文档内容
系统班
六 级 阅 读 讲 义Contents
目 录
第一部分 优化考试流程与做题流程 001
第二部分 仔细阅读 ��������������������� 002
Passage 1 观点态度题 ����������������������� 002
Passage 2 因果关系题 ����������������������� 004
Passage 3 段落推理题 ����������������������� 006
Passage 4 例证关系题 ����������������������� 008
Passage 5 语义理解题 ����������������������� 010
第三部分 真题带刷 ��������������������� 012
Passage 6—Passage 17 ���������������������� 012
第四部分 长篇阅读 036
第五部分 选词填空 044
第六部分 PRO 加练 �������������������� 046
附 录 答案速查 ���������������������� 084第一部分 优化考试流程与做题流程
第一部分 优化考试流程与做题流程
优化六级的考试流程
14：40—15：00 考生入场
15：00—15：10 发答题卡I、II和试卷册
15：10—15：40 作文（15%）
15：40—16：10 听力（35%）
16：10—16：15 收答题卡I（作文+听力）
16：15—17：25 选词填空（5%）匹配题（10%）仔细阅读（20%） 翻译（15%）
优化仔细阅读的做题流程
一、划关键词，预判考点
二、找定位句
三、比对选项和定位句
001系统班·六级阅读讲义
第二部分 仔细阅读
Passage 1
观点态度题
Selective colleges and universities in the U.S. are under fire for being too elite and too
expensive, and for not training graduates for the world of work. These charges ignore the fact
that these institutions continue to prepare students for success in their work, for thoughtful
engagement in civic life, for lifelong learning, and for understanding the world and those with
whom they live.
These colleges and universities must be doing something right. Applications are at record
highs, and their financial aid programs make them more accessible than ever. This model of
education has long played a central role in creating opportunity, driving economic growth, and
spurring innovation.
Yet, there is growing skepticism about the value of this model. The recent tax reform
bill is a wake-up call that our strongest colleges and universities are under assault by some
in government. The initial proposals would have made education unaffordable for many by
taxing tuition waivers for graduate students and ending deductions for student loan interest.
Thankfully, these provisions were ultimately stripped from the bill, but lawmakers let stand a
new tax on the investment income of some colleges and universities.
While these attacks are motivated by misguided ideas, we need to do a better job of
explaining why these claims are false and why what we do is valuable. We cannot take for
granted that any of this is obvious.
It is often said that elite colleges and universities do not train students, particularly those
who study the liberal arts, for the workforce. But this can be refuted by scholarly research.
The data are clear: a liberal arts education is great career preparation, both for excellent
lifetime earnings and for satisfaction with the work. This education develops the skills of
critical thinking, rigorous analysis of data and facts, communication with the written and
spoken word, understanding of cultural differences and issues, and the ability to keep learning.
In fact, liberal arts graduates do extremely well in every imaginable field.
Access to an education at selective colleges and universities is now more available than ever
to low-and middle-income families. We have built endowments from donations by alumni (校友)
and parents who understand and appreciate our mission to provide access and opportunity, and
a significant portion of the returns from these endowments is used to fund financial aid.
Ironically, the new tax on endowments drains financial aid funds from the very schools
most able to offer opportunity to those who have earned a spot but cannot otherwise afford this
education. Beyond the virtue of access to those who have earned a place at these schools, the
diversity of economic backgrounds enhances the education and experience of all of our students.
002第二部分 仔细阅读
46. What fact does the author emphasize concerning selective colleges and universities?
A) They have been ignoring the training of graduates for the world of work.
B) They have been doing well in ensuring their students a successful future.
C) They have been constantly attacked for being too elite and too expensive.
D) They have been actively engaged in civic life beyond the school campus.
47. What does the author say in arguing for the model of education in the U.S.?
A) It has contributed substantially to the nation’s overall development.
B) It has succeeded in maintaining sustainable financial aid programs.
C) It has given priority to innovative programs for graduate studies.
D) It has played a central role in attracting international applicants.
48.What do we learn about the initial proposals concerning the recent tax reform bill?
A) They would have stripped many students of life’s chances.
B) They would have deducted graduate student loan interest.
C) They would have added to many students’ financial burden.
D) They would have increased the number of tuition waivers.
49.What do the data show about elite colleges and universities?
A) Their graduates lack the rigor required for doing statistical analysis.
B) Their students prove to be inadequately prepared for their future careers.
C) Their focus on research is conducive to developing students’ critical thinking.
D) Their liberal arts education enables graduates to excel in whatever field they are in.
50.What is an advantage of providing financial aid for students?
A) Every student can choose the institution they wish to attend.
B) All students can benefit from a diversified student population.
C) All students will be able to earn a place on university campus.
D) Less privileged students will be more competitive at elite schools.
