大学英语六级考试试点考试样卷(试题册)
Part ⅠWriting(30 minutes)
Directions：For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Say No to Pirated Products．You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below：
1. 目前盗版的现象比较严重
2. 造成这种现象的原因及其危害
3. 我们应该怎么做
Useful words and expressions：
盗版：piracy(n.)
盗版产品：pirated products
知识产权:intellectual property rights
侵犯版权：infringe sb’s copyright；copyright infringement
Say No to Pirated Products
Part ⅡReading 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 14, mark
Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
For questions 510, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
Rainforests
Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystem(生态系统)on Earth，and also the oldest. Today, tropical rainforests cover only 6 percent of the Earth’s ground surface，but they are home to over half of the planet’s plant and animal species.
What Is a Rainforest?
Generally speaking，a rainforest is an environment that receives high rainfall and is dominated by tall trees. A wide range of ecosystems fall into this category, of course. But most of the time when people talk about rainforests, they mean the tropical rainforests located near the equator.
These forests receive between 160 and 400 inches of rain per year. The total annual rainfall is spread pretty evenly throughout the year, and the temperature rarely dips below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
This steady climate is due to the position of rainforests on the globe. Because of the orientation of the Earth’s axis, the Northern and Southern hemispheres each spend part of the year tilted away from the sun. Since rainforests are at the middle of the globe, located near the equator, they are not especially affected by this change. They receive nearly the same amount of sunlight，and therefore heat, all year. Consequently, the weather in these regions remains fairly constant.
The consistently wet, warm weather and ample sunlight give plant life everything it needs to thrive. Trees have the resources to grow to tremendous heights. and they live for hundreds, even thousands, of years. These giants，which reach 60 to 150 ft in the air, form the basic structure of the rainforest. Their top branches spread wide in order to capture maximum sunlight. This creates a thick canopy(树冠)level at the top of the forest, with thinner greenery levels underneath. Some large trees grow so tall that they even tower over the canopy layer.
As you go lower, down into the rainforest, you find less and less greenery. The forest floor is made up of moss，fungi，and decaying plant matter that has fallen from the upper layers. The reason for this decrease in greenery is very simple：The overabundance of plants gathering sunlight at the top of the forest blocks most sunlight from reaching the bottom of the forest，making it difficult for robust plants to thrive.
The Forest for the Trees
The ample sunlight and extremely wet climate of many tropical areas encourage the growth of towering trees with wide canopies. This thick top layer of the rainforest dictates the lives of all other plants in the forest. New tree seedlings rarely survive to make it to the top unless some older trees die, creating a“hole”in the canopy. When this happens，all of the seedlings on the ground level compete intensely to reach the sunlight.
Many plant species reach the top of the forest by climbing the tall trees. It is much easier to ascend this way, because the plant doesn’t have to form its own supporting structure.
Some plant species，called epiphytes, grow directly on the surface of the giant trees. These plants，which include a variety of orchids and ferns，make up much of the understory, the layer of the rainforest right below the canopy. Epiphytes are close enough to the top to receive adequate light，and the runoff from the canopy layer provides all the water and nutrients(养分)they need, which is important since they don’t have access to the nutrients in the ground.
Stranglers and Buttresses
Some epiphytes eventually develop into stranglers. They grow long, thick roots that extend down the tree trunk into the ground. As they continue to grow, the roots form a sort of web structure all around the tree. At the same time, the strangler plant’s branches extend upward，spreading out into the canopy. Eventually, the strangler may block so much light from above，and absorb such a high percentage of nutrients from the ground below, that the host tree dies.
Competition over nutrients is almost as intense as competition for light. The excessive rainfall rapidly dissolves nutrients in the soil, making it relatively infertile except at the top layers. For this reason，rainforest tree roots grow outward to cover a wider area, rather than downward to lower levels. This makes rainforest trees somewhat unstable, since they don’t have very strong anchors in the ground. Some trees compensate for this by growing natural buttresses. These buttresses are basically tree trunks that extend out from the side of the tree and down to the ground, giving the tree additional support.
Rainforest trees are dependent on bacteria that are continually producing nutrients in the ground. Rainforest bacteria and trees have a very close，symbiotic(共生的) relationship. The trees provide the bacteria with food, in the form of fallen leaves and other material, and the bacteria break this material down into the nutrients that the trees need to survive.
