1、2014 年 12 月大学英语六级考试真题（一）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then discuss what qualities an employer should look for in job applicants. Yo
2、u should give sound arguments to support your views and write at least150words but no more than200words.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡 1 上作答。PartListening Comprehension (30 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one
3、 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 correspondi
4、ng letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.1. A)The man should get a pair of new shoes.B) She can wait for the man for a little while.C) Physical exercise helps her stay in shape.D) The mans tennis racket is good enough.2. A) Kathy is very pleased to attend the lecture by Dr.
5、Smith.B) The women is good at doing lab demonstrations.C) The man will do all he can to assist the woman.D) The woman will skip Dr. Smiths lecture to help the man.3. A) Steve became rich soon after graduation from college.B) Steve invited his classmates to visit his big cottage.C) The speakers and S
6、teve used to be classmates.D) The woman asked the man to accompany her to the party.4. A) In a clinic.B) In a boat.C) In a plane.D) In a bus.5. A) 9:50B) 9:40C) 9:10D) 10:106. A) John has got many admirers.B) She does not think John is handsome.C) John has just got a bachelors degree.D) She does not
7、 like John at all.7. A) He has got a sharp pain in the neck.B) He is involved in a serious accident.C) He is trapped in a terrible traffic jam.D) He has been bumping along for hours.8. A) She is a professional mechanic.B) She should improve her physical condition.C) She cannot go without a washing m
8、achine.D) She is good at repairing things.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.9. A) The case caused debate among the public.B) The accused was found guilty of stealing.C) The accused refused to plead guilty in court.D) Some witnesses failed to appear in court.10. A) H
9、e was unemployed.B) His wife deserted him.C) His children were sick.D) He was out of mind.11. A) He was unworthy of sympathy.B) He was unlikely to get employed.C) He had committed the same sort of crime.D) He had been in jail before.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just hear
10、d.12. A) Unsatisfactory.B) Aggressive.C) Conservative.D) Irresponsible.13. A) Distributions of brochures.B) Public relations.C) Product design.D) Internal communication.14. A) Drawing sketches for advertisements.B) Advertising in the national press.C) Making television commercials.D) Placing adverti
11、sements in the trade press.15. A) She knows the tricks of advertising.B) She is not so easy to get along with.C) She is not suitable for the position.D) She has the motivation to do the job.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hea
12、r 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 1 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 16
13、 to 19 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) The cultural diversity.B) Innovative academic programs.C) Impressive school buildings.D) The cozy communal life.17. A) It helps them soak up the surrounding culture.B) It is as important as their learning experience.C) It ensures their physi
14、cal and mental health.D) It is very beneficial to their academic progress.18. A) It has the worlds best-known military academies.B) It provides numerous options for students.C) It draws faculty from all around the world.D) It offers the most challenging academic programs.19. A) They are responsible
15、merely to their Ministry of Education.B) They strive to develop every students academic potential.C) They ensure that all students get roughly equal attention.D) They try to give students opportunities for experimentation.Passage TwoQuestions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.20.
16、 A) It crosses the English Channel twice a day.B) It is now about half way to the French coast.C) It is leaving Folkestone in about five minutes.D) It will arrive at Boulogne at half past two.21. A) Next to the duty-free shop.B) At the rear of B deck.C) In the front of A deck.D) Opposite the ships o
17、ffice.22. A) It is much more spacious than the lounge on C deck.B) It is for the use of passengers travelling with children.C) It is for senior passengers and people with VIP cards.D) It is for the sole use of passengers travelling with cars.Passage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage y
18、ou have just heard.23. A) It was named after its discoverer.B) It was named after a cave art expert.C) It was named after one of its painters.D) It was named after its location.24. A) Deer were worshiped by the ancient Cro-Magnon people.B) Cro-Magnon people painted animals they hunted and ate.C) The
19、y were believed to keep evils away from cave dwellers.D) Animal painting was part of the spiritual life of the time.25. A) They have difficulty telling when the paintings were done.B) They are unable to draw such interesting and fine paintings.C) They have misinterpreted the meaning of the cave pain
20、tings.D) They know little about why the paintings were created.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to f
21、ill in the blanks with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.If you are attending a local college, especially one without residence halls, youll probably live at home and commute to classes. This arrangement
22、has a lot of _26_. Its cheaper. It provides a comfortable and familiar setting, and it means youll get the kind of home cooking youre used to instead of the monotony (单调) that _27_ even the best institutional food.However, commuting students need to _28_ to become involved in the life of their colle
23、ge and to take special steps to meet their fellow students. Often, this means a certain amount of initiative on your part in _29_ and talking to people in your classes whom you think you might like.One problem that commuting students sometimes face is their parents unwillingness to recognize that th
24、eyre adults. The _30_ from high school to college is a big one, and if you live at home you need to develop the same kind of independence youd have if you were living away. Home rules that might have been _31_ when you were in high school dont apply. If your parents are _32_ to renegotiate, you can
25、speed the process along by letting your behavior show that you have the responsibility that goes with maturity. Parents are more willing to _33_ their children as adults when they behave like adults. If, however, theres so much friction at home that it _34_ your academic work, you might want to cons