003系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 2
因果关系题
In the early 20th century, few things were more appealing than the promise of scientific
knowledge. In a world struggling with rapid industrialization, science and technology seemed
to offer solutions to almost every problem. Newly created state colleges and universities
devoted themselves almost entirely to scientific, technological, and engineering fields. Many
Americans came to believe that scientific certainty could not only solve scientific problems,
but also reform politics, government, and business. Two world wars and a Great Depression
rocked the confidence of many people that scientific expertise alone could create a prosperous
and ordered world. After World War II, the academic world turned with new enthusiasm to
humanistic studies, which seemed to many scholars the best way to ensure the survival of
democracy. American scholars fanned out across much of the world—with support from the
Ford Foundation, the Fulbright program, etc.—to promote the teaching of literature and the
arts in an effort to make the case for democratic freedoms.
In the America of our own time, the great educational challenge has become an effort to
strengthen the teaching of what is now known as the STEM disciplines (science, technology,
engineering, and math). There is considerable and justified concern that the United States is
falling behind much of the rest of the developed world in these essential disciplines. India,
China, Japan, and other regions seem to be seizing technological leadership.
At the same time, perhaps inevitably, the humanities—while still popular in elite
colleges and universities—have experienced a significant decline. Humanistic disciplines
are seriously underfunded, not just by the government and the foundations but by academic
institutions themselves. Humanists are usually among the lowest-paid faculty members at
most institutions and are often lightly regarded because they do not generate grant income and
because they provide no obvious credentials ( 资质 ) for most nonacademic careers.
Undoubtedly American education should train more scientists and engineers. Much of
the concern among politicians about the state of American universities today is focused on the
absence of “real world” education—which means preparation for professional and scientific
careers. But the idea that institutions or their students must decide between humanities and
science is false. Our society could not survive without scientific and technological knowledge.
But we would be equally impoverished (贫困的) without humanistic knowledge as well. Science
and technology teach us what we can do. Humanistic thinking helps us understand what we
should do.
It is almost impossible to imagine our society without thinking of the extraordinary
achievements of scientists and engineers in building our complicated world. But try to
imagine our world as well without the remarkable works that have defined our culture and
values. We have always needed, and we still need, both.
004第二部分 仔细阅读
46. In the early 20th century Americans believed science and technology could .
A) solve virtually all existing problems
B) quicken the pace of industrialization
C) help raise people’s living standards
D) promote the nation’s social progress
47. Why did many American scholars become enthusiastic about humanistic studies after
World War II?
A) They wanted to improve their own status within the current education system.
B) They believed the stability of a society depended heavily on humanistic studies.
C) They could get financial support from various foundations for humanistic studies.
D) They realized science and technology alone were no guarantee for a better world.
48. Why are American scholars worried about education today?
A) The STEM subjects are too challenging for students to learn.
B) Some Asian countries have overtaken America in basic sciences.
C) America is lagging behind in the STEM disciplines.
D) There are not enough scholars in humanistic studies.
49.What accounts for the significant decline in humanistic studies today?
A) Insufficient funding.
B) Shrinking enrollment.
C) Shortage of devoted faculty.
D) Dim prospects for graduates.
50. Why does the author attach so much importance to humanistic studies?
A) They promote the development of science and technology.
B) They help prepare students for their professional careers.
C) Humanistic thinking helps define our culture and values.
D) Humanistic thinking helps cultivate students’ creativity.
005系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 3
段落推理题
At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants
good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they’re bad. Yet
the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides
a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of
everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money
in their pockets. So why is there such a discrep-ancy between the perception of immigrants’
impact on the economy and the reality?
There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel
threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented
immigrants place on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize
the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation’s fears and insecurities. There’s
some truth to all these explanations, but they aren’t quite sufficient.
To get a better understanding of what’s going on, consider the way immigration’s
impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed
unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most
directly from immigrants’ low-cost labor are businesses and employers—meatpacking plants
in Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers’
savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers
make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal
immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the
competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist,
immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9% between 1980-2000.
Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, opposition was strongest
in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services.
What worried them most, in other words, was thefiscal ( 财政的 ) burden of immigration. That
conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to soften when
that fiscal burden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed
immigrants’ access to certain benefits.
The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal.
Even for those most acutely affected—say, low-skilled workers, or California residents—
the impact isn’t all that dramatic. “The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our
perceptions,” says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon.
“But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends
up being a net positive, but a small one.” Too bad most people don’t realize it.
006第二部分 仔细阅读
46. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A) Whether immigrants are good or bad for the economy has been puzzling economists.
B) The American economy used to thrive on immigration but now it’s a different story.
C) The consensus among economists is that immigration should not be encouraged.
D) The general public thinks differently from most economists on the impact of immigration.
47. In what way does the author think ordinary Americans benefit from immigration?
A) They can access all kinds of public services.
B) They can get consumer goods at lower prices.
C) They can mix with people of different cultures.
D) They can avoid doing much of the manual labor.
48. Why do native low-skilled workers suffer most from illegal immigration?
A) They have greater difficulty getting welfare support.
B) They are more likely to encounter interracial conflicts.
C) They have a harder time getting a job with decent pay.
D) They are no match for illegal immigrants in labor skills.
49. What is the chief concern of native high-skilled, better-educated employees about the
inflow of immigrants?
A) It may change the existing social structure.
