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大学英语六级考试 2023年12月真题(第三套)
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 significant 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 mot including the sentence given).
Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)
特别说明：由于多题多卷，官方第三套真题的听力试题与第二套真题的一致，只是选项顺序不同，因此，
本套试卷不再提供听力部分。
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.
Moden U.S. cities were designed to make exercise unnecessary. Cars and elevators once symbolized urban
areas as machines for 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 it's 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 for 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
O) vicinity
G) impose
H) irrespective
19 ·2023年12月六级真题(第三套)·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.
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
Alzheimers 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, let's 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, that's 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." 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 for 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, for 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.
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·2023年12月六级真题(第三套)·G) For one thing, bilinguals are better at mulitasking. 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 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
linguistie 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 Alzheimer's
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.
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·2023年12月六级真题(第三套)·42.The brain is different from muscles in that it keeps working even when the body is at rest.
43.Pcople 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 thcir 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 for 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 for 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.
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·2023年12月六级真题(第三套)·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 researchers'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 corners 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
for 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 hiting 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 75all in insect populations between 1989 and 2016, with pesticide use
23 ·2023年12月六级真题(第三套)·thought to be to blame along with the destruction of wild arcas for development. This means the overall picture
for spiders is worrying, as it is for most creatures. But conservationists are most concermed about those varieties
that are threatened due to habitat 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 nature's 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. C) Suffering.
B) Evil D) Aggression.
53.What partly accounts for the reduction in spiders'food supply?
A) The long tradition of collecting insects. C) Chemicals used for killing insects.
B) Fast reproduction of their competitors. 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 for 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。
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·2023年12月六级真题(第三套)·
