2014年12月大学英语六级考试备考资料《阅读理解-词汇理解（选词填空）》考前练习题及答案Directions: In this section, there is apassage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blankfrom a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bankis identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each itemon Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any ofthe words in the bank more than once.A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria FOR half a century, the (1) __________of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less.Moore's law famously observes that the number of transistors which can be crammed into a given space (2)__________ every 18 months.The amount of data that can be stored has grown at a similar rate.Yet as (3)__________ get smaller, making them gets harder and more expensive.On May 10th Paul Otellini, the boss of Intel, a big American chipmaker, put the price of a new chip factory at around $10 billion.Happily for those that lack Intel's resources, there may be a cheaper option—namely to mimic Mother Nature,who has been building tiny (4)__________, in the form of living cells and their components, for billions of years, and has thus got rather good at it.A paper published in Small, a nanotechnology journal , sets out the latest example of the (5)__________.In it, a group of researchers led by Sarah Staniland at the University of Leeds, in Britain, describe using naturally occurring proteins to make arrays of tiny magnets,similar to those employed to store information in disk drives.The researchers took their (6)__________ from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium that is sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks of magnetite, a form of iron oxide.Previous work has isolated the protein that makes these miniature compasses. Using genetic engineering, the team managed to persuade a different bacterium—Escherichia coli, a ubiquitous critter that is a workhorse of biotechnology—to (7)__________ this protein in bulk.Next, they imprinted a block of gold with a microscopic chessboard pattern of chemicals.Half the squares contained anchoring points for the protein.The other half were left untreated as controls.They then dipped the gold into a solution containing the protein, allowing itto bind to the treated squares, and dunked the whole lot into a heated (8)__________ of iron salts.After that, they examined the results with an electron microscope.Sure enough, groups of magnetite grains had materialised on the treated squares, shepherded into place by the bacterial protein.In principle, each of these magnetic domains could store the one or the zero of a bit of information, according to how it was polarised.Getting from there to a real computer memory would be a long road.For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain is huge by modern computing (9)__________.But Dr Staniland reckons that, with enough tweaking, both of these objections could be dealt with.The (10)__________ of this approach is that it might not be so capital-intensive as building a fab.Growing things does not need as much kit as making them.If the tweaking could be done, therefore, the result might give the word biotechnology a whole new meaning.A) componentsB) advantageC) standardsD) complimentsE) essenceF) inspirationG) disadvantageH) doublesI) solutionJ) resolutionK) devicesL) manufactureM) spiritN) productO) techniqueNice juicy AppleALTHOUGH he is still (1)__________ things up at Dell, an ailing computer-maker, Carl Icahn has found time to tilt at another tech titan. On August 13th the veteran shareholder activist (2) __________that he had built up a stake in Apple, though he stayed mum about exactly how many shares he had bought. Mr Icahn’s intentions,however, are crystal clear: he wants the consumer-electronics behemoth to expand plans to return some of its whopping $147 billion of cash and marketable securities to shareholders.Mr Icahn is also after more money at Dell, where he has been lobbying with allies against a (3)__________ buy-out plan put forward by Michael Dell, the firm’s founder, and Silver Lake, a private-equity firm. His pressing has already forced the buy-out group to raise its initial offer by over $350m, to $24.8 billion and he has taken his (4)__________ to the courts in a bid to extract an even higher price.Other tech firms have been attracting the attention of activist investors too. Earlier this year ValueAct Capital, an investment fund, said it had built up a $2 billion stake in Microsoft. Jaguar Financial, a Canadian bank, has been (5)__________ fresh thinking at troubled BlackBerry, which announced on August 12th that it is exploring various (6) __________options, including alliances and a possible sale. And Elliott Management, a hedge fund, has been lobbying for change at NetApp, a data-storage firm that it thinks could do more to improve returns to (7)__________.One reason tech firms have found themselves in activists’ crosshairs is that, like Apple, some built up big cash piles during the economic downturn and have been slow to use the money. Financiers hope to get them to loosen their purse-strings faster and to pocket some of the cash. Mr Icahn wants Apple to increase and (8)__________ a share buy-back programme that is currently set to return $60 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015.Another reason that tech firms make tempting targets for shareholder activistsis that swift changes in technologies can trip up even the mightiest. Witness the case of Microsoft, which ruled the roost during the personal-computer era but has struggled to adapt to a world in which tablets and smartphones are all the rage. Investors hope to mint money by pushing companies to change more rapidly in response to such upheavals in their markets.The rewards can be substantial. Egged on by Third Point, an activist hedge fund, Yahoo (9) __________Marissa Mayer as its new chief executive in July 2012. By the time she celebrated a year in the job last month, the troubled web giant’s share price had risen by over 70%. In July the hedge fund sold a big chunk of shares back to Yahoo. Mr Icahn thinks Apple’s share price, which closed at $499 on August 14th, could soar too if the firm follows his advice on buy-backs. He tweeted this week that he had had a “nice (10)__________” with Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, about