B) It may pose a threat to their economic status.
C) It may lead to social instability in the country.
D) It may place a great strain on the state budget.
50. What is the irony about the debate over immigration?
A) Even economists can’t reach a consensus about its impact.
B) Those who are opposed to it turn out to benefit most from it.
C) People are making too big a fuss about something of small impact.
D) There is no essential difference between seemingly opposite opinions.
007系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 4
例证关系题
Since American idol star Taryn Southern started composing music with AI in 2017,
musicians all over the world have begun wondering about the implications of AI and modern
technology where music production is concerned. Using AI in the creation of music is
perceived by some as a helpful tool and by others as almost “the beginning of the end”.
In Taryn’s case,AI software enabled her to communicate melodies and chords that she
didn’t know how to put together herself. The end product was therefore a collaborative effort,
rather than a piece entirely produced by technology. Taryn’s story has a distinctly positive feel that
highlights the advan-tages of using AI in music production. It can serve as a source of inspiration,
and as an ideal jumping off point should a musician be hit with writer’s block (文思枯竭).
Contrary to seeing AI as a tool, some musicians consider it to be hugely detrimental to
the music scene. At the moment, because such technology is still so young, the music it’s
producing is not necessarily what we want to hear. In short, it’s not of great quality. Those
who have produced their own music, or even fans of authentic, artistic music, will also argue
that a computer could never emulate the work (and human touch) of a true musician.
Music has been an integral part of the story of humans for ages; in fact, the first known
piece of music is believed to be around 3,400 years old. Songs have long been used as a
means of communicat- ing messages and folk stories, covering everything from societal
ethics to world history. Since many people see music as such an inherently human expression,
it is often considered as too precious to impart to technology. The thought of a computer
generating a “random” piece of music that hasn’t been painstakingly created by an artist is
almost seen as sacrilegious (衰渎神圣的).
Regardless of which side of the argument you fall on, it seems likely that the use of AI
in music production will only become more frequent. Our modern world is preoccupied with
technological advancements. Instead of shying away from the idea of this bleak future, the
best approach to take is one of optimism and curiosity. While there are always bound to be
stubborn old-school musicians who refuse to use tech, music producers should consider AI as
something to be embraced. AI music software is still very much in its infancy, but with more
investors interested in the development and outcomes of such technology, and considering the
rapid growth rate of other tech advances in recent years, it’s only a matter of time until AI-
produced music is seen as the new norm.
008第二部分 仔细阅读
46. How do some musicians perceive using AI in creating music?
A) It would help to produce more music idols.
B) It would be detrimental to music production.
C) It would hinder the understanding of authentic music.
D) It would be the beginning of a new era in music creation.
47. What does Taryn Southern’s story illustrate?
A) AI technology is conducive to music composition.
B) Musicians will be unable to create music without high tech.
C) Musicians are often at their wits’ end in their creative effort.
D) AI technology is indispensable to creating melodies and chords.
48. Why are some musicians opposed to the use of AI in creating music?
A) Music produced with AI technology lacks humanness.
B) Music created with AI technology is easily emulated.
C) It will depreciate humans’ role in music composition.
D) It will deplete young musicians’ creative inspiration.
49.Why do many people think music is too precious to impart to AI technology?
A) It cannot be created without pains.
B) It cannot be produced at random.
C) It is part of human life.
D) It is human specific.
50.What does the author think of the future of AI music?
A) It will continue to arouse the interest of music investors.
B) It has the prospect of becoming the norm in the future.
C) It will be gradually accepted by old-school musicians.
D) It may eventually lose its freshness and appeal.
009系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 5
语义理解题
Teenagers at risk of depression, anxiety and suicide often wear their troubles like a
neon (霓虹灯) sign. Their risky behaviors—drinking too much alcohol, using illegal drugs,
smoking cigarettes and skipping school—can alert parents and teachers that serious problems
are brewing.
But a new study finds that there’s another group of adolescents who are in nearly as
much danger of experiencing the same psychiatric symptoms: teens who use tons of media,
don’t get enough sleep and have a sedentary (不爱活动的) lifestyle.
Of course, that may sound like a description of every teenager on the planet. But the
study warns that it is teenagers who engage in all three of these practices in the extreme who
are truly in jeopardy. Because their behaviors are not usually seen as a red flag, these young
people have been dubbed the “invisible risk” group by the study’s authors.
“In some ways they’re at greater risk of falling through the cracks,” says researcher
Vladimir Carli. “While most parents, teachers and clinicians would react to an adolescent
using drugs or getting drunk, they may easily overlook teenagers who are engaging in
inconspicuous behaviors.”
The study’s authors surveyed 12,395 students and analyzed nine risk behaviors,
including exces-sive alcohol use, illegal drug use, heavy smoking, high media use and truancy
(逃学). Their aim was to determine the relationship between these risk behaviors and mental
health issues in teenagers.
About 58% of the students demonstrated none or few of the risk behaviors. Some 13%
scored high on all nine of the risk behaviors. And 29%, the “invisible risk” group, scored high
on three in particular: They spent five hours a day or more on electronic devices. They slept
six hours a night or less. And they neglected “other healthy activities.”
