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2023年 12月大学英语六级考试真题（第 1 套）
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay that begins with the
sentence “As is known to all, gaining a sound knowledge of the basics is of vital
importance for students to master an academic subject.^^ You can make comments, cite
examples or use your personal experiences to develop your essay. You should write at least 150
words but no more than 200 words.
Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each
conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be
spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four
choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with
a single line through the centre.
Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
1. A) It is clear that he is expected to enjoy a healthy life.
B) There is nothing wrong with his digestive system.
C) There is some indication of an issue with his blood circulation.
D) He doesn't know he has long been suffering from poor health.
2. A) Mistaking symptoms of illness for stress.
B) Complaining they are being overworked.
C) Being unaware of the stress they are under.
D) Suffering from illness without recognising it.
3. A) Prescribe some medication for him.
B) Give him another physical check-up.
C) Explain to him the common consequence of stress.
D) Buy some sleeping pills for him from the drugstore.
4. A) It calls for responsible management. C) It is remarkably promising.
B) It proves to be quite profitable. D) It is full of competition.
Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
5. A) To avoid being in the limelight. C) To pursue a less competitive career.
B) To seek medical help for his injury. D) To stay away from his hostile teammates.
6. A) It has ups and downs. C) It does not last long.
B) It proves rewarding. D) It is not so profitable.
7. A) He was a financial advisor. C) He became a basketball coach.
B) He suffered from poor health. D) He was back in the news.
8. A) Study issues of public health. C) Raise sufficient public funding.
B) Alleviate the obesity problem. D) Train young basketball players.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 1 页 共 10页 by:新一文化Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear two passages. At the end of each passage, you will
hear three 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), C)
and 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 heard.
9. A) When she started teaching at Edinburgh University in Scotland.
B) While she was doing her doctoral studies on American Literature.
C) After publishing her first novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
D) After winning the 1986 Woman's Own Short Story Competition.
10. A) The themes of love and loss. C) The sins and flaws of eccentrics.
B) The code of human behaviour. D) The manners of fashionable circles.
11. A) They are usually ignorant of complex human relations.
B) They successfully imitate the manners of celebrities.
C) They often get rewarded instead of being punished.
D) They are generally looked down upon in society.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.
12. A) It is what members use to alleviate tension in a team.
B) It is what employers are increasingly seeking after.
C) It is conducive to getting over a recession.
D) It is necessary for learning a new task.
13. A) Make better choices. C) Achieve recognition duly.
B) Follow innovative ideas. D) Accumulate work experience.
14. A) Workers show more emotional intelligence.
B) Workers use brains more than muscles.
C) People usually work flexible hours.
D) People often work in teams.
15. A) Leave the group as soon as possible. C) Decide on new priorities speedily.
B) Anticipate setbacks well in advance. D) Stick to original goals confidently.
Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by three
or four questions. The recordings wi" 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 the centre.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
16. A) What differentiates people from animals.
B) Why philosophers disagree with scientists.
C) Where humans9 great cognitive capacity originates.
D) When being creative becomes a biological mandate.
17. A) It is what tells apart two adjacent generations.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 2 页 共 10页 by:新一文化B) It is what sharpens our appetite for novelty.
C) It is something only geniuses can achieve.
D) It is something every human being can do.
18. A) It seeks inspiration for novel inventions.
B) It constantly absorbs new information.
C) It uses existing ideas to create new ones.
D) It repeats precedent on a regular basis.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19. A) Dogs know when their owners are not feeling well.
B) Dogs have the cognition for telling right from wrong.
C) Dogs have an aptitude for developing skills to interact with humans.
D) Dogs know when their human companions can no longer stand them.
20. A) They can readily detect different ill smells of viruses.
B) They can easily tell what bacteria cause odor change.
C) They are particularly sensitive to strange smells.
D) They have an extremely powerful sense of smell.
21. A) It can ensure owners suffer fewer chronic diseases.
B) It can benefit owners both physically and mentally.
C) It can reduce owners' risk of getting cancer or diabetes.
D) It can alert owners to the seriousness of their conditions.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
22. A) Crack down on courses like science, technology, engineering and math.
B) Restrict the ability of creative arts courses to recruit new students.
C) Look at how to reform technical and vocational education.
D) Ensure creative arts students get better value for money.
