighs at least 40 pounds, and probably more. A brain of a certain size and complexity would be required for thebuilding of a spaceship. The brain of our spacemen would weigh at least 2 pounds. And from our studies of animals on earth, we know that a body weighing at least 40 pounds is required to support a2-pound brain.He has a skull of some kind. The most valuable organ of an intelligent being is his brain, and his brain must be protected in some manner against injury.He has two eyes and ears. The "three-eyed man from space" is not a very likely creation. Two eyes are better than one for the purpose of judging distance and shape, but three would not be better than two. The same goes for ears. More eyes and ears would be useful as spares in case of accidents but earth organisms, at least, do not run to spares. We do not know the reason for this but it is logical to assume that life on other planets would not have developedalong different lines.The eyes and ears are near the brain. Information gathered by eyes and ears must reach the brain quickly in order to be useful. This transmission by the nerves is slow. Therefore the sense organs must be close to the brain to shorten the time lag between information and reaction.He has "hands" and "feet". We know that our spacemen will walk erect. In order to survive, any being must be able to move around. But in order to build he would need something resembling our hands. Somewhere along the line of his development he would have had to free one pair of legs toallow them to become hands. The only way to do this is tolearn to stand.Also, it is almost certain that once on his back legs he would develop bending fingers and a thumb. To produce a high state of development he would need to pick up things, to be able to grasp, hold, push and pull. Why not tentacles (触须) , such as on an octopus? Because tentacles can pull but cannotpush effectively.Now that we've drawn a rough portrait of the Man from Planet X, is thereanything we can guess about Planet X itself? 108Here again the answer is a familiar one; his planet is probably very much like ours. We would probably be able tolive on it.First of all, Planet X can't be much larger or muchsmaller than the earth. If it were much bigger, the gravity would be so crushingly great that life would never even get started. If it were too small, it would not have sufficient gravitational pull to hang on to its gases and there would be no "air" to breathe.The planet's atmosphere would be much like ours. Thereare only two chemical combinations that are complex enough to support life： the carbon-oxygen-hydrogen cycle we live on, and the chlorine-fluoride (氟化氯) , methane cycle. Thelatter is a highly explosive mixture and though it is conceivable that somewhere there could be a life-form living on it, it is not likely. This cycle is so complex that thechances are heavily in favor of oxygen-based life developing long before the chlorine-based form of got a chance.Planet X would have land and sea masses and a climate with drastic changes like ours. If the climate were static there would be no incentive for our visitor's race to build anything. Variable hot and cold, wet and dry seasons are needed to push him around. And, of course, there would have to be land for our spaceman to live on and water for him to drink.来源：考试大All this tells that our visitor is from outside our solar system, since none of our sun's planets, besides the earth,is capable of supporting intelligent life. It also tells us something else： our space visitor is a good bit more advanced than we are.Whether it is because his race is more intelligent, or just because Planet X is older than the earth and he has had more time to develop, we cannot tell. But the fact is that he has come from outer space. The nearest star system to us is Alpha Centauri, four light-years away. So our visitor has come a minimum of four light-years. Our science, just on the edge of interplanetary flight, couldn't even begin to tackle such an interstellar voyage. We would have a lot to learn from such a visitor.。
2019年12月英语六级长篇阅读练习题(1)
