六级阅读真题2001-2006.doc

2001年1月大学英语六级(CET-6)真题试卷
Passage One
Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.
Birds that are literally half asleep—with one brain hemisphere alert and the other sleeping—control which side of the brain remains awake, according to a new study of sleeping ducks.
Earlier studies have documented half brain sleep in a wide range of birds. The brain hemispheres take turns sinking into the sleep stage characterized by slow brain waves. The eye controlled by the sleeping hemisphere keeps shut, while the wakeful hemisphere’s eye stays open and alert. Birds also can sleep with both hemispheres resting at once.
Decades of studies of bird flocks led researchers to predict extra alertness in the more vulnerable, end of the row sleepers. Sure enough, the end birds tended to watch carefully on the side away from their companions. Ducks in the inner spots showed no preference for gaze direction.
Also, birds dozing (打盹) at the end of the line resorted to single hemisphere sleep, rather than total relaxation, more often than inner ducks did. Rotating 16 birds through the positions in a four duck row, the researchers found outer birds half asleep during some 32 percent of dozing time versus about 12 percent for birds in internal spots.
“We believe this is the first evidence for an animal behaviorally controlling sleep and wakefulness simultaneously in different regions of the brain,” the researchers say.
The results provide the best evidence for a long standing supposition that single hemisphere sleep evolved as creatures scanned for enemies. The preference for opening an eye on the lookout side could be widespread, he predicts. He’s seen it in a pair of birds dozing side by side in the zoo and in a single pet bird sleeping by a mirror. The mirror side eye closed as if the reflection were a companion and the other eye stayed open.
Useful as half sleeping might be, it’s only been found in birds and such water mammals (哺乳动物) as dolphins, whales, and seals. Perhaps keeping one side of the brain awake allows a sleeping animal to surface occasionally to avoid drowning.
Studies of birds may offer unique insights into sleep. Jerome M. Siegel of the UCLA says he wonders if birds’ half brain sleep “is just the tip of the iceberg (冰山)” He speculates that more examples may turn up when we take a closer look at other species.
11. A new study on birds’ sleep has revealed that ________.
A) half brain sleep is found in a wide variety of birds
B) half brain sleep is characterized by slow brain waves
C) birds can control their half brain sleep consciously
D) birds seldom sleep with the whole of their brain at rest（C）
12. According to the passage, birds often half sleep because ________.
A) they have to watch out for possible attacks
B) their brain hemispheres take turns to rest
C) the two halves of their brain are differently structured
D) they have to constantly keep an eye on their companions（A）
13. The example of a bird sleeping in front of a mirror indicates that ________.
A) the phenomenon of birds dozing in pairs is widespread
B) birds prefer to sleep in pairs for the sake of security
C) even an imagined companion gives the bird a sense of security
D) a single pet bird enjoys seeing its own reflection in the mirror（C）
14. While sleeping, some water mammals tend to keep half awake in order to ________.
A) alert themselves to the approaching enemy
B) emerge from water now and then to breathe
C) be sensitive to the ever changing environment
D) avoid being swept away by rapid currents（B）
15. By “just the tip of the iceberg” (Line 2, Para. 8), Siegel suggests that ________.
A) half brain sleep has something to do with icy weather
B) the mystery of half brain sleep is close to being solved
C) most birds living in cold regions tend to be half sleepers
D) half brain sleep is a phenomenon that could exist among other species（D）
Passage Two
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.
A nine year old schoolgirl single handedly cooks up a science fair experiment that ends up debunking (揭穿…的真相) a widely practiced medical treatment. Emily Rosa’s target was a practice known as therapeutic (治疗的) touch (TT for short), whose advocates manipulate patients’ “energy fieldto make them feel better and even, say some, to cure them of various ills. Yet Emily’s test shows that these energy fields can’t be detected, even by trained TT practitioners (行医者). Obviously mindful of the publicity value of the situation, Journal editor George Lundberg appeared on TV to declare, “Age doesn’t matter. It’s good science that matters, and this is good science.”