23. A) Seemingly reasonable. C) Extremely irrational.
B) Clearly well-grounded. D) Apparently simplistic.
24. A) A high proportion of them haven't tried to save money.
B) Most of them never hope to buy a house or to retire.
C) Forty percent of them earn less than £25,000 a year.
D) The majority of them have fairly well-paying jobs.
25. A) The context of a bank balance. C) The specific degree a student earns.
B) Britain's economy as a whole. D) Britain's defective educational system.
Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Directions: 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 through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 3 页 共 10页 by:新一文化The desert is deceiving. At first glance it looks lifeless, barren, and bone-dry. For most
passersby humming through the Mojave on their way to try their luck in Las Vegas or
heading towards the Grand Canyon, it's just a 26 stretch of land with some mountains
in the distance and more 27 to be a setting for a movie that takes place on Mars. The
desert, however, is 28 with life, mystery, and magic.
The Mojave desert sees less than two inches of rain a year, and like most deserts,
is a land of 29 . Temperature fluctuations vary from freezing to 30 hot, not only
between seasons, but even within the same day.
At the heart of this vast, 25,000-square-mile desert is Mojave National Preserve.
The folks managing and working there wear the yvide-brimmed (宽边的)hats that have
become 31 with places like Yosemite. The preserve is rich with history, culture,
biodiversity, and endless opportunities to 32 your interest, especially for anyone who
loves the outdoors. For a photographer, it requires patience and 33 a few spare tires
to maneuver the network of unpaved “roads”, but the rewards are plenty.
Photographing here requires a good, 34 pair of shoes and a lot of preparation.
Plenty of water, spare tires, and a full tank of gas are needed to explore this unit of the
national park system, which is the third largest in the country.
Like all deserts, though, if you are patient, you will be rewarded, as they often reveal
their secrets slowly. During my last outing, I was surprised to see how much of the area
was shaped by ancient volcanoes and geological forces, much of which remains today,
giving the area a 35 feel and painting a colorful background for great photographs.
A) apt I) sparingly
B) burning J) sprinkle
C) extremes K) steer
D) flat L) stimulate
E) fractions M) sturdy
F) overflowing N) synonymous
G) parasites 0) unique
H) probably
Section B
Directions: 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.
African countries must get smarter with their agriculture
A) On the hills of central Kenya, almost lime-green with the sparkle of tea bushes in the
sunlight, farmers know all about climate change. "The rainy season is no longer
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 4 页 共 10页 by:新一文化predictable,says one. "When it is supposed to rain it doesn't, then it all comes at once.^^
Climate change is an issue that will affect everyone on the planet. For Africans its
consequences will be particularly bitter: whereas other regions were able to grow rich
by burning coal and oil, Africa will pay much of the human price without having
enjoyed the benefits. "Africa only represents 2% of global greenhouse-gas emissions
but it is the continent that is expected to suffer the most from climate impacts/9 says
Mafalda Duarte, who runs the World Bank's $8bn Climate Investment Funds.
B) Although there are huge uncertainties as to the precise impacts of climate change,
enough is known to say that global warming represents one of the main threats to
Africa's prosperity. Parts of the continent are already wanning much more quickly than
the average: temperatures in southern Africa have increased by about twice the global
rate over the past 50 years. Even if the world were to cut emissions enough to keep
global warming below 1.5℃, heat-waves would intensify in Africa and diseases would
spread to areas not currently affected. Farming would also be hit hard. About 40% of
the land now used to grow maize (玉米)would no longer be suitable for it. Overall, it is
estimated that maize yields would fall by 18-22%.
C) Africa is particularly vulnerable, in part because it is already struggling to feed itself and
it will have to vastly increase yields and productivity if it is to put food on the plates of
a fast-growing population, even without climate change. The UN's Food and
Agriculture Organisation reckons that by 2050 global food production would have to
rise by about 70% over its level of 2009 to meet demand from a population that is
growing in numbers and appetite. Much of this new demand will be in Africa. Yet the
continent already imports about $50bn-worth of food a year and that figure is expected
to more than double over the next five years. Self-sufficiency is not Africa^ goal, but
the fact that it spends more money importing food than it does buying capital goods
suggests it has room for improvement.
D) Finding out why is not hard. Most farms are tiny, ploughed by hand and reliant on rain.
