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2014 年 6 月大学英语六级考试阅读真题(一)
PartⅢ ReadingComprehension (40 minutes)
SectionA
Directions:Inthis section,thereisapassagewithtenblanks.Youarerequiredtoselectonewordforeachblank
from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before
makingyourchoices.Eachchoiceinthebankisidentifiedbyaletter.Pleasemarkthecorrespondingletterforeach
itemonAnswerSheet2withasinglelinethroughthecentre.Youmaynotuseanyofthewordsinthebankmorethan
once.
Questions36to45arebasedonthefollowingpassage.
Forinvestorswhodesirelowriskandguaranteedincome,USgovernmentbondsareasecureinvestment
becausethesebondshavethefinancialbackingandfullfaithandcreditofthefederalgovernment.Municipalbonds,
alsosecure,areofferedbylocalgovernmentsandoftenhave 36 suchastax-freeinterest.Somemayevenbe 37
Corporatebondsareabitmorerisky.
Twoquestionsoften 38 first-timecorporatebondinvestors.Thefirstis“IfIpurchaseacorporatebond,do
Ihave to holdit untilthematurity date?,” The answeris no.Bonds arebought andsold daily on 39 securities
exchanges.However,ifyoudecidetosellyourbondbeforeitsmaturitydate,you’renotguaranteedtogettheface
valueofthebond.Forexample,ifyourbonddoesnothave 40 thatmakeitattractivetootherinvestors,youmay
beforcedtosellyourbondata 41 ,i.e.,apricelessthanthebond’sfacevalue.Butifyourbondishighlyvalued
byotherinvestors,youmaybeabletosellitatapremium,i.e.,apriceaboveitsfacevalue.Bondpricesgenerally
42 inversely(相反地)withcurrentmarketinterestrates.Asinterestratesgoup,bondpricesfall,andversa（反之
亦然）.Thus,likeallinvestments,bondshaveadegreeofrisk.
Thesecondquestionis“HowcanI 43 theinvestmentriskofaparticularbondissue?”Standard&Poor’s
andMoody’sInvestorsServiceratethelevelofriskofmanycorporateandgovernmentbonds.And 44 ,
thehigherthemarketriskofabond,thehighertheinterestrate.Investorswillinvestinabondconsideredriskyonly
ifthe 45 returnishighenough.
A)advantages F)discount K)insured
B)assess G)embarrass L)major
C)bother H)features M)naturally
D)conserved I)fluctuate N)potential
E)deduction J)indefinite O)simultaneously
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
SectionB
Directions： In this section^ you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement
containsinformationgiveninoneoftheparagraphs.Identifytheparagraphfromwhichtheinformationisderived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by
markingthecorrespondingletteronAnswerSheet2.
LessonsFromaFeministParadise
[A] On the surface, Sweden appears to be a feminist paradise. Look at any global survey of gender equality and
Sweden will be near the top. Family-friendly policies are its norm—with 16 months of paid parental leave,
special protections for part-time workers, and state-subsidized preschools where, according to a government
website,“gender-awarenesseducationisincreasinglycommon.”Duetoanunofficialquotasystem,womenhold
45percentofpositionsintheSwedishparliament.Theyhaveenjoyedtheprotectionofgovernmentagencieswith
titles like the Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality and the Secretariat of Gender Research. So why are
AmericanwomensofaraheadoftheirSwedishcounterpartsinbreakingthroughtheglassceiling?
[B]Ina2012report,theWorldEconomicForumfoundthatwhenitcomestoclosingthegendergapin“economic
participation and opportunity,” the United States is ahead of not only Sweden but also Finland, Denmark, the
Netherlands,Iceland,Germany, andtheUnited Kingdom. Sweden’s rankinthereportcanlargely beexplained
byitspoliticalquotasystem.ThoughtheUnitedStateshasfewerwomenintheworkforce(68percentcompared
toSweden’s77percent),Americanwomenwhochoosetobeemployedarefarmorelikelytoworkfull-timeand
toholdhigh-leveljobsasmanagersorprofessionals.Theyalsoownmorebusinesses,launchmorestart-ups(新
创办的企业）, and more often work in traditionally male fields. As for breaking through the glass ceiling in
business,Americanwomenarewellinthelead.
