大学英语六级考试

　　COLLEGE ENGLISH TEST

　　— Band Six —

　　(6 YSH 1)

　　试 题 册

　　注意事项

　　一、将自己的校名、姓名、准考证号写在答题卡1和答题卡2上。

　　二、试题册、答题卡1和答题卡2均不得带出考场。考试结束，监考员收卷后考生才可离开。

　　三、仔细读懂题目的说明。

　　四、在30分钟内做完答题卡1上的作文题。30分钟后，考生按指令启封试题册，在接着的15分钟内完成快速阅读理解部分的试题。然后监考员收取答题卡1，考生在答题卡2上完成其余部分的试题。全部答题时间为125分钟，不得拖延时间。

　　五、考生必须在答题卡上作答，凡是写在试题册上的答案一律无效。

　　六、多项选择题每题只能选一个答案;如多选，则该题无分。选定答案后，用HB-2B浓度的铅笔在相应字母的中部划一条横线。正确方法是：[A] [B] [C] [D]

　　使用其他符号答题者不给分。划线要有一定粗度，浓度要盖过字母底色。

　　七、如果要改动答案，必须先用橡皮擦净原来选定的答案，然后再按规定重新答题。

　　八、在考试过程中要注意对自己的答案保密。若被他人抄袭，一经发现，后果自负。

　　全国大学英语四、六级考试委员会

　　Part Ⅰ Writing (30 minutes)

　　注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上

　　Part Ⅱ　 Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)

　　Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B),C)and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

　　Into the Unknown

　　The world has never seen population ageing before. Can it cope?

　　Until the early 1990s nobody much thought about whole populations getting older. The UN had the foresight to convene a “world assembly on ageing” back in 1982, but that came and went. By 1991, he World Bank had noticed that something big was happening. In a report entered “Averting the Old Age Crisis”， It argued that pension arrangements in most countries were unsustainable.

　　For the next ten years a succession of books, mainly by Americans, sounded the alarm. They had titles like Young vs old, Gray Dawn and The Coming Generational Storm, and their message was blunt: health-care systems were heading for the rocks, pensioners were taking young people to the cleaners, and soon there would be intergenerational warfare.

　　Since then the debate has become less emotional, not least because a lot more is known about the subject. Books, conferences and research papers have multiplied. International organizations such as the OECD and the EU issue regular reports. Population ageing is on every agenda, from G8 economic conferences to NATO summits, The World Economic Forum Plans to consider the future of pensions and health care at its prestigious Davos conference early next year. The media, including this newspaper, are giving the subject extensive coverage.

　　Whether all that attrition has translated into sufficient action is another question. Governments in rich countries now accept that their pension and health-care promises will soon become unaffordable, and many of them have embarked on reforms, but so far only timidly. That is not surprising: politicians with an eye on the next election will hardly rush to introduce unpopular measures that may not bear fruit for years, perhaps decades.

　　The outline of the changes needed is clear. To avoid fiscal (财政的) meltdown, public pensions and health-care provision will have to be reined back severely and taxes may have to go up-By far the most effective method to restrain pension spending is to give people the opportunity to work longer, because it increases tax revenues and reduces spending on pensions at the same time. It may oven keep them alive longer. John Rother, the AARP’s head of policy and strategy, points to studies showing that other things being equal, people who remain at work have lower death rates than their retired peers.

　　Younger people today mostly accept that they will have to work for longer and that their pensions will be less generous. Employers still need to be persuaded that older workers are worth holding on to. That may be because they have had plenty of younger ones to choose from, partly thanks to the post-war baby-boom and partly because over the past few decades many more women have entered the labour force, increasing employers’ choice. But the reservoir of women able and willing to take up paid word is running low, and the baby-boomers are going grey.

　　In many countries immigrants have been tilling such gaps in the labour force as have already emerged (and remember that the real shortage is still around ten years off). Immigration in the developed world is the highest it has ever been, and it is making a useful difference. In still-fertile America it currently accounts for about 40% of total population growth, and in fast-ageing western Europe for about 90%.

　　On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution. Many developing countries have lots of young people in need helping. Hands that will boost tax revenues and keep up economic growth. But over the next few decades labour forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice their current size in western Europe’s of the few immigrants it has at present. Public opinion polls show that people in most rich countries already think that Immigration is too high. Further big increases would be politically unfeasible.

　　To tackle the problem of ageing populations at its root, “old” countries would have to rejuvenate (使年轻) themselves by having more of their own children. A number of them have tried, some more successfully than others. But it is not a simple matter of offering financial incentives or providing more child care. Modern urban life in rich countries is not well adapted to large families. Women find it hard to combine family and career. They often compromise by having just one child.

　　And if fertility in ageing countries does not pick up? It will not be the end of the world, at least not for quite a while yet, but the world will slowly become a different place. Older societies may be less innovative and more strongly disinclined to take risks than younger ones. By 2025 at the latest, about half the voters in America and most of those in western European countries will be over 50—and older people turn out to vote in much greater number than younger ones. Academic studies have found no evidence so far that older voters have used their power at the ballot box to push for policies that specifically benefit them, though if in future there are many more of them they might start doing so.

　　Nor is there any sign of the intergenerational warfare predicted in the 1990s. After all, older people themselves mostly have families. In a recent study of parents and grown-up children in 11 European countries, Karsten Hank of Mannheim University found that 85 of them lived within 25km of each other and the majority of them were in touch at least once a week.