More than half of Africa's people make their living from farming. Although its total
harvest has climbed over the past few decades, this is mainly because there are more
people farming more land. But in many places there is no spare land to farm. Plots in
Rwanda are so small that you could fit 250 of them onto the average American farm.
And although output per worker has improved by more than half over the past 30 years
in Africa, that is still far behind the 2.5 times improvement in Asia. Yields of maize are
generally less than two tonnes per hectare, a fifth the level in America.
E) The low productivity of African farmers is reflected in national economic statistics
一despite absorbing so much labour, fanning generates just 15% of GDP. "They can,t
even feed their families, says Jennifer Blanke, a vice-president of the African
Development Bank in charge of agriculture. "Farm productivity hasn't improved in
many parts of Africa for 100 years.”
F) One reason is that in the first few decades of independence, many African governments
neglected farming as they focused on industrialising their economies. Others damaged it
by pushing down the prices that state monopolies paid for their crops in order to
subsidise workers in cities with cheap food. Ghana taxed cocoa (可 可 粉 )exports so
heavily that production collapsed by half between the 1960s and 1980s, despite a jump
in the global price of cocoa. Yet over the past two decades or so governments and
“ 2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 5 页 共 10页 by:新一文化donors have begun to look again at farming as a way of providing jobs for the 13
million young people entering the workforce each year. Much of the focus has been on
getting small farmers to use fertiliser and, more important, better seeds. The results can
be impressive. Improved varieties of sorghum (鬲 粱)，for instance, can produce a crop
that is 40% larger than the usual variety. Infrastructure is important. A World Bank
irrigation project in Ethiopia helped fanners increase their potato harvest from about 8
tonnes per hectare to 35 tonnes.
G) Better techniques help, too. Small coffee farmers in Kenya are able to increase their
incomes by 40% by following a few simple guidelines on caring for their bushes, such
as trimming all but three of their stems. Many of their neighbours do not follow the
advice, because it seems counter-intuitive. More stems ought to lead to more coffee
beans, they say. Yet after seeing those following the advice get bigger harvests for a
season or two, many others start doing the same.
H) One way of spreading knowledge is to link farms to big buyers of their harvests. When
Diageo, a British drinks giant, built a brewery in western Kenya, it wanted to use local
crops to make a beer cheap enough to compete with illicit home brew. It organised
farmers into groups, improved supply chains for them to get seeds and fertiliser and
then agreed to buy their grain. It now provides a market to about 17,000 farmers. Across
the region it has doubled its use of local raw material to about 80% over five years, says
John O9Keeffe, who runs its Africa business.
I) An even more important change is the move from traditional farming to building
businesses that can profitably bring technology and investment to small farmers. Taita
Ngetich, a young Kenyan, was studying engineering when he wanted to earn a little
money on the side. He scraped together 20,000 Kenyan shillings (about $200) to plant
tomatoes. Everything went wrong. The crop was attacked by pests. "Then there was a
massive flood that swallowed all our capital/9 he says. Mr Ngetich persevered by
looking into buying a greenhouse to protect his plants from bugs and rain. The cheapest
ones cost more than $2,500 each, so he designed his own for half the price. Soon
neighbouring farmers started placing orders with him, and now his firm, Illuminum
Greenhouses, has sold more than 1,400 greenhouses that provide livelihoods to about
6,000 people. The business does not stop there; he also supplies fertiliser, high-quality
seedlings and smart sensors that increase yields.
J) Illuminum^ success shows how technology can help even small farms become more
productive. Because such a large share of Africa's population earns a living from
agriculture, even small improvements in productivity can lift the incomes of millions of
people. But over the longer run small-scale farming can go only so far, especially in the
face of climate change and population pressure.
K) “If we really want to lift people out of poverty we have to finance projects that will get
them an income of at least $100 a month so that they can pay for health care and
education, says Mr Ngetich.^^ Projects that give them an extra $2 a month from growing
beans or maize aren't going to get them there.^^ Getting those big jumps will need better
jobs in factories and cities.
36. It is said that agricultural productivity in many African countries has remained low for a
century.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 6 页 共 10页 by:新一文化37. Building connections between farms and major purchasers of their produce can promote
African farmers9 use of advanced farming techniques.
38. Parts of Africa are getting warmer much faster than the average, with southern Africa
witnessing roughly twice the global warming rate over the last half century.