2019年12月英语六级长篇阅读练习题(1)Section BDirections： 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 Great Charter TryoutA． Long before Sci Academy, a charter school in New Orleans, had graduated its first senior class, the school was being heaped with accolades ( 称赞). In September 2010, when Sci Academy was just two years old, its 200 excited students--then all freshmen and sophomores--filed into Greater St. Stephen Baptist church, next door to the school. Together with local dignitaries ( 显要人物 ), journalists, and a brass band, the students watched on huge screens as the leaders of six charter schools from around the country appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. At the end of the show, they watched as Oprah handed each charter-school leader—including Ben Marcovitz, Sci Academy's founder—a $1 million check.B． Sci Academy is a flagship charter school and a model of the new data-driven, business-infused approach to education that has won its worship in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, education reformers swept away what remained of the traditional public schools in what hadbeen one of the nation's lowest- performing districts. In their place, charters promised choice and increased accountability( 负责制 ). More than 75 percent of New Orleans kids landed in schools controlled by the so-called Recovery School District, which was heavily dominated by charter schools.C． "This transformation of the New Orleans educational system may turn out to be the most significant national development in education since desegregation," wrote Neerav Kingsland, the CEO of New Schools for New Orleans, the city's leading venture-philanthropy group incubating local charter schools, a year ago. "New Orleans students have access to educational opportunities that are far superior to any in recent memory."D． But eight years after Hurricane Katrina, there is evidence that the picture is far more complicated. Seventy- nine percent of RSD charters are still rated D or F by the Louisiana Department of Education. Sci is one of two RSD high schools to earn a B; there are no A-rated open-admission schools. In a school system with about 42,000 mostly poor African-American kids, every year thousands are out of school at any given time-- because they are on suspension, have dropped out, or are incarcerated. Even at successful schools, such as the highly regarded Sci Academy, large numbers of students never make it to graduation, and others are unlikely to make it through college.E． Figuring out what has taken place in the New Orleans schools is not just a matter of interest to local residents. From cities like New York to towns like Muskegon Heights,Michigan, market-style reforms have been widely considered as the answer to America's educational woes. New Orleans tellsus a lot about what these reforms look like in practice. And the current reality of the city's schools should be enough to give pause to even the most passionate charter supporters.F． With its chain-link fence and campus of module-like buildings--the result of a continuing post-Hurricane Katrina building shortage--Sci Academy doesn't look much like a model school. Freshmen, wearing the polo shirts and khakis of the school uniform, are required to walk along straight red lines that snake through the school's breezeways. Placards bearing slogans, such as "No Short Cuts; No Excuses" and "Go Aboveand Beyond," hang overhead.G． Everything at Sci Academy is carefully designed to maintain discipline and focus on the school's principal mission, which is to get every student into college. Each morning, at 8 a.m., the teachers, almost all white and intheir 20s, gather for a rousing thigh-slapping, hand-clapping, rap-chanting staff revival meeting, the beginning of whatwill be, for most, a 14- to 16-hour workday. Students arrivea half hour later, and if asked "Why are you here?" and "What will it take?" are expected to respond "To learn" followed by a recitation of the school's six core values： "achievement, respect, responsibility, perseverance, teamwork, and enthusiasm."H． Both curriculum and behavior are elaborately arranged. As kids file into class, a teacher hands them their "entry ticket," a survey that helps determine how much students retained from the previous class. An "exit ticket"distributed at the end of each class establishes how much kids have absorbed. Information from the exit tickets, as well as attendance, demerits for bad behavior, and "Sci bucks" for good behavior, are keyed into the Sci software system by teachers every night to help monitor both student and teacher performance.I． After the storm, the state fired the city's unionized teachers, who were mostly middle-aged African- Americans, an action that has been challenged in court. While a few schools have hired back teachers who worked in the pre-Katrina schools, the city now relies heavily on inexperienced educators--mostly young, white, and from out of town--who are willing, at least in the short run, to put in exhausting hours. But at many schools, including Sci Academy, plenty of teachers last for less than two years.J． In New Orleans, teachers with certifications from Teach for America number close to 400, five times the level a few years ago. Within the RSD, in 2011, 42 percent of teachers had less than three years of experience; 22 percent have spent just one year or less in the classroom, according to "The State of Public Education in New Orleans," a 2012 report by the pro-charter Cowen Institute at Tulane University.K． In part