One of the most remarkable things about rainforest plant life is its diversity. The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest are mainly composed of a dozen or so tree species. A tropical rainforest, on the other hand, might have 300 distinct tree species.
All Creatures, Great and Small
Rainforests are home to the majority of animal species in the world. And a great number of species who now live in other environments, including humans, originally inhabited the rainforests. Researchers estimate that in a large rainforest area, there may be more than 10 million different animal species.
Most of these species have adapted for life in the upper levels of the rainforest, where food is most plentiful. Insects, which can easily climb or fly from tree to tree, make up the largest group(ants are the most abundant animal in the rainforest).Insect species have a highly symbiotic relationship with the plant life in a rainforest. The insects move from plant to plant, enjoying the wealth of food provided there. As they travel, the insects may pick up the plants’ seeds, dropping them some distance away. This helps to disperse the population of the plant species over a larger area.
The numerous birds of the rainforest also play a major part in seed dispersal. When they eat fruit from a plant, the seeds pass through their digestive system. By the time they excrete(排泄)the seeds, the birds may have flown many miles away from the fruit-bearing tree.
There are also a large number of reptiles and mammals in the rainforest. Since the weather is so hot and humid during the day, most rainforest mammals are active only at night，dusk or dawn. The many rainforest bat species are especially well adapted for this lifestyle. Using their sonar, bats navigate easily through the mass of trees in the rainforest, feeding on insects and fruit.
While most rainforest species spend their lives in the trees，there is also a lot of life on the forest floor. Great apes, wild pigs, big cats and even elephants can all be found in rainforests. There are a number of people who live in the rainforests, as well. These tribes—which, up until recently, numbered in the thousands—are being forced out of the rainforests at an alarming rate because of deforestation.
Deforestation
In the past hundred years，humans have begun destroying rainforests at an alarming rate. Today, roughly 1.5 acres of rainforest are destroyed every second. People are cutting down the rainforests in pursuit of three major resources：
l Land for crops
l Lumber for paper and other wood products
l Land for livestock pastures
In the current economy, people obviously have a need for all of these resources. But almost all experts agree that, over time, we will suffer much more from the destruction of the rainforests than we will benefit.
The world’s rainforests are an extremely valuable natural resource，to be sure, but not for their lumber or their land. They are the main cradle of life on Earth，and they hold millions of unique life forms that we have yet to discover. Destroying the rainforests is comparable to destroying an unknown planet—we have no idea what we’re losing. If deforestation continues at its current rate，the world’s tropical rainforests will be wiped out within 40 years.
1. Virtually all plant and animal species on Earth can be found in tropical rainforests.
2. There is not much change in the weather in the tropical rainforests all the year round.
3. The largest number of rainforests in the world are located on the African continent.
4. Below the canopy level of a tropical rainforest grows an overabundance of plants.
5. New tree seedlings will not survive to reach the canopy level unless .
6. Epiphytes，which form much of the understory of the rainforest, get all their water and nutrients from .
7. Stranglers are so called because they by blocking the sunlight and competing for the nutrients.
8. Since rainforest bacteria and trees depend on each other for life, the relationship they form is termed .
9. Plant species are dispersed over a large area with the help of .
10. As we are still ignorant of millions of unique life forms in the rainforest, deforestation can be compared to the destruction of .
Part ⅣReading Comprehension(Reading in Depth)(25 minutes)
Section A
Directions：In this section，there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on Answer Sheet 2.
Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.
America is a country that now sits atop the cherished myth that work provides rewards，that working people can support their families. It’s a myth that has become so divorced from reality that it might as well begin with the words“Once upon a time.”Today 1.6 million New Yorkers suffer from“food insecurity，”which is a fancy way of saying they don’t have enough to eat. Some are the people who come in at night and clean the skyscrapers that glitter along the river. Some pour coffee and take care of the aged parents of the people who live in those buildings. The American Dream for the well-to-do grows from the bowed backs of the working poor, who too often have to choose between groceries and rent.
In a new book called“The Betrayal of Work”,Beth Shulman says that even in the booming 1990s one out of every four American workers made less than $8.70 an hour, an income equal to the government’s poverty level for a family of four. Many, if not most, of these workers had no health care, sick pay or retirement provisions.