39. Improved farming practices have enabled Kenyan farmers to increase farm produce
remarkably.
40. Africa is especially susceptible to the effects of global wanning partly because it has
difficulty feeding its increasing population even without climate change.
41. The use of fertiliser and improved seeds can help Africa9 small farmers impressively
increase crop yields.
42. It has proved even more important to shift from traditional farming to setting up
businesses that can bring technology and investment to small farmers in Africa.
43. Everyone in the world will have to bear the consequences of climate change, especially
Africans.
44. Improvement in farm output per worker in Africa falls far short of that in Asia.
45. In the long term, the potential for small farms in Africa to increase productivity is quite
limited, especially owing to the warming climate and a growing population.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions
or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D).
You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2
with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
One of the great successes of the Republican Party in recent decades is the relentless
propagation of a simple formula for economic growth: tax cuts.
The formula doesn't work, but that has not affected its popularity. And while the cult
of tax cuts has attracted many critics, it lacks for obvious rivals.
Democratic politicians have tended to campaign on helping people left behind by
economic growth. When Democrats do talk about encouraging economic growth, they often
sound like Republicans.
This is not just a political problem for Democrats; it is an economic problem for the
United States. The nation needs a better story about the drivers of economic growth. The
painful lessons of recent decades point to a promising candidate: higher wages.
Raising the wages of American workers ought to be the priority of economic
policymakers. We'd all be better off paying less attention to quarterly updates on the growth
of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and focusing instead on the growth of
workers' paychecks.
Set aside, for the moment, the familiar argument for higher wages: fairness. The
argument here is that higher wages can fuel the engine of economic growth.
Perhaps the most famous illustration of the benefits is the story of Henry Ford's
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 7 页 共 10页 by:新一文化decision in 1914 to pay $5 a day to workers on his Model T assembly lines. He did it to
increase production- he was paying a premium to maintain a reliable workforce. The
unexpected benefit was that Ford's factory workers became Ford customers, too.
The same logic still holds: Consumption drives the American economy, and workers
who are paid more can spend more.
Mainstream economists insist that it is impossible to order up a sustainable increase in
wages because compensation levels reflect the unerring judgment of market forces.
The conventional wisdom held that productivity growth was the only route to higher
wages. Through that lens, efforts to negotiate higher wages were counterproductive.
Minimum-wage laws would raise unemployment because there was only so much money in
the wage pool, and if some people got more, others would get none.
It was in the context of this worldview that it became popular to argue that tax cuts
would drive prosperity. Rich people would invest, productivity would increase, wages
would rise.
In the real world, things are more complicated. Wages are influenced by a tug of war
between employers and workers, and employers have been winning. One clear piece of
evidence is the widening gap between productivity growth and wage growth since roughly
1970. Productivity has more than doubled; wages have lagged far behind.
A focus on wage growth would provide an antidote (矫正方法)to the attractive
simplicity of the belief in the magical power of tax cuts.
46 .Why does the formula of tax cuts remain popular though ineffective?
A) Its critics9 voice has not been heard throughout the country.
B) There seem to be no other options available to replace it.
C) The cult of tax cuts has been relentlessly propagated by all policymakers.
D) There appears to be a misunderstanding of the formula among the public.
47 .What does the author think is a more effective measure for driving economic growth in
the U.S.?
A) Aiding people left behind by economic growth.
B) Prioritizing the growth of the nation's GDP.
C) Increasing the compensation for labor.
D) Introducing even more extensive tax cuts.
48 .What is the logic underlying the author's viewpoint?
A) The growth of workers' paychecks ultimately boosts the nation's economy.
B) Paying a premium to maintain a reliable workforce attracts more customers.
C) Consumption stimulates the desire for higher wages.
D) Familiar arguments for higher wages are outdated.
49 .What is the basis for higher wages according to the conventional wisdom?
A) Fairness in distribution. C) The priority of economic policymakers.
B) Increase in productivity. D) The unerring judgment of market forces.
5O .What do we learn about things in the real world in America for the past 50 years or so?
A) People have failed to see a corresponding increase in wages and in productivity.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 8 页 共 10页 by:新一文化B) People have been disheartened by the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.
C) People have witnessed a tug of war between Republicans and Democrats over tax cuts.
