2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题答案(第三套)

. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “Help others,and you will be helped when you are in need” you can cite examples to illustrateyour views. you should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes) 说明：由于2017年12月六级考试全国共考了2套听力，本套真题听力与前2套听力内容完全一致，只是顺序不一样，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。

Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes) Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one wordfor each blank from a list 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 throughthe centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and Germany hasjust stated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as fuel by 2030. The country is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by 2050, ___26___ a shift togreen energy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the registration of new cars in the country as they will not allow any gasoline ___27___ vehicle to be registered after 2030.Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and ___28___ is because energy officials seethat they will not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not ___29___ a large portion of vehicle emissions. The country is still ___30___ that it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the ___31___ of electric cars in the country has not occurred asfast as expected.Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 million. . . .63. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）hybrid and electric car battery charging stations across the country. By 2030, Germany plans onhaving over 6 million charging stations ___32___. According to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as Volkswagen is still recovering from its emissions scandal.There are ___33___ around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfed by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a ___34___ effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not ___35___, the results of such banswill likely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.A) acceptanceB) currentlyC) disruptingD) eliminate E)exhaustF) futileG) hopefulH) implementedI)incidentallyJ) installedK) noticeableL) poweredM) restorationN) skepticalO) sparkingSection 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 once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Apple’s Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Teach IndustryA) The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist’s smartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology industry and the United States government.B) After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (讨好) certain tech companies and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, tech giants began to recognize the United States government as a hostile actor. But if the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are. . . . destined to emerge victorious.64. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）C) It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United States government’s mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sympathetic sort:the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer’s phone. The action stems from a federal court orderissued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.D) In the other corner is the world’s most valuable company, whose chi ef executive, Timothy D. Cook, has said he will appeal the court’s order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve aprinciple that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defend: Weaken a single iPhoneso that its contents can be viewed by the American government and you risk weakening alliPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.E) There will probably be months of legal tussling, and it is not at all clear which side will prevailin court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor. Yet underlying all of this is asimple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public’s collectivebelief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.F) Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldwide. If Appleis forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investigation, what is to preventit from doing so for a request from the Chinese or the Iranians? If Apple is forced to write codethat lets the F.B.I. get into the Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the male attacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsible if some hacker got hold of that code and broke intoits other devices?G) Apple’s stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started putting inplace a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption to limit access to people’sdata. More than that, Apple - and, in different ways, other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft - have made their opposition to the government’s claims a pointof corporate pride.H) Apple’s emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corp orate reputation, not to mentionthe investment of considerable technical and financial resources, on limiting the sort of mass. . . . surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for many cases involving governmental65. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.I) “A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption,”said Kurt Opsahl, generalcounsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group. “Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest companies in the world coming out with a lengthyand impassioned post, like we s aw yesterday from Tim Cook. The profile has really been raised.”J) Apple and other tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep making theirdevices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple’s public opposition to the government’srequest is itself a hindrance to mass government intrusion. And to get at the contents of a single iPhone, the government says it needs a court order and Apple’s help to write new code; in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created before Apple found religion on (热衷于) privacy,the F.B.I. may have been able to break into the device by itself.K) You can expect that noose (束缚) to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether or notApple loses this specific case, measures that it could put into place in the future will almostcertainly be able to further limit the government’s reach.L) That’s not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant. As Apple andseveral security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write software that gives theF.B.I. access to the iPhone in question would establish an unsettling precedent. The orderessentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in place, the precedent could be usedto justify law enforcement efforts to get around encryption technologies in other investigations far removed from national security threats.M) Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could ask to use it proactively (先发制人地), before a suspected terrorist attack - leaving Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare.“This is a brand-newsalvo in the war against encryption,” Mr. Opsahl said.“We’ve had plenty of debates in Congressand the media over whether the government should have a backdoor, and this is an end run aroundthat - here they come with an order to create that backdoor.”N) Yet it’s worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty of technical. . . . means to close a backdoor over time.“If they’re anywhere near worth their salt as engineers, I bet66. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）they’re rethinking their threat model as we speak,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, a digital forensicexpert who studies the iPhone and its vulnerabilities.O) One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future versions ofthe iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will accept the sort of modified operating system that the F.B.I. wants Apple to create. That way, Apple could not unilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone— a user would have to consent to it.P) “Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof,” Mr. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out that the judge’sorder in th is case required Apple to provide “reasonable security assistance” to unlock Mr.Farook’s phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPhones so that even its ownengineers’ “reasonable assistance” will not be able to crack a given device when comp elled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lasting force. In other words, even if theF.B.I. wins this case, in the long run, it loses.36. It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their customers’ private data.37. The US government believes that its access to people’s iPhones could be used to preventterrorist attacks.38. A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a terrorist’s iPhone.39. Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government access topersonal data.40. Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private data inmassive scale.41. The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without Apple’s help.42. After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government intrusion into personal data by means of encryption.43. According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.44. Timothy Cook’s long web post has helped enhance Apple’s image.45. Apple’s CEO has decided to appeal the federal court’s order to unlock a user’s iPhone.Section CDirections: 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). You67. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with asingle line through the centre.Passage OneQuestion 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.At the base of a mountain in Tanzania’s Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright red, surrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water.Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished, sealed inthe deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The lake’s landscape is bizarre and deadly- andmade even more so by the fact that it’s the place where nearly 75percent of the world’sflamingos(火烈鸟) are born.The water is so corrosive that it can burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Flamingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that death. Once everythree or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stopflight to breed. Three –quarters of the world’s flamingos fly over from other salt lakes in the RiftValley and nest on salt- crystal islands that appear when the water is at specific level- too high andthe birds can’t build their nests, too low and predators can more briskly across the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level, the baby birds are kept safe from predators by acorrosive ditch.“Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water,”says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester. “ Humans cannot, and would die iftheir legs were exposed for any length of time.” So far this year, water levels have bee n too highfor the flamingos to nest.Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty lagoons (泻湖)form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. Three species of tilapia (罗非鱼) thrive there part-time. “Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into the lagoonswhen the lake is low and the lagoons are separate,” Harper said. “All the lagoons join when thelake is high and fish must retreat to their stream refuges or die.” Otherwise, no fish are able tosurvive in the naturally toxic lake.This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has once. . . . again started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and detergents.68. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upset the natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now, though, life prevails – even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.46. What can we learn about Lake Natron?A) It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.B) It remains little known to the outside world.C) It is a breeding ground for a variety of birds.D) It makes an ideal habitat for lots of predators.47.Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their babies can ______.A)find safe shelter more easilyB)grow thick feathers on their feet C)stay away from predatorsD)get accustomed to the salty water48.Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that _______.A)they can move swiftly across lagoonsB)they can survive well in salty water C)they breed naturally in corrosive ditchesD)they know where and when to nest49.Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?A)They can take refuge in the less salty waters.B)They can flee quick enough from predators.C)They can move freely from lagoon to lagoon.D)They can stand the heat of the spring water.50.What may be the consequence of Tanzanian government’s planned operation?A)The accelerated extinction of flamingos.B)The change of flamingos’ migration route.C)The overmining of Lake Natron’s soda ash.D)The disruption of Lake Natron’s ecosystem.Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.It is the season for some frantic last-minute math across the country, employees of all stripe are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have left it their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations altogether and just power. . . . through the holidays into 2017: More than half of American workers don’t use up all of their allotted vacation days each year.Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan recently explained in69. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）Harvard Business Review (HBR), leisure time was once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way – these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, areseen as the mark of someone important.In a series of several experiments, the researchers i llustrated just how much we’ve come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read two passages, on about a manwho led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worked and over –scheduled;when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social status, the majority of theparticipants said the latter. The same held true for people who used products that implied theywere short on time: In one experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery servicePeapod were seen as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further up on thesocial ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were just used to listen to music.In part,the authors wrote in HBR.this pattern may have to do with the way work itself has changed over the past several decades.We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to business-as-status may be linked to the development of knowledge-intensive economics. In such economies,individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or clients value (petence and ambition) are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job market.Thus，by telling others that weare busy and working all the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our perceived status.Even if you feel tempted to sacrifice your own vacation days for fake busyness, though, atleast consider leaving your weekends unscheduled.It's for your own good.51. What do most employees plan to do towards the end of the year?A) Go for a vacation.B) Keep on working. C) Set an objective for next year.D) Review the year’s achievements.52.How would people view dedication to work in the past?. . . .A) They would regard it as a matter of course.B) They would consider it a must for success.70. . . .2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第三套）C) They would look upon it with contempt.D) They would deem it a trick of businessmen.53. What did the researchers find through a series of experiments?A) The busier one appears, the more respect one earns.B) The more one works, the more one feels exploited.C) The more knowledge one has, the more competent one will be.D) The higher one’s status, the more vacation time one will enjoy.54. What may account for the change of people’s attitude towards being busy?A) The fast pace of life in modern society.B) The fierce competition in the job market.C) The widespread use of computer technology.D) The role of knowledge in modern economy.55.What does the author advise us to do at the end of the passage ?A) Schedule our time properly for efficiency.B) Plan our weekends in a meaningful way.C) Find time to relax however busy we are.D) Avoid appearing busy when we are not.PartⅣTranslation (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.青海湖位于海拔3205米、青海省省会西宁以西约100公里处。

