六级考前热身试题—.doc

大学英语六级考试考前热身试题一

Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled A Harmonious Society in My Mind. You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.
1. 中国现在提倡建立和谐型社会
2. 我心中的和谐社会
3. 为了达到这样的目标我们应该如何做
A Harmonious Society in My Mind
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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.

Who’s Afraid of Google?
Rarely if ever has a company risen so fast in so many ways as Google, the world’s most popular search engine. This is true by just about any measure: the growth in its market value and revenues: the number of people clicking in search of news, the nearest pizza parlor or a satellite image of their neighbor’s garden; the volume of its advertisers; or the number of its lawyers and lobbyists.
Such an ascent is enough to evoke concerns--both paranoid(偏执的) and justified. The list of constituencies that hate or fear Google grows by the week. Television networks, book publishers and newspaper owners feel that Google has grown by using their content without paying for it. Telecoms firms such as America’s AT&T and Verizon are annoyed that Google prospers, in their eyes, by free-riding on the bandwidth that they provide; and it is about to bid against them in a forthcoming auction for radio spectrum. Many small firms hate Google because they relied on exploiting its search formulas to win prime positions in its rankings, but dropped to the Internet’s equivalent of Hades after Google modified these algorithms(运算法则).
And now come the politicians. Libertarians dislike Google’s deal with China’s censors. Conservatives moan about its uncensored videos. But the big new fear is to do with the privacy of its users. Google’s business model assumes that people will entrust it with ever more information about their lives, to be stored in the company’s “cloud" of remote computers. Some users now keep their photos, blogs, videos, calendars, e-mail, news feeds, maps, contacts, social networks, documents, spreadsheets (电子数据表), presentations, and credit-card information—in short, much of their lives—on Google’s computers.
But the privacy problem is much subtler than that. As Google compiles more information about individuals, it faces numerous trade-offs. At one extreme it could use a person’s search history and advertising responses in combination with, say, his location and the itinerary in his calendar, to serve increasingly useful and welcome search results and ads. This would also allow Google to make money from its many new services. But it could scare users away. As a warning, Privacy International, a human-rights organization in London. has berated Google, charging that its attitude to privacy “at its most blatant is hostile, and at its most benign is ambivalent”.
And Google could soon, if it wanted, compile files on specific individuals. This presents “perhaps the most difficult privacy issues in all of human history,” says Edward Felten, a privacy expert at Princeton University. Speaking for many, John Battelle, the author of a book on Google and an early admirer, recently wrote on his blog that “I’ve found myself more and more wary” of Google “out of some primal, lizard-brain fear of giving too much control of my data to one source.”
More JP Morgan than Bill Gates
Google is often compared to Microsoft; but its evolution is actually closer to that of the banking industry. Just as financial institutions grew to become repositories of people’s money, and thus guardians of private information about their finances, Google is now turning into a supervisor of a far wider and more intimate range of information about individuals. Yes, this applies also to rivals such as Yahoo! and Microsoft. But Google, through the sheer speed with which it accumulates the treasure of information, will be the one to test the limits of what society can tolerate.
It does not help that Google is often seen as arrogant. Granted, this complaint often comes from sourgrapes rivals. But many others are put off by Google’s assertion of its own holiness, as if it merited unquestioning trust. This after all is the firm that chose “Don’t be evil” as its corporate motto and that explicitly intones that its goal is “not to make money”, as its boss, Eric Schmidt, puts it, but “to change the world”. Its ownership structure is set up to protect that vision.
Ironically, there is something rather cloudlike about the multiple complaints surrounding Google. The issues are best parted into two cumuli: a set of “public” argmnents about how to regulate Google; and a sec of “private” ones for Google’s managers, to do with the strategy the firm needs to get through the coming storm. On both counts, Google —contrary to its own propaganda — is much better judged as being just like any other “evil” money-grabbing company.
Grab the money
That is because, from the public point of view, the main contribution of all companies to society comes from making profits, not giving things away. Google is a good example of this. Its “goodness” stems less from all that guff about corporate altruism than from Adam Smith’s invisible hand. It prorides a service that others find very useful—namely helping people to find information (at no charge) and letting advertisers promote their wares to those people in a finely targeted way.
Given this, the onus of proof is with Google’s would-be prosecutors to prove it is doing something wrong. On antitrust, the price that Google charges its advertisers is set by auction, so its monopolistic clout is limited; and it has yet to use its dominance in one market to muscle into others in the way Microsoft did. The same presumption of innocence goes for copyright and privacy. Google’s book-search product, for instance, arguably helps rather than hurts publishers and authors by rescuing books from obscurity and encouraging readers to buy copyrighted works. And, despite Big Brotherish talk about knowing what choices people will be making tomorrow, Google has not betrayed the trust of its users over their privacy. If anything, it has been better than its rivals in standing up to prying governments in both America and China.
That said, conflicts of interest will become inevitable — especially with privacy. Google in effect controls a dial that, as it sells ever more services to you, could move in two directions. Set to one side, Google could voluntarily destroy very quickly any user data that it collects. That would assure privacy, but it would limit Google’s profits from selling to advertisers information about what you are doing, and make those services less useful. If the dial is set to the other side and Google hangs on to the information, the services will be more useful, but some dreadful intrusions into privacy could occur.
The answer, as with banks in the past, must lie somewhere in the middle in that the right point for the dial is likely to change, as circumstances change. That will be the main public interest in Google. But, as the bankers (and Bill Gates) can attest, public scrutiny also creates a private challenge for Google’s managers: how should they present their case?
One obvious strategy is to allay concerns over Google’s trustworthiness by becoming more transparent and opening up more of its processes and plans to scrutiny. But it also needs a deeper change of heart. Pretending that, just because your founders are nice young men and you give away lots of services, society has no fight to question your motives no longer seems sensible. Google is a capitalist tool--and a useful one. Better, surely, to face the coming storm on that foundation, than on a stale slogan that could be your undoing.
1. After Google modified the algorithms, many small firms that adopted its search formulas ______.
[A] entered a desperate future [B] transferred a different attitude on Google
[C] dropped to the competition of Internet [D] obtained predominance in the rankings
2. According to Privacy International in London, which word can describe Google’s attitude to privacy exactly?
[A] Confusing. [B] Adorable. [C] Hypocritical. [D] Indifferent.
3. The author of a book on Google and an early admirer John Battelle thinks that______.
[A] he becomes more wary due to Google [B] Google makes many users uneasy
[C] he persists in supporting Google [D] Google controls one source
4. The rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft are corresponding to .
[A] Google and Microsoft [B] Google and banks
[C] Microsoft and banks [D] repositories and guardians
5. Google’s assertion of its own holiness .
[A] brings about sourgrapes rivals’ scorn
[B] is able to receive unquestioning trust
[C] makes many firms disgusted
[D] attracts the support of many firms except sourgrapes rivals
6. What de the two sets of “public” and “private” arguments show?
[A] Google is the same as any other company aiming at money.
[B] Google’s propaganda is different from any other company.
[C] Google excels any other “evil” company in grabbing money.
[D] Google is regarded as an evil company.
7. What largely gives rise to Google’s “goodness”?
[A] Adam Smith's economic theories. [B] Google aims at benefiting the society.
[C] A useful service Google provides. [D] Google makes profits for itself.
8. Google can overwhelmingly enter other markets like Microsoft by means of its ________________________.
9. If Google assures privacy by destroying user data, this would negatively influence its
________________________.
10. If more of Google’s processes and plans are inspected preciously, this can enhance its
________________________.

Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D], and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
11. [A] Lend Marsha some reference materials.
[B] Ask Marsha where the bookshelf is.
[C] Check through the books on Marsha’s shelf.
[D] Ask Marsha if she has an extra bookshelf.
12. [A] Mr. Smith will come this afternoon. [B] The man will probably call Mr. Smith.
[C] Mr. Smith came 15 minutes ago. [D] Mr. Smith came between 10:30 and 12:00.
13. [A] He loves his present job. [B] He is going to open a store.
[C] He is about to retire. [D] He works in a repair shop.
14. [A] Because she suffers from computer radiation.
[B] Because her eyes don’t feel comfortable.
[C] Because she wants to wash something away in her stomach.
[D] Because she has a digestion problem.
15. [A] Not everyone from England likes to read all the time.
[B] People who teach English like things besides books.
[C] The English like to read a lot and listen to music.
[D] English teachers usually like to read a lot.
16. [A] Making a phone call. [B] Fixing a broken telephone.
[C] Having a physical examination. [D] Whispering to each other.
17. [A] The assignment looks quite easy.
[B] He is also worried about the assignment.
[C] He has already finished the assignment.
[D] He can’t help the woman with the assignment.
18. [A] She was given a raise. [B] She was given a new job.
[C] She was criticized for being late. [D] She was praised for her hard work.
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19. [A] Help her prepare the presentation.
[B] Give her extra time to finish the report.
[C] Give her some advice on doing the report.
[D] Hand in her report next Wednesday.
20. [A] The professor will often extend the time limit for assignments.
[B] The students will gain extra scores for handing in assignments ahead of time.
[C] The professor will penalize lightly for late assignments.
[D] The students will lose scores by the day for late assignments.
21. [A] Sympathetic. [B] Skeptical. [C] Grateful. [D] Indifferent.
22. [A] He lost everything including his computer. [B] He suffered from a serious car accident.
[C] He went abroad to join his family. [D] He was transferred to another class.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
23. [A] Problems the man has encountered when writing his history paper.
[B] The man’s broken computer.
[C] The reason why staring at computer screen makes eyes hurt.
[D] The woman’s article on the newspaper about eyes.
24. [A] Because it happens very fast. [B] Because it gives eyes a break.
[C] Because it moistens eyes. [D] Because it relaxes eyes.
25. [A] Have a rest. [B] Have a cup of coffee.
[C] Use eye drops. [D] Sleep early in the night.
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.
Passage One
Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. [A] To attract people to the camps. [B] To explain the aims of the camps.
[C] To talk about camping experiences. [D] To describe the programs of the camps.
27. [A] Campers learn to cook food for themselves.
[B] Horses play a central role in the activities.
[C] Horse lessons are offered all the year round.
[D] Campers are required to wear camp T-shirts.
28. [A] To help people und