to help with this lack of experience, charter schools train teachers in highly regimented routines that help them keep control of their classrooms. The city's charter-school advocates argue that in the aftermath of the storm, when charter operators had to scale up quickly, they needed to start with basics： first order and security, thenskill building. "Kids expect high school to be dangerous. They come to school with their backs up," explains Sci Academy's Marcovitz, a graduate of the elite Maret school in Washington, D.C., and Yale University. He says the routines--which are borrowed from methods pioneered by KIPP, a national charter chain that also operates schools in New Orleans--are intended to keep students focused and feeling safe.L． In one English class last fall, a teacher who had been at Sci for about a year held forth on the fine points of grammar, including the subtle difference between modal and auxiliary verbs. As a few heads drifted downward, she employed a popular charter-school management routine to hold the class's attention. "SPARK check! " she called. The acronym stands for sit straight; pencil to paper (or place hands folded in front); ask and answer questions; respect; and keep tracking the speaker.M． "Heads up, sit straight--15 seconds to go," she said, trying to get her students' attention. "All scholars please raise your homework in THREE, TWO, ONE. We need to set a goal around homework completion. I only see about one third complete homework."N． It's a long way from the city's charter school roots. In the 1990s, the city's first charter school, New Orleans Charter Middle School, was built on a progressive curriculum that used experiential projects and electives, such asbicycle repair and African dance, to foster a love of learning. The school became the most highly rated nonselective school in the city before it was devastated during Hurricane Katrina. But while its founders went on tocreate FirstLine, now one of the leading charter operators in New Orleans, the progressive roots of the charter movement have been swamped by the new realities of a competitive charter marketplace.O． Now, driven by both government policy and charitable funding--which rewards schools for preparing students for college and penalizes those that don't--most charter high schools in New Orleans describe themselves as "college prep." This may seem an admirable goal. But in a school system where the number of eighth graders who passed the end-of-course tests required to get into high school has, according to the Cowen Institute, virtually stagnated at about 60 percent, the push toward college leaves behind many of the most disadvantaged kids, who already face enormous hurdles because of poverty, parental abandonment, and one of the highest rates of gun violence in the nation. For some of these students, college is not necessarily a realistic goal.46. Teachers in charter schools are trained in strict and rigid ways since most of them are inexperienced.47. Instead of carrying on its tradition of being advanced, New Orleans Charter Middle School has to follow market rules to survive and compete with other schools.48. Students in New Orleans have got the best education opportunity they have ever had in recent years.49. Many charter high schools in New Orleans are to help students enter college, which is supported by government policy and attracts funds.50. Traditional public schools have been completely reformed in areas with worst reputation on education quality in 2005.51. Even schools like Sci Academy cannot keep teachers for long.52. Several years ago, there were only about 80 teachers with qualified certifications in New Orleans.53.Even Sci Academy, which enjoys a high reputation, fails to help a lot of students graduate.54. Various information on students can be tracked down inSci Academy's computer systems to ensure the teaching quality.55. To solve the problem of American education, many people turn to the function of market as the key.。
2019年12月英语六级考试阅读专项训练(八)
2019年12月英语六级考试阅读专项训练(八)In the early days of nuclear power, the United States make money on it. But today opponents (反对者 ) have so complicated its development that no nuclear plants have been ordered or built here in 12 years.The greatest fear of nuclear power opponents has always been a reactor "meltdown". Today, the chances of a meltdown that would threaten U. S. public health are very little. But to even further reduce the possibility, engineers are testing new reactors that rely not on human judgment to shut them down but on the laws of nature. Now General Electric is already building two advanced reactors in Japan. But don't expect them even on U. S. shores unless things change in Washington.The procedure for licensing nuclear power plants is a bad dream. Any time during, or even