The group that scored high on all nine of the risk behaviors was most likely to show
symptoms of depression; in all, nearly 15% of this group reported being depressed, compared
with just 4% of the low-risk group. But the invisible group wasn’t far behind the high-risk set,
with more than 13% of them exhibiting depression.
The findings caught Carli off guard. “We were very surprised,” he says. “The high-risk
group and low-risk group are obvious. But this third group was not only unexpected, it was so
distinct and so large—nearly one third of our sample—that it became a key finding of the study.”
Carli says that one of the most significant things about his study is that it provides
new early-warning signs for parents, teachers and mental health-care providers. And early
identification, support and treatment for mental health issues, he says, are the best ways to
keep them from turning into full-blown disorders.
010第二部分 仔细阅读
46. What does the author mean by saying “Teenagers at risk of depression, anxiety and
suicide often wear their troubles like a neon sign” (Lines 1-2, Para. l)?
A) Mental problems can now be found in large numbers of teenagers.
B) Teenagers’ mental problems are getting more and more attention.
C) Teenagers’ mental problems are often too conspicuous not to be observed.
D) Depression and anxiety are the most common symptoms of mental problems.
47.What is the finding of the new study?
A) Teenagers’ lifestyles have changed greatly in recent years.
B) Many teenagers resort to drugs or alcohol for mental relief.
C) Teenagers experiencing psychological problems tend to use a lot of media.
D) Many hitherto unobserved youngsters may have psychological problems.
48. Why do the researchers refer to teens who use tons of media, don’t get enough sleep
and have a sedentary lifestyle as the “invisible risk” group?
A) Their behaviors can be an invisible threat to society.
B) Their behaviors do not constitute a warning signal.
C) Their behaviors do not tend towards mental problems.
D) Their behaviors can be found in almost all teenagers on earth.
49. What does the new study find about the invisible group?
A) They are almost as liable to depression as the high-risk group.
B) They suffer from depression without showing any symptoms.
C) They do not often demonstrate risky behaviors as their peers.
D) They do not attract the media attention the high-risk group does.
50. What is the significance of Vladimir Carli’s study?
A) It offers a new treatment for psychological problems among teenagers.
B) It provides new early-warning signals for identifying teens in trouble.
C) It may have found an ideal way to handle teenagers with behavioral problems.
D) It sheds new light on how unhealthy behaviors trigger mental health problems.
011系统班·六级阅读讲义
第三部分 真题带刷
Passage 6
The Paris climate agreement finalised in December last year heralded a new era for
climate action. For the first time, the world’s nations agreed to keep global warming well
below 2℃.
This is vital for climate-vulnerable nations. Fewer than 4% of countries are responsible
for more than half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. In a study published in Nature
Scientific Reports, we reveal just how deep this injustice runs.
Developed nations such as Australia, the United States, Canada, and European countries
are essentially climate “free-riders”: causing the majority of the problems through high
greenhouse gas emissions, while incurring few of the costs such as climate change’s impact
on food and water. In other words, a few countries are benefiting enormously from the
consumption of fossil fuels, while at the same time contributing disproportionately to the
global burden of climate change.
On the flip side, there are many “forced riders”, who are suffering from the climate
change impacts despite having scarcely contributed to the problem. Many of the world’s most
climate-vulnerable countries, the majority of which are African or small island states, produce
a very small quantity of emissions. This is much like a non-smoker getting cancer from
second-hand smoke, while the heavy smoker is fortunate enough to smoke in good health.
The Paris agreement has been widely hailed as a positive step forward in addressing
climate change for all, although the details on addressing “climate justice” can be best
described as sketchy.
The goal of keeping global temperature rise “well below” 2℃ is commendable but the
emissions- reduction pledges submitted by countries leading up to the Paris talks are very
unlikely to deliver on this.
More than $100 billion in funding has been put on the table for supporting developing
nations to reduce emissions. However, the agreement specifies that there is no formal
distinction between developed and developing nations in their responsibility to cut emissions,
effectively ignoring historical emissions. There is also very little detail on who will provide
the funds or, importantly, who is responsible for their provision. Securing these funds, and
establishing who is responsible for raising them will also be vital for the future of climate-
vulnerable countries.
The most climate-vulnerable countries in the world have contributed very little to
creating the global disease from which they now suffer the most. There must urgently be a
meaningful mobilisation of the policies outlined in the agreement if we are to achieve national
emissions reductions while helping the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.
012第三部分 真题带刷
And it is clearly up to the current generation of leaders from high-emitting nations to
decide whether they want to be remembered as climate change tyrants or pioneers.
46. The author is critical of the Paris climate agreement because .
A) it is unfair to those climate-vulnerable nations
B) it aims to keep temperature rise below 2℃ only
C) it is beneficial to only fewer than 4% of countries
D) it burdens developed countries with the sole responsibility
47. Why does the author call some developed countries climate “free-riders”?
A) They needn’t worry about the food and water they consume.
B) They are better able to cope with the global climate change.
C) They hardly pay anything for the problems they have caused.