[C] What explains the American advantage? How can it be that societies like Sweden, where gender equality is
vigorously pursued and enforced, have fewer female managers, executives, professionals, and business owners
than the laissez-faire(自由放任的）United States? A new study by Cornell economists Francine Blau and
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LawrenceKahngivesanexplanation.
[D] Generous parental leave policies and readily available part-time options have unintended consequences:
instead of strengthening women’s attachment to the workplace, they appear to weaken it. In addition to a
16-monthleave,aSwedishparenthastherighttoworksixhoursaday(forareducedsalary)untilhisorherchild
iseightyearsold.Mothersarefarmorelikelythanfatherstotakeadvantageofthislaw.Butextendedleavesand
part-timeemploymentareknowntobeharmfultocareers——forbothgenders.Andwithwomenasecondfactor
comes into play: most seem to enjoy the flexible-time arrangement (once known as the “mommy track”) and
never find their way back to full-time or high-level employment. In sum; generous family-friendly policies do
keepmorewomeninthelabormarket,buttheyalsotendtodiminishtheircareers.
[E]AccordingtoBlauandKahn,Swedish-stylepaternal(父亲的）leavepoliciesandflexible-timearrangements
pose a second threat to women’s progress: they make employers cautious about hiring women for full-time
positions atall. Offering ajob toamanis the safer bet.Heis far less likelyto take a year ofparentalleave and
thenreturnonareducedworkscheduleforthenexteightyears.
[F] I became aware of the trials of career-focused European women a few years ago when I met a postdoctoral
studentfromGermanywhowasthenavisitingfellowatJohnsHopkins.Shewasastonishedbytheprofessional
possibilities affordedto youngAmerican women. HerbesthopeinGermanywas a governmentjob—prospects
forwomenintheprivatesectorweredim.“InGermany，”shetoldme,“wehaveallthebenefits,butemployers
don’twanttohireus.
[G] Swedish economists Magnus Henrekson and Mikael Stenkula addressed the following question in their 2009
study:whyaretheresofewfemaletopexecutivesintheEuropean egalitarian(平等主义的）welfare states?
Theiranswer:“Broad-basedwelfare-statepolicieshinderwomen’srepresentationinelitecompetitivepositions.”
[H]ItistemptingtodeclaretheSwedishpoliciesregressive(退步的）andhailtheAmericansystem assuperior.
Butthatwouldbeshortsighted.TheSwedescancertainlytakealessonfromtheUnitedStatesandlookforways
toclearapathfortheirambitiousfemalecareerists.Butmostwomenarenotcommittedcareerists.WhenthePew
Research Center recently asked American parents to identify their “ideal” life arrangement, 47 percent of
motherssaidtheywouldprefertoworkpart-timeand20percentsaidtheywouldprefernottoworkatall.Fathers
answereddifferently：75percentpreferredfull-timework.SomeversionoftheSwedishsystemmightworkwell
for a majority of American parents,butthe United States is unlikely to fully embrace the Swedish model. Still,
wecanlearnfromtheirexperience.
[I]Despiteitsfailuretoshattertheglassceiling,Swedenhasoneofthemostpowerfulandinnovativeeconomiesin
the world. In its 2011-2012 survey, the World Economic Forum ranked Sweden as the world’s third most
competitive economy; the United States came in fifth. Sweden, dubbed the “rockstar of the recovery” in the
WashingtonPost. alsoleadstheworldinlifesatisfactionandhappiness.Itisasocietywellworthstudying,and
itseffortstoconquerthegendergapimpartavitallesson—thoughnotthelessontheSwedeshadinmind.
