2010年6月大学英语六级考试全真预测卷

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　　2010年6月大学英语六级考试全真预测卷
　　College English Practice Test 1
　　Part I                             Writing                       (30 minutes)
　　Directions: In this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled An Eye-witness Account of a Traffic Accident. You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.
　　1．车祸发生的时间及地点；
　　2．你所见到的车祸情况；
　　3．你对车祸原因的分析。
　　Part Ⅱ       Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)  (15 minutes)
　　A Brief History of Clock
　　Clocks
　　At best, historians know that 5,000-6,000 years ago, great civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa started to examine forms of clock-making instead of working with only the monthly and annual calendar. Little is known on exactly how these forms worked or indeed the actual deconstruction of the time, but it has been suggested that the intention was to maximize time available to achieve more as the size of the population grew. Perhaps such future periods of time were intended to benefit the community by allotting specific lengths of time to tasks. Was this the beginning of the working week?
　　Sun Clocks
　　With the disappearance of any ancient civilization, such as the Sumerian culture, knowledge is also lost. Whilst we can only hypothesize on the reasons of why the equivalent to the modern wristwatch was never completed, we know that the ancient Egyptians were next to layout a system of dividing the day into parts, similar to hours.
　　"Obelisks" (tall four-sided tapered monuments) were carefully constructed and even purposefully geographically located around 3500 BC. A shadow was east as the Sun moved across the sky by the obelisk, which it appears was then marked out in sections, allowing people to clearly see the two halves of the day. Some of the sections have also been found to indicate the "year"s longest and shortest days, which it is thought were developments added later to allow identification of other important time subdivisions.
　　Another ancient Egyptian "shadow clock" or "sundial" has been discovered to have been in use around 1500 BC, which allowed the measuring of the passage of "hours". The sections were divided into ten parts, With two "twilight hours" indicated, occurring in the morning and the evening. For it to work successfully then at midday or noon, the device had to be turned 180 degrees to measure the afternoon hours.
            
            

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　　Water Clocks
　　"Water clocks" were among the earliest time keeping devices that didn't use the observation of the celestial bodies to calculate the passage of time. The ancient Greeks, it is believed, began using water clocks around 325 BC. Most of these clocks were used to determine the hours of the night, but may have also been used during daylight. An inherent problem with the water clock was that they were not totally accurate, as the system of measurement was based on the flow of water either into, or out of, a container which had markers around the sides. Another very similar form was that of a bowl that sank during a period as it was filled of water from a regulated flow. It is known that water clocks were common across the Middle East, and that these were still being used in North Africa during the early part of the twentieth-century.
　　Mechanical Clocks
　　In 1656, "Christian Huygens' (Dutch scientist), made the first "Pendulum(钟摆) clock", with a mechanism using a "natural" period of oscillation(振幅). "Galileo Galilei" is credited, in most historical books, for inventing the pendulum as early as 1582, but his design was not built before his death. Huygens' clock, when built, had an error of "less than only one minute a day". This was a massive leap in the development of maintaining accuracy, as this had previously never been achieved. Later refinements to the pendulum clock reduced this margin of error to "less than 10 seconds a day".
　　The mechanical clock continued to develop until they achieved an accuracy of "a hundredth-of- a-second a day", when the pendulum clock became the accepted standard in most astronomical observatories.
　　Quartz Clocks
　　The running of a "Quartz clock" is based on the piezoelectric property of the quartz crystal. When an electric field is applied to a quartz crystal, it actually changes the shape of the crystal itself, If you then squeeze it or bend it, an electric field is generated.  When placed in an appropriate electronic circuit, this interaction between the mechanical stress and the electrical field causes the crystal to vibrate, generating a constant electric signal which can then be used for example on an electronic clock display. The first wrist-watches that appeared in mass production used "LED", "Light Emitting Diode" displays. By the 1970's these were to be replaced by a "LCD", "Liquid Crystal Display".
　　Quartz clocks continue to dominate the market because of the accuracy and reliability of the performance, also being inexpensive to produce on mass scale. The time keeping performance of the quartz clock has now been surpassed by the "Atomic clock".
　　Atomic Clocks
　　Scientists discovered some time ago that atoms and molecules have "resonances" and that each chemical element and compound absorbs and emits "electromagnetic radiation" within its own characteristic "frequencies". This we are told is highly accurate even over "Time and Space".
            