D) They are free from the greenhouse effects affecting“ forced riders” .
48. Why does the author compare the “forced riders” to second-hand smokers?
A) They have little responsibility for public health problems.
B) They are vulnerable to unhealthy environmental conditions.
C) They have to bear consequences they are not responsible for.
D) They are unaware of the potential risks they are confronting.
49. What does the author say about the $100 billion funding?
A) It will motivate all nations to reduce carbon emissions.
B) There is no final agreement on where it will come from.
C) There is no clarification of how the money will be spent.
D) It will effectively reduce greenhouse emissions worldwide.
50. What urgent action must be taken to realise the Paris climate agreement?
A) Encouraging high-emitting nations to take the initiative.
B) Calling on all the nations concerned to make joint efforts.
C) Pushing the current world leaders to come to a consensus.
D) Putting in effect the policies in the agreement at once.
013系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 7
Amid all the job losses, there’s one category of worker that the economic disruption has
been good for: nonhumans.
From self-service checkout lines at the supermarket to industrial robots armed with
saws and taught to carve up animal bodies in slaughter-houses, these ever-more-intelligent
machines are now not just assisting workers but actually kicking them out of their jobs.
Automation isn’t just affecting factory workers, either. Some law firms now use artificial
intelligence software to scan and read mountains of legal documents, work that previously
was performed by highly-paid human lawyers.
“Robots continue to have an impact on blue-collar jobs, and white-collar jobs are
under attack by microprocessors,” says economics professor Edward Leamer. The recession
permanently wiped out 2.5 million jobs. US gross domestic product has climbed back to pre-
recession levels, meaning we’re producing as much as before, only with 6% fewer workers.
To be sure, robotics are not the only job killers out there, with outsourcing (外包) stealing far
more jobs than automation.
Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotics Industry Association, argues that robots actually
save US jobs. His logic: companies that embrace automation might use fewer workers, but
that’s still better than firing everyone and moving the work overseas.
It’s not that robots are cheaper than humans, though often they are. It’s that they’re
better. “In some cases the quality requirements are so exacting that even if you wanted to have
a human do the job, you couldn’t,” Burnstein says.
The same goes for surgeons, who’re using robotic systems to perform an ever-growing
list of operations—not because the machines save money but because, thanks to the greater
precision of robots, the patients recover in less time and have fewer complications, says Dr
Myriam Curet.
Surgeons may survive the robot invasion, but others at the hospital might not be so lucky,
as iRobot, maker of the Roomba, a robot vacuum cleaner, has been showing offAva, which
could be used as a messenger in a hospital. And once you’re home, recovering, Ava could
let you talk to your doctor, so there’s no need to send someone to your house. That “mobile
telepresence” could be useful at the office. If you’re away on a trip, you can still attend a
meeting. Just connect via videoconferencing software, so your face appears on Ava’s screen.
Is any job safe? I was hoping to say “journalist”, but researchers are already developing
software that can gather facts and write a news story, which means that a few years from now,
a robot could be writing this column. And who will read it? Well, there might be a lot of us
hanging around with lots of free time on our hands.
014第三部分 真题带刷
46. What do we learn from the first few paragraphs?
A) The over-use of robots has done damage to American economy.
B) It is hard for robots to replace humans in highly professional work.
C) Artificial intelligence is the key to future technological innovations.
D) The robotic industry has benefited from the economic recession.
47.What caused the greatest loss of jobs in America?
A) Using microprocessors extensively.
B) Moving production to other countries.
C) The bankruptcy of many companies.
D) The invasion of migrant workers.
48.What does Jeff Burnstein say about robots?
A) They help companies to revive.
B) They are cheaper than humans.
C) They prevent job losses in a way.
D) They compete with human workers.
49. Why are robotic systems replacing surgeons in more and more operations according
to Dr Myriam Curet?
A) They save lots of money for the patients.
B) They beat humans in precision.
C) They take less time to perform a surgery.
D) They make operations less painful.
50. What does the author imply about robotics?
A) It will greatly enrich literary creation.
B) It will start a new technological revolution.
C) It will revolutionise scientific research.
D) It will be applied in any field imaginable
015系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 8
Dr. Donald Sadoway at MIT started his own battery company with the hope of changing
the world’s energy future. It’s a dramatic endorsement for a technology most people think
about only when their smartphone goes dark. But Sadoway isn’t alone in trumpeting energy
storage as a missing link to a cleaner, more efficient, and more equitable energy future.
Scientists and engineers have long believed in the promise of batteries to change the
world. Advanced batteries are moving out of specialized markets and creeping into the
mainstream, signaling a tipping point for forward-looking technologies such as electric cars
and rooftop solar panels.
The ubiquitous (无所不在的) battery has already come a long way, of course. For better or
worse, batteries make possible our mobile-first lifestyles, our screen culture, our increasingly
globalized world. Still, as impressive as all this is, it may be trivial compared with what
comes next. Having already enabled a communications revolution, the battery is now poised
to transform just about everything else.