Emily’s mother Linda Rosa, a registered nurse, has been campaigning against TT for nearly a decade. Linda first thought about TT in the late ‘80s, when she learned it was on the approved list for continuing nursing education in Colorado. Its 100,000 trained practitioners (48,000 in the U.S.) don’t even touch their patients. Instead, they waved their hands a few inches from the patient’s body, pushing energy fields around until they’re in “balance.” TT advocates say these manipulations can help heal wounds, relieve Pain and reduce fever. The claims are taken seriously enough that TT therapists are frequently hired by leading hospitals, at up to $70 an hour, to smooth patients’ energy, sometimes during surgery.
Yet Rosa could not find any evidence that it works. To provide such proof, TT therapists would have to sit down for independent testing—something they haven’t been eager to do, even though James Randi has offered more than $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate the existence of a human energy field. (He’s had one taker so far. She failed.) A skeptic might conclude that TT practitioners are afraid to lay their beliefs on the line. But who could turn down an innocent fourth grader? Says Emily: “I think they didn’t take me very seriously because I’m a kid.”
The experiment was straight forward: 21 TT therapists stuck their hands, palms up, through a screen. Emily held her own hand over one of theirs left or right and the practitioners had to say which hand it was. When the results were recorded, they’d done no better than they would have by simply guessing. If there was an energy field, they couldn’t feel it.
16. Which of the following is evidence that TT is widely practiced?
A) TT has been in existence for decades.
B) Many patients were cured by therapeutic touch.
C) TT therapists are often employed by leading hospitals.
D) More than 100,000 people are undergoing TT treatment.（C）
17. Very few TT practitioners responded to the $1 million offer because ________.
A) they didn’t take the offer seriously
B) they didn’t want to risk their career
C) they were unwilling to reveal their secret
D) they thought it was not in line with their practice（C）
18. The purpose of Emily Rosa’s experiment was ________.
A) to see why TT could work the way it did
B) to find out how TT cured patients’ illnesses
C) to test whether she could sense the human energy field
D) to test whether a human energy field really existed（D）
19. Why did some TT practitioners agree to be the subjects of Emil’s experiment?
A) It involved nothing more than mere guessing.
B) They thought it was going to be a lot of fun.
C) It was more straightforward than other experiments.
D) They sensed no harm in a little girl’s experiment.（D）
20. What can we learn from the passage?
A) Some widely accepted beliefs can be deceiving.
B) Solid evidence weighs more than pure theories.
C) Little children can be as clever as trained TT practitioners.
D) The principle of TT is too profound to understand.（A）
Passage Three
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
What might driving on an automated highway be like? The answer depends on what kind of sys tem is ultimately adopted. Two distinct types are on the drawing board. The first is a special purpose lane system, in which certain lanes are reserved for automated vehicles. The second is a mixed traffic system: fully automated vehicles would share the road with partially automated or manual driven cars. A special purpose lane system would require more extensive physical modifications to existing highways, but it promises the greatest gains in freeway (高速公路) capacity.
Under either scheme, the driver would specify the desired destination, furnishing this information to a computer in the car at the beginning of the trip or perhaps just before reaching the automated highway. If a mixed traffic system way was in place, automated driving could begin whenever the driver was on suitably equipped roads. If special purpose lanes were available, the car could enter them and join existing traffic in two different ways. One method would use a special onramp (入口引道). As the driver approached the point of entry for the highway, devices installed on the roadside would electronically check the vehicle to determine its destination and to ascertain that it had the proper automation equipment in good working order. Assuming it passed such tests, the driver would then be guided through a gate and toward an automated lane. In this case, the transition from manual to auto mated control would take place on the entrance ramp. An alternative technique could employ conventional lanes, which would be shared by automated and regular vehicles. The driver would steer onto the highway and move in normal fashion to a “transition” lane. The vehicle would then shift under computer control onto a lane reserved for automated traffic. (The limitation of these lanes to automated traffic would, presumably, be well respected, because all trespassers (非法进入者) could be swiftly identified by authorities.)