[J] Sweden has gone farther than any other nation on earth to integrate the sexes and to offer women the same
opportunitiesandfreedomsasmen.Fordecades,thesedescendantsoftheVikingshavebeentryingtoshowthe
world thatthe right mixof enlightened policy, consciousness raising, andnon-sexist child rearing wouldclose
thegenderdivideonceandforall.Yetthedividepersists.
[K]A2012pressreleasefromStatisticsSwedenbearsthetitle“GenderEqualityinSwedenTreading(踩)Water”
andnotes:
·Thetotalincomefromemploymentforallagesislowerforwomenthanformen.
·Oneinthreeemployedwomenandoneintenemployedmenworkpart-time.
·Women’sworkingtimeisinfluencedbythenumberandageoftheirchildren,butmen’sworkingtimeisnot
affectedbythesefactors.
·Ofallemployees,only13percentofthewomenand12percentofthemenhaveoccupationswithaneven
distributionofthesexes.
[L] Confronted with such facts, some Swedish activists and legislators are demanding more extreme and far-
reaching measures, such as replacing male and female pronouns with a neutral alternative and monitoring
childrenmore closely to correctthem when they gravitate (被吸引)toward genderedplay. When it came to
lightlastyearthatmothers,farmorethanfathers,chosetostayhomefromworktocarefortheirsickkids,Ulf
Kristersson, ministerofsocialsecurity,quicklycommissionedastudytodeterminethecausesofandpossible
curesforthisdisturbingstateofaffairs.
[M] Swedish family policies, by accommodating women’s preferences effectively, are reducing the number of
women in elite competitive positions. The Swedes will find this paradoxical andtry to find solutions. Let us
hope these do not include banning gender pronouns, policing children’s play, implementing more gender
quotas,ortreatingwomen5sspecialattachmenttohomeandfamilyasasocialinjustice.Mostmothersdonot
aspireto(向往）elite,competitivefull-timepositions:theSwedishpolicieshavegiventhemthefreedomand
opportunity to live the lives they prefer. Americans should look past the gender rhetoric and consider what
these Scandinavians have achieved. On their way to creating a feminist paradise, the Swedes have
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注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46.Swedenhasdonemorethanothernationstoclosethegendergap,butitcontinuestoexist.
47.Swedenisoneofthemostcompetitiveeconomiesintheworldanditspeopleenjoythegreatestlifesatisfaction.
48.MoreAmericanwomenholdelitejobpositionsinbusinessthanSwedishwomen.
49.Swedishfamily-friendlypoliciestendtoexertanegativeinfluenceonwomen’scareers.
50.ThequotasysteminSwedenensureswomen’sbetterrepresentationingovernment.
51.ThoughtheSwedish modelappearsworkableformostAmericanparents,itmaynotbeacceptedbytheminits
entirety.
52.Swedishwomenareallowedthefreedomandopportunitytochoosetheirownwayoflife.
53.Swedish employers are hesitant about hiring women for full-time positions because of the family-friendly
policies.
54.Gender-awarenesseducationisbecomingmoreandmorepopularinstate-subsidizedpreschoolsinSweden.
55.SomelawmakersinSwedenproposethatgenderlesspronounsbeusedintheSwedishlanguage.
SectionC
Directions：Thereare2passagesinthissection.Eachpassageisfollowedbysomequestionsorunfinished
statements.ForeachofthemtherearefourchoicesmarkedA),B),C)andD).Youshoulddecideonthebestchoice
andmarkthecorrespondingletteronAnswerSheet2withasinglelinethroughthecentre.
PassageOne
Questions56to60arebasedonthefollowingpassage.
Textinghaslongbeenbemoaned(哀叹）asthedownfallofthewrittenword,“penmanshipforilliterates,”as
one critic called it. To which the proper response is LOL. Texting properly isn’t writing at all. It’s a “spoken”
languagethatisgettingricherandmorecomplexbytheyear.