The wireless age is expanding to include not just our phones, tablets, and laptops, but
also cars, homes, and even whole communities. In emerging economies, rural communities
are bypassing the wires and wooden poles that spread power. Instead, some in Africa and Asia
are seeing first lightbulbs illuminated by the power of sunlight stored in batteries.
Today, energy storage is a $33 billion global industry that generates nearly 100 gigawatt-
hours of electricity per year. By the end of the decade, it’s expected to be worth over $50
billion and generate 160 gigawatt-hours, enough to attract the attention of major companies
that might not otherwise be interested in a decidedly pedestrian technology. Even utility
companies, which have long viewed batteries and alternative forms of energy as a threat, are
learning to embrace the technologies as enabling rather than disrupting.
Today’s battery breakthroughs come as the world looks to expand modern energy access
to the billion or so people without it, while also cutting back on fuels that warm the planet.
Those simultaneous challenges appear less overwhelming with increasingly better answers to
a centuries-old question: how to make power portable.
To be sure, the battery still has a long way to go before the nightly recharge completely
replaces the weekly trip to the gas station. A battery-powered world comes with its own risks,
too. What happens to the centralized electric grid, which took decades and billions of dollars
to build, as more and more people become “prosumers”, who produce and consume their own
energy onsite?
No one knows which—if any—battery technology will ultimately dominate, but one
thing remains clear: The future of energy is in how we store it.
016第三部分 真题带刷
46.What does Dr. Sadoway think of energy storage?
A) It involves the application of sophisticated technology.
B) It is the direction energy development should follow.
C) It will prove to be a profitable business.
D) It is a technology benefiting everyone.
47.What is most likely to happen when advanced batteries become widely used?
A) Mobile-first lifestyles will become popular.
B) The globalization process will be accelerated.
C) Communications will take more diverse forms.
D) The world will undergo revolutionary changes.
48.In some rural communities of emerging economies, people have begun to .
A) find digital devices simply indispensable
B) communicate primarily by mobile phone
C) light their homes with stored solar energy
D) distribute power with wires and wooden poles
49. Utility companies have begun to realize that battery technologies .
A) benefit their business
B) transmit power faster
C) promote innovation
D) encourage competition
50. What does the author imply about the centralized electric grid?
A) It might become a thing of the past.
B) It might turn out to be a “prosumer”.
C) It will be easier to operate and maintain.
D) It will have to be completely transformed.
017系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 9
It is not controversial to say that an unhealthy diet causes bad health. Nor are the basic
elements of healthy eating disputed. Obesity raises susceptibility to cancer, and Britain is the
sixth most obese country on Earth. That is a public health emergency. But naming the problem
is the easy part. No one disputes the costs in quality of life and depleted health budgets of an
obese population, but the quest for solutions gets diverted by ideological arguments around
responsibility and choice. And the water is muddied by lobbying from the industries that
profit from consumption of obesity-inducing products.
Historical precedent suggests that science and politics can overcome resistance from
businesses that pollute and poison but it takes time, and success often starts small. So it is
heartening to note that a programme in Leeds has achieved a reduction in childhood obesity,
becoming the first UK city to reverse a fattening trend. The best results were among younger
children and in more deprived areas. When 28% of English children aged 2 to 15 are obese, a
national shift on the scale achieved by Leeds would lengthen hundreds of thousands of lives.
A significant factor in the Leeds experience appears to be a scheme called HENRY, which
helps parents reward behaviours that prevent obesity in children.
Many members of parliament are uncomfortable even with their own government’s
anti-obesity strategy, since it involves a “sugar tax” and a ban on the sale of energy drinks
to under-16s. Bans and taxes can be blunt instruments, but their harshest critics can rarely
suggest better methods. These critics just oppose regulation itself.
The relationship between poor health and inequality is too pronounced for governments
to be passive about large-scale intervention. People living in the most deprived areas are four
times more prone to die from avoidable causes than counterparts in more affluent places. As
the structural nature of public health problems becomes harder to ignore, the complaint about
overprotective government loses potency.
In fact, the polarised debate over public health interventions should have been abandoned
long ago. Government action works when individuals are motivated to respond. Individuals
need governments that expand access to good choices. The HENRY programme was delivered
in part through children’s centres. Closing such centres and cutting council budgets doesn’t
magically increase reserves of individual self-reliance. The function of a well-designed
state intervention is not to deprive people of liberty but to build social capacity and
infrastructure that helps people take responsibility for their well-being. The obesity crisis will
not have a solution devised by left or right ideology—but experience indicates that the private
sector needs the incentive of regulation before it starts taking public health emergencies
seriously.
018第三部分 真题带刷
46. Why is the obesity problem in Britain so difficult to solve?
A) Government health budgets are depleted.
B) People disagree as to who should do what.
C) Individuals are not ready to take their responsibilities.
D) Industry lobbying makes it hard to get healthy foods.
47. What can we learn from the past experience in tackling public health emergencies?
A) Governments have a role to play.
B) Public health is a scientific issue.
C) Priority should be given to deprived regions.
D) Businesses’ responsibility should be stressed.
48. What does the author imply about some critics of bans and taxes concerning unhealthy
drinks?