after, construction, an objection by any group or individual can bring everything to a halt while the matter is investigated or taken to court. Meanwhile, the builder must add nice-but-not-necessary improvements, some of which force him to knock down walls and start over. In every case when a plant has been opposed, the Nuclear Regulation Commission has ultimately granted a license to construct or operate. But the victory often costs so much that the utility ends up abandoning the plant anyway.A case in point is the Shoreham plant on New York's Long Island. Shoreham was a virtual twin to the Millstone plant in Connecticut, both ordered in the mid-60's. Millstone, completed for $ 101 million, has been generating electricityfor two decades. Shoreham, however, was singled out by antinuclear activists who, by sending in endless protests, drove the cost over $ 5 billion and delayed its use for many years.Shoreham finally won its operation license. But theplant has never produced a watt power. Governor Mario Cuomo, an opponent of a Shoreham start up, used his power to force New York's public-utilities commission to accept thefollowing settlement： the power company could pass the costof Shoreham along to its consumers only if it agreed not to operate the plant. I'oday, a perfectly good facility, capable of servicing hundreds of thousands of homes, sits rusting.1.The author's attitude toward the development ofnuclear power is______.A. negativeB. neutralC. positiveD. questioning2.What has made the procedure for licensing nuclearpower plants a bad dream?A. The inefficiency of the Nuclear Regulation Commission.B. The enormous cost of construction and operation.C. The length of time it takes to make investigations.D. The objection of the opponents of nuclear power.3.It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that______.A. there are not enough safety measures in the U. S. for running new nuclear power plantsB. it is not technical difficulties that prevent the building of nuclear power plants in the U. S.C. there are already more nuclear power plants than necessary in the U. S.D. the American government will not allow Japanese nuclear reactors to be installed in the U. S.4. Governor Mario Cuomo's chief intention in proposing the settlement was to_______.A. stop the Shoreham plant from going into operationB. urge the power company to further increase its power supplyC. permit the Shoreham plant to operate under certain conditionsD. help the power company to solve its financial problems5. The phrase "single out" is closest in meaningto_______.A. delayB. end upC. completeD. separate21. C 22. D 23. B 24. A 25. D。
2019年12月六级答案公布(三套完整版)
温馨提示：2019年12月英语六级考试采取“多题多卷”模式，试题顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对（大家核对答案时，找准具体选项内容，忽略套数）。
作文写作（共三套，忽略套数，只核对内容）第一套：The Importance of Having a Sense of Social ResponsibilityAs we all know, responsibility is one of the most basic qualities. If we give up the responsibility, we are equal to give up the whole world. As far as I am concerned, we should have a high sense of responsibility to become an upright person.How can we cultivate social responsibility? To start with, children should be taught about good moral outlooks, so that when they grow up, they will become law-abiding and responsible citizens. Furthermore, the humanistic education is vital, especially for us university students because we are the future pillars of our country. Last but not least, it is necessary to encourage people to care for others, help others through all kinds of propaganda, because each individual is closely related to and bears obligations to others.If all the citizens have a sound sense of social responsibility, it is hopeful that the world will enjoy a better future. Therefore, let's take our social responsibility and contribute to our society.第二套：The Importance of Having a Sense of Family ResponsibilityHome is a warm harbor for every family member. It brings us warmth, and gives us strength over the long course of our lives. While enjoying the benefits of the family, everyone should have a sense of family responsibility and contribute to the happiness of the family life.To begin with, as a member of the family, everyone is obliged to take on family responsibilities. Secondly, by taking family responsibilities, the relationship between family members can be strengthened, thus a harmonious family can be created, which can make each family member feel a sense of belonging. A good growing environment will influence one’s psychological development and ultimately one’s personal development. More than that, each person with a good sense of family responsibility will develop a good sense of social responsibility, which will do good to our society.To sum up, it is of great importance for everyone to have a sense of family responsibility, not only in that it strengthens family bond, thus do good to one’s personal development, but that it is beneficial to the social development. So, my dear friends, please take an active part in your family responsibilities!