We ease our consciences, Shulman writes, by describing these people as“low skilled,”as though they’re not important or intelligent enough to deserve more. But low-skilled workers today are better educated than ever before, and they constitute the linchpin(关键) of American industry. When politicians crow(得意洋洋地说)that happy days are here again because jobs are on the rise，it’s these jobs they’re really talking about. Five of the 10 occupations expected to grow big in the next decade are in the lowest-paying job groups. And before we sit back and decide that’s just the way it is，it’s instructive to consider the rest of the world. While the bottom 10 percent of American workers earn just 37 percent of our average wage, their counterparts in other industrialized countries earn upwards of 60 percent. And those are countries that provide health care and child care, which eases the economic pinch considerably.
Almost 40 years ago，when Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty，a family with a car and a house in the suburbs felt prosperous. Today that same family may well feel poor, overwhelmed by creditcard debt, a second mortgage and the cost of the stuff that has become the backbone of American life. When the middle class feels poor，the poor have little chance for change, or even recognition.
47. By saying“it might as well begin with the words‘Once upon a time’”(Line 3，Para.1),the author suggests that the American myth is .
48. What is the American Dream of the well-to-do built upon?
49. Some Americans try to make themselves feel less guilty by attributing the poverty of the working people to .
50. We learn from the passage that the difference in pay between the lowest paid and the average worker in America is than that in other industrialized countries.
51. According to the author, how would an American family with a car and a house in the suburbs probably feel about themselves today?
Section B
Directions：There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn’t the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations，but a fact of Europe’s new economic landscape，embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the“irresistible momentum of individualism”over the last century. The communications revolution，the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on(扰乱)Europeans’ private lives.
Europe’s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence.The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe’s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today’s tech-savvy(精通技术的) workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone，and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so.
Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage—twentysomething professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women，make up a large proportion of those living alone，the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative—dark and cold，while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone.
The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn’t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo，a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn’t got time to get lonely because he has too much work.“I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult.”Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called “The Single Woman and Prince Charming,”thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don’t last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50，she says she’d never have wanted to do what her mother did—give up a career to raise a family. Instead.“I’ve always done what I wanted to do：live a self-determined life.”
52. More and more young Europeans remain single because .
A) they are driven by an overwhelming sense of individualism
B) they have entered the workforce at a much earlier age
C) they have embraced a business culture of stability
D) they are pessimistic about their economic future
53. What is said about European society in the passage?
A) It has fostered the trend towards small families.
B) It is getting closer to Americanstyle capitalism.
C) It has limited consumer choice despite a free market.
D) It is being threatened by irresistible privatization.
54. According to Paragraph 3, the newest group of singles are .
A) warm and lightheartedC) negative and gloomy
B) on either side of marriageD) healthy and wealthy
55. The author quotes Eppendorf to show that .
A) some modern women prefer a life of individual freedom
B) the family is no longer the basic unit of society in present-day Europe
C) some professional people have too much work to do to feel lonely
D) most Europeans conceive living a single life as unacceptable
56. What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A) To review the impact of women becoming high earners.
B) To contemplate the philosophy underlying individualism.
C) To examine the trend of young people living alone.
D) To stress the rebuilding of personal relationships.
Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
Supporters of the biotech industry have accused an American scientist of misconduct after she testified to the New Zealand government that a genetically modified(GM) bacterium could cause serious damage if released.
The New Zealand Life Sciences Network，an association of pro-GM scientists and organizations, says the view expressed by Elaine Ingham, a soil biologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, was exaggerated and irresponsible. It has asked her university to discipline her.
But Ingham stands by her comments and says the complaints are an attempt to silence her.“They’re trying to cause trouble with my university and get me fired,”Ingham told New Scientist.
The controversy began on 1 February, when Ingham testified before New Zealand’s Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, which will determine how to regulate GM organisms. Ingham claimed that a GM version of a common soil bacterium could spread and destroy plants if released into the wild. Other researchers had previously modified the bacterium to produce alcohol from organic waste. But Ingham says that when she put it in soil with wheat plants，all of the plants died within a week.
“We would lose terrestrial(陆生的)plants...this is an organism that is potentially deadly to the continued survival of human beings,”she told the commission. She added that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) canceled its approval for field tests using the organism once she had told them about her research in 1999.