            

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　　The development of radar and the subsequent experimentation with high frequency radio communications during the 1930s and 1940s created a vast amount of knowledge regarding "electromagnetic waves", also known as "microwaves". which interact with the atoms.  The development of atomic clocks focused firstly on microwave resonances in the chemical Ammonia and its molecules. In 1957. "NIST". the "National Institute of Standards and Technology", completed a series of tests using a "Cesium Atomic Beam" device, followed by a second program of experiments by NIST in order to have something for comparison when working at the atomic level. By 1960, as the outcome of the programs, "Cesium Time Standards" were incorporated as the official time keeping system at NIST.
　　The "Natural frequency" recognized currently is the measurement of time. used by all scientists, defines the period of "one second" as exactly "9,192,631,770 Oscillations" or "9,192,631,770 Cycles of the Cesium Atom's Resonant Frequency". From the "Macrocosm", or "Planetary Alignment", to the "Microcosm", or "Atomic Frequency", the cesium now maintains accuracy with a degree of error to about "one-millionth of a second per year".
　　Much of modern life has come to depend on such precise measurements of time. The day is long past when we could get by with a timepiece(钟)accurate to the nearest quarter hour. Transportation, financial markets, communication, manufacturing, electric power and many other technologies have become dependent on super-accurate clocks. Scientific research and the demands of modern technology continue re drive our search for ever more accuracy, The next generation of Cesium Time Standards is presently under development at NIST's "Boulder Laboratory" and other laboratories around the world.
　　Something to Remember
　　The only thing that should be remembered during all this technological development is that we should never lose the ability to tell the time approximately by natural means and the powers of deduction without requiring crutches(拐杖)to lean on.
　　Our concept of TIME and using it together with TECHNOLOGY still has room for radical reassessment in terms of man's evolutionary thinking regarding our view of the past, our onward journey into the future and our concept of time in relationship to universe.
　　1. It is suggested that 5,000-6,000 years ago people in the Middle East and North Africa started to allot specific lengths of time to tasks.
　　2. Ancient Egyptian "shadow clock" or "sundial" discovered around 1500 BC, could measure passage of "hours" automatically and continuously.
　　3. "Water clocks" was the first device that didn't use the observation of the celestial bodies to calculate the passage of time.
　　4. Galileo Galilei built the first "pendulum clock" as early as 1656.
　　5. Water clocks were mostly used to determine ______.
　　6. Huygens' clock, a mechanical one, had an error of "less than only one minute a day", which was a massive leap in the development of ______.
            
            

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　　7. Since Quartz clocks are both inexpensive to produce in mass scale and ______ in performance, they continue to dominate the market.
　　8. Scientific research and the ______ continue to drive our search for ever more accuracy in time.
　　9. Of all the clocks introduced in the passage, the one with the most accuracy is ______.
　　10. No matter how advanced the technology of measuring time will be we should never lose the ability to tell the time approximately by ______.
　　Part Ⅲ                  Listening Comprehension             (35 minutes)
　　Section A
　　Questions 11 to 18 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
　　11. A) The transportation far the trip is free.
　　B) The class didn't enjoy going on the field trip.
　　C) Some people may not go on the trip.
　　D) All of the class members nave paid the fee.
　　12. A) Take a lot of money.                    B) Go to a different restaurant.
　　C) Don't invite John.                      D) Wear different clothes.
　　13. A) They didn't have g good talk.          B) They decided to go by plane.
　　C) They weren't able to take a walk.       D) They talked about geology.
　　14. A) She doesn't need an umbrella.
　　B) She left her umbrella in the car.
　　C) She can hold her umbrella over the man's head.
　　D) She's the only one who doesn't have an umbrella.
　　15. A) He would send a postcard if he went away.
　　B) He would be able to take a vacation.
　　C) He had already gone back to work.
　　D) He didn't want to go to Florida.
　　16. A) The man wants to move to San Francisco, but the woman doesn't agree.
　　B) The man thinks it's too cold to move to San Francisco.
　　C) The woman agrees with the man's idea.
　　D) The woman doesn't want to move because the children will have no fun.
　　17. A) To go to the movies.                  B) To go out for lunch.
　　C) To look in the newspaper.               D) To ask for information.
　　18. A) Study in a quiet place.
            
            

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　　B) Improve her grades gradually.
　　C) Change the conditions of her dorm.
　　D) Avoid distractions while studying in her dorm.
　　Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
　　19. A) At an accommodation office,            B) At a swimming school.
　　C) At a summer school.                   D) At Oxford.
　　20. A) The whole summer.                   B) Twenty-three hours.
　　C) Twelve days.                          D) Three weeks.
　　21. A) 3 July.                               B) 20 July.
　　C) 24 July.                               D) 10 August.
　　22. A) A dormitory at school.
　　B) Living with a British family.
　　C) Sharing a house with other students.
　　D) Staying m a small inn with bed and breakfast.
　　Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
　　23. A) She bought a new car.                   B) She was injured in an accident.
　　C) She went out with David.               D)' She had a little accident.
　　24. A) She got engaged.                      B) She had a party.
　　C) She got married.                       D) She was hurt.
　　25. A) Because church wedding is romantic.    B) Because Diana is a catholic.
　　C) Because her parents ask her to do so.   D) Because David likes church wedding.
　　Section B
　　Passage One
　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
　　26. A) $600,000.                              B) $4,000,000.
            