his idea, though he did not say what Mr Cook thought of it. If Apple drags its feet, expect things to turn nasty.A) shareholdersB) strategicC) communicationD) battleE) conversationF) encouragingG) excitingH) stirringI) appointedJ) raceK) revealedL) methodM) accelerateN) proposedIt isn't just the beer that (1)__________ to beer bellies. It could also be the extra calories, fat and unhealthy eating choices that may come with (2) __________drinking.A recent study found that men consume an (3)__________ 433 calories (equivalent to a McDonald's double cheeseburger) on days they drink a moderate amount of alcohol. About 61% of the caloric increase comes from the alcohol itself. Men also report eating higher amounts of saturated fats and meat, and less fruit and milk, on those days than on days when they aren't drinking, the study showed.Women fared a bit better, taking in an extra 300 calories on moderate-drinking days, from the alcohol and eating fattier foods. But women's increase in calories from additional eating wasn't statistically significant, the study said.'Men and women ate less healthily on days they drank alcohol,' said Rosalind Breslow, an epidemiologist with the federal National Institute on Alcohol Abuse andAlcoholism and lead author of the study. 'Poorer food choices on drinking days have public-health (4)__________,' she said.The findings dovetail with controlled lab studies in which (5)__________ generally eat more food after consuming alcohol. Researchers suggest that alcohol may enhance 'the short-term rewarding effects' of consuming food, according to a 2010 report in the journal Physiology & Behavior that reviewed previous studies on alcohol, appetite and obesity.But other studies have pointed to a different trend. Moderate drinkers gain less weight over time than either heavy drinkers or people who abstain from alcohol, particularly women, this research has shown. Moderate drinking is (6) __________having about two drinks a day for men and one for women.'People who gain the least weight are moderate drinkers, regardless of [alcoholic] beverage choice,' said Eric Rimm, an associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the 2010 review of alcohol in the federal dietary (7)__________. The weight-gain difference is modest, and 'starting to drink is not a weight-loss diet,' he said.The various research efforts form part of a long-standing (8)__________ about how alcohol affects people's appetites, weight and overall health. Researchers say there aren't simple answers, and suggest that individuals' metabolism, drinking patterns and gender may play a role.Alcohol is 'a real wild card when it comes to weight management,' said Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientific officer of Weight Watchers International. At sevencalories per gram, alcohol is closer to fat than to carbohydrate or protein in caloric content, she said. Alcohol tends to lower restraint, she notes, causing a person to become more (9)__________ with what they're eating.Research bolstering the role of moderate drinking in helping to control weight gain was published in 2004 in the journal Obesity Research. That study followed nearly 50,000 women over eight years. An earlier study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1994, followed more than 7,000 people for 10 years and found that moderate drinkers gained less weight than nondrinkers. Studies comparing changes in waist circumference among different groups have yielded similar results.Dr. Rimm said it isn't clear why moderate drinking may be (10)__________ against typical weight gain, but it could have to do with metabolic adjustments. After people drink alcohol, their heart rate increases so they burn more calories in the following hour.'It's a modest amount,' he said. 'But if you take an individual that eats 100 calories instead of a glass of wine, the person drinking the glass of wine will have a slight increase in the amount of calories burned.'A:indulgentB:participantsC:debateD:consideredE:contributesF:contestG:guidelinesH:protectiveI:moderateJ:indexK:implicationsL:considerateM:additionalN:experiencedO:owesNearly half the (1)__________ believes UFOs could be a (2) __________of extraterrestrial visitation.A HuffPost/YouGov poll reveals that 48 percent of adults in the United States are open to the idea that alien spacecraft are observing our planet -- and just 35 percent outright (3)__________ the idea.The poll was seen as vindication from the community of UFO researchers who often feel they are laughed off by government officials."It's always been intriguing to me how we act as though only kooks and quacksand little old ladies in tennis shoes believe in flying saucers. And it's never been true, at least for 30 or 40 years," said former nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, who was the original civilian investigator of the events surrounding the (4) __________Roswell, NM, UFO crash of 1947.Friedman is very outspoken on the idea that some UFOs are (5)__________ controlled extraterrestrial vehicles."The believers are far more quiet, but far more on the side of reality," Friedman told The Huffington Post. "When you look at the polls, it's clear. And I see the benefit of that, (6)__________, because I've only had 11 hecklers in over 700 lectures. I've been out there, all over the place, in every state, 18 other countries, and I know that my (7) __________is more than tolerant -- they're accepting. It's been one of the things that really has kept me going."In the HuffPost/YouGov poll, conducted between Sept. 6-7, 1,000 adults were asked if they either believed or didn't believe that some people have (8)__________ UFOs that have an extraterrestrial origin.When YouGov offered (9)__________ the choice between "slightly disagree," "disagree" and "strongly disagree," those numbers added up to 35 percent who are skeptical of the notion that any UFOs may be alien-related.However, nearly half of the adults surveyed (48 percent) resounded in the affirmative, leaving 16 percent who (10)__________ that they weren't sure on either side of the ET issue.A: legendaryB:acceptC: rejectD: respondentsE: personallyF: impliedG: populationH: resposibilityI: intelligentlyJ: indicatedK: signL: signalM: witnessedN: storyO: audienceThe typical pre-industrial family not only had a good many children, but numerous