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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 44As
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 fbr 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.
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
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 1 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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. C) People usually work flexible hours.
B) Workers use brains more than muscles. 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 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 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 humans' great cognitive capacity originates.
D) When being creative becomes a biological mandate.
17. A) It is what tells apart two adjacent generations.
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. C) It uses existing ideas to create new ones.
B) It constantly absorbs new information. 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.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 2 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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 haventried 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 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.
Our brains respond to language expressing facts differently than they do to words conveying
possibility, scientists at New York University have recently found. Their work offers new insights
into the impact word choice has on how we 26 between statements expressing what is real
versus what is merely possible. The researchers assert their findings are important because we are
presented with false information all the time. Some of this is 27 . as is the case with deceptive
advertisements, but the problem is 28 by individuals who believe they are sharing correct
information. Thus, it is more important than ever to separate the factual from the possible or merely
29 in how we communicate. This is especially true as the study makes clear that information
presented as fact 30 special responses in our brains, which are distinct from when we process
the same content with clear indicators of 31 .
In their new study, the scientists intended to 32 how the brain computes possibilities as
expressed by words such as “may,“ “might," and "if." The researchers compared brain responses to
statements expressing factual 33 and those expressing possibility. "There is a monster under
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 3 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研my bed^^ exemplifies a factual statement. "I will stay home,“ is also factual. This is opposed to
statements that express possibility, like “There might be a monster under my bed,^^ or “If it rains, I
will stay home.^^ The results of the study showed that factual language 34 a rapid increase in
brain activity, with the brain responding more powerfully and showing more engagement with
factual phrases compared to those communicating possibility. Thus, facts rule when it comes to the
brain. Brain regions involved in processing 35 rapidly distinguish facts from possibilities.
Further, these regions respond in a much more robust fashion to factual statements.
A) activated I) manuscript
B) aggravated J) marvels
C) ascertain K) remnants
D) deliberate L) scenarios
E) differentiate M) speculative
F) discourse N) unanimous
G) evokes 0) uncertainty
H) inhibit
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. uThe rainy season is no longer predictable,says one.
“When it is supposed to rain it doesn5t, 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,“ 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 wanning 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
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 4 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研Africa's 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 fanning 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 - despite
absorbing so much labour, farming 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 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 formers to use fertiliser and, more important, better seeds. The results can be impressive.
Improved varieties of sorghum (高粱)，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
farmers 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 fanners. Across the region it has doubled its use of local raw
material to about 80% over five years, says John O5Keeffe, 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,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 fbr 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
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 5 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研that increase yields.
J) Aluminum's 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 aren5t 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.
37. Building connections between farms and major purchasers of their produce can promote African
farmers5 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 warming 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 fbr 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 fbr 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 fbr the United
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 6 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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 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 critics5 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.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 7 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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.
50 .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.
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 workers5 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.5,
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: ifs 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.
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 8 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研51. What would we expect an editorial board of an academic journal to exhibit in view of its
important responsibilities?
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 joumals have relevant backgrounds.
53. What fact does the author highlight concerning the gender dif!erences 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.
随着经济与社会的发展，中国人口结构发生了显著变化，逐渐步入老龄化社会。中国老年人口将持
续增加，人口老龄化趋势将更加明显。为了应对人口老龄化带来的种种挑战，国家正积极采取措施，加
大对养老的支持。通过改革社会保障(social security)制度，政府不断增加社会保障经费，逐步扩大社会
保障覆盖范围，使更多老年人受益。政府还鼓励各种社会团体为老年人提供服务。在政府和社会团体
的共同努力下，老年人将生活得更加幸福。
2023年12月英语六级真题第1套 第 9 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研2023年 12月大学英语六级考试真题（第 2 套）
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Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay that begins with the sentence
“Nowadays parents are increasingly aware that allowing kids more freedom to explore and
learn on their own helps foster their independence and boost their confidence.^^ 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) Spending their holidays in a novel way C) Surfing online to check out the best deals.
B) Exploring more summer holiday resorts. D) Renting a car instead of driving their own.
2. A) He did not like to be locked into one place.C) He was well travelled.
B) He did not find holiday homes appealing. D) He once owned a van.
3. A) Generate their own electricity. C) Receive instructions via computers.
B) Drive under any weather condition. D) Ensure the safety of passengers.
4. A) Riding one's mountain bike on vacation.
B) Slowing down in one's increasingly hectic life.
C) Enjoying the freedom to choose where to go and work.
D) Having one's basic needs covered while away from home.
Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
5. A) Her physical health has deteriorated these past few weeks.
B) She has lagged behind most of her co-workers in output.
C) Her job performance has worsened over the past month.
D) She has missed several important appointments lately.
6. A) Penalty fbr curtailed output. C) Disturbance of her mind.
B) Some problems at home. D) Serious health issues.
7. A) The woman's whole-hearted support. C) His management capability.
B) The woman's work proficiency. D) His engaging personality.