First, some historical perspective. Writing was only invented 5 500 years ago, whereas language probably
tracesbackatleast80000years. Thustalkingcame first;writingisjustacraftthatcamealonglater.Assuch,the
firstwritingwasbasedonthewaypeopletalk,withshortsentences.However,whiletalkingislargelysubconscious
andrapid,writingisdeliberateandslow.Overtime,writerstookadvantageofthisandstartedcraftinglong-winded
sentences such as this one: “The whole engagement lasted above 12 hours, till the gradual retreat of the Persians
waschangedintoadisorderlyflight,ofwhichtheshamefulexamplewasgivenbytheprincipalleadersand...”
Noonetalkslikethatcasually—orshould.Butitisnaturaltodesiretodosoforspecialoccasions.Intheold
days, we didn’tmuch write like talking because there was no mechanism to reproduce the speed ofconversation.
Buttextingandinstantmessagingdo—andarevolutionhasbegun.Itinvolvesthecrudemechanicsofwriting,but
in its economy, spontaneity and even vulgarity, texting is actually a new kind of talking, with its own kind of
grammarandconventions.
Take LOL. It doesn’t actually mean “laughing out loud” in a literal sense anymore. LOL has evolved into
something much subtler and sophisticated and is used even when nothing is remotely amusing. Jocelyn texts
“Wherehaveyoubeen?”andAnnabelletextsback“LOLatthelibrarystudyingfortwohours.”LOLsignalsbasic
empathy(同感）betweentexters,easingtensionandcreatingasenseofequality.Insteadofhavingaliteralmeaning,
itdoessomething—conveyinganattitude—justliketheendingconveyspasttenseratherthan“meaning”anything.
LOL,ofallthings,isgrammar.
Of course no one thinks about that consciously. But then most of communication operates without being
noticed.Overtime,themeaningofawordoranexpressiondrifts—meatusedtomeananykindoffood,sillyused
tomean,believeitornot,blessed.
Civilization,then,isfine—peoplebangingawayontheirsmartphonesarefluentlyusingacodeseparatefrom
the one they use in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting is ruining composition skills. Worldwide
peoplespeakdifferentlyfromthewaytheywrite,andtexting—quick,casualandonlyintendedtobereadonce—is
actuallyawayoftalkingwithyourfingers.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
56.Whatdocriticssayabouttexting?
A)Itismainlyconfinedtoyoungsters. C)Itwillruinthewrittenlanguage.
B)Itcompeteswithtraditionalwriting. D)Itisoftenhardtounderstand.
57.Inwhatwaydoestheauthorsaywritingisdifferentfromtalking?
A)Itiscraftedwithspecificskills. C)Itdoesnothaveaslongahistory.
B)Itexpressesideasmoreaccurately. D)Itisnotaseasytocomprehend.
58.WhyisLOLmuchusedintexting?
A)Itbringstexters'closertoeachother. C)Itisatrendywaytocommunicate.
B)Itshowsthetexter’ssophistication. D)Itaddstothehumorofthetext.
59.Exampleslikemeatandsillyarecitedtoshow .
A)thedifferencebetweenwritingandtalking B)howdifferentlywordsareusedintexting
C)whypeopleusethewordsthewaytheydo D)thegradualchangeofwordmeaning
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60.Whatdoestheauthorthinkoftexting?
A)Itfacilitatesexchangeofideasamongpeople. B)Itisanewformofverbalcommunication.
C)Itdeterioratespeople’scompositionskills. D)Ithastensthedeclineofthewrittenword.
PassageTwo
Questions61to65arebasedonthefollowingpassage.
It’s possible to admire Oprah Winfrey and still wish Harvard hadn’t awarded her an honorary doctor of law
degree and the commencement(毕业典礼)speaker spot at yesterday’s graduation. There’s no question Oprah’s
achievements place her in the temple of American success stories. Talent, charm, and an exceptional work ethic
haverarelyhurledanyoneasfarastheyhavethisformerabusedteenagemotherfromruralMississippiwhobecame
oneoftheworldsmostsuccessfulentertainmenticonsandthefirstAfrican-Americanfemalebillionaire.