Either approach to joining a lane of automated traffic would harmonize the movement of newly entering vehicles with those already traveling. Automatic control here should allow for smooth merging without the usual uncertainties and potential for accidents. And once a vehicle had settled into automated travel, the driver would be free to release the wheel, open the morning paper or just relax.
21. We learn from the first paragraph that two systems of automated highways ________.
A) are being planned
B) are being modified
C) are now in wide use
D) are under construction（A）
22. A special purpose lane system is probably advantageous in that ________.
A) it would require only minor changes to existing highways
B) it would achieve the greatest highway traffic efficiency
C) it has a lane for both automated and partially automated vehicles
D) it offers more lanes for automated vehicles（B）
23. Which of the following is true about driving on an automated highway?
A) Vehicles traveling on it are assigned different lanes according to their destinations.

B) A car can join existing traffic any time in a mixed lane system.
C) The driver should inform his car computer of his destination before driving onto it.
D) The driver should share the automated lane with those of regular vehicles.（C）
24. We know from the passage that a car can enter a special purpose lane ________.
A) by smoothly merging with cars on the conventional lane
B) by way of a ramp with electronic control devices
C) through a specially guarded gate
D) after all trespassers are identified and removed（B）
25. When driving in an automated lane, the driver ________.
A) should harmonize with newly entering cars
B) doesn’t have to rely on his computer system
C) should watch out for potential accidents
D) doesn’t have to hold on to the steering wheel（D）
Passage Four
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Taking charge of yourself involves putting to rest some very prevalent myths. At the top of the list is the notion that intelligence is measured by your ability to solve complex problems; to read, write and compute at certain levels; and to resolve abstract equations quickly. This vision of intelligence asserts formal education and bookish excellence as the true measures of self fulfillment. It encourages a kind of intellectual prejudice that has brought with it some discouraging results. We have come to believe that someone who has more educational merit badges, who is very good at some form of school discipline is “intelligent.” Yet mental hospitals are filled with patients who have all of the properly lettered certificates. A truer indicator of intelligence is an effective, happy life lived each day and each present moment of every day.
If you are happy, if you live each moment for everything it’s worth, then you are an intelligent person. Problem solving is a useful help to your happiness, but if you know that given your inability to resolve a particular concern you can still choose happiness for yourself, or at a minimum refuse to choose unhappiness, then you are intelligent. You are intelligent because you have the ultimate weapon against the big N.B.D.—Nervous Break Down.
“Intelligent people do not have N.B.D.’s because they are in charge of themselves. They know how to choose happiness over depression, because they know how to deal with the problems of their lives.
You can begin to think of yourself as truly intelligent on the basis of how you choose to feel in the face of trying circumstances. The life struggles are pretty much the same for each of us. Every one who is involved with other human beings in any social context has similar difficulties. Disagreements, conflicts and compromises are a part of what it means to be human. Similarly, money, growing old, sickness, deaths, natural disasters and accidents are all events which present problems to virtually all human beings. But some people are able to make it, to avoid immobilizing depression and unhappiness despite such occurrences, while others collapse or have an N.B.D. Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don’t measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare.
26. According to the author, the conventional notion of intelligence measured in terms of one’s ability to read, write and compute ________.
A) is a widely held but wrong concept
B) will help eliminate intellectual prejudice
C) is the root of all mental distress
D) will contribute to one’s self fulfillment（A）
27. It is implied in the passage that holding a university degree ________.
A) may result in one’s inability to solve complex real life problems
B) does not indicate one’s ability to write properly worded documents
C) may make one mentally sick and physically weak
D) does not mean that one is highly intelligent（D）
28. The author thinks that an intelligent person knows _____
A) how to put up with some very prevalent myths
B) how to find the best way to achieve success in tire
C) how to avoid depression and make his life worthwhile
D) how to persuade others to compromise（C）
29. In the last paragraph, the author tells us that ________.
A) difficulties are but p