            

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　　C) $ 5,000,000.                            D) $5,000,000,000.
　　27. A) Because he was famous for his view to keep the Union by force.
　　B) Because he was famous for his anti-slavery views.
　　C) Because be was famous for his democratic views.
　　D) Because he was famous for his view to develop economy.
　　28. A) The Battle in South Carolina.           B) The Battle in northern Pennsylvania.
　　C) The Battle in Gettysburg.              D) The Battle in North Carolina.
　　Passage Two
　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
　　29. A) From the place where the agreement was signed.
　　B) From the people who signed the agreement.
　　C) From the significance it tried to find in the international finance system.
　　D) None of the above.
　　30. A) To lower their exchange rates.
　　B) To regulate their exchange rates.
　　C) To raise their regulated rates.
　　D) To make no change of their rates.
　　31. A) Some developed countries.
　　B) Countries that wanted to borrow money.
　　C) All the member countries.
　　D) The World Bank.
　　Passage Three
　　Questions 32 lo 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
　　32. A) A driver's license.                     B) A passport.
　　C) An international credit card.             D) A deposit.
　　33. A) Turning right at a red light.
　　B) Driving in freeways without a local driver's license.
　　C) Passing a school bus that is letting off. children.
　　D) All of the above.
　　34. A) The size of the country.
　　B) Large areas of virgin forest.
　　C) The rich natural resources of the land.
　　D) Wild animals and plants.
　　35. A) Because nearly 1,000 million acres of land was burned off.
　　B) Because natural resources are being used up.
　　C) Because animals and plants are in danger of extinction.
　　D) Because natural beauty of the land would be ruined.
            
            

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　　Section C
　　The International Olympic Committee chose a doctor from Belgium as its   (36)   Jacques Rogge will serve at least eight years. He replaced Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain who served as president for   (37)   years.
　　Doctor Rogge received support from more than half the   (38)   in a second vote during a meeting in Moscow. He has worked for many years with the International Olympic Committee. He is fifty-nine years old.
　　Observers called the   (39)   of Doctor Rogge a move to reform the worldwide sports organization. The new president says he will place great importance on preventing Olympic competitors from using   (40)   drugs. Experts say his long record of   (41)   may help the Olympics recover from charges of   (42)   actions.
　　The   (43)   are linked to the winter games of 2002. Ten Olympic Committee members reportedly accepted gifts and large amounts of money to choose Salt Lake City to hold the events.   (44)  . Earlier this week, a federal judge dismissed four of fifteen charges against two men who led Salt Lake City's campaign to get the Olympics. The judge also postponed their trial.
　　(45)  . Jacques Rogge is a champion sailor who competed in three Olympic sailing events, the last in 1976.  He has been a member of the International Olympic Committee for ten years. Doctor Rogge had a major responsibility for plans for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.   (46)  .
　　Part Ⅳ          Reading Comprehension(Reading in Depth)     (25 minutes)
　　Section A
　　One of London Zoo's recent advertisements caused me some irritation, so patently did it distort reality. Headlined "Without zoos you might as well tell these animals to get stuffed", it was bordered with illustrations of several endangered species and went on to extol the myth that without zoos like London Zoo these animals "will almost certainly disappear forever". With the zoo world's rather mediocre record on conservation, one might be forgiven for being slightly skeptical about such an advertisement.
　　Zoos were originally created as places of entertainment, and their suggested involvement with conservation didn't seriously arise until about 30 years ago, when the Zoological Society of London held the first formal international meeting or3 the subject. Eight years later, a series of world conferences took place, entitled "The Breeding of the Endangered Species", and from this point onwards conservation became the zoo community's buzzword. This commitment has now been clearly defined in The World Zoo Conservation Strategy (WZCS, 1993), which does seem to be based on an unrealistic optimism about the nature of the zoo industry.
            
            