other dependents as well---grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousions. Such "extended" families were suited for survival in slow paced __1__ societies. But such families are hard to __2__. They are immobile.Industrialism demanded masses ofworkers ready and able to move off the land in pursuit of jobs, and to move again whenever necessary. Thus the extended family __3__ shed its excess weight and the so-called "nuclear" family emerged---a stripped-down, portable family unit __4__ only of parents and a small set of children. This new style family, far more __5__ than the traditional extended family, became the standard model in all the industrial counties. Super-industrialism, however, the next stage of eco-technological development, __6__ even higher mobility. Thus we may expect many among the people of the future to carry the streamlinling process, a stePfurther by remaining children, cutting the family down to its more __7__ components, aman and a woman. Two people, perhaps with matched careers, will prove more efficient at navigating through education and social status, through job changes and geographic relocations, than teh ordinarily child-cluttered family.A __8__ may be the postponement of children, rather than childlessness. Men and women today are often torn in __9__ between a commitment to career and a commitment to children. In the future, many __10__ will sidestePthis problem by deferring the entire task of raising children until after retirement.A)transplantB)solutionC)gaduallyD)transportE)elementalF)conflictG)continuallyH)mobileI)couplesJ)agriculturalK)includingL)compromiseM)requiresN)primaryO)consistingPsychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and their consequences, argue that rewards can __1__ performance at work and school. Cognitive( 认识派的 ) researchers, who study various aspects of mental life, maintain that rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on __2__ and gifts from others.The latter view has gained many supporters, __3__ among educators. But the careful use of small __4__ rewards speaks creativity in grade school children, suggesting that properly presented inducements( 刺激 ) indeed __5__inventiveness, according to a study in the June Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.“If kids know they’re working for a reward and can fo cus on a relatively __6__ task, they show the most creativity,” says Robert Eisenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. “But it’s easy to __7__ creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards.A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands our high grades for __8__ achievement ends uPwith uninspired students, Eisenberger holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten grading standards and __9__ failing grades.In early grades, the use of so-called token economies, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points to ward valued rewards, shows __10__ in raising efforts and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.A)mentalB)promiseC)killD)avoidE)hopeF)especiallyG)aidH)ordinaryI)approvalJ)monetaryK)generallyL)improveM)challengingN)restoreO)excellentReading is thought to be a kind of conversation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and gets answers. In the light of these he puts __1__ questions, and so on.For most of the time this “conversation” goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become __2__ of it. This is usually when we are running into difficulties, when mismatch is occurring between __3__ and meaning. When successful matching is being experienced, our question of the text continues at the unconscious level.Different people __4__ with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the page, others take off imaginatively from the words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension which is __5__ in the text. The latter represents __6__ levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for advanced readers.There is another conversation which from our point of view is __7__ important, and that is to do not with what is read but with how it is read. We call this a “process” conversation as __8__ to a “content” conversation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the __9__ we employ in reading. If we are an advanced reader our ability to hold a process conversation with a text is usually pretty well __10__. Not so our ability to hold a content conversation.A)opposedB)converseC)equallyD)writtenE)developedF)strategiesG)comparedH)awakeI)higherJ)expectationsK)dealL)absolutelyM)awareN)betterO)furtherThere is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested inspelling .No school I have taught in has ever _____ spelling or considered it unimportantas a basic skill. There are, however , vastly different ideas about how to teach it , or howmuch _____ it must be given over general language development and writing ability. Theproblem is , how to encourage a child to express himself freely and _____ in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling?If spelli ng become the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a __4__child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range,choosing to avoid __5__ language. That’s why teachers often __6__ the early use ofdictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing abouta personal experience ：“ This work is __7__ !There are far too many spelling errors andyour writing is illegible( 难以辨认的).” It may have been a sharp__8__ of the pupil’stechnical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omittedto read the essay, which __9__ some beautiful expressions of the child’s deePfeelings.The teacher was no t wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centredon the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would havegiven the pupil more __10__ to seek improvement.A)priorityB)criticismC)containedD)clearlyE)adventurousF)discourageG)motivationH)terribleI)ignoredJ)difficultK)encourageL)expressedM)confidentlyN)brightO)motive1.E)essence2.H)doubles3.A)components4.K)devices5.O)technique6.F)inspiration7.L)manufacture8.I)solution9.C)standards10.B)advantage全文翻译A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria制造计算机存储器的新奇方法：使用细菌FOR half a century, the essence of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less.半个世纪以来，计算机产业发展的本质就是花钱更少，成事更多。