8. A) The man will help the woman get back to her usual self.
B) The man will be back at his 100% in a couple of weeks.
C) The woman will be off work on the next two Mondays.
D) The woman will resume her work in two weeks.
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
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 1 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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) It can have an impact on our moods and emotions.
B) It can improve our financial status significantly.
C) It can help us achieve better work performance.
D) It can enable us to live a healthier and longer life.
10. A) One's health tends to differ before and after marriage.
B) The spouse's level of education can impact one's health.
C) The wealthier one's spouse is, the healthier one becomes.
D) One's health status is related to one's social background.
11. A) They had more education than their spouses.
B) They had much in common with their spouses.
C) They benefited a lot from their career achievements.
D) They showed interest in their spouse's occupations.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.
12. A) Finding out the changing climate patterns. C) Forecasting flood risks accurately.
B) Identifying the cities5 geological features. D) Eliminating their root cause.
13. A) To validate his hypothesis about the gravity of floods.
B) To determine the frequency of high tides causing floods.
C) To see the feasibility of his project on flooding.
D) To improve his mathematical flooding model.
14. A) To forecast rapid floods in real time.
B) To classify the flooding data processed.
C) To study the consequences of high tides on flooded areas.
D) To teach local citizens how to collect data of incoming floods.
15. A) They tracked the rising tides with video-cameras.
B) They set up Internet-connected water-level sensors.
C) They used newly-developed supercomputing facilities.
D) They observed the direction of water flow on the spot.
Section C
Directions: 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 the centre.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
16. A) To debate the validity of current survey data.
B) To argue about the value of a college degree.
C) To account for the drastic decline in employment among men.
D) To compare men without college degrees with those who have.
17. A) The issue of changing job requirements. C) The impact of inflation.
B) The increase in women taking up jobs. D) The factor of wages.
18. A) The sharp decline in marriage among men with no college degrees.
B) The wage gap between those with college degrees and those without.
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 2 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研C) More jobs requiring their holders to have a college degree nowadays.
D) Men's unwillingness to accept low wages in times of growing inflation.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19. A) More and more people attach importance to protecting endangered animals.
B) An increasing number of people demand to free animals being kept in cages.
C) More and more people prioritize animal welfare when buying things to wear.
D) An increasing number of people follow the latest trend of becoming vegetarians.
20. A) Utilized a silk substitute made from mushrooms. C) Labelled all their products as vegan.
B) Refrained from using chemicals in their products. D) Avoided the use of leather and fur.
21. A) Whether they can be regarded as ethical.
B) Whether they can be considered sustainable.
C) Whether they actually signify a substantial change.
D) Whether they effectively protect animals at large.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
22. A) The belief is less prevalent that the world is going to hell.
B) The environmental welfare has worsened in the world.
C) The world has seen more violence in recent years.
D) The era we live in is the most peaceful in history.
23. A) They did not wish to live in the previous century.
B) They were convinced by the statistics presented to them.
C) They believed the world was deteriorating.
D) They were actually not in their right mind.
24. A) Our ancestors5 influence. C) The current state of affairs.
B) Our psychological biases. D) The subjectivity of mass media.
25. A) Paying attention to negative information.
B) Calculating dangerous risks to our survival.
C) Vacuuming up depressing or enraging stories.
D) Spreading exciting news around us far and wide.
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 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.
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.
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 3 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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.
Treasure Fever
A) Most visitors come to Cape Canaveral, on the northeast coast of Florida, for the tourist
attractions. Ifs home to the second-busiest cruise ship port in the world and is a gateway to
the cosmos. Nearly 1.5 million visitors flock here every year to watch rockets, spacecraft, and
satellites blast off into the solar system from Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Nearly
64 kilometers of undeveloped beach and 648 square kilometers of protected refuge fan out
from the cape's sandy shores.
B) Yet some of Cape Canaveral's most legendary attractions lie unseen, wedged under the sea's
surface in mud and sand, fbr this part of the world has a reputation as a deadly ship trap. Over
the centuries, dozens of majestic Old World sailing ships smashed and sank on this irregular
stretch of windy Florida coast. They were vessels built for war and commerce, crossing the
globe canying everything from coins to cannons, boxes of silver and gold, chests of jewels
and porcelain, and pearls from the Caribbean.
C) Cape Canaveral contains one of the greatest concentrations of colonial shipwrecks in the
world. In recent years, advances in radar, diving, detection equipment, computers, and GPS
have transformed the hunt. The naked eye might see a pile of rocks, but technology can reveal
the precious artifacts (人工制 品)that lie hidden on the ocean floor.
D) As technology renders the seabed more accessible, the hunt for treasure-filled ships has drawn
a fresh tide of salvors "丁才劳人员)and their investors- as well as marine archaeologists (考
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 4 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研古 学家)wanting to bring to light the lost relics. But of late, when salvors have found vessels,
their rights have been challenged in court. The big question: who should have control of these
treasures?