第三套：The Importance of Having a Sense of Community ResponsibilityWe all live in community. Community responsibility is an individual's duty or obligation to the community, which includes cooperation, respect and participation. The concept goes beyond thinking and acting as individuals to common beliefs about shared interests. With the development of society and interpersonal communication, it has gradually become a basic requirement for everyone.In my opinion, the sense of community responsibility is equally important to the development of community and the growth of individuals. As a college student, the sense of community responsibility means that we should give priority to the interests of the our school and class. If everyone takes on our own responsibilities, we can not only make our school better, but also improve our moral standard. As a citizen, we should pay more attention to the collective interests and exercise our obligations as citizens, such as participating in community voting and promoting environmental protection, etc. If everyone contributes our part, everything around us will become better.All in all, all of us should assume our community responsibilities, take the collective interests first and think more about others. Only in this way, will social development be more smooth and the relationship between people become more harmonious.听力听力（共2套）第一套：Section A: 1-81.D) Features editor.2.C) Answering daily emails.3.B) It is fascinating.4.A) Her persistence.5.A) It is enjoyable.6.D) It is written, directed, edited and produced by Frankie himself.7.D) Download and watch it.8.B) It has been showing for over a decade.Section B: 9-159.C) They need to keep moving to avoid getting hurt.10.A) They do not have many years to live after retirement.11.A) It prevents us from worrying.12.B) It wanders for almost half of their waking time.13.A) To find how happiness relates to daydreaming.14.C) It contributes to their creativity15.D) Daydreamers did better than non-daydreamers in task performance.Section C: 16-2516.D) They are in worsening condition.17.C) They are without foundations.18.C) Timber was abundant in Scandinavia.19.D) Abilities of human babies.20.A) They can distinguish a happy tune from a sad one.21.B) Babies emotions.22.B) It may hinder individual career advancement.23.C) They may find it hard to get their contributions recognized.24.A) They can enlarge their professional circle.25. B) It may prevent making a timely decision.第二套：Section A: 1-81.A) It focuses exclusively on jazz.2.B) Its market has now shrunk.3.A) Its definition is varied and complicated.4.C) Listen to them yourself.5.D) She went to the bank.6.B) Her credit history was considered poor.7.C) Start her own business.8.C) Build up her own finances step by step.Section B: 9-159.C) It is small and unconventional.10.D) Their wish to set a new farming standard.11.D) It loosens soil while seeding.12.A) It has turned certain insects into a new food source.13.B) It was a pleasant surprise.14.C) They contain more protein than conventional meats.15.A) It is environmentally friendly.Section C: 16-2516.D) To see if they are inherent traits affecting learning.17.A) It was defective.18.A) Auditory aids are as important as visual aids.19.D) Not spending enough time on family life and leisure.20.A) People would be working only fifteen hours a week now.21.C) Deterioration of workers’mental health.22.C) It has become something of a joke among Germans.23.B) The city had just been reunified.24.D) Problems of different kinds kept popping up.25. C) Huge maintenance costs accumulate.阅读阅读（共3套）第一套：选词填空When considering risk factors associated with serious chronic diseases开头26-30 GJEAL31-35 BOCDN26. G) detrimental27. J) indulging28. E) deficits29. A) assessed30. L) rapidly31. B) assigned32. O) similar33. C) consequences34. D) conspicuously35. N) regularly信息匹配Increased Screen Time and Wellbeing Decline in Youth36-45GCHDB EJFIA仔细阅读Passage One—The dangerous thing about lying开头46-50 ADBBB46. A) It shows they have the ability to view complex situations from different angles.47. D) It involves lots of sophisticated mental activity.48. B) When they face too much peer pressure.49. B) When they are under watchful eyes.50. B) They will tell bigger lies.Passage Two—Here is how....