But last week the New Zealand Life Sciences Network accused Ingham of “presenting inaccurate, careless and exaggerated information”and“generating speculative doomsday scenarios(世界末日的局面)that are not scientifically supportable”.They say that her study doesn’t even show that the bacteria would survive in the wild, much less kill massive numbers of plants. What’s more, the network says that contrary to Ingham’s claims, the EPA was never asked to consider the organism for field trials.
The EPA has not commented on the dispute. But an e-mail to the network from Janet Anderson, director of the EPA’s bio-pesticides(生物杀虫剂)division，says“there is no record of a review and/or clearance to field test”the organism.
Ingham says EPA officials had told her that the organism was approved for field tests, but says she has few details. It’s also not clear whether the organism, first engineered by a German institute for biotechnology, is still in use.
Whether Ingham is right or wrong, her supporters say opponents are trying unfairly to silence her.
“I think her concerns should be taken seriously. She shouldn’t be harassed in this way,”says Ann Clarke, a plant biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who also testified before the commission.“It’s an attempt to silence the opposition.”
57. The passage centers on the controversy .
A) between American and New Zealand biologists over genetic modification
B) as to whether the study of genetic modification should be continued
C) over the possible adverse effect of a GM bacterium on plants
D) about whether Elaine lngham should be fired by her university
58. Ingham insists that her testimony is based on .
A) evidence provided by the EPA of the United States
B) the results of an experiment she conducted herself
C) evidence from her collaborative research with German biologists
D) the results of extensive field tests in Corvallis, Oregon
59. According to Janet Anderson，the EPA .
A) has canceled its approval for field tests of the GM organism
B) hasn’t reviewed the findings of Ingham’s research
C) has approved field tests using the GM organism
D) hasn’t given permission to field test the GM organism
60. According to Ann Clarke，the New Zealand Life Sciences Network .
A) should gather evidence to discredit Ingham’s claims
B) should require that the research by their biologists be regulated
C) shouldn’t demand that Ingham be disciplined for voicing her views
D) shouldn’t appease the opposition in such a quiet way
61. Which of the following statements about Ingham is TRUE?
A) Her testimony hasn’t been supported by the EPA.
B) Her credibility as a scientist hasn’t been undermined.
C) She is firmly supported by her university.
D) She has made great contributions to the study of GM bacteria.
Part ⅤError Correction(15 minutes)
Directions：This part consists of a short passage. In this passage，there are altogether 10 mistakes, one in each numbered line. You may have to change a word, add a word or delete a word. Mark out the mistakes and put the corrections in the blanks provided. If you change a word，cross it out and write the correct word in the corresponding blank. If you add a word, put an insertion mark(∧)in the right place and write the missing word in the blank. If you delete a word, cross it out and put a slash(/) in the blank.
The Seattle Times Company is one newspaper firm that
has recognized the need for change and done something
about it. In the newspaper industry,papers must reflect the
diversity of the communities to which they provide
information. It must reflect that diversity with their news 62
coverage or risk losing their readers’ interest and their
advertisers’ support.Operating within Seattle, which has 20
percents racial minorities, the paper has put into place 63
policies and procedures for hiring and maintain a diverse 64
workforce. The underlying reason for the change is that for
information to be fair, appropriate,and subjective,it should 65
be reported by the same kind of population that reads it.
A diversity committee composed of reporters,editors,
and photographers meets regularly to value the Seattle 66
Times’ content and to educate the rest of the newsroom staff
about diversity issues. In an addition,the paper instituted a 67
content audit(审查)that evaluates the frequency and
manner of representation of woman and people of color in 68
photographs.Early audits showed that minorities were
pictured far too infrequently and were pictured with a
disproportionate number of negative articles.The audit has
resulted from improvement in the frequency of majority 69
representation and their portrayal in neutral or positive 70
situations. And, with a result,the Seattle Times has 71
improved as a newspaper.The diversity training and content
audits helped the Seattle Times Company to win the
Personnel Journal Optimas Award for excellence in
managing change.
Part ⅥTranslation(5 minutes)
Directions：Complete the following sentences on Answer Sheet 2 by translating into English the Chinese given in brackets.
72. It was essential that (我们在月底前签订合同).
73. To our delight, she (进大学一个月就适应了校园生活).
74. The new government was accused (未实现其降低失业率的承诺).
75. The workmen think (遵守安全规则很重要).
76. The customer complained that no sooner (他刚试着使用这台机器，它就不运转了) 