Honorarydegreesareoftenconferredonnon-academicleadersinthearts,business,andpolitics.Harvard’slist
inrecentyearshasincludedKofiAnnan,BillGates,MerylStreep,andDavidSouter.ButOprah’sparticularbrand
ofcelebrityisnotagoodfitforthevalues ofauniversitywhosemotto(座右铭）, Veritas, meanstruth.Oprah’s
passionate advocacy extends, unfortunately, to a hearty embrace of fake science. Most notoriously, Oprah’s
validationofJennyMcCarthy’sclaimthatvaccinescauseautism(自闭症)hasnodoubtcontributedtomuchharm
throughthefoolishavoidanceofvaccines.
Famous people are entitled to a few failings, like the rest of us, and the choice of commencement speakers
often reflects a balance of institutional priorities and aspirations. Judging from our conversations with many
students,Oprahwasawidelypopularchoice.
But this vote of confidence in Oprah sends a troubling message at precisely the time when American
universities needto do more to advance the causeof reason. As former Deanof Harvard College, Harry Lewis，
notedinablogpostabouthisobjections,“ItseemsveryoddforHarvardtohonorsuchahighprofilepopularizerof
the irrational... at a time when political and religious nonsense so jeopardize the rule of reason in this allegedly
enlighteneddemocracyandaroundtheworld.
As America’s oldest and most visible university, Harvard has a special opportunity to convey its respect for
science not only through its research and teaching programs but also in its public affirmation of evidence-based
inquiry.
Unfortunately, many American universities seem awfully busy protecting their brand name and not nearly
busy enough protecting the pursuit of knowledge. A recent article in The Harvard Crimson noted the shocking
growthofHarvard’spublicrelationsarminthelastfiveyearsanditquestionedwhetherafocusonriskmanagement
andavoidingcontroversywasreallythebestoutward-lookingfaceofthisgreatinstitution.
As American research universities begin to resemble profitcenters and entertainment complexes, it’s easy to
lose sight of their primary mission: to produce and spread knowledge. This mission depends on traditions of
rationaldiscourseandvigorousdefenseofthescientificmethod.OprahWinfrey’shonorarydoctoratewasastepin
thewrongdirection.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
61.WhatdowelearnaboutOprahWinfreyfromthepassage?
A)ShewasadistinguishedgraduateofHarvardSchoolofLaw.
B)Sheworkedherwaytosuccessintheentertainmentindustry.
C)Sheusedtoabuseherchildrenwhenshewasayoungmother.
D)Sheachievedherfamethroughpersistentadvocacyoffakescience.
62.WhydoestheauthordeemitinappropriateforHarvardtoconferanhonorarydegreeonOprahWinfrey?
A)Shedidnotspecializeinthestudyoflaw.
B)Shewasknownasssupporteroffakescience.
C)Shewasaniconoftheentertainmentindustry.
D)Shehadnotdistinguishedherselfacademically.
63.HowdidHarryLewisreacttoHarvard’sdecisioninhisblogpost?
A)Hewasstronglyagainstit.
B)Heconsidereditunpopular.
C)HethoughtitwouldhelpenhanceHarvard’sreputation.
D)HethoughtitrepresentedthewilloftheHarvardcommunity.
64.Whatistheauthor’sregretaboutmanyAmericanuniversities?
A)Theyshowinadequaterespectforevidence-basedinquiry.
B)Theyfallshortofexpectationsinteachingandresearch.
C)Theyattachtoomuchimportancetopublicrelations.
D)Theyaretolerantofpoliticalandreligiousnonsense.
65.WhatdoestheauthorthinkaprestigiousuniversitylikeHarvardshouldfocuson?
A) Cultivationofstudentcreativity. C)Liberationofthehumanmind.
B)Defenseofthescientificmethod. D)Pursuitofknowledgeandtruth.
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