E) High-stakes fights over shipwrecks pit archaeologists against treasure hunters in a vicious cycle
of accusations. Archaeologists regard themselves as protectors of history, and they see salvors
as careless destroyers. Salvors feel they do the hard work of searching for ships, only to have
them stolen from under them when discovered. This kind of clash inevitably takes place on a
grand scale. Aside from the salvors, their investors, and the maritime archaeologists who serve
as expert witnesses, the battles sweep in local and international governments and organizations
like UNESCO that work to protect under-water heritage. The court cases that ensue stretch on
for years. Are finders keepers, or do the ships belong to the countries that made them and sent
them sailing centuries ago? Where once salvors and archaeologists worked side by side, now
they belong to opposing, and equally contemptuous, tribes.
F) Nearly three million vessels lie wrecked on the Earth's ocean floor- from old canoes to the
Titanic—and likely less than one percent have been explored. Some—like an ancient Roman
ship found off Antikythera, Greece, dated between 70 and 60 BC and carrying astonishingly
sophisticated gears and dials for navigating by the sun- are critical to a new understanding of
our past. No wonder there is an eternal stirring among everybody from salvors to scholars to
find them.
G) In May 2016, a salvor named Bobby Pritchett, president of Global Marine Exploration (GME)
in Tampa, Florida, announced that he had discovered scattered remains of a ship buried a
kilometer off Cape Canaveral. Over the prior three years, he and his crew had obtained 14
state permits to survey a nearly 260-square-kilometer area off the cape; they worked 250 days
a year, backed by investor funds of, he claims, US $4 million. It was hard work. Crew
members were up at dawn, dragging sensors from their expedition vessels back and forth, day
in and day out, year after year, to detect metal of any kind. Using computer technology,
Pritchett and his crew created intricate, color-coded maps marked with the GPS coordinates
of thousands of finds, all invisible under a meter of sand.
H) One day in 2015, the magnetometer (磁力 计)picked up metal that turned out to be an iron
cannon; when the divers blew the sand away, they also discovered a more precious bronze
cannon with markings indicating French royalty and, not far off, a famous marble column
carved with the coat of arms of France, known from historical paintings. The discovery was
cause for celebration. The artifacts indicated the divers had likely found the wreck of La
Trinite, a 16th-century French vessel that had been at the center of a bloody battle between
France and Spain that changed the fate of the United States of America.
I) And then the legal storm began, with GME and Pritchett pitted against Florida and France.
The Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004, a US federal act, protects any vessel that was on a
military mission, allowing the originating country to claim their ship even centuries later. In
2018, two long years after Pritchetfs discovery, the federal district court ruled in favor of
France. For Pritchett, the decision was devastating. Millions of dollars of investor funding and
years of labor were lost.
J) But this is far from the first time a salvor has lost all rights to a discovery. In 2012, for
instance, Spain won a five-year legal battle against Odyssey Marine Exploration, which had
hauled 594,000 gold and silver coins from a Spanish wreck off the coast of Portugal across
the Atlantic to the United States. ''Treasure hunters can be naive,“ says attorney David
Concannon, who has had several maritime archaeologists as clients and represented two sides
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 5 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研in the battles over the Titanic for 20 years. "Many treasure hunters don't understand they are
going to have to fight for their rights against a government that has an endless supply of
money for legal battles that treasure hunters are likely to lose.^^
K) Putting an inflated price on artifacts rather than viewing them as cultural and historical
treasures that transcend any price is what irritates many archaeologists. For the archaeologist,
everything in a wreck matters- hair, fabric, a fragment of a newspaper, rat bones- all things
speak volumes. Archaeologists don't want artifacts ending up in a private collection instead of
taking humanity on a journey of understanding.
L) George Bass is one of the pioneers of under-water archaeology, and a researcher at Texas
A&M University. He has testified in court against treasure hunters, but says archaeology is
not without its own serious problems. He believes archaeologists need to do a better job
themselves instead of routinely criticizing treasure hunters. "Archaeology has a terrible
reputation for not publishing enough on its excavations (发掘)and finds/ he says. Gathering
data, unearthing and meticulously preserving and examining finds, verifying identity and
origin, piecing together the larger story, and writing and publishing a comprehensive paper or
book can take decades. A bit cynically, Bass describes colleagues who never published
because they waited so long they became ill or died. Who is more at fault, Bass asks, the
professional archaeologist who carefully excavates a site and never publishes on it or the
treasure hunter who locates a submerged wreck, salvages part, conserves part, and publishes a
book on the operation?
M) Pritchett concedes that his find deserves careful excavation and preservation. 4tI think what I
found should go in a museum,“ he says. "But I also think I should get paid for what I found.
Indeed, ifs a bit of a mystery why governments, archaeologists, and treasure hunters can't
work together- and why salvors aren't at least given a substantial finder's fee before the
original owner takes possession of the vessel and its artifacts.