2017年12月英语六级考试真题试卷附答案(完整版第3套)Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write on essay commenting on the saying "Help others, and you will be helped when you are in need.,f You can cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)说明：由于2017年12月六级考试全国共考了2套听力，本套真题听力与前2套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。

Part III 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 list 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 corresp on ding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and Germany has just stated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as fuel by 2030. The coun try is also planning to reduce its carb on footprint by 80-95% by 2050, 26 a shift to green energy in the country. Effectively, the ban will in elude the regist ration of new cars in the country as they will not allow any gasoline 27 vehicle to be registered after 2030.Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and 28 is because energy officials see that they will not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not 29 a large portion of vehicle emissions. The country is still 30 that it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the 31 of electric cars in the country has not occurred as fast as ejected.Other efforts to in crease the use of electric vehicles in elude plans to build over 1million hybrid and electric car battery changing stations across the country. By 2030, Germany plans on having over 6 million charging stations 32 . According to the In ter national Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as Volkswagen is still recovering from its emissions seandal.There are 33 around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfed by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a 34 effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not 35 , the results of such bans will likely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.A)acceptanee B) currently C) disrupting D) eliminate E) exhaust F) futile G) hopeful H) implemented I) incidentally J) installed K) noticeable L) powered M) restoration N) skeptical O) sparkingSection BDirections: In this sectior\ 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 once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Apple's Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Tech Industry[A]The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist's smartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology industry and the United States government・[B]After revelati ons by the former Nati onal Security Agency con tractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (讨好)certain tech companies and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, techgiants began to recognize the United States government as a hostile actor・ But if the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are destined to emerge victorious.[C]It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United States government's mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sympathetic sort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderers phone. The action steins from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to unlock on iPhone used by one of the two attackerswho killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.[D]In the other corner is the world's most valuable compan* whose chief executive, Timothy Cook, has said he will appeal the court's order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve a principle that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defend: Weaken a single iPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American government and you risk weakening all iPhones for any gover nment in truder, any where.[E]There will probably be mon ths of legal confrontati on, and it is not at all clear which side will prevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor.Yet underlying all of this is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public f s collective belief that they will do everything they con to protect that data.[F]Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldwide. If Apple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforce me nt investigation, what is to preve nt it from doing so for a request from the Russia ns or the Ira nians? If Apple is for ced to write code that lets the FBI get into the Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the male attacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsible if some hacker got hold of that code and broke into its other devices?[G]Apple's stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started putting in place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of en crypti on （加密）to limit access to people's data ・ More tha n that, Apple—a nd, in different ways, other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft—have made their opposition to the government's claims a point of corporate pride・[H]Apple's emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputati on, not to men tion the in vestment of considerable tech nical and financial resources, on limiting the sort of mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for many cases involving governmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.[I]U A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption/ said Kurt Opsahl, general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundatior\ a privacy watchdog group. n Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest compa nies in the world comi ng out with a lengthy and impassi oned post, like we saw yesterday from Timothy Cook. Its profile has really been raised.H[J]Apple and oilier tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep making their devices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple's public opposition to the governmerit's request is itself a hindrance to mass government intrusion. And to get at the contents of a single iPhone, the government says it needs a court order and Apple's help to write new code; in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created before Apple found religion on （热衷于）privacy, the FBI might have been able to break into the device by itself.[K]You can expect that noose （束缚）to continue to tighten・ Experts said that whether or not Apple loses this specific case, measures that it could put into place in the future will almost certainly be able to further limit the government's reach.[L]That is not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant. As apple and several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write software that gives the FBI access to the iPhone in questi on would establish an unsettli ng precede nt. The order esse ntially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in place, the pr ecede nt could be used to justify law enforcement efforts to get around encryption technologies in other investigations far removed from national security threats.[M]Once aimed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government couldask to use it proactively （先发制人地），before a suspected terrorist attack—leaving Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare. H This is a brand new move in the war against encryptioMr. Opsahl said.H We have had plenty of debates inCongress and the media over whether the government should have a backdoor, and this is an end run （迂回战术）around that—here they come with an order to create that backdoor."[N]Yet it is worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty of tech nical means to close a backdoor over time. H If they are any where near worth their salt as engineeI bet they are rethinking their threat model as we speak,n said Jonathan Zdziarski, a digital expert who studies the iPhone and its vulnerabilities. [O]One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future versions of the iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will accept the sort of modified operating system that the FBI wants Apple to create. That way, Apple could not unilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone—a user would have to consent to it.[P]"Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof," Mr. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out that the judge's order in this case required Apple to provide "reas on able security assistance'1 to unlock Mr. Farook's phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPh ones so that even its own en gineers* H reas on able assistance11 will not be able to crack a given device when compelled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lasting force. In other words, even if the FBI wins this case, in the long run z it loses.36.It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their customers* private data.37.The US government believes that its access to people's iPhones could be used to prevent terrorist attacks.38.A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a terrorist's iPhone.39.Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government access to personal data.40.Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private data on a massive scale.41.The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without Apple's help・42.After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government intrusion into personal data by means of encryption.43.According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.44.Timothy Cook's long web post has helped enhance Apple's image.45.Apple's CEO has decided to appeal the federal court's order to unlock a user!s iPhone.Section CDirections: 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 corresp onding letter on An swer Sheet 2 with a single line through the cen tre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.At the base of a moun tain in Tanzania's Gregory Rift, Lake Natr on bur ns bright red, surrotinded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carb on ate in the water. The lake's Ion dscape is bizarre and deadly—a nd made eve n more so by the fact that it's the place where nearly 75 percent of the world's flamingos （火烈鸟）are born.The water is so corrosive that it can bum the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Flamingos『however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that death. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed.Three・quarters of the world's flamingos fly over from other salt lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on salt-crystal islands that appear when the water is at a specific level—too high and the birds can't build their nests, too low and predators can move briskly across the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level, the baby birds are kept safe from predators by a corrosive ditch."Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water," says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester・,f Humans carmot, and would die if their legs were exposed for any length of time.1' So far this year,water levels have been too high for the flamingos to nest. Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty lagoons （泻1胡）form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. Three species of tilapia （罗鱼）thrive there part-time. "Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into the Iagoons when the lake is low and the Iagoons are separate,H Harper said. "All the Iagoons join when the lake is high and fish must retreat to their stream refuges or die.1' Otherwise, no fish are able to survive in the naturally toxic lake.This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has once again started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and detergents. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upsetthe natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now, though, life prevails—even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.46.What can we learn about Lake Natron?A)It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.B)It remains little known to the outside world.C)It is a breeding ground for a variety of birds.D)It makes an ideal habitat for lots of predators.47.Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their babies can .A)find safe shelter more easilyB)grow thick feathers on their feetC)stay away from predatorsD)get accustomed to the salty water48.Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that .A)they can move swiftly across IagoonsB)they can survive well in salty waterC)they breed naturally in corrosive ditchesD)they know where and when to nest49.Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?A)They can take refuge in the less salty waters・B)They can flee quick eno ugh from predators.C)They can move freely from lagoon to Iago on.D)They can stand the heat of the spring water.50.What may be the consequence of Tanzanian governmenfs planned operation?A)The accelerated extinotion of flamingos.B)The change of flamingos* migration route.C)The overmining of Lake Natron^ soda ash.D)The disruption of Lake Natron's ecosystem.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.It is the seas on for some frantic last-mi nute math—ac ross the coun try, employees of all stripes are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have left in their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations altogether and just power through the holidays into 2017: More than half of American workers don't use up all of their allotted vacation days each year.Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan recently explained in Harvard Business Review (HBR), leisure time was once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way—these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are seen as the mark of someone important.In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much we've come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read two passages, one about a man who led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worked and over-scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social status, the majority of the participants said the latter. The same held true for people who used products that implied they were short on time: In one experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery service Peapod were seen as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further up on the social ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were just used to listen to music.In part, the authors wrote in HBR, this pattern may have to do with the way work itself has changed over the past several decades.We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to busyness-as-status may be linked to the development of knowledge-intensive economics. In such economies, individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or die nts value (e. g. , compete nee and ambition) are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job market. Thus, by telling others that we are busy and working all the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our perceived status. Even if you feel tempted to sacrifice your own vacation days for fake busyness, though, at least consider leaving your weekends unscheduled. It's for your own good.51.What do most employees plan to do towards the end of the year?A)Go for a vacation.B)Keep on working.C)Set an objective for next year.D)Review the year's achievements.52.How would people view dedication to work in the past?A)They would regard it as a matter of course.B)They would consider it a must for success.C)They would look upon it with con tempt.D)They would deem it a trick of businessmen.53.What did the researchers find through a series of experiments?A)The busier one appears, the more respect one ear ns.B)The more one works, the more one feels exploited.C)The more kno wledge one has, the more compete nt one will be.D)The higher one's status, the more vacation time one will enjoy.54.What may account for the change of people's attitude towards being busy?A)The fast pace of life in modern society.B)The fierce competition in the job market.C)The widespread use of computer technology.D)The role of knowledge in modern economy.55.What does the author advise us to do at the end of the passage?A)Schedule our time properly for efficiency.B)Plan our weekends in a meaningful way.C)Find time to relax however busy we are.D)Avoid appearing busy when we are not.Part IV Translation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2. 洞庭湖位于湖南省东北部，面积很大，但湖水很浅。

2017年12月大学英语六级真题及答案解析（全三套）六级听力第一套：Section AConversation 1M: And now, for the lighter side of the news, Europe is setting an example for the rest of the world when it comes to food waste.W: That’s right John. This week the Italian government pass legislation that aims to dramatically reduce the amount of food wasted in the country. New laws have been put into place that would make it easier for farms and supermarkets to donate unsold foods to those who are in need.M: Yes. And in addition to this, businesses would now be rewarded for successful efforts to cut food waste.W: Italy is not the only country to focus on reducing food waste. Just earlier this year, the European Parliament voted in favor of legislation that would stop grocery giants from unfair trading practices that result in overproduction, thus creating waste.M: In France, the government has banned supermarkets from throwing away edible foods and imposed harsh penalties on businesses that fail to comply with the regulations.W: While there is still much progress to be made, other countries could learn a thing or two from the example set by France and Italy. In the United States, up to forty percent of all food goes uneaten. Despite the fact that one in seven American households lacks regular access to good food, one major cause of this problem is the confusion over food expiration labels, which are currently not regulated by the government.M: All this could change soon. This wave of new laws in Europe will definitely put more pressure on law makers to reduce food waste here. We turn now to a spokesperson fromHarvard University’s Food Law and Policy Clinic for more on the story. And now, let’s welcome Prof. Edward Becker to speak to us.Q1: What does the woman say about the new laws in Italy?Q2: What did the European Parliament do reduce food waste?Q3: What has the French government done recently?Q4: What is the major cause of food waste in the United States?Q1. C) They facilitate the donation of unsold foods to the needy.Q2. B) It passed a law aiming to stop overproduction.Q3. D) It has banned supermarkets from dumping edible foods.Q4. A) The confusion over food expiration labels.Conversation 2M: Thank you for calling Saks Fifth Avenue department store. How can I be of assistance to you today?W: Hello. I was in your store this past weekend and bought a few items. Yesterday, my friend told me that the annual anniversary sales had begun. It turned out she bought the same sweater as I did but for a much lower price.M: Yes. Our anniversary sale started on Monday. We do offer price adjustments within seven days of purchase to ensure our customer satisfaction. You said you did the purchase here this past weekend?W: Yes. I was shopping in your store last Sunday afternoon.M: That would definitely fall within the price adjustment window. Do you have an account with us? We can credit your account directly with the difference if you wish. Otherwise we can send a gift card by mail if you prefer.W: Crediting my account would be wonderful. Thank you. Now that you mention there's a sale going on, I do remember a dress I quite like when I was in the shop on Sunday. Is it on offer as well?M: Yes, ma'am. All the new arrivals are 15-20% off. In addition to the sale, we're running a promotion for complimentary tailoring if you need it.W: That's a good news. The dress really caught my eye but I did have some concerns about the length. How long will the alterations take?M: Our tailoring department guarantees alterations to be completed within five working days. If you like I can set one aside for you. If you're able to come this afternoon, you can give your name to the sale manager and they will be able to assist you.Q5. What do we learn about Saks department store?Q6. What does the man say Saks department store offers?Q7. What does the woman want the store to do to address the price difference?Q8. What is the service Saks department store offers in addition to the promotional sale?Q5. B) It has just launched its annual anniversary sales.Q6. D) Price adjustments within seven days of purchase.Q7. C) Credit it to her account.Q8. D) Complimentary tailoring.Section BPassage 1Barbie dolls have a particular look to them. They’re thin, tall, long-legged and virtually unlike any real human being. Although over the years Barbie has had more than 180 different careers-including football coach, sign language teacher, ambassador, president and astronaut–her body shape hasn’t changed much.Last year Mattel, the company that makes Barbie dolls, added some Barbies to its line that have different skin tones and hair textures. There are now Barbies with one of seven skin tones, 22 eye colours and 24 hair styles to choose from. Last year Mattel also gave Barbie a flat foot, rather than forcing her to be “in heels” all the time like the original Barbie is.Now they are introducing new Barbies with three slightly different body shapes while the original, tall and thin Barbies will continue to be sold.In a statement on its website, the company says it wants Barbies to look more like real people, and to give girls everywhere infinitely more ways to spark their imagination and play out their stories.Although many people say the new Barbies are a step in the right direction, some people say they don’t go far enough. They say that the new body shapes could be even more different from the original, tall, thin Barbies.Sales of Barbie dolls have been falling “every year since 2012,” according to CBC News.The toys aren’t in stores yet but they will be sold online at the Barbie website, starting this week, for $9.99.Q9. What do we know about the original Barbie dolls?Q10. Why do some people feel unsatisfied with the new Barbie dolls?Q11. Where will the new Barbie dolls be sold first?Q9. A. They are thin, tall, and unlike real human beings.Q10. D. Their body shapes have not changed much.Q11. C. On the Internet.Passage 2The earliest printed book we know today appeared in China in the year 868, and metal type was in use in Korea at the beginning of the fifteenth century, but it was in Germany around the year 1450 that a printing press using movable metal type was invented.Capitalism turned printing from an invention into an industry. Right from the start, book printing and publishing were organized on capitalist lines. 'The biggest sixteenth- century printer, Plantin of Antwerp, had twenty-four printing presses and employed more than a hundred workers. Only a small fraction of the population was literate, but the production of books grew at an extraordinary speed. By 1500 some twenty million volumes had already been printed.The immediate effect of printing was to increase the circulation of works that were already popular in the handwritten form, while less popular works went out of circulation. Publishers were interested only in books that would sell fairly quickly in sufficient numbers to cover the costs of production and make a profit. Thus, while printing enormously increased access to books by making cheap, high-volume production possible, it also reduced choice.The great cultural impact of printing was that it facilitated the growth of national languages. Most early books were printed in Latin, but the market for Latin was limited, and in its pursuit of larger markets the book trade soon produced translations into the national languages emerging at the time. Printing indeed played a key role in standardizing and stabilizing these languages by fixing them in print, and producing dictionaries and grammar books.Q12. What happened in Germany around the year of 1450?Q13. What does the speaker say about the printer, Plantin of Antwerp?Q14. What was the immediate effect of printing?Q15. What was the great cultural impact of printing?Q12. A) Movable metal type began to be used in printing.Q13. B) It was the biggest printer in the 16th century.Q14. B) It boosted the circulation of popular works.Q15. D) It promoted the growth of national languages.Section CRecording OneYou dream about being a movie star. You live in a big house in Hollywood, go to the Oscars every year, and win. You will be rich and famous. Wait a minute. You also hate having your photos taken and you are very shy. So how could you ever become a movie star? Choosing a right career can be hard. Many people graduate from school or college not knowing what they want to do with their lives and get a job without really thinking about it. For some, things work out fine. But others often find themselves stuck in a job they hate. Your working life lasts in average 40 years, so it’s important to find a job you like and feel enthusiastic about.Luckily, there are many ways you can get help to do this. The Australian website WWW. Careers online. com, compares choosing a career with going to the movies. Before you see a movie, you find out what films are showing. The site suggests you should do the same with your career. Find out what jobs are available and what your options are. Next, decide which movie you like best. If you are not a romantic person, you won’t want to see a love story. In other words, with your career, you should decide which job will suit your personality. Finally, decide how to get movie tickets and find out where the theater is before you go. With your career, you need to find information about where you can work and how to get a job in that profession.So, how do you start? Begin by asking yourself some questions, certain life experiences. Have you travelled overseas? Do you have any extra certificates at your degree? Such as the first aid license, for example. Your physical state and build can also affect which jobs you can do. A person, for example, who is allergic to cats will probably never become an animal doctor. Flight attendants, firefighters and police officers have to be over a certainheight and be physically fit. Your personality matters too. Are you outgoing or shy? If you like working alone, a job that requires lots of team work might not suit you.Choosing a career can take time and a lot of thought. However, when you know you can look forward to working in your dream job, you will be glad you thought it through.16. What does the speaker say about many college graduates?17. What does the Australia website suggest you do first to find a suitable job?18. What should you think about when you look for the right job according to the Australian website?16.D) They choose a job without thinking it through.17.B) Find out what job choices are available.18.A) The qualifications you have.Recording 2Kwanzaa is a cultural festival, during which African-American celebrate and reflect upon their rich heritage as the products of the two worlds. It begins December 26th and last for seven days. Kwanzaa was founded in 1966 by Dr. Karenga, a college professor and African-American leader, who believed that a special holiday could help African Americans meet their goals of building strong families, learning about their history and creating a sense of unity. After conducting extensive research in which he studied the festivals of many African groups of people, he decided that the new holiday should be a harvest or first fruit’s celebration. In cooperating ideas from many different harvest traditions. Kwanzaa is a … word meaning the first fruits of the harvest. The east African language of … was chosen as an official language of Kwanzaa. Because it is a non-tribal language spoken by a large portion of the African population. Also its pronunciation is easy. Kwanzaa is based on seven principles which are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. One principal is highlighted each day of the holiday. In preparation for the celebration, a astroy matters placed on the table. Along with the candle holder was seven candles. One black, three red and three green. The black candle represents the African-American people. The red is for their struggles, and the green represents their hopes for their future. Other items placed on our table are a variety of fruit is of comes gifts and communal unity cup for pouring andsharing drinks. Each day of Kwanzaa usually before the evening meal，family and friends gather around the table and someone lights the candle beginning with the black. After that，candles are lit alternatively from left to right. While the candles is being lit, a principal is recited then each person present takes turn to speak about the importance that the principle has to himself or herself. Next, the ceremony focuses