A) They are not aware of the consequences of obesity.
B) They have not come up with anything more constructive.
C) They are uncomfortable with parliament’s anti-obesity debate.
D) They have their own motives in opposing government regulation.
49. Why does the author stress the relationship between poor health and inequality?
A) To demonstrate the dilemma of people living in deprived areas.
B) To bring to light the root cause of widespread obesity in Britain.
C) To highlight the area deserving the most attention from the public.
D) To justify government intervention in solving the obesity problem.
50. When will government action be effective?
A) When the polarised debate is abandoned.
B) When ideological differences are resolved.
C) When individuals have the incentive to act accordingly.
D) When the private sector realises the severity of the crisis.
019系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 10
Social media is absolutely everywhere. Billions of people use social media on a daily
basis to create, share, and exchange ideas, messages, and information. Both individuals
and business post regularly to engage and interact with people from around the world. It
is a powerful communication medium that simultaneously provides immediate, frequent,
permanent, and wide-reaching Information across the globe.
People post their lives on social media for the world to see. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
and count- less other social channels provide a quick and simple way to glimpse into a job
candidate’s personal life—both the positive and negative sides of it. Social media screening
is tempting to use as part of the hiring process, but should employers make use of it when
researching a potential candidate’s background?
Incorporating the use of social media to screen job candidates is not an uncommon
practice. A 2018 survey found that almost 70% of employers use social media to screen
candidates before hiring them. But there are consequences and potential legal risks involved
too. When done inappropriately, social media screening can be considered unethical or even
illegal. Social media screening is essentialy scrutinizing a job candidate’s private life. It can
reveal information about protected characteristics like age, race, nationality, disability, gender,
religion, etc., and that could bias a hiring decision. Pictures or comments on a private page
that are taken out of context could ruin a perfectly good candidate’s chances of getting hired.
This process could potentially give an unfair advantage to one candidate over another. It
creates an unequal playing field and potentially provides hiring managers with information
that can impact their hiring decision in a negative way.
It’s hard to ignore social media as a screening tool. While there are things that you
shouldn’t see, there are some things that can be lawfully considered—making it a valuable
source of relevant information too. Using social media screening appropriately can help
ensure that you don’t hire a toxic employee who will cost you money or stain your company’s
reputation. Consider the lawful side of this process and you may be able to hire the best
employee ever. There is a delicate balance.
Screening job candidates on social media must be done professionally and responsibly.
Companies should stipulate that they will never ask for passwords, be consistent, document
decisions, consider the source used and be aware that other laws may apply. In light of this, it
is probably best to look later in the process and ask human resources for help in navigating it.
Social media is here to stay. But before using social media to screen job candidates, consulting
with management and legal teams beforehand is essential in order to comply with all laws.
020第三部分 真题带刷
46. What does the author mainly discuss in the passage?
A) The advantage of using social media in screening job candidates.
B) The potentially invasive nature of social media in everyday life.
C) Whether the benefits of social media outweigh the drawbacks.
D) Whether social media should be used to screen job candidates.
47. What might happen when social media is used to screen job candidates?
A) Moral or legal issues might arise.
B) Company reputation might suffer.
C) Sensational information might surface.
D) Hiring decisions might be complicated.
48. When could online personal information be detrimental to candidates?
A) When it is separated from context.
B) When it is scrutinized by an employer.
C) When it is magnified to a ruinous degree.
D) When it is revealed to the human resources.
49. How can employers use social media information to their advantage while avoiding
unnecessary risks?
A) By tipping the delicate balance.
B) By using it in a legitimate way.
C) By keeping personal information on record.
D) By separating relevant from irrelevant data.
50. What does the author suggest doing before screening job candidates on social media?
A) Hiring professionals to navigate the whole process.
B) Anticipating potential risks involved in the process.
C) Seeking advice from management and legal experts.
D) Stipulating a set of rules for asking specific questions.
021系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 11
The trend toward rationality and enlightenment was endangered long before the advent of
the World Wide Web. As Neil Postman noted in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death,
the rise of television introduced not just a new medium but a new discourse: a gradual shift
from a typographic (印刷的) culture to a photographic one, which in turn meant a shift from
rationality to emotions, exposition to entertainment. In an image-centered and pleasure-driven
world, Postman noted, there is no place for rational thinking, because you simply cannot think
with images. It is text that enables us to “uncover lies, confusions and over-generalizations,
and to detect abuses of logic and common sense. It also means to weigh ideas, to compare and
contrast assertions, to connect one generalization to another.”
The dominance of television was not confined to our living rooms. It overturned all
of those habits of mind, fundamentally changing our experience of the world, affecting
the conduct of politics, religion, business,and culture. It reduced many aspects of modern
life to entertainment, sensationalism,and commerce. “Americans don’t talk to each other,
we entertain each other,” Postman wrote. “They don’t exchange ideas, they exchange
images. They do not argue with propositions, they argue with good looks, celebrities and
commercials.”