36. Exploration of shipwrecks on the sea floor is crucial in updating our understanding of
humanity's past.
37. Quite a number of majestic ships sailing from Europe to America were wrecked off the
Florida coast over the centuries.
38. Pritchett suffered a heavy loss when a US district court ruled against him.
39. Recently, people who found treasures in shipwrecks have been sued over their rights to own
them.
40. Pritchett claims he got support of millions of dollars from investors for his shipwreck
exploration.
41. One pioneer marine scientist thinks archaeologists should make greater efforts to publish their
findings.
42. With technological advancement in recent years, salvors now can detect the invaluable
man-made objects lying buried under the sea.
43. According to a lawyer, many treasure hunters are susceptible to loss because they are unaware
they face a financially stronger opponent in court.
44. Salvors of treasures in sunken ships and marine archaeologists are now hostile to each other.
45. Archaeologists want to see artifacts help humans understand their past instead of being sold to
private collectors at an outrageous price.
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 6 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研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.
Could you get by without using the internet for four and a half years? Thafs exactly what
singer and actress Selena Gomez has done in a bid to improve her mental health.
She has spoken extensively about the relationship between her social media usage and her
mental wellbeing, recalling feeling like “an addict“ when she became Instagram's most followed
user in 2016. “Taking a break from social media was the best decision that I've ever made for my
mental health”, says she. "The unnecessary hate and comparisons went away once I put my
phone down.^^
Ditching the web at large, however, is a far more subtle and complicated prospect. The
increasing digitisation of our society means that everything from paying a gas bill to plotting a
route to a friend's house and even making a phone call is at the mercy of your internet connection.
Actively opting out of using the internet becomes a matter of privilege.
Ms Gomez?s multi-millionaire status has allowed her to take the “social“ out of social media,
so she can continue to leverage her enormous fame while keeping the trolls (恶意挑衅的帖子)at
bay. The fact that she's still the second most-followed woman on Instagram suggests ifs entirely
possible to maintain a significant web profile to promote various projects- by way of a dedicated
team~~without being exposed to the cruel comments, hate mail and rape or death threats.
It goes without saying that this is fundamentally different from how the rest of us without
beauty deals and films to publicise use the likes of Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, but even the
concept of a digital detox (戒 瘾 )requires having a device and connectivity to choose to
disconnect from.
The UK's digital divide has worsened over the past two years, leaving poorer families
without broadband connections in their homes. Digital exclusion is a major threat to wider
societal equality in the UK, so witnessing companies like Facebook championing the metaverse
(元 宇 宙 )as the next great frontier when school children are struggling to complete their
homework feels particularly irritating.
Consequently, ifs worth bearing in mind that while deleting all social media accounts will
undoubtedly make some feel infinitely better, many other people benefit from the strong sense of
community that sharing platforms can breed.
Internet access will continue to grow in importance as we edge further towards web 3.0, and
greater resources and initiatives are needed to provide the underprivileged with the connectivity
they desperately need to learn, work and live. It's crucial that people who feel that social media is
having a detrimental effect on their mental health are allowed to switch off and for those living in
digital exclusion to be able to switch on in the first place.
46. What do we learn about singer and actress Selena Gomez in the past four and a half years?
A) She has had worsening mental problems. C) She has refrained from using social media.
B) She has won Instagram's most followers. D) She has succeeded in a bid on the internet.
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 7 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研47. Why does actively opting out of using the internet become a matter of privilege?
A) Most people find it subtle and complicated to give up using the internet.
B) Most people can hardly ditch the web while avoiding hate and comparisons.
C) Most people can hardly get by without the internet due to growing digitisation.
D) Most people have been seriously addicted to the web without being aware of it.
48. Why does the author say ''witnessing companies...feels particularly irritating^^ (Para. 6)?
A) The UK digital divide would further worsen due to the metaverse.
B) The concept of the metaverse is believed to be still quite illusory.
C) School children would be drawn farther away from the real world.
D) Most families in the UK do not have stable broadband connections.
49. What is worth bearing in mind concerning social media platforms?
A) They are conducive to promoting societal equality.
B) They help many people feel connected with others.
C) They provide a necessary device for a digital detox.
D) They create a virtual community on the internet.
50. What does the author think is really important for those living in digital exclusion?
A) Having access to the internet. C) Getting more educational resources.
B) Edging further towards web 3.0. D) Opening more social media accounts.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Psychologists have long been in disagreement as to whether competition is a learned or a
genetic component of human behavior. Whatever it is, you cannot but recognize the effect
competition is exerting in academics and many other areas of contemporary life.
Psychologically speaking, competition has been seen as an inevitable consequence of human
drives. According to Sigmund Freud, humans are bom screaming fbr attention and full of organic
drives fbr fulfillment in various areas. Initially, we compete fbr the attention of our parents.
Thereafter, we are at the mercy of a battle between our base impulses for self-fulfillment and
social and cultural norms which prohibit pure indulgence.