开头51-55 CADBC51. C) A massive natural catastrophe52. A) To prepare people for a major earthquake and tsunami53. D) Enormous stress is released54. B) Reducing casualties in the event of a disaster55. C) Its occurrence is just a matter of time第二套：The persistent开头26-35 KCNMD IHJOL26. K) prematurely27. C) determine28. N) synonymous29. M) switching30. D) generated31. I) particles32. H) opting33. J) peak34. O) trend35. L) simply信息匹配How much protein do you really want?36-45 CEAFM GBHDL仔细阅读Passage One—Last year开头（态度的重要性）46-50 CAADB46. C) It determines how we respond to our immediate environment.47. A) Their idols’behaviors.48. A) They may not suggest how a person is going to behave.49. D) They lack willpower.50. B) Starting to act in a way that embodies one’s aspirations. Passage Two——Industrial fishing for krill开头51-55 CBADC51. C) It was carried out too close to the habitats of penguins and whales52. B) To establish conservation areas in the Antarctic region.53. A) Opting to operate away from the suggested conservation areas.54. D) Sustain fishing without damaging the Antarctic ecosystem.55. C) A provider of the needed expertise.第三套：选词填空The number of开头26-30 ELHAJ31-35 BIDFK26. E) circumstances27. L) lonely28. H) consciousness29. A) alleviate30. J) excluded31. B) apparently32. I) desires33. D) associated34. F) competitive35. K) feature信息匹配Why More Farmers Are Switching to Grass-Fed Meat and Dairy36-45 FCJDG AIEBK仔细阅读Passage One—Schools are not just开头46-50 BBDCC46. B) Protect students from social pressures and enable them to face the world.47. B) They widen the gap between privileged and disadvantaged students.48. D) Activities involving all students on campus.49. A) They want their children to participate even though they don’t see much benefit.50. C) Avoiding creating new gaps among students.Passage Two—Rising temperatures and overfishing开头51-55 ACDAD51. A) King penguins in the Antarctic will be on the verge of dying out.52. C) Industrial fishing and climate change in the Antarctic region in recent years.53. D) The majority of them may have to find new breeding grounds in the future.54. A) Many baby king penguins can’t have food in time.55. D) Only a few of its islands can serve as huge breeding grounds for king penguins.翻译翻译（共3套）第一套：The peony, with its rich colors and elegant images, symbolizes peace and prosperity and is known as the "king of flowers" in China. Peony is cultivated in many parts of China. For thousands of years, many poems and paintings have been created in praise of peonies. During the Tang Dynasty, peonies were widely planted in the imperial gardens and known as the national flower, so they were very popular. In the 10th century, the ancient city of Luoyang became a center for peony cultivation and remains so today. Now, tens of thousands of tourists from home and abroad flock to Luoyang for the annual peony festival to admire the unique beauty of the city's peonies and explore the history of the ancient capital of nine dynasties.第二套：Plum blossom, which originated in southern China, has been cultivated for more than 3,000 years, and tops the list of China’s Top 10 famous flowers. In the middle of winter, colorful plum blossoms facing the wind and snow proudly bloom. In traditional Chinese culture, plum blossom symbolizes strength, purity and elegance, inspiring people to overcome hardships and forge ahead. Since ancient times, many poets and painters have drawn inspiration from the plum blossom and created countless immortal works. The common people also love plum blossoms, which are often used as home decorations during the Spring Festival. The city of Nanjing hasdesignated the plum blossom as the city flower. Every year, the Plum Blossom Festival is held，when tens of thousands of people brave the bitter cold to walk in the snow and appreciate the plum blossoms on Plum Blossom Mountain.第三套：Lotus is one of the best-known flowers in China which people love deeply. Many lakes and ponds in China are suitable for lotus’growth. Lotus features bright colors, blossoming in the morning and closing in the evening with a long flowering period of two to three months, attracting tourists across the country to appreciate it. Lotus has a variety of functions, which can not only green waters and beautify courtyards but also purify water, reduce pollution and improve environment. Lotus symbolizes purity and elegance and represents people's noble morals as it does not fear the strong sunshine and keeps clean in the mud. Therefore, the flower has become an important creation theme for poets and painters throughout the Chinese history, and the place where the lotus blooms is also frequented by many photography lovers.。
2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案（5）