on remembering those who've died. A selected person pours water or juice from the unity cup into a bowl. That person then drinks from the cup and raises it high saying “her thanmbi”，which means that let’s all pour together. All repeat “her thanmbi” seven t imes and each person drinks from the cup . Then they and names of African American leaders and heroes a cold out to and everyone reflects upon the great things these people did. The ceremony is followed by a meal, and then singing and perhaps listening to African music19.What does the speaker say about Kwanzaa?20. For what purpose did Doctor Karenga create the special holiday?21. What does the word Kwanzaa mean?22. What do people do while each candle is being let at the Kwanzaa celebration?19. B)It is a cultural festival founded for African-Americans.20. C)To help African-Americans to realize their goals.21. B)The fruits of the harvest.22. A)They recite a principle.Recording 3The Mediterranean diet is based upon the eating patterns of traditional cultures in the Mediterranean region. Several noted nutritionists in research projects have concluded that this diet is one of the most healthful in the world in terms of preventing such illnesses as heart disease and cancer and increasing life expectancy. The countries that have inspired Mediterranean diet all surround the Mediterranean Sea. These cultures have eating habits that developed over thousands of years. In Europe, parts of Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and southern France adhere to principles of the Mediterranean diet as to the morocco, Indonesia, and North Africa. Parts of the Balkan region and turkey follow the diet as well as middle eastern countries like Lebanon and Syria, the Mediterranean region is warm and sunny and produces large supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables almost a year round that the people eat many times a day. Wine, bread, all of oil and nuts are other staples of the region. In the Mediterranean sea has historically yielded abundant quantities of fish.International interest in therapeutic qualities of Mediterranean diet began back in the late nineteen fifties. When medical researchers started to link the currency of heart disease with diet, Doctor Ansol Keths performed the epidemiological analysis of diets around the world. In titled of the seven countries study, it is considered one of the greatest studies of its kind ever performed. In it, Keths gathered data on heart disease in its potential causes from nearly thirty thousand men in Greece, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and the United States. The study was conducted over period of decades. It concluded that the Mediterranean people in the study enjoyed some significant health advantages. The Mediterranean groups have lower mortality rates in all age brackets in form of all causes particularly from heart disease. The study also showed that the Mediterranean diet is as high as or higher in fat than other diets, obtaining up to forty percent of all its calories from fat. It has however, different patterns of fat intake. Mediterranean cooking, in its smaller amounts of saturated fat and higher amount of unsaturated fat, mostly in form of all of oil. Saturated fats are fats are found principally in meat and dairy products, although some nuts in vegetable oils also contain them. Saturated fats are used by the body to make cholesterol in high levels of cholesterol has since been directly related to heart disease.23. What has research concluded about the Mediterranean diet?24. What do we learn about the seven countries study?25. What do we learn about the Mediterranean people from the seven countries study?23. D) It is one of the world’s most healthy diets.24. A) It is regarded as one of the greatest researches of its kind.25. B) They have lower mortality rates.六级听力第二套：1.A) Say a few words to thank the speaker.2.D) He joined the local history societ when young.3.B) She had a good knowledge of the town's history.4.C) He made an embarrassing remark.5. B) What their rivals are doing.6. D) Their potentials has been underestimated.7. C) She had not seen it yet.8. D) Exporting their motorbikes to Indonesia.9. B) It makes claims in conflict with the exising research.10. C) They run a higher risk of gaining weight.11. D) Go to bed earlier.12. A) All the acting nominees are white.13. D) Only 3.4 percent of film directors are female.14. C) Females color over 40.15. B) They are most underrepresented across TV and film.16. C) One that covers their debts and burial expenses.17. D) Add more insurance on the breadwinner.18. A) When their children grow up and leave home.19.D）They may not always be negative.20.A) Biased sources of information.21.B) They may have a negative impact on people they apply to.22.C) A positive stereotype may help one achieve better results.23. B) Quit taking the medicine immediately.24. D) It may increase the effect of certain drugs.25. A)Tell their children to treat medicine with respect.六级阅读第一套选词填空帕劳群岛的捕鱼业The Pacific island nation of Palau has become home to the sixth largest marine sanctuary in the world.26. I) permit27. O) territory28. F) exclusive29. C) commercial30. D) communities31. E) essential32. G) independent33. M) sponsor34. J) secure35. N) stocks匹配题Who's really addicting you to technology?36. [E] Online services are so designed that the more they are used, the more profit they generate.37. [L] The author admits using technology as an escape from the task at hand.38. [I] Checking phones at dinners is now accepted as normal but not belching.39. [O] To make proper use of technology, we should not only increase our awareness of how it is changing but also how it is impacting us.40. [B] Most of us find it hard to focus on our immediate tasks because of Internet distractions.41. [J] When one person starts checking their phone, the others will follow suit.42. [F] The great majority of smartphone users don’t take the trouble to adjust their settings to suit their own purposes.43. [D]The Internet is regarded by some as designed to distract our attention.44. [L] The author attributes his tech addiction chiefly to his habit of putting off doing what he should do right away.45. [G] White-collar workers check email round the clock because it is required by their employers.仔细阅读Passage One46. A) He used a strangely potent ingredient in a food supplement.47. C) Many were shipped to Europe in the late 19th century for medicinal use.48. A) Cocaine had become notorious.49. D) It has remained virtually unchanged since its creation.50. A) The evolution of Coca-cola.Passage Two51. C) There was a clear divide between large and small cities.52. D) They have changed America's landscape.53. D) looked deserted in the evenings54. C) Modernized housing and improved infrastructure.55. D) Better job opportunities.六级阅读第二套选词填空第二套：尼日利亚西红柿减产In the past 12 months, Nigeria has suffered from a shrinking economy, a sliding currency, and a prolonged fuel shortage.26. C) emergency27. D) feeding28. K) reproduces29. I) originated30. G) handful31. F) halted32. L) security33. N) unchecked34. A) dependent35. J) reduction匹配题It is a movement building steady momentum: a call to make research data, software code and experimental methods publicly available and transparent.[M] 36. Astronomer David Hogg doesn’t think scooping is as serious a problem as generally thought.[G] 37. Some researchers are hesitant to make their data public for fear that others might publish something similar before them.[D] 38. Some psychology journals have offered incentives to encourage authors to share their data.[A] 39. There is a growing demand in the science community that research data be open to the public.[P] 40. Sharing data offers early-career researchers the chance to build a certain level of reputation.[L] 41. Data sharing enables scientists to publish each step of their research work, thus leading to more citations.[B] 42. Scientists hold different opinions about the extent and timing of data sharing.[O] 43. Potential problems related to data sharing should be made known to and discussed by all participants at the beginning of a joint research project.[I] 44. Sharing data and handling data-related issues can be time-consuming.[F] 45. Junior researchers may have no say when it comes to sharing data.仔细阅读Passage One46. A) Whether robots can reach better decisions47. D) They did not take moral issues into consideration.48. C) They perform duties in their owners' best interest.49. A) Abstract concepts are hard to program.50. C) Robots can have trouble making decisions in complex scenarios. Passage Two51. D) The rapid technological progress in a very short period of time.52. B) The popularization of smart homes.53. B) Gain automatic control of their businesses.54. A) How to turn it to profitable use.55. A) It is feasible with a connection to the internet.六级阅读第三套选词填空26. O) sparking27. L) powered28. H) implemented29. D) eliminate30. G) hopeful31. A) acceptance32. J) installed33. B) currently34. K) noticeable35. F) futile匹配题36. E37. B38. I39. C40. D41. J42. F43. A44. L45. G仔细阅读Passage 146. A) It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.47. C) stay away from predators.48. B) they can survive well in salty water49. A) They can take refuges in the less salty waters.50. D) The disruption of Lake Natron’s ecosystem.Passage 2 城市规划用地51. A) They were divided into residential and business areas.52. B) They have seen a rise in property prices.53. D) look deserted in the evenings54. C) More comfortable life and greater upward mobility55. B) More chances for promotion翻译：青海湖青海湖位于海拔3205米、青海省省会西宁以西约100公里处。

2017年12月大学英语六级考试真题（第3套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)（请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试）Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Help others, and you will be helped when you are in need " You can cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (30minutes)说明：由于2017年12月六级考试全国共考了2套听力，本套真题听力与前2套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。

Part III 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 list 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 of the words in the bank more than once.Question 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and Germany has just stated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as fuel by 2030. The country is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by 2050, ___26___ a shift to green energy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the registration of new cars in the country as they will not allow any gasoline ___27___ vehicle to be registered after 2030.Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and ___28___ is because energy officials see that they will not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not ___29___ a large portion of vehicle emissions. The country is still ___30___ that it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the ___31___ of electric cars in the country has not occurred as fast as expected.Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 million hybrid and electric car battery charging stations across the country. By 2030, Germany plans on having over 6 million charging stations ___32___. According to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as V olkswagen is still recovering from its emissions scandal.There are ___33___ around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfed by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a ___34___ effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not ___35___, the results of such bans will likely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.A)acceptance I)incidentallyB)currently J)installedC)disrupting K)noticeableD)eliminate L)poweredE)exhaust M)restorationF)futile N)skepticalG)hopeful O)sparkingH)implementedDirections: 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 once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Apple’s Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Teach IndustryA) The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist’s smartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology industry and the United States government.B) After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (讨好) certain tech companies and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, tech giants began to recognize the United States government as a hostile actor. But if the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are destined to emerge victorious.C) It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United States govern ment’s mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sympathetic sort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer’s phone. The action stems from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.D) In the other corner is the world’s most valuable company, whose chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has said he will a ppeal the court’s order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve a principle that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defend: Weaken a single iPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American government and you risk weakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.E) There will probably be months of legal tussling, and it is not at all clear which side will prevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor. Yet underlying all of this is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public’s collective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.F) Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldwide. If Apple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investigation, what is to prevent it from doing so for a request from the Chinese or the Iranians? If Apple is forced to write code that lets the F.B.I. get into the Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the male attacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsible if some hacker got hold of that code and broke into its other devices?G) Apple’s stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started putting in place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption to limit access to people’s data. More than that, Apple - and, in different ways, other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft - have made their opposition to the government’s claims a point of corporate pride.H) Appl’s emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputation, not to mention the investment of considerable technical and financial resources, on limiting the sort of mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for many cases involving governmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.I) “A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption,” said Kurt Opsahl, general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group. “Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest companies in the world coming out with a lengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from Tim Cook. Its profile has really been raised.”J) Apple and other tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep making their devices more and more inaccessible. Not e that Apple’s public opposition to the government’s request is itself acreated before Apple found religion on (热衷于) privacy, the F.B.I. may have been able to break into the device by itself.K) You can expect that noose (束缚) to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether or not Apple loses this specific case, measures that it could put into place in the future will almost certainly be able to further limit the government’s reach.L) That’s not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardi no case is insignificant. As Apple and several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write software that gives the F.B.I. access to the iPhone in question would establish an unsettling precedent. The order essentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in place, the precedent could be used to justify law enforcement efforts to get around encryption technologies in other investigations far removed from national security threats.M) Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could ask to use it proactively (先发制人地), before a suspected terrorist attack - leaving Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations night mare. “This is a brand-new salvo in the war against encryption,” Mr. Opsahl said. “We’ve had plenty of debates in Congress and the media over whether the government should have a backdoor, and this is an end run around that - here they come with an order to create that backdoor.”N) Yet it’s worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty of technical means to close a backdoor over time. “If they’re anywhere near worth their salt as engineers, I bet they’re rethinking their threat model as we speak,” sai d Jonathan Zdziarski, a digital forensic expert who studies the iPhone and its vulnerabilities.O) One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future versions of the iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will accept the sort of modified operating system that the F.B.I. wants Apple to create. That way, Apple could not unilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone — a user would have to consent to it.P) “Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof,” M r. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out that the judge’s order in this case required Apple to provide “reasonable security assistance” to unlock Mr. Farook’s phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPhones so that even its own eng ineers’ “reasonable assistance” will not be able to crack a given device when compelled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lasting force. In other words, even if the F.B.I. wins this case, in the long run, it loses.36. It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their customers’ private data.37. The US government believes that its access to people’s iPhones could be used to prevent terrorist attacks.38. A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a t errorist’s iPhone.39. Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government access to personal data.40. Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private data in massive scale.41. The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without Apple’s help.42. After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government intrusion into personal data by means of encryption.43. According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.44. Timothy Cook’s long web post has helped enhance Apple’s image.45. Apple’s CEO has decided to appeal the federal court’s order to unlock a user’s iPhone.Section CDirections: 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.At the base of a mountain in Tanzania’s Gregory Rift,Lake Natron burns bright red, surrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The lake’s landscape is bizarre and deadly- and made even more so by the fac t that it’s the place where nearly 75perce nt of the world’s flamingos(火烈鸟) are born.The water is so corrosive that it can burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Flamingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that death. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed. Three –quarters of the world’s flamingos fly over from other salt lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on salt- crystal islands that appear when the water is at specific level- too high an d the birds can’t build their nests, too low and predators can more briskly across the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level. The baby birds are kept safe form predators by a corrosive ditch.“Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water,” says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester. “ Humans cannot, and would die if their legs were exposed for any length of time.” So far this year, water levels have been too high for the flamingos to nest.Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty lagoons (泻湖) form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. Three species of tilapia (罗非鱼) thrive there part-time. “Fish have a refuge i n the streams and can expand into the lagoons when the lake is low and the lagoons are separate,” Harper said. “All the lagoons join when the lake is high and fish m ust retreat to their stream refuges or die.” Otherwise, no fish are able to survive in the naturally toxic lake.This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has once again started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and detergents. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upset the natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now, though, life prevails – even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.46. What can we learn about Lake Natron?A) It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.B) It remains little known to the outside world.C) It is a breeding ground for a variety of birds.D) It makes an ideal habitat for lots of predators.47. Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their babies can ______.A) find safe shelter more easily C) stay away from predatorsB) grow thick feathers on their feet D) get accustomed to the salty water48. Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that _______.A) they can move swiftly across lagoons C) they breed naturally in corrosive ditchesB) they can survive well in salty water D) they know where and when to nest49. Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?A) They can take refuge in the less salty waters.B) They can flee quick enough from predators.C) They can move freely from lagoon to lagoon.D) They can stand the heat of the spring water.50. What may be the consequence of Tanzania n government’s planned operation?A) The accelerated extinction of flamingos.B) The change of flamingos’ migration route.C) The overmining of Lake Natron’s soda ash.D) The disruption of Lake Natron’s ecosystem.It is the season for some frantic last-minute math across the country, employees of all stripe are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have left it their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations altogether and just power through the holidays into 2017: More than half of American workers don’t use up all of thei r allotted vacation days each year.Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan recently explained in Harvard Business Review (HBR), leisure time was once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way –these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are seen as the mark of someone important.In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much we’ve come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read two passages, on about a man who led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worked and over –scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social status, the majority of the participants said the latter. The same held true for people who used products that implied they were short on time: In one experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery service Peapod were seen as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further up on the social ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were just used to listen to music.In part, the authors wrote in HBR, this pattern may have to do with the way work itself has changed over the past several decades.We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to busyness-as-status may be linked to the development of knowledge-intensive economics. In such economies, individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or clients value(e.g., competence and ambition) are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job market. Thus, by telling others that we are busy and working all the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our perceived status.Even if you feel tempted to sacrifice your own vacation days for fake busyness, though, at least consider leaving your weekends unscheduled. It’s for your own good.51. What do most employees plan to do towards the end of the year?A) Go for a vacation. C) Set an objective for next year.B) Keep on working. D) Review the year’s achievements.52.How would people view dedication to work in the past?A) They would regard it as a matter of course.B) They would consider it a must for success.C) They would look upon it with contempt.D) They would deem it a trick of businessmen.53. What did the researchers find through a series of experiments?A) The busier one appears, the more respect one earns.B) The more one works, the more one feels exploited.C) The more knowledge one has, the more competent one will be.D) The higher one’s status, the more vacation time one will enjoy.54. What may account for the change of people’s attitude towards being busy?A) The fast pace of life in modern society.B) The fierce competition in the job market.C) The widespread use of computer technology.D) The role of knowledge in modern economy.55. What does the author advise us to do at the end of the passage ?C) Plan time to relax however busy we are.D) Avoid appearing busy when we are not.Part IV Translation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.洞庭湖位于湖南省东北部，面积很大，但湖水很浅。

2017年12月六级部分真题参考答案(完整版)Part Ⅰ WritingBe Generous with Your HelpWhen it comes to the topic of help, we are frequently told that,"Help others, and you will be helped when you are in need. '' Simple as the sa ying is, it implies the importance of helping others in need. What I learn from the remark, in short words, is that helping others is helping yourself. Examples can easily be found to make this point clearer. The story of the ant and the dove is a case in point. An ant slipped into the river when drinking alo ng the river. A dove heard his cries for help and threw him a leaf, which helpe d the ant float back to the bank. After a few days, a hunter was raising his g un to the dove as she was building her nest. Seeing this, the ant ran quickly t o bite the hunter's leg. The dove heard the hunter's scream and flew away. All in all, this example indicates that when we offer our help to others, we are leaving a way open for the future. Helping others is a virtue, and we should take some measures to carry forward this virtue and do others a favor. Only in this way can we build a loving and harmonious society.Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension说明：由于2017年12月六级考试全国共考了2套听力，本套真题听力与前2套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样。

2017 年12 月英语六级考试真题及答案（第一套）考试采取“多题多卷”模式，试题顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: for this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting onthe saying " Respect others, and you will be respected. " you can cite examples toilustrate your views. you should write at least 150 words but no more than 200Part IIListening comprehension(30miutes)Section aDirections: in this section, you will hear two long conversations at the end of each comversation you will hear four questions. both the comversation and the questions will be spoken only once. afier you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked a, b) cand d). then mark the corresponding letter on answer Sheet i with a single line through the centre.Questions1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard1. a)they reward businesses that eliminate food wastb) they prohibit the sale of foods that have gone stalec) they facilitate the donation of unsold foods to the needyd) they forbid businesses to produce more foods than needed2. a)it imposed penalties on businesses that waste foodb) it passed a law aiming to stop overproductionC)it voted gainst food import from outside europe d) it prohibited the promotion of bulk food sales.3. a) it has warmed its people against possible food shortage.b) it has penalized businesses that keep overproducing foodsc) it has started a nationwide campaign against food waste.d) it has banned supermarkets from dumping edible foods.4 .a)the confusion over food expiration labels.b) the surplus resulting from overproductionc) americans' habit of buying food in bulkd) a lack of regulation on food consumptionQuestions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.5. a) it has started a week-long promotion campaign.b) it has just launched its annual anniversary salesc) it offers regular weekend sales all the year roundd) it specializes in the sale of ladies designer dresses6. a)price reductions for its frequent customers.b) coupons for customers with bulk purchases.c) free delivery of purchases for senior customers.d) price adjustments within seven days of purchase.7. a)mail a gift card to her.b) allow her to buy on credic) credit it to her accountd) give her some coupons.8. a) refunding for goods returnedb) free installing of appliances.c) prolonged goods warranty.d) complimentary tailoringSection bDirections: in this section, you will hear two passages. at the end of each passage, you will hear Iree or four 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, cand d). then mark the corresponding letter on answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard9. a)they are thin, tall, and unlike real human beings.b) they have more than twenty different hair texturesc) they have twenty-four different body shapes in totald) they represent people from virtually all walks of life.10. a)they do not reflect young girls aspirationsb) they are not sold together with the originalc) their flat feet do not appeal to adolescentsd) their body shapes have not changed much11. a)in toy storesb) in shopping malls.c) on the internetd) at barbie shopsQuestions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.12. a )moveable metal type began to be used in printingb) chinese printing technology was first introducec) the earliest known book was publishedd) metal type was imported from korea13. a) it had more than a hundred printing presses.b) it was the biggest printer in the 16th century.c) it helped the german people become literate.d) it produced some 20 million volumes in total14. a)it pushed handwritten books out of circulation.b) it boosted the circulation of popular works.c) it made writing a very profitable career.d) it provided readers with more choices.15. a) it accelerated the extinction of the latin language.b) it standardized the publication of grammar books.c) turned translation into a welcome profession.d) it promoted the growth of national languagesSection cDirections: in this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by three or four questions. the recordings will be played 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 centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.16. a) they get bored after working for a period of time.b) they spend an average of one year finding a job.c) they become stuck in the same job for decades.d) they choose a job without thinking it through.17. a)see if there will be chances for promotion.b) find out what job choices are available.c) watch a film about ways of job hunting.d) decide which job is most attractive to you.18. a)the qualifications you have.b) the pay you are going to get.c) the culture of your target company.d) the work environment you will be in.19. a) it is as important as christmas for african-americans.b) it is a cultural festival founded for african-americans.c) it is an ancient festival celebrated by african-americans.d) it is a religious festival celebrated by african-americans20. a)to urge african-americans to do more for society.b) to call on african-americans to worship their godsc) to help african-americans to realize their goals.d) to remind african-americans of their sufferings.21. a)faith in self-determinationb) the first fruits of the harvestc) unity and cooperative economics d creative work and achievement.22. a)they recite a principleb) they take a solemn oathc) they drink wine from the unity cupd) they call out their ancestors' names.Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard23. a) it is one of the world's most healthy diets.b) it contains large amounts of dairy products.c) it began to impact the world in recent years.d) it consists mainly of various kinds of seafood.4. a) it involved 13, 000 researchers from asia, europe and america.b) it was conducted in seven mid-eastern countries in the 1950sc) it is regarded as one of the greatest researches of its kind.d) it has drawn the attention of medical doctors the world over.25. a) they care much about their health.b) they eat foods with little fat.c)they use little oil in cookingd) they have lower mortality ratesPart III 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 list 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 of the words in the bank more than once.In the past 12 months,Nigeria has suffered from a shrinking economy, a slidingcurre ncy, and a proIon ged fuel shortage. Now, Africa ' s largest in facing a food crisis asmajor tomato fields have bee n destroyed by an in sect,lead ing to a n ati on wide shortage and escalating prices.The in sect, Tutaabsoluta, has destroyed 80% of farms in Kaduna, Nigeria's largesttomato produc ing state, leadi ng the gover nment there to declare a state of26 .The in sect, also known as the tomato leaf miner, devastates crops by 27 onfruits and diggi ng into and moving through stalks .It 28 in credibly quickly,breeding up to 12 generations per year if conditions are favorable. it is believed tohave 29 in South America in the early 1900s, and later spread to Europe before cross ing over to sub-Sahara n Africa.In Nigeria, where tomatoes are a staple of local diets,the in sect's effects aredevastat ing. Retail prices for a 30 of tomatoes at local markets have rise n from $0. 50to $2.50. Farmers are report ing steep losses and a new $20 milli on tomato-paste factory has 31 producti on due to the shortages.Given the moth's ability also to attack crops like pepper and potatoes, AuduOgbeh, Nigeria's minister of agriculture, has warned that the pest may"create seriousproblems for food 32 "in the coun try.Ogbeh says experts are in vestigati ng how tocon trol the pest ' s damage and preve nt its spread, which has gone largely 33 un tilnow.Despite being the continen t's sec on d-largest producer of tomatoes, Nigeria is 34 on $1 billi on worth of tomato-paste imports every year.as around 75% of thelocal harvest goes to waste tha nks to a lack of proper storage facilities. A further 35 inlocal supplies is yet ano ther un welcome setback to the in dustry.A)dependent I ) originatedB) Embark ing J) reducti onC) emerge nc K) reproducesD) feedi ng L ) securityE) grazes M ) terrorF) halted N) uncheckedG) han dful O ) uncheckedH) multitudeSectio n BDirections: In this secti on, you are going to read a passage with ten stateme nts 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 once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questio ns by marking the corresp onding letter on An swer Sheet 2.who's really addicting you to Technology?A. "Nearly everyone i know is addicted in some measure to the internet, "wrote tony Schwartz in The New York Times. it's a common complaint these days. A steady stream of similar headlines accuse the net and its offspring apps, social media sites and online games of addicting us to distractionB. There's little doubt that nearly everyone who comes in contact with the net has difficulty concentration than it takes to post a status update. as one person ironically put it in the comments section of Schwartz'sonline article, "As I was reading this very excellent article.I stopped at least half a dozen times to cheek my email.C. There's something different about this technology: it is both invasive and persuasive.but who's at fault for its overuse ？To find solutions, it's important to understand whatwe ' re dealing with.There are four parties conspiring to keep you connected the tech,your boss, your friends and you.D. The technologies themselves and their makers, are the easiest suspects to blame for our diminishing attention spans. Nicholas Carr,author of The Shallows ：what the internet is doing Our brains, wrote, The net is designed to be an interruption system, a machine geared to dividing attention.E. Online services like Facebook, twitter and the like, are called out ofmanipula-tion--making ，products so good that people can't stop using them. afterstudying these products for several years, I wrote a book about how they do it. I learnedit all starts with the business model. since these services rely on advertising revenue, The more frequentlyyou use money they make.It teams of people focused on engineering their services to be as engaging as possible. these products aren't habit-forming by chance; it's by design.' s no wminpdaenr itehseseemcpoloy they have an incentive to keep us hooked.F. However, as good as these services are, there are simple steps we can take to keepthem at bay.For example, we can change how often we receive the distracting notifications that trigger our urge to check.According to adam marchick, ceo of mobile marketing company kahuna, less than 15 percentof smartphone users ever bother to adjust their notification setlings--meaning the remaining 85 percent of us default to the app makers' every preset trigger.Google and Apple have made it far too difficult to adjust these settings so it's up to us to take steps ensure we set these triggers to suit our own needs, not the needs of the app makers.G.While companies like Facebook harvest attention to generate revenue fromadvertisers, other technologies have no such agenda. take email, for example. this system couldn't care less how often you use it. Yet t o many, email is the mosthabit-forming medium of all.We check email at all hours of the day--we're obsessed, butwhy? Because that's what the boss wants.For almost all white-collar jobs, A slowResponse to a message could hurt not only your reputation but also your livelihood.H. Your friends are also responsible.Think about this familiar scene.People gathered around a table,enjoying food and each others company. there's laughter and a bit of kidding. Then, during an interval in the conversation, someone takes out their phone to check who knows what.Barely anyone notices and no one says a thing.I. Now imagine the same dinner,but instead of checking their phone, the person belches（打嗝）-loudly.Everyone notices. unless the meal takes place in a beer house, this is considered bad manners. The impolite act violates the basic rules of etiquette. one has to wonder why don ' t we apply the same social norms to checking phones during meals,meetings and conversations as we do to other antisocial behaviors somehow, we accept it and say nothingwhen someone offends.J. The reality is taking one's phone out at the wrong time is worse than belching because, unlike other minoroffense, checking tech is contagious. once one person looks at their phone,other people feel compelled to dothe same, starting a chain reaction. the more people are on their phones, the fewer people are talking untilfinally you are the only one left not reading email or checking twitter. from a societal perspective, phonechecking is less like belching in public and more like another bad habit. our phones are like cigarettes-something to do when were bored or when our fingers need something to toy with seeing others enjoy asmoke,or sneak a quick glance, is too tempting to resist and soon everyone is doing it.K. The technology, your boss, and your friends, all influence how often you find yourself using (or overusing )these gadgets. but there's still someone who deserves scrutiny--the person holding the phone. L. I have a confession. even though i study habit-forming technology for a living, disconnecting is not easyfor me.I'm online far more than I'd like like Schwartz and so many others, I often find myself distracted andoff tack.I wanted to know why so i began self-monitoring to try to understand my behavior. that's when idiscovered an uncomfortable truth. i use technology as an escape. when I'm doing something I'd rather notdo, or when I'm someplace I'd rather not attention was often a good thing, like when passing time on publictransportation, but frequently my tech use was not so benign.when i faced difficult work, like thinking through an article idea or editing the same draft for the hundredthtime, for example, a more sinister screen would draw me in. i could easily escape discomfort.temporarlly.byanswering email or browsing ing the web under the pretense of so-called"research. "though I desperatelywanted to lay blame elsewhere, i finally had to admit that my bad habits had less to do with new-age.technology and more to do with old-fashioned procrastination( 拖延 )M. it's easy to blame technology for being so distracting, but distraction is nothing new.Aristotle and Socrates dehated nature of “ akrasia--our”tendency to do things agninstour interests. If we're honest with ourselves, tech is just another way to occupy our time and minds,if we weren ' t on our deWviec'es.d likely do similarly unproductive.N. personal technology is indeed more engaging than ever, and there's no doubt companies are engineeringtheir products and services to be more compelling and attractive but would want it any other way theintended result of making something better is that people use it more. that's not necessarily a problem, that'sprogress.O. These improvements don't mean we shouldn't attempt to control our use of technology. In order to makesure it doesn't control us, we should come to terms withthe fact that it's more than the technology itself that workplace culture, social norns ands responsible for our habits. ou individual behaviors all play a part to put technology in its place, we must be conscious notonly of how technology is changing, but also of how it is changing us.36.Online services are so designed that the more they are used, the more profit they generate.37. The author admits using technology as an escape from the task at hand.38. Checking phones at dinners is now accepted as normal but not belching39. To make proper use of technology, we should not only increase our awareness of how it is changing butalso how it is impacting us.40. Most of us find it hard to focus on our immediate tasks because of internet distractions41. when one person starts checking their phone, the others will follow suit.42. T he great majority of smartphone users don' t take the trouble to adjust their settings to suit their ownpurposes.43. T he internet is regarded by some as designed to distract our attention.44. The author attributes his tech addiction chiefly to his habit of putting off doing what he should45. W hite-collar workers check email round the clock because it is required by their employersSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Eachstatement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which theinformation is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.who's really addicting you to Technology?A. "Nearly everyone i know is addicted in some measure to the internet, "wrote tony Schwartz in The New York Times. it's a common complaint these days. A steady stream of similar headlines accuse the net and its offspring apps, social media sites and online games of addicting us to distractionB. There's little doubt that nearly everyone who comes in contact with the net has difficulty concentration than it takes to post a status update. as one person ironically put it in the comments section of Schwartz's online article, "As I was reading this very excellent article.I stopped at least half a dozen times to cheek my email.C. There's something different about this technology: it is both invasive and persuasive. but who's at fault for its overuse ？