Current work in anthropology (人类学)has suggested, however, that this view of the role of
competition in human behavior may be incorrect. Thomas Hobbes, one of the great philosophers of
the seventeenth century, is perhaps best remembered for his characterization of the "natural world”,
that is, the world before the imposition of the will of humanity, as being “nasty, brutish, and short.,,
This image of the pre-rational world is still widely held, reinforced by Charles Darwin's highly
influential work, The Origin of Species, which established the doctrine of natural selection. This
doctrine, which takes for granted that those species best able to adapt to and master the natural
environment in which they live will survive, has suggested that the struggle for survival is an
inherent human trait which determines a person's success. Darwin's theory has even been
summarized as 4'survival of the fittest”- a phrase Darwin himself never used- further highlighting
competition's role in success. As it has often been pointed out, however, there is nothing in the
concept of natural selection that suggests that competition is the most successful strategy fbr
''survival of the fittest." Darwin asserted in The Origin of Species that the struggles he was
describing should be viewed as metaphors and could easily include dependence and cooperation.
Many studies have been conducted to test the importance placed on competition as opposed
to other values, such as cooperation- by various cultures, and generally conclude that Americans
uniquely praise competition as natural, inevitable, and desirable. In 1937, the world-renowned
2023年12月英语六级真题第2套 第 8 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研anthropologist Margaret Mead published Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples,
based on her studies of several societies that did not prize competition, and, in fact, seemed at
times to place a negative value on it. One such society was the Zuni Indians of Arizona, and they,
Mead found, valued cooperation far more than competition. After studying dozens of such
cultures, Mead's final conclusion was that competitiveness is a culturally created aspect of human
behavior, and that its prevalence in a particular society is relative to how that society values it.
51. What does the author think is easy to see in many areas of contemporary life?
A) The disagreement on the inevitability of competition.
B) The consequence of psychological investigation.
C) The effect of human drives.
D) The impact of competition.
52. According to psychology, what do people strive to do following the initial stage of their life?
A) Fulfill individual needs without incurring adverse effects of human drives.
B) Indulge in cultural pursuits while keeping their base impulses at bay.
C) Gain extensive recognition without exposing pure indulgence.
D) Satisfy their own desires while observing social conventions.
53. What do we learn about the 4'natural world^^ characterized by Thomas Hobbes?
A) It gets misrepresented by philosophers and anthropologists.
B) It gets distorted in Darwin's The Origin of Species.
C) It is free from the rational intervention of humans.
D) It is the pre-rational world rarely appreciated nowadays.
54. What can we conclude from Darwin's assertion in The Origin of Species?
A) All species inherently depend on others fbr survival.
B) Struggles for survival do not exclude mutual support.
C) Competition weighs as much as cooperation as a survival strategy.
D) The strongest species proves to be the fittest in natural selection.
55. What conclusion did Margaret Mead reach after studying dozens of diflerent cultures?
A) It is characteristic of humans to be competitive.
B) Americans are uniquely opposed to cooperation.
C) Competition is relatively more prevalent in Western societies.
D) People's attitude towards competition is actually culture-bound.
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2套 第 9 页 共 9 页 by:光速考研2023年 12月大学英语六级考试真题（第 3 套）
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay that begins with the sentence
“With their valuable skills and experience, elderly people can continue to make signiflcant
contributions to society.^^ You can make comments, cite examples or use your personal observations
to develop your essay. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words (not including
the sentence given).
Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)
淘宝店铺【光速考研工作室】温馨提示：由于2023年 12月六级考试全国共考了两套听力，本套真题听
力与前两套内容相同，只是选项顺序不同，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。
Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Modem U.S. cities were designed to make exercise unnecessary. Cars and elevators once
symbolized urban areas as machines fbr more efficient living. Now it is clear that these
improvements provide great benefits but also 26 health costs. Recent studies show that urban
27 encourages more driving and is associated with heavier weight. This 28 suggests
that the layout and design of cities can hinder or promote healthier lifestyle choices and it is
29 that urban planners bear this in mind.
Unfortunately, urban planning still centers in large part on solving the problems of the past.
Of course cities still need to 30 standard public health practices, such as separating toxic
facilities from homes and restricting heavy truck traffic through 31 residential areas. But
ifs also important to create healthier cities- and the discussion is already underway. More and
more city planners are paying increasing attention to encouraging physical activity by making it
easier and safer fbr people to recreate, walk, bike and take public transportation. Many studies of
32 show that people live the longest in environments where physical activity is part of
everyday life.
Providing more walkable spaces, better protected bike lanes and more 33 spaces are
important steps. But even smaller changes can be effective.
Cities can close off streets on weekends to encourage communities to get out and walk. They
also can provide more seating in public places, so that less-fit residents can rest during their
journeys. Using public spaces in cities as places where people can exercise promotes 34 .
rather than allowing physical activity to become restricted to private gyms with often-expensive
monthly fees that 35 less wealthy people from joining.