2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案（5）2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案(5)Passage 1The Louisiana PurchaseOn April 30, 1803, the area of the United States approximately doubled. Until that time, United States territory had extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the banks of the Mississippi and from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River to the thirty-first parallel. The national land now was expanded westward to include practically all of the area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains and between the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian border. On that day, for fifteen million dollars, the United States purchased from France 875,000 square miles of territory. After Robert R. Livingston, an American who represented President Jefferson in France, signed his name to the treaty, he rose, shook hands with James Monroe and Marbois, the Frenchman representing Napoleon and remarked, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives. " As we glance backward upon this important event in history, we must agree that the signing of the treaty for the purchase of Louisiana was probably the most important event in Thomas Jefferson's administration. Without the acquisition of this territory, the United States would most probably have not developed into the powerful nation which it is today.What Causes Led to Purchase of the Louisiana Territory本文来源：考试大网Until 1763, Louisiana had been a possession of France,but in that year it was given to Spain to repay an old debt.Twenty years later in Paris, the treaty ending the American Revolution was signed between the United States and Great Britain. One of the terms of this treaty was that the western border of the United States was to stretch to the Mississippi River. Immediately settlers and pioneers crossed westwardover the Allegheny Mountains to clear the territory and establish farms. Since roads were scarce and difficult to travel, the products of these farmers had to be shipped onthe waterways leading to the Mississippi River and then down this great stream to New Orleans. At this port city, the produce was transferred to larger ocean-going vessels and transported to markets on the Eastern Seaboard or to Europe. However, Spain's ownership of both shores of the river for at least two hundred miles north of New Orleans permitted this foreign nation to control the trade moving on the Mississippi. As a monarchy (君主政体) ，the Spanish government distrusted the rising spirit of democracy in the United States,especially the much freer expression of democracy thatexisted among the western farmers. This distrust of democracy resulted in the desire of the Spanish to deny the use of the great river to any Americans. The reaction was instantaneous (瞬间的 ) and furious, western farmers raised their voices to protest and the United states sent John Jay to Madrid to discuss this matter. In 1795 this conflict was settled. Spain consented to allow citizens of the United States the right to use the lower Mississippi River and also the "right of deposit" at New Orleans, the right of deposit permitted American farmers, without a duty charge, to remove their products from smaller boats at New Orleans after havingnavigated down the Mississippi, and then to transfer theagricultural commodities to larger ocean-going vessels.For the succeeding five years this agreement was observed and little conflict existed. On October 1, 1800, however, Spain signed a treaty giving the ownership of the Louisiana territory back to France. The news of this treaty did not reach Jefferson until May of the following year. As soon ashe became aware of the change in ownership of the territory, Jefferson realized that this was part of a plan by which Napoleon hoped to establish France as a great power in theNew World. Although Napoleon still permitted Spain to remainin control of the port of New Orleans, the future threat tothe navigation rights of the western farmers still remained.At any moment, Napoleon might send troops to the "Gateway"and forbid Americans to use it for navigation. This wouldaffect almost forty per cent of the total export trade of the United States. By April 1802 Jefferson's concerns in this matter became even more intense. Napoleon had shipped armed forces to Santo Domingo to suppress the uprising. Once this had been accomplished, the troops were under orders to take possession of Louisiana with its key port city of New Orleans. On the eighteenth of that month the President wrote his now-famous letter to the American Minister to France, Robert R. Livingston.There is one place on the globe, one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans through which the produce of three eighths of our territory must pass to market. . . it seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves tothe British fleet and nation.Seven months later Jefferson learned that the Spanish officials at New Orleans had suspended(暂不实行) the right of deposit. Immediately westernfarmers protested. Many demanded immediate action. Others pressed for a declaration of war. The Federalists in the East who opposed Jefferson sided with those who