To find solutions, it's important to understand whatwe ' re dealing with.There are four parties conspiring to keep you connected the tech, your boss, your friends and you.D. The technologies themselves and their makers, are the easiest suspects to blame for our diminishing attention spans. Nicholas Carr,author of The Shallows ：what theinternet is doing Our brains, wrote, The net is designed to be an interruption system, a machine geared to dividing attention.E. Online services like Facebook, twitter and the like, are called out of manipula-tion--making ，products so good that people can't stop using them.after studying these products for several years, I wrote a book about how they do it. I learned it all starts with the business model. since these services rely on advertising revenue, The more frequently you use money they make.It ' s no winder these companies employ teams of people focused on engineering their services to be as engaging as possible.these products aren't habit-forming by chance; it's by design. they have an incentive to keep us hooked.F. However, as good as these services are, there are simple steps we can take to keep them at bay.For example, we can change how often we receive the distracting notifications that trigger our urge tocheck.According to adam marchick, ceo of mobile marketing company kahuna, less than 15 percent of smartphone users ever bother to adjust their notification setlings--meaning the remaining 85 percent of us default to the app makers' every preset trigger.Google and Apple have made it far too difficult to adjust these settings so it's up to us to take steps ensure we set these triggers to suit our own needs, not the needs of the app makers.G.While companies like Facebook harvest attention to generate revenue from advertisers, other technologies have no such agenda. take email, for example. this system couldn't care less how often you use it. Yet t o many, email is the mosthabit-forming medium of all.We check email at all hours of the day--we're obsessed, butwhy? Because that's what the boss wants.For almost all white-collar jobs, A slowResponse to a message could hurt not only your reputation but also your livelihood.H. Your friends are also responsible.Think about this familiar scene.People gathered around a table, enjoying food and each others company. there's laughter and a bit of kidding. Then, during an interval in the conversation, someone takes out their phone to check who knows what.Barely anyone notices and no one says a thing.I. Now imagine the same dinner,but instead of checking their phone, the personbelches（打嗝）-loudly.Everyone notices. unless the meal takes place in a beer house, this is considered bad manners. The impolite act violates the basic rules of etiquette. one hasto wonder why don ' t we apply the sameciasol norms to checking phones during meals,meetings and conversations as we do to other antisocial behaviors somehow, we accept it and say nothing when someone offends.J. The reality is taking one's phone out at the wrong time is worse than belching because, unlike other minor offense, checking tech is contagious. once one person looks at their phone,other people feel compelled to do the same, starting a chain reaction. the more people are on their phones, the fewer people are talking until finally you are the only one left not reading email or checking twitter. from a societal perspective, phone checking is less like belching in public and more like another bad habit. our phones are like cigarettes-something to do when were bored or when our fingers need something to toy with seeing others enjoy a smoke,or sneak a quick glance, is too tempting to resist and soon everyone is doing it.K. The technology, your boss, and your friends, all influence how often you find yourself using (or overusing )these gadgets. but there's still someone who deserves scrutiny--the person holding the phone. L. I have a confession. even though i study habit-forming technology for a living, disconnecting is not easy for me.I'm online far more than I'd like like Schwartz and so many others, I often find myself distracted and off tack.I wanted to know why so i began self-monitoring to try to understand my behavior. that's when i discovered an uncomfortable truth. i use technology as an escape. when I'm doing something I'd rathernot do, or when I'm someplace I'd rather not attention was often a good thing, like whenpassing time on public transportation, but frequently my tech use was not so benign. when i faced difficult work, like thinking through an article idea or editing the same draft for the hundredth time, for example, a more sinister screen would draw me in. i could easily escape discomfort.temporarlly.by answering email orbrowsing ing the web under the pretense of so-called"research. "though I desperately wanted to lay blame elsewhere, i finally had to admit that my bad habits had less to do with new-age.technology and more to do with old-fashioned procrastination（拖延）M. it's easy to blame technology for being so distracting, but distraction is nothing new.Aristotle and Socrates dehated nature of “ akrasia--our”tendency to do things agninstour interests. If we're honest with ourselves, tech is just another way to occupy our time and minds,if we weren ' t on our deWviec'es.d likely do similarly unproductive.N. personal technology is indeed more engaging than ever, and there's no doubt companies are engineering their products and services to be more compelling and attractive but would want it any other way the intended result of making something better is that people use it more. that's not necessarily a problem, that's progress.O. These improvements don't mean we shouldn't attempt to control our use of technology. In order to make sure it doesn't control us, we should come to terms with the fact that it's more than the te chnology itself that ' s responsible for our habits. ourworkplace culture, social norns and individual behaviors all play a part to put technologyin its place, we must be conscious not only of how technology is changing, but also of how it is changing us.36.Online services are so designed that the more they are used, the more profit they generate.37. The author admits using technology as an escape from the task at hand.38. Checking phones at dinners is now accepted as normal but not belching39. To make proper use of technology, we should not only increase our awareness of how it is changing but also how it is impacting us.40. Most of us find it hard to focus on our immediate tasks because of distractions41. when one person starts checking their phone, the others will follow suit.42. T he great majority of smartphone users don' t take the trouble to adjust their settings to suit their own purposes.43. T he internet is regarded by some as designed to distract our attention.44. The author attributes his tech addiction chiefly to his habit of putting off doing what he should45. W hite-collar workers check email round the clock because it is required employers Part IVTranslation (30 minutes)Directions: for this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from chinese into English. you should write your answer on answer sheet 2. internet by their太湖是中国东部的一个淡水湖,占地面积2250 平方公里,是中国第三大淡水湖,仅次于鄱阳和洞庭。

2017年12月英语六级答案(3)Section A Conversation1. [C] It s the science of climate change to economic and policy issues.2. [B] It would be more costly to deal with its consequences than to avoid it.3. [A] The transition to low-carbon energy systems.4. [C] Plan well in advance.5. [B] What determines success.6. [D] It means being good at seizing opportunities.7. [D] Practice is essential to becoming good at something.8. [C] Being passionate about work can make one wealthy.Section B Passage9. [A] T o stump of a giant tree.10. [B] Wind and water.11. [D] It was created by supernatural powers.12. [C] By lifting them well above the ground.13. [A] They will buy something from the convenience stores.14. [A] They can bring only temporary pleasures.15. [D] Small daily savings an make a big difference in one's life.Section C Lecture16. [B] They are necessary in our lives.17. [B] They feel too overwhelmed to deal with life's problem.18. [A] They expand our mind.19. [B] It came from a 3D printer.20. [C] When she was studying at a fashion design school.21. [C] It was hard and breakable.22. [D] It marks a breakthrough in printing material.23. [A] They arise from the advances in technology.24. [D] It is intensively competitive.25. [D] Sharing of costs with each other.卷一·答案：Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section A26. [O] vanished解析：从语法上判断，本空应该填入一个动词的过去分词，与前面的have构成现在完成时，再根据语义应该选择vanished，Some have vanished 意为：一些已经消失。

2017年12月英语六级考试真题（第三套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: for this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Help others, and you will be helped when you are in need " you can cite examples to illustrate your views. you should write at least 150 words but no more than 200。

Part IIListening comprehension(30miutes)Part III ReadingMany European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and German y has juststated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as f uel by 2030. Thecountry is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by 2050, 26 a shift to greenenergy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the reg istration of new cars in the countryas they will not allow any gasoline 27 vehicle to be registered after 2030.Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and 28 is because energy officials see th at theywill not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not 29 a large portion of vehicleemissions. The country is still 30 that it will meet its emissions goals, like redu cing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the 31 of electric cars in the country has not occu rred as fast as ejected.Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 milli on hybridand electric car battery changing stations across the country. By 2030, Germ any plans onhaving over 6 million charging stations 32 . According to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as V olkswage n is still recovering from its emissions scandal.There are 33 around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfedby the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries continue settinggoals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a 34 effect on thesurrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not 35 , the results of such bans willlikely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.A) acceptance B) currently C) disrupting D) eliminate E) exhaust F) futile G) hopeful H) implemented I) incidentally J) installed K) noticeable L) powered M) restoration N ) skepticalO) sparking26-35: OLHDG AJBKFSection 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 paragraphfrom which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Eachparagraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking th e corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 2.Apple's Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Tech Industry[A] The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist'ssmartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology industryand the United States government.[B] After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Sn owden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (讨好) certain tech companies and hacked intoothers to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, tech giants began to recognizethe United States government as a host ile actor. But if the confrontation has crystallized inthis latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are desti ned to emerge victorious.[C] It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United Sta tesgovernment's mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sym patheticsort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer's phone. The action steins fro m a federalcourt order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who kille d 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.[D] In the other corner is the world's most valuable company, whose chief executive, TimothyCook, has said he will appeal the court's order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve aprinciple that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defen d: Weaken a singleiPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American govern ment and you riskweakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere. [E] There will probably be months of legal confrontation, and it is not at all clear whic h side willprevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor. Ye t underlying all ofthis is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other compa nies hold most of the cardsin this confrontation. They have our data, and their busines ses depend on the global public'scollective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.[F] Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldw ide. IfApple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investig ation, what is toprevent it from doing so for a request from the Russians or the Iranian s? If Apple is forced towrite code that lets the FBI get into the Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the maleattacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsi ble if some hacker got hold of thatcode and broke into its other devices?[G] Apple's stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started puttingin place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption (加密）to limit accessto people's data. More than that, Apple—and, in different ways, other te ch companies, includingGoogle, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft—have made their o pposition to the government'sclaims a point of corporate pride.[H] Apple's emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputation, no t tomention the investment of considerable technical and financial resources, on limiti ng the sortof mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for man y cases involvinggovernmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates fin d themselves fightingalongside the most powerful company in the world.[I]"A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption," said Kurt Opsahl, gener alcounsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group."Then you had a fewcompanies involved, but not one of the largest companies in the world coming out with alengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from Ti mothy Cook. Its pro reallybeen raised."[J] Apple and oilier tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep mak ing theirdevices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple's public opposition to th e government'srequest is itself a hindrance to mass government intrusion. And to get a t the contents of asingle iPhone, the government says it needs a court order and Apple' s help to write new code; in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created befo re Apple found religion on (热衷于) privacy, the FBI might have been able to break into the device by itself.[K] You can expect that noose (束缚) to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether or notApple loses this specific ca se, measures that it could put into place in the future will almostcertainly be able to fu rther limit the government's reach.[L] That is not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant. As appleand several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write sof tware thatgives the FBI access to the iPhone in question would establish an unsettling precedent. Theorder essentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in pl ace, the precedentcould be used to justify law enforcement efforts to get around encry ption technologies in otherinvestigations far removed from national security threats. [M] Once aimed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could a sk to useit proactively (先发制人地), before a suspected terrorist attack—leaving Apple in a bind as towhether to comp ly or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare."This is a brandnew move in the war against encryption," Mr. Opsahl said."We have had plenty of debates inCongress and the media over whether the governme nt should have a backdoor, and this is anend run (迂回战术) around that—here they come with an order to create that backdoor."[N] Yet it is worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty oft echnical means to close a backdoor over time."If they are anywhere near worth their salt asengineers, I bet they are rethinking their t hreat model as we speak," said Jonathan Zdziarski, adigital expert who studies the iPh one and its vulnerabilities.[O] One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future versions ofthe iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will acce pt the sort ofmodified operating system that the FBI wants Apple to create. That way, Apple could notunilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone—a user would have to consent to it.[P]"Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof," Mr. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out that thej udge's order in this case required Apple to provide "reasonable security assistance" to unlock Mr. Farook's phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPhones so that even itsown engineers' "reasonable assistance" will not be able to crack a given devi ce whencompelled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lasting force. Inother words, even if the FBI wins this case, in the long run, it loses.36. It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their custom ers'private data.37. The US government believes that its access to people's iPhones could be used to p reventterrorist attacks.38. A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a terrorist's iPhone.39. Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government ac cess topersonal data.40. Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private data on amassive scale.41. The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without Ap ple's help.42. After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government i ntrusioninto personal data by means of encryption.43. According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.44. Timothy Cook's long web post has helped enhance Apple's image.45. Apple's CEO has decided to appeal the federal court's order to unlock a user's iPho ne.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some qu estionsor 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 OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.At the base of a mountain in Tanzania's Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright red, s urrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salt ywater. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they p erished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The lake's landscape i s bizarre anddeadly—and made even more so by the fact that it's the place where nearl y 75 percent of theworld's flamingos (火烈鸟）are born.The water is so corrosive that it can burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Fla mingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that d eath. Once everythree or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered wit h the pink birds as theystop flight to breed. Three-quarters of the world's flamingos fly over from other salt lakes inthe Rift Valley and nest on salt-crystal islands that appear when the water is at a specific level—too high and the birds can't build their nests, to o low and predators can move briskly acrossthe lake bed and attack. When the water h its the right level, the baby birds are kept safe frompredators by a corrosive ditch. "Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water," says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester."Humans cannot, and would die iftheir legs were exposed for any length of time." Sofar this year, water levels have been toohigh for the flamingos to nest.Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty lagoons (泻湖) form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. Three species of tilapia (罗非鱼) thrive there part-time. "Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into thelagoons when the lake is lo w and the lagoons are separate," Harper said."All the lagoons joinwhen the lake is high and fish must retreat to their stream refuges or die." Otherwise, no fishare able to survive in the naturally toxic lake.This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has o nceagain started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and d etergents. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, dr awing the soda ashin through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upset the natural water cycle andbreeding grounds. For now, though, life prevails—even in a la ke that kills almost everything ittouches.46. What can we learn about Lake Natron?A) It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.B) It remains little known to the outside world.C) It is a breeding ground for a variety of birds.D) It makes an ideal habitat for lots of predators.47. Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their babies c an .A) find safe shelter more easilyB) grow thick feathers on their feetC) stay away from predatorsD) get accustomed to the salty water48. Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that .A) they can move swiftly across lagoonsB) they can survive well in salty waterC) they breed naturally in corrosive ditchesD) they know where and when to nest49. Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?A) They can take refuge in the less salty waters.B) They can flee quick enough from predators.C) They can move freely from lagoon to lagoon.D) They can stand the heat of the spring water.50. What may be the consequence of Tanzanian government's planned operation?A) The accelerated extinction of flamingos.B) The change of flamingos' migration route.C) The overmining of Lake Natron's soda ash.D) The disruption of Lake Natron's ecosystem.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.It is the season for some frantic last-minute math—across the country, employees of all stripesare counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have leftin their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations alto gether and just powerthrough the holidays into 2017: More than half of American wor kers don't use up all of theirallotted vacation days each year.Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to thejob. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan rece ntly explainedin Harvard Business Review (HBR), leisure time was once seen as an in dicator of high socialstatus, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the m iddle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way—these days, pu nishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are seen as the mark of someone imp ortant.In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much we've co me toadmire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. V olunteers read two passages, o ne about aman who led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worke d and over-scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social s tatus, themajority of the participants said the latter. The same held true for people who used productsthat implied they were short on time: In one experiment, for example, c ustomers of thegrocery-delivery service Peapod were seen as of higher status than peo ple who shopped atgrocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wea ring wireless headphoneswere considered further up on the social ladder than those w earing regular headphones, evenwhen both were just used to listen to music.In part, the authors wrote in HBR, this pattern may have to do with the way work itsel f haschanged over the past several decades.We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to busyness-as-status may be linked to th edevelopment of knowledge-intensive economics. In such economies, individuals wh o possessthe human capital characteristics that employers or clients value (e. g. , comp etence andambition) are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job m arket. Thus, bytelling others that we are busy and working all the time, we are implicit ly suggesting that weare sought after, which enhances our perceived status.Even if you feel tempted to sacrifice your own vacation days for fake busyness, thoug h, atleast consider leaving your weekends unscheduled. It's for your own good.51. What do most employees plan to do towards the end of the year?A) Go for a vacation.B) Keep on working.C) Set an objective for next year.D) Review the year's achievements.52. How would people view dedication to work in the past?A) They would regard it as a matter of course.B) They would consider it a must for success.C) They would look upon it with contempt.D) They would deem it a trick of businessmen.53. What did the researchers find through a series of experiments?A) The busier one appears, the more respect one earns.B) The more one works, the more one feels exploited.C) The more knowledge one has, the more competent one will be.D) The higher one's status, the more vacation time one will enjoy.54. What may account for the change of people's attitude towards being busy?A) The fast pace of life in modern society.B) The fierce competition in the job market.C) The widespread use of computer technology.D) The role of knowledge in modern economy.55. What does the author advise us to do at the end of the passage?A) Schedule our time properly for efficiency.B) Plan our weekends in a meaningful way.C) Find time to relax however busy we are.D) Avoid appearing busy when we are not.Part IV Translation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.洞庭湖位于湖南省东北部，面积很大，但湖水很浅。

2017年12月英语六级第三套阅读解析The December 2017 administration of the College English Test (CET-6) in China included a reading comprehension section with three passages and corresponding questions. This essay will provide a detailed analysis of the content and structure of this reading section to help students better prepare for future CET-6 exams.The first passage in the reading section was an informative text about the history and development of the Chinese tea culture. The passage began by tracing the origins of tea cultivation in ancient China, noting that tea has been an integral part of Chinese society for over 2,000 years. It then discussed how tea drinking evolved from a elite pastime to a more widespread cultural phenomenon, as new tea cultivation and preparation techniques were developed over the centuries.The passage highlighted key milestones in the spread of tea culture such as the Tang Dynasty when tea houses became popular gathering places and the Song Dynasty when the practice of tea ceremonies emerged. It also explored how tea cultivation techniqueswere improved to produce higher quality teas that were in high demand both domestically and for international export. Overall, the passage provided a comprehensive overview of the rich history and evolution of tea culture in China.The reading comprehension questions that followed this passage tested students' understanding of the main ideas and supporting details presented. For example, one question asked students to identify the key factors that contributed to the increasing popularity of tea drinking in ancient China. Another question required students to explain the significance of the developments in tea cultivation and preparation techniques during the Song Dynasty. Students needed to carefully read the passage and extract the relevant information to answer these questions accurately.The second passage in the reading section was a argumentative essay discussing the benefits of learning a second language. The passage began by acknowledging the challenges and difficulties that come with learning a new language, but then went on to argue that the advantages of bilingualism far outweigh these difficulties.The key points made in the passage include how learning a second language can enhance cognitive abilities, improve academic performance, and expand career opportunities. The passage cited research studies demonstrating that bilingual individuals tend tohave stronger problem-solving skills, greater mental flexibility, and enhanced memory capacity compared to monolingual individuals. It also discussed how learning a second language can boost academic achievement in various subjects beyond just language arts.In terms of career benefits, the passage highlighted how proficiency in multiple languages makes job candidates more attractive to employers in an increasingly globalized job market. It provided examples of how bilingual employees can serve as valuable cultural and linguistic bridges between companies and their international clients or partners. Overall, the passage made a compelling case for the personal, academic, and professional advantages of becoming bilingual.The reading comprehension questions for this passage assessed students' understanding of the main argument, supporting evidence, and underlying assumptions. For instance, one question asked students to identify the key reasons presented in the passage for why learning a second language is beneficial. Another question required students to recognize the underlying assumption that bilingualism confers cognitive advantages.The third and final passage in the reading section was a descriptive text about the unique architectural features of traditional Japanese houses. The passage began by explaining the historical and culturalcontext that shaped the development of traditional Japanese residential design, noting how it was heavily influenced by principles of Zen Buddhism and Shintoism.The passage then went on to describe in detail the key architectural elements that are characteristic of traditional Japanese houses. This included details about the use of natural materials like wood, paper, and bamboo, the emphasis on open floor plans and flexible spaces, and the incorporation of gardens and outdoor areas. The passage also discussed how traditional Japanese houses were designed to be in harmony with the natural environment and seasonal changes.Additionally, the passage highlighted how certain design features like sliding doors, tatami mats, and low ceilings were intended to promote a sense of tranquility and mindfulness. It explained how these elements reflected the Japanese cultural values of simplicity, functionality, and a deep appreciation for nature. Overall, the passage provided readers with a vivid and insightful description of the unique architectural aesthetics of traditional Japanese homes.The reading comprehension questions for this passage assessed students' understanding of the key architectural elements described, as well as their ability to infer the cultural and philosophical influences that shaped traditional Japanese residential design. For example, one question asked students to identify the specific designfeatures that were intended to create a sense of harmony with nature. Another question required students to explain how certain architectural elements reflected core Japanese cultural values.In conclusion, the reading comprehension section of the December 2017 CET-6 exam featured three diverse passages that tested a range of reading skills. The first passage on Chinese tea culture assessed students' ability to comprehend and synthesize historical information. The second passage on the benefits of bilingualism evaluated students' understanding of an argumentative essay. And the third passage on traditional Japanese houses challenged students to analyze the relationship between architectural design and cultural influences.Overall, this reading section provided a well-rounded assessment of the English reading proficiency of CET-6 test takers. The passages covered a variety of topics and genres, and the corresponding comprehension questions required students to demonstrate skills such as identifying main ideas, interpreting supporting details, and making inferences. By closely analyzing the content and structure of this reading section, students can gain valuable insights to better prepare for future CET-6 exams.。