A) correlation I) longevity
B) dense J) navigate
C) deter K) recreational
D) equity L) rotten
E) foster M) sprawl
F) imperative N) vibrate
G) impose O) vicinity
H) irrespective
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
2023年12月英语六级真题第3套 第 1 页 共 6 页 by:光速考研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.
Can Learning a Foreign Language Prevent Dementia?
A) You may have heard that learning another language is one method for preventing or at least
postponing the onset of dementia. Dementia refers to the loss of cognitive abilities, and one of
its most common forms is Alzheimer's disease (阿 尔 茨海默氏病).At this time, the causes of
the disease are not well understood, and consequently, there are no proven steps that people
can take to prevent it. Nonetheless, some researchers have suggested that learning a foreign
language might help delay the onset of dementia.
B) To explore this possibility more deeply, lefs look at some of the common misconceptions
about dementia and the aging brain. First of all, dementia is not an inevitable part of the
normal aging process. Most older adults do not develop Alzheimer's disease or other forms of
dementia. It is also important to remember that dementia is not the same thing as normal
forgetfulness. At any age, we might experience difficulty finding the exact word we want or
have trouble remembering the name of the person we just met. People with dementia have
more serious problems, like feeling confused or getting lost in a familiar place. Think of it
this way: If you forget where you parked your car at the mall, thafs normal; if you forget how
to drive a car, that may be a signal that something more serious is going on.
C) The idea that dementia can be prevented is based on the comparison of the brain to a muscle.
When people talk about the brain, they sometimes say things like “It is important to exercise
your brain^^ or “To stay mentally fit, you have to give your brain a workout?5 Although these
are colorful analogies, in reality the brain is not a muscle. Unlike muscles, the brain is always
active and works even during periods of rest and sleep. In addition, although some muscle
cells have a lifespan of only a few days, brain cells last a lifetime. Not only that, but it has
been shown that new brain cells are being created throughout one's lifespan.
D) While it makes for a colorful analogy, comparing the brain to a muscle is inaccurate and
misleading. So, if the brain is not a muscle, can it still be exercised? Once again, researchers
don't know fbr sure. There are now many computer, online, and mobile device applications
that claim to be able to “train your brain,“ and they typically tap into a variety of cognitive
abilities. However, research suggests that although this type of training may improve one's
abilities at the tasks themselves, they don't seem to improve other abilities. In other words,
practicing a letter-detection task will, over time, improve your letter-detection skills, but it
will not necessarily enhance your other perceptual abilities.
E) However, there is some reason to believe that learning languages might be different. The best
evidence that foreign language learning confers cognitive benefits comes from research with
those who are already bilingual (双语的).Bilingualism most commonly occurs when children
are exposed to two languages, either in the home (mom speaks Dutch, dad speaks Spanish) or
more formally in early schooling. But bilingualism certainly occurs in adulthood as well.
F) Bilingualism and multilingualism are actually more common than you might think. In fact, it
has been estimated that there are fewer monolingual speakers in the world than bilinguals and
multilinguals. Although in many countries most inhabitants share just one language, other
countries have several official languages. Switzerland, fbr example, has four official
languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Throughout large parts of Africa, Arabic,
Swahili, French, and English are often known and used by individuals who speak a different,
native language in their home than they do in the marketplace. So bilingualism and
multilingualism are to be found throughout the world. And with regard to cognitive abilities,
the research on those who speak more than one language paints an encouraging picture.
G) For one thing, bilinguals are better at multitasking. One explanation of this superiority is that
speakers of two languages are continually inhibiting one of their languages, and this process
of inhibition confers general cognitive benefits to other activities. In fact, bilingual
individuals outperform their monolingual counterparts on a variety of cognitive tasks, such as
following complex instructions, and switching to new instructions. For the sake of
- 2023年12月英语六级真题第3套 第 2 页 共 6 页 by:光速考研completeness, it should be noted that the advantages of being bilingual are not universal
across all cognitive domains. Bilingual individuals have been shown to have smaller
vocabularies and to take longer in retrieving words from memory when compared to
monolinguals. In the long run, however, the cognitive and linguistic advantages of being
bilingual far outweigh these two drawbacks.
H) If the benefits of being bilingual spill over to other aspects of cognition, then we would
expect to see a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease in bilinguals than in monolinguals, or
at least a later onset of Alzheimer5s for bilinguals. In fact, there is evidence to support this
claim. The psychologist Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues obtained the histories of 184
individuals who had made use of a memory clinic in Toronto. For those who showed signs of
dementia, the monolinguals in the sample had an average age of 71.4 years at time of onset.
The bilinguals, in contrast, received their diagnosis at 75.5 years, on average. In a study of
this sort, a difference of four years is highly significant, and could not be explained by other
systematic differences between the two groups. For example, the monolinguals reported, on
average, a year and a half more schooling than their bilingual counterparts, so the effect was
clearly not due to formal education.