At first, the web seemed to push against this trend. When it emerged towards the end
of the 1980s as a purely text-based medium, it was seen as a tool to pursue knowledge, not
pleasure. Reason and thought were most valued in this garden—all derived from the project
of the Enlightenment. Universities around the world were among the first to connect to this
new medium, which hosted discussion groups, informative personal or group blogs, electronic
magazines, and academic mailing lists and forums. It was an intellectual project, not about
commerce or control, created in a scientific research center in Switzerland. And for more than
a decade, the web created an alternative space that threatened television’s grip on society.
Social networks, though, have since colonized the web for television’s values. From
Facebook to Instagram, the medium refocuses our attention on videos and images, rewarding
emotional appeals—‘like’ buttons—over rational ones. Instead of a quest for knowledge, it
engages us in an endless zest (热情)for instant approval from an audience, for which we are
constantly but unconsciously performing.(It’s telling that, while Google began life as a PhD
thesis, Facebook started as a tool to judge classmates’ appearances.) It reduces our curiosity
by showing us exactly what we already want and think, based on our profiles and preferences.
The Enlightenment’s motto (座右铭) of ‘Dare to know’ has become ‘Dare not to care to know.’
022第三部分 真题带刷
46. What did Neil Postman say about the rise of television?
A) It initiated a change from dominance of reason to supremacy of pleasure.
B) It brought about a gradual shift from cinema going to home entertainment.
C) It started a revolution in photographic technology.
D) It marked a new age in the entertainment industry.
47. According to the passage, what is the advantage of text reading?
A) It gives one access to huge amounts of information.
B) It allows more information to be processed quickly.
C) It is capable of enriching one’s life.
D) It is conducive to critical thinking.
48. How has television impacted Americans?
A) It has given them a lot more to argue about.
B) It has brought celebrities closer to their lives.
C) It has made them care more about what they say.
D) It has rendered their interactions more superficial.
49. What does the passage say about the World Wide Web?
A) It was developed primarily for universities worldwide.
B) It was created to connect people in different countries.
C) It was viewed as a means to quest for knowledge.
D) It was designed as a discussion forum for university students.
50. What do we learn about users of social media?
A) They are bent on looking for an alternative space for escape.
B) They are constantly seeking approval from their audience.
C) They are forever engaged in hunting for new information.
D) They are unable to focus their attention on tasks for long.
023系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 12
More than 100 years ago, American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois was concerned that
race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and
cultural differences between different populations of people. He spoke out against the idea of
“white” and “black” as distinct groups, claiming that these distinctions ignored the scope of
human diversity.
Science would favor Du Bois. Today, the mainstream belief among scientists is that race
is a social construct without biological meaning. In an article published in the journal Science,
four scholars say racial categories need to be phased out.
“Essentially, I could not agree more with the authors,” said Svante Pääbo, a biologist
and director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. In
one example that demonstrated genetic differences were not fixed along racial lines, the
full genomes (基因组) of James Watson and Craig Venter, two famous American scientists of
European ancestry, were compared to that of a Korean scientist, Seong-Jin Kim. It turned
out that Watson and Venter shared fewer variations in their genetic sequences than they each
shared with Kim.
Michael Yudell, a professor of public health at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said
that modern genetics research is operating in a paradox: on the one hand, race is understood
to be a useful tool to illuminate human genetic diversity, but on the other hand, race is also
understood to be a poorly defined marker of that diversity.
Assumptions about genetic differences between people of different races could be
particularly dangerous in a medical setting. “If you make clinical predictions based on
somebody’s race, you’re going to be wrong a good chunk of the time,” Yudell told Live
Science. In the paper, he and his colleagues used the example of cystic fibrosis, which is
underdiagnosed in people of African ancestry because it is thought of as a “white” disease.
So what other variables could be used if the racial concept is thrown out? Yudell said
scientists need to get more specific with their language, perhaps using terms like “ancestry”
or “population” that might more precisely reflect the relationship between humans and their
genes, on both the individual and population level. The researchers also acknowledged that
there are a few areas where race as a construct might still be useful in scientific research: as a
political and social, but not biological, variable.
“While we argue phasing out racial terminology (术语) in the biological sciences, we
also acknowledge that using race as a political or social category to study racism, although
filled with lots of challenges, remains necessary given our need to understand how structural
inequities and discrimination produce health disparities (差异) between groups,” Yudell said.
024第三部分 真题带刷
46. Du Bois was opposed to the use of race as .
A) a basis for explaining human genetic diversity
B) an aid to understanding different populations
C) an explanation for social and cultural differences
D) a term to describe individual human characteristics
47. The study by Svante Pääbo served as an example to show .
A) modern genetics research is likely to fuel racial conflicts
B) race is a poorly defined marker of human genetic diversity
C) race as a biological term can explain human genetic diversity
D) genetics research should consider social and cultural variables
48. The example of the disease cystic fibrosis underdiagnosed in people of African
ancestry demonstrates that .
A) it is absolutely necessary to put race aside in making diagnosis
B) it is important to include social variables in genetics research
C) racial categories for genetic diversity could lead to wrong clinical predictions
D) discrimination against black people may cause negligence in clinical