26、ider sharing an apartment with one or more friends. Sometimes this is a happy solution when family _35_ make everyone miserable.Part 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 l
27、ist 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
28、 of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.Children are natural-born scientists. They have36 minds, and they arent afraid to admit they dont know something. Most of them,37 lose this as they get older. They become self-conscious and dont want to ap
29、pear stupid. Instead of finding things out for themselves they make38 that often turn out to be wrongSo its not a case of getting kids interested in science. You just have to avoid killing the 39 for learning that they were born with. Its no coincidence that kids start deserting science once it beco
30、mes formalized. Children naturally have a blurred approach to40 knowledge. They see learning about science or biology or cooking as all part of the same act-its all learning. Its only because of the practicalities of education that you have to start breaking down the curriculum into specialist subje
31、cts. You need to have specialist teachers who41 what they know. Thus once they enter school, children begin to define subjects and erect boundaries that neednt otherwise exist.Dividing subjects into science, maths, English ,etc. is something we do for42 . In the end its all learning, but many childr
32、en today43 themselves from a scientific education. They think science is for scientists, not for them.Of course we need to specialize44 . Each of us has only so much time on Earth, so we cant study everything. At 5 years old, our field of knowledge and45 is broad, covering anything from learning to
33、walk to learning to count. Gradually it narrows down so that by the time we are 45, it might be one tiny little corner within science.A. accidentally B. acquiring C. assumptions D. convenienceE. eventually F. exclude G. exertion H. explorationI. formulas J. ignite K. impart L. inquiringM. passion N.
34、 provoking O. unfortunatelySection 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
35、once. Each paragraph is marked with a lever. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Meaning Is Healthier Than HappinessA For at least the last decade, the happiness craze has been building. In the last three months alone, over 1,000 books on happiness were release
36、d on Amazon, including Happy Money, Happy-People-Pills For All, and, for those just starting out, Happiness for Beginners.B One of the consistent claims of books like these is that happiness is associated with all sorts of good life outcomes, including - most promisingly - good health. Many studies
37、have noted the connection between a happy mind and a healthy body - the happier you are, the better health outcomes we seem to have. In a meta-analysis (overview) of 150 studies on this topic, researchers put it like this: “Inductions of well-being lead to healthy functioning, and inductions of ill-
38、being lead to compromised health.”C But a new study, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) challenges the rosy picture. Happiness may not be as good for the body as researchers thought. It might even be bad.D Of course, its important to first define happiness.
39、A few months ago, I wrote a piece called “Theres More to Life Than Being Happy” about a psychology study that dug into what happiness really means to people. It specifically explored the difference between a meaningful life and a happy life.E It seems strange that there would be a difference at all.
40、 But the researchers, who looked at a large sample of people over a month-long period, found that happiness is associated with selfish “taking” behavior and that having a sense of meaning in life is associated with selfless “giving” behavior.F “Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively sh
41、allow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided,“ the authors of the study wrote. “If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need.” While being happy is about feeling goo
42、d, meaning is derived from contributing to others or to society in a bigger way. As Roy Baumeister, one of the researchers, told me, “Partly what we do as human beings is to take care of others and contribute to others. This makes life meaningful but it does not necessarily make us happy.”G The new
43、PNAS study also sheds light on the difference between meaning and happiness, but on the biological level. Barbara Fredrickson, a psychological researcher who specializes in positive emotions at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Steve Cole, a genetics and psychiatric researcher at UCL
44、A, examined the self-reported levels of happiness and meaning in 80 research subjects.H Happiness was defined, as in the earlier study, by feeling good. The researchers measured happiness by asking subjects questions like “How often did you feel happy?” “How often did you feel interested in life?” a
45、nd “How often did you feel satisfied?” The more strongly people endorsed these measures of “hedonic well-being,” or pleasure, the higher they scored on happiness.I Meaning was defined as an orientation to something bigger than the self. They measured meaning by asking questions like “How often did y
46、ou feel that your life has a sense of direction or meaning to it?”, “How often did you feel that you had something to contribute to society?”, and “How often did you feel that you belonged to a community social group?” The more people endorsed these measures of “eudaimonic well-being” - or, simply p
47、ut, virtue - the more meaning they felt in life.J After noting the sense of meaning and happiness that each subject had, Fredrickson and Cole, with their research colleagues, looked at the ways certain genes expressed themselves in each of the participants. Like neuroscientists who use fMRI scanning
48、 to determine how regions in the brain respond to different stimuli, Cole and Fredrickson are interested in how the body, at the genetic level, responds to feelings of happiness and meaning.K Coles past work has linked various kinds of chronic adversity to a particular gene expression pattern. When
49、people feel lonely, are grieving the loss of a loved one, or are struggling to make ends meet, their bodies go into threat mode. This triggers the activation of a stress-related gene pattern that has two features: an increase in the activity of prion flammatory genes and a decrease in the activity of genes involved in anti-viral responses.L Cole and Fredrickson found that people who are happy but have little to no sens