I) A separate study, conducted in India, found strikingly similar results: bilingual patients
developed symptoms of dementia 4.5 years later than monolinguals, even after other potential
factors, such as gender and occupation, were controlled for. In addition, researchers have
reported other positive effects of bilingualism for cognitive abilities in later life, even when the
person acquired the language in adulthood. Crucially, Bialystok suggested that the positive
benefits of being bilingual were only found in those who used both languages all the time.
J) But encouraging as these kinds of studies are, they still have not established exactly how or why
differences between bilinguals and monolinguals exist. Because these studies looked back at the
histories of people who were already bilingual, the results can only say that a difference
between the two groups was found, but not why that difference occurred. Further research is
needed to determine what caused the differences in age of onset between the two groups.
K) Other studies of successful aging suggest that being connected to one's community and
having plenty of social interaction is also important in delaying or even preventing the onset
of dementia. Once again, however, the results are far less clear than the popular media might
lead you to believe. Older individuals who lead active social lives are, almost by definition,
healthier than their counterparts who rarely leave their homes or interact with others. So we
can't really say whether being socially active prevents the onset of dementia, or if people who
don't have dementia are more likely to be socially active.
L) But even if studying a foreign language is not a magical cure-all, there is one thing it will do:
It will make you a better speaker of a foreign language. Doing that confers a whole host of
advantages we do know about.
36. Research indicates that brain training is likely to boost one's ability at specific tasks, but not
one's other cognitive abilities.
37. According to estimates, the number of people who speak two languages or more is greater
than those who speak one language only.
38. For the time being, we do not know what causes people to lose their cognitive abilities, or
what we can do to prevent it.
39. It is hard to determine whether people who are free from dementia tend to have more social
activities, or more social activities keep people away from dementia.
40. There is evidence that learning foreign languages might be beneficial to boosting one's
cognitive abilities.
41. It was suggested that only those who always spoke two languages could benefit from
bilingualism.
42. The brain is different from muscles in that it keeps working even when the body is at rest.
2023年12月英语六级真题第3套 第 3 页 共 6 页 by:光速考研43. People who speak two languages do better at a number of cognitive tasks than those who
speak only one language.
44. Dementia is different from being merely forgetful and entails more serious trouble.
45. It is claimed that more monolinguals suffer from Alzheimer's disease than bilinguals.
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.
Research is meant to benefit society by raising public awareness and creating products and
innovations that enhance development. For research to serve its full purpose, the results must
leave the confines of research laboratories and academic journals.
Findings effectively communicated can go a long way to serve the interests of the public.
They can help address social injustices or improve treatments offered to patients.
Many researchers seem to be content with sharing the results of their studies in academic
journals or at conferences. But few journals allow everybody to read the findings. Even articles
freely available are usually written in academic language incomprehensible to the average reader.
For researchers in the tenure-track system, their main goal is winning tenure, which in part
can be achieved by getting a number of papers published in prominent journals. Pressures like
this mean community-level outreach is not prioritised.
Many researchers lack the writing skills to describe their results to a general audience. They
may also worry about whether the public will understand their findings, or about findings being
used to influence controversial policies. These concerns cause some researchers to shy away from
communicating their findings outside the academic community.
Propagating research findings beyond academic publications is particularly crucial fbr
addressing certain social discrepancies. It can help families, communities, healthcare providers,
policymakers, government agencies and other stakeholders to understand and respond to crises
that plague society.
The benefits of sharing findings flow both ways. Engaging with other researchers and the
public can lead to unexpected new connections and new ideas that could suggest fruitful new
directions for research.
To benefit both researchers and the communities, the need to find innovative, accessible
ways to share the work cannot be overstated.
Institutions and funding organisations should support more researchers to publish in open
access journals so that the public doesn't have to pay to read them. Institutions and researchers
should invest in partnerships that expand capacity for sharing results more broadly.
Furthermore, ethics committees should make it mandatory fbr researchers to share their
results with the public. Every research participant should opt in or out of receiving results, as part
of the process of giving informed consent.
There could be misunderstanding of the findings presented by the researcher because of
technical terms. But this can be resolved by researchers engaging the services of professional
writers or communication officers to help with translating their study into more accessible
language and share it widely with media outlets and the public.
Sharing results with the people who are most affected by them makes us better researchers
and ensures that our work can be used to improve people's lives. Institutions and collaborators
must recognise the value of doing so.
2023年12月英语六级真题第3套 第 4 页 共 6 页 by:光速考研46. How can research serve its full purpose according to the author?
A) With researchers being aware of public interests.
B) With its findings published in prominent journals.
C) With researchers creating products that enhance social development.
D) With its findings properly communicated beyond the academic circle.
47. Why do ordinary readers find it difficult to access the results of researchers5 studies?
A) They cannot understand the academic language used for reporting these results.