wished to declare war, in order to split the ranks of his followers. In January 1803, Congress appropriated two million dollars "to defray (支付) expenses to help improve relations between the United States and foreign nations. " Jefferson asked James Monroe to sail for France to resolve the difficulty. Monroe was instructed to negotiate for the purchase of New Orleans and Florida. He was permitted to offer 50,000,000 francs for this concession of territory. If this offer were refused, then an alternative offer of 37,500,000 francs was to be made for New Orleans alone. A third alternative to be used in the negotiation was to insist upon the permanent right of deposit at New Orleans and navigation along the lower Mississippi. If all three offers were rejected by Napoleon, Monroe and Livingston were instructed to negotiate an alliance with the British Government "not to make any peace with France. "Why Napoleon Sold Louisiana来源：考试大的美女编辑们Events favored the United States. Napoleon had transported 35,000 troops to wipe out the rebellion in Santo Domingo, but yellow fever and the rebels did away with most of the French troops. With this disaster Napoleon's visions of expanding in the mainland at New Orleans vanished. He alsorecognized he inevitability of a conflict with Great Britain. How could he hope to keep Louisiana, thousands of miles awayacross the Atlantic, as long as Britain was "Empress of the Seas"? The revenue that the sale of Louisiana would bring to France was a temptation to Napoleon, whose treasury was almost depleted (消耗). Confronted with so many problems Napoleon quickly arrived at a decision.On April 11, 1803, even before the arrival of Monroe in Paris, Talleyrand proposed that the United States purchase all of the Louisiana territory.Livingston's first offer for this "bargain" was 20, 000, 000 francs, but Talleyrand countered with a demand for 125,000,000. In a brief negotiation both finally compromised on 80,000,000 francs, equivalent to $ 15,000,000 inAmerican money. On April 30, 1803, Louisiana became the possession of the United States. Three-fourths of the sum went to France, the balance was reserved to pay the claims of American citizens against France.1. The passage gives a general description of the reasons for and the effect of the Louisiana purchase.2. The purchase of Louisiana helped the U. S. to growinto the powerful nation which it is today.3. The Louisiana purchase only expanded the territory of the U. S. .4. The rising spirit of democracy in the U. S. was introduced to Spain and France instantaneously.5. The purchase of Louisiana was accomplished at a much lower price than originally intended.6. Spain was the original possessor of the Louisiana territory.7. Livingston's eloquence persuaded Marbois to accept an unreasonably low price for the Louisiana territory.8. Louisiana was sold to the U. S, for______francs.9. The Federalists in the East of U. S. were in favor of declaringwar on Spain because they wished to______of President Jefferson's followers.10. When Louisiana was purchased, the export trade moving on the Mississippi accounted for___of the total export trade of the U. S. .I. Y 2. Y 3. N 4. N 5. Y 6. N 7. NG 8. 80,000,000 9.split the ranks 10. 40%。
2019年12月大学英语六级阅读晨读美文：The Source of Energy
2019年12月大学英语六级阅读晨读美文：The Source of EnergyThe Source of EnergyA summary of the physical and chemical nature of life must begin, not on the Earth, but in the Sun; in fact, at the Sun's very center. It is here that is to be found the source of the energy that the Sun constantly pours out into space as light and heat. This energy is liberated at the center of the Sun as billions upon billions of nuclei of hydrogen atoms collide with each other and fuse together to form nuclei of helium, and in doing so, release some of the energy that is stored in the nuclei of atoms. The output of light and heat of the Sun requires that some 600 million tons of hydrogen be converted into helium in the Sun every second. This the Sun has been doing for several thousands of millions of years. The nuclear energy is released at the Sun's center as high-energy gamma radiation, a form of electromagnetic radiation like light and radio waves, only of very much shorter wavelength. This gamma radiation is absorbed by atoms inside the Sun to be reemitted at slightly longer wavelengths. This radiation, in its turn is absorbed and reemitted. As the energy filters through the layers of thesolar interior, it passes through the X-ray part of the spectrum eventually becoming light. At this stage, it has reached what we call the solar surface, and can escape into space without being absorbed further by solar atoms. A very small fraction of the Sun's light and heat is emitted in such directions that after passing unhindered through interplanetary space, it hits the Earth.。