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　　The WZCS estimates that there are about 10,000 zoos in the world, of which around 1,000 represent a core of quality collections capable of participating in coordinated conservation programs. This is probably the document's first failing, as I believe that 10,000 is a serious underestimate of the total number of places masquerading as zoological establishments.
　　The second flaw in the reasoning of the WZCS document is the naive faith it place in its 1,000 core zoos. One would assume that the caliber of these institutions would have been carefully examined, but it appears that the criterion for inclusion on this select list might merely be that the zoo is a member of a zoo federation or association. This might be a good starting point, working on the premise that members must meet certain standards, but again the facts don't support the theory.
　　Even assuming that the 1,000 core zoos of the WZCS are all of a high standard, what might be the potential for conservation? Colin 'Fudge, author of Last Animals at the Zoo argues that if the world's zoos worked together in cooperative breeding programs they could save around 2,000 species of endangered land vertebrates. This seems an extremely optimistic proposition from a man who must be aware of the failings and weaknesses of the zoo industry. Moreover, where are the facts to support such optimism?
　　Today approximately 16 species might be said to have been "saved" by captive breeding programs, although a number of these can hardly be looked upon as resounding successes. Beyond that, about a further 20 species are being seriously considered for zoo conservation programs. Given that the international conference at London Zoo was held 30 years ago, this is pretty slow progress, and a long way off Tudge's target of 2,000.
　　47. Zoos made an insignificant contribution to conservation up until ______ years ago.
　　48. According to the writer, one of WZCS's failings is it ______ the number of zoos in the world.
　　49. In accordance with WZCS, what kind of zoos can participate in the international coordinated conservation programs?
　　50. The writer doubts the value of the WZCS document partly because of its failure to examine the of the "core zoos".
　　51. What word best describes the writer's response to Colin Tudge's prediction on captive breeding programs?
　　Section B
　　Passage One
　　U.S. college students are increasingly burdened with credit card debt, according to a study released Tuesday, and the consequences can be serious--ranging from higher drop-out rates to future employment problems and even suicide.
　　Based on hundreds of face-to-face interviews and surveys with students, sociologist Robert Manning of Georgetown University concluded both the number with credit card debt and their indebtedness had been "systematically underreported" in previous studies  which failed to reflect the "survival strategies" many used to cope with their debts. These included the use of federal student loans to pay off credit cards, effectively shifting the debt, appeals to parents for loans, cutting back on course work to increase time at paid jobs, or even dropping out altogether to work full time. "Official drop-out rates include growing numbers of students who are unable to cope with the stress of their debts and/or part time jobs for servicing their credit cards," the study said.
            
            

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　　Even then, debts can haunt students. "Student credit card debts are increasingly scrutinized during the recruitment process and may be an important factor in evaluating prospective. employee," it noted. And the stress can also manifest in far more tragic ways. Janne O'Donnell's 2g-year-old son, a junior at the University of Oklahoma, committed O'Donnell and Manning agreed students should bear some responsibility for reckless use of credit, but said credit card companies also had to be held accountable for making it so easy for them to get into debt. Manning said one of the most disturbing aspects of the student credit card issue was "the seduction of college and university administrators by the credit card industry." Card issuers were sponsoring school programs, funding activities and even entering into business partnerships with schools involving college-branded "affinity" cards, he said.  "As a result, rather than protecting the economic and educational interests of their students, college administrators are playing an active and often disingenuous role in promoting the prominence of credit cards in collegiate life."
　　52. Which is NOT one of the strategies American students may use to deal with their credit card debt?
　　A) Use federal student loans.
　　B) Seek part-time jobs to get money.
　　C) Promote the prominence of credit cards.
　　D) Ask parents to help them pay the debt.
　　53. Which may NOT be the consequence of students' credit card debt?
　　A) High drop-out rates.
　　B) Enter into business partnerships with schools.
　　C) Commit suicide.
　　D) Future employment problems.
　　54. Who should be least criticized for negative consequences of students' credit card debt according to the passage?
　　A) Parents.
　　B) Students themselves.
　　C) College and university administrators.
　　D) Credit card issuers.
　　55. The main idea of this passage is ______.
　　A) negative consequences of students' using credit card
　　B) college administrators are playing their proper roles in promoting credit cards
　　C) card issuers or college administrators promoted credit card
　　D) reasons for high drop-out rates in universities
　　56. We can infer from the passage that ______.
　　A) students should not have part-time jobs
　　B) credit cards should not be used
　　C) if there is no credit card, college students may not commit suicide
　　D) college students should learn to wisely manage their personal finances
            
            

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　　Passage Two
　　The estimates of the numbers of home-schooled children vary widely. The U. S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home school advocates put the number much higher at about a million.
　　Home school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teaching children.
　　Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit.
　　Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases even cooperation. Says John Marshall, an education official," we are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers. The idea is, let's give the kids access to public school so they'll see it's not as terrible as they've been told, and they'll want to come back." Perhaps, but don't count on it, say home school advocates.
　　Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education--whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child's interest and natural pace--is the best. "The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone.” Says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center For Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
　　Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also "strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective". Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn--both intellectually and emotionally--that the family is the most important institution in society." Other home schoolers contend "not so much that the schools teach heresy, but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately." Van Galen writes. "These parents are highly independent and strive to take responsibility for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.
　　57. Which of the following statements is true?
　　A) Home schoolers engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children.
　　B) Home schoolers don't go to school but are educated at home by their parents.
　　C) Home schoolers educate their children at home instead of sending them to school.
　　D) Home schoolers advocate combining public education with home schooling.