B) They feel intimidated by the jargon researchers use to describe their findings.
C) They do not attend conferences where these results are freely available.
D) They have few chances to locate the journals that publish these findings.
48. What is one of the reasons some researchers won't prioritise communicating their findings to
the public?
A) They can thrive on the papers published.
B) Their top consideration is to win tenure.
C) Their main goal is gaining recognition in their field.
D) They have to struggle to reach out to the community.
49. How can sharing findings benefit researchers themselves?
A) By helping them to identify new research directions.
B) By enabling them to understand crises plaguing society.
C) By enabling them to effectively address social discrepancies.
D) By helping them to forge ties with government agencies.
50. Why are researchers advised to engage the services of professional writers or communication
officers?
A) To satisfy ethics committees? mandatory requirements of researchers.
B) To translate their study into languages accessible to readers overseas.
C) To make their publications correctly understood by the public.
D) To render their findings acceptable by prominent journals.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Spiders make their presence felt in late August and through early autumn. This is the mating
season of some of the most common varieties, when male house spiders come out of hidden comers
to look for females, and garden spiders reach adult size and spin their most dazzling webs.
Yet while the spider is a familiar fixture of nursery poems or songs and Halloween
decorations, its relationship with humans is complicated. Fear of spiders is common and has
serious impacts on the lives of sufferers. Its prevalence appears unrelated to any rational
assessment of risk. Spiders in the UK are almost all harmless. Farmland species perform valuable
ecosystem services, by preying on insects that are our competitors fbr crops. But they are a
constant source of human anxieties- with a cultural association with witches and wickedness
dating back to the middle ages.
Does this perhaps explain, in part, the lack of data about how spiders are faring in our age of
ecological crisis? British butterflies are the most studied group of insects in the world, due to the
long tradition of collecting and observing them. But spider conservationists point out that it was
only in the 1980s that the classification of house spiders was properly sorted out. And while
information about insect populations is gathered by experiments that measure the numbers hitting
windscreens or traps, there have been few attempts to count spiders.
The huge reductions in the numbers of flying insects can only mean a reduction in spiders'
food supply. A recent landmark study identified a 75% fall in insect populations between 1989
and 2016, with pesticide use thought to be to blame along with the destruction of wild areas fbr
development. This means the overall picture fbr spiders is worrying, as it is for most creatures.
But conservationists are most concerned about those varieties that are threatened due to habitat
2023年12月英语六级真题第3套 第 5 页 共 6 页 by:光速考研loss and fragmentation, which makes it impossible for them to migrate.
Of around 650 spider species regularly recorded in the UK, the majority thrive in marshes
and wasteland. Conservation efforts, often led by determined individuals, have helped some
species to recover by reintroducing them to new areas. With rewilding now firmly on the
environmental policy agenda, the hope is that in future, spiders will be enabled to migrate by
themselves, adapting to climate change by moving along wildlife corridors.
It seems unlikely that spiders will ever attract the same level of human enthusiasm as bees,
birds or butterflies, in spite of their unique status as nature5s spinners. But as they reveal
themselves in all their splendour this autumn, it would be a good thing if more animal lovers
recognised the ways in which spiders are simply terrific.
51. What do we learn about spiders in the UK since the middle ages?
A) They have been generally misconceived.
B) They have adversely impacted crop growth.
C) They have been a constant reminder of bad luck.
D) They have made their presence felt when spinning webs.
52. What have spiders been associated with in the UK for centuries?
A) Harm. B) Evil. C) Suffering. D) Aggression.
53. What partly accounts for the reduction in spiders' food supply?
A) The long tradition of collecting insects.
B) Fast reproduction of their competitors.
C) Chemicals used for killing insects.
D) The extinction of a lot of wildlife.
54. What does the passage say is conservationists? biggest worry?
A) A variety of spiders are threatened due to pollution of marshes and wasteland.
B) Certain species of spiders are endangered due to loss of their natural homes.
C) An increasing number of spiders are being killed by deadly pesticides.
D) More and more spider species are found losing their ability to migrate.
55. What wish does the author express close to the end of the passage?
A) More people would recognise spiders' unique status in the ecosystem.
B) People would show greater enthusiasm for spiders than for butterflies.
C) There would be sufficient corridors fbr spiders to move along.
D)There would be more people appreciating spiders' splendour.
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.
近年来，中国老龄人口持续增长。中国政府正采取各种措施，推进养老服务体系建设，使老年人
晚年生活健康幸福。全国兴建了各类养老服务机构。为了提升养老机构的服务质量，政府颁布了一
系列标准，加强对养老机构的监管。许多城市为方便老年人用餐，开设了社区食堂，为他们提供价格
实惠的饭菜。行动不便的老年人还能享受上门送餐服务。同时，中国还在积极探索居家和社区养老
等其他养老模式，以确保所有老年人老有所养。
2023年12月英语六级真题第3套 第 6 页 共 6 页 by:光速考研