D) People have seen the link disappearing between productivity and workers9 well-being.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Journal editors decide what gets published and what doesn't, affecting the careers of
other academics and influencing the direction that a field takes. You*d hope, then, that
journals would do everything they can to establish a diverse editorial board, reflecting a
variety of voices, experiences, and identities.
Unfortunately a new study in Nature Neuroscience makes for disheartening reading.
The team finds that the majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals are
male and based in the United States: a situation that may be amplifying existing gender
inequalities in the field and influencing the kind of research that gets published.
Men were found to account for 60% of the editors of psychology journals. There were
significantly more male than female editors at each level of seniority, and men made up the
majority of editors in over three quarters of the journals. Crucially, the proportion of female
editors was significantly lower than the overall proportion of women psychology researchers.
The differences were even starker in the neuroscience journals: 70% of editors were
male, and men held the majority of editorial positions in 88% of journals. In this case, the
proportion of female editors was not significantly lower than the proportion of female
researchers working in neuroscience——a finding that reveals enduring gender disparities in
the field more broadly.
Based on their results, the team concludes that “the ideas, values and decision-making
biases of men are overrepresented in the editorial positions of the most recognized
academic journals in psychology and neuroscience.^^
Gender inequality in science is often attributed to the fact that senior academics are
more likely to be male, because historically science was male-dominated: it's argued that as
time goes on and more women rise to senior roles, the field will become more equal. Yet
this study showed that even the junior roles in psychology journals tended to be held
disproportionately by men, despite the fact that there are actually more female than male
junior psychology faculty.
This implies that a lack of female academics is not the problem. Instead, there are
structural reasons that women are disadvantaged in science. Women receive lower salaries
and face greater childcare demands, for instance, which can result in fewer publications and
grants- the kinds of things that journals look for when deciding who to appoint. Rather
than simply blaming the inequality of editorial boards on tradition, we should be actively
breaking down these existing barriers.
A lack of diversity among journal editors also likely contributes to psychology's
WEIRD problem. If journal editors are largely men from the United States, then they will
probably place higher value on papers that are relevant to Western, male populations,
whether consciously or not.
51 .What would we expect an editorial board of an academic journal to exhibit in view of its
important responsibilities?
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 9 页 共 10页 by:新一文化A) Insight. B) Expertise. C) Integrity. D) Diversity.
52 .What do we learn from the findings of a new study in Nature Neuroscience?
A) The majority of top psychology and neuroscience journals reflect a variety of voices,
experiences and identities.
B) The editorial boards of most psychology and neuroscience journals do influence the
direction their field takes.
C) The editorial boards of the most important journals in psychology and neuroscience
are male-dominated.
D) The majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals have relevant
backgrounds.
53 .What fact does the author highlight concerning the gender differences in editors of
psychology journals?
A) There were quite a few female editors who also distinguished themselves as
influential psychology researchers.
B) The number of female editors was simply disproportionate to that of women engaged
in psychology research.
C) The proportion of female editors was increasingly lower at senior levels.
D) There were few female editors who could move up to senior positions.
54 . What can we infer from the conclusion drawn by the team of the new study on the basis
of their findings?
A) Women's views are underrepresented in the editorial boards of top psychology and
neuroscience journals.
B) Male editors of top psychology and neuroscience journals tend to be biased against
their female colleagues.
C) Male researchers have enough representation in the editorial boards to ensure their
publications.
D) Female editors have to struggle to get women's research articles published in
academic journals.
55 . What does the author suggest we do instead of simply blaming the inequality of
editorial boards on tradition?
A) Strike a balance between male and female editors.
B) Increase women's employment in senior positions.
C) Enlarge the body of female academics.
D) Implement overall structural reforms.
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.
在中国，随着老龄化社会的到来，养老受到普遍关注。人们谈论最多的是应当采取什么样的
养老模式。多数人认为，养老模式需要多元化。可以通过政府引导和社会参与，建立更多更好的养
老服务机构，改进社区服务中心，鼓励居家自助养老，还可以推行家庭养老与社会养老相结合的
模式。随着政府和社会对养老服务事业投入的持续增加，养老设施将不断升级，服务质量逐步改进,
老年人的生活将会更加方便舒适、健康快乐。
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 10页 共 10页 by:新一文化