　　Even so, the shift in the centre of gravity to older age groups is bound to have a profound effect on societies, not just economically and politically but in all sorts of other ways too, Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of America’s CSIS, in a thoughtful book called the Graying of the Great powers, argue that, among other things, the ageing of the developed countries will have a number of serious security implications.

　　For example, the shortage of young adults if likely to make countries more reluctant to commit the few they have to military service. In the decades to 2050, America will find itself playing an ever-increasing role in the developed world’s defence effort. Because America’s population will still be growing when that of most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed country that still matters geopolitically (地缘政治上).

　　Ask me in 2020

　　There is little that can be done to stop population ageing, so the world will have to live with it. But some of the consequences can be alleviated. Many experts now believe that given the right policies, the effects, though grave, need not be catastrophic Most countries have recognized the need to do something and are beginning to act.

　　But even then there is no guarantee that their efforts will work. What is happening now is historically unprecedented. Ronald Lee, director of the Centre on the Economics and Demography of Ageing at the University of California. Berkeley, puts is briefly and clearly:“We don’t really know what population ageing will be like, because nobody has done it yet.”

　　1. In its 1994 report, the World Bank argued that the current pension system in most countries could 　　　　.

　　A) not be sustained in the long term

　　B) further accelerate the ageing process

　　C) hardly halt the growth of population

　　D) help tide over the current ageing crisis

　　2. What message is conveyed in books like young vs old?

　　A) The generation gap is bound to narrow.

　　B) Intergenerational conflicts will intensify.

　　C) The younger generation will beat the old.

　　D) Old people should give way to the young.

　　3. One reason why pension and health care reforms are slow in coming is that 　　　　.

　　A) nobody is willing to sacrifice their own interests to tackle the problem

　　B) most people are against measures that will not bear fruit immediately

　　C) the proposed reforms will affect too many people’s interests

　　D) politicians are afraid of losing votes in the next election

　　4. The author believes the most effective method to solve the pension crisis is to 　　　　.

　　A) allow people to work longer B) increase tax revenues

　　C) cut back on health care provisions D) start reforms right away

　　5. The reason why employ years are unwilling to keep older workers is that 　　　　.

　　A) they are generally difficult to manage

　　B) the longer they work, the higher their pension

　　C) their pay is higher than that of younger ones

　　D) younger workers are readily available

　　6. To compensate for the fast-shrinking labour force, Japan would need 　　　　.

　　A) to revise its current population control policy

　　B) large numbers of immigrants from overseas

　　C) to automate its manufacturing and service industries

　　D) a politically feasible policy concerning population

　　7. Why do many women in rich countries compromise by having only one child?

　　A) Small families are becoming more fashionable.

　　B) They find it hard to balance career and family.

　　C) It is too expensive to support a large family.

　　D) Child care is too big a problem for them.

　　8. Compared with younger ones, older societies are less inclined to 　　　　.

　　9. The predicted intergenerational warfare is unlikely because most of the older people themselves 　　　　.

　　10. Countries that have a shortage of young adults will be less willing to commit them to 　　　　.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　11. A) The

　　18. A) Repair it and move in. B) Pass it on to his grandson.

　　C) Convert it into a hotel. D) Sell it for a good price.

　　Questions 19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　19. A) Unique descriptive skills. B) Good knowledge of readers’ tastes.

　　C) Colourful world experiences. D) Careful plotting and clueing.

　　20. A) A peaceful setting. B) A spacious room.

　　C) To be in the right mood. D) To be entirely alone.

　　21. A) They rely heavily on their own imagination.

　　B) They have experiences similar to the characters.

　　C) They look at the world in a detached manner.

　　D) They are over whelmed by their own prejudices.

　　Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　22. A) Good or bad, they are there to stay. B) Like it or not, you have to use them.

　　C) Believe it or not, they have survived. D) Gain or lose they should be modernized.

　　23. A) The frequent train delays. B) The high train ticket fares.

　　C) The food sold on the trains. D) The monopoly of British Railways.

　　24. A) The low efficiency of their operation.

　　B) Competition from other modes of transport.

　　C) Constant complaints from passengers.

　　D) The passing of the new transport act.

　　25. A) They will be de-nationalised. B) They provide worse service.

　　C) They are fast disappearing. D) They lose a lot of money.

　　Section B

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will 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 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　Passage One

　　Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. A) The whole Antarctic region will be submerged.

　　B) Some polar animals will soon become extinct.

　　C) Many coastal cities will be covered with water.

　　D) The earth will experience extreme weathers.

　　27. A) How humans are to cope with global warming.

　　B) How unstable the West Antarctic ice sheet is.

　　C) How vulnerable the coastal cities are.

　　D) How polar ice impacts global weather.

　　28. A) It collapsed at least once in the past 1.3 million years.

　　B) It sits firmly on solid rock at the bottom of the ocean.

　　C) It melted at temperatures a bit higher than those of today.

　　D) It will have little impact on sea level when it breaks up.

　　29. A) The West Antarctic region was once an open ocean.

　　B) The West Antarctic ice sheet was about 7,000 feet thick.

　　C) The West Antarctic ice sheet was once floating ice.

　　D) The West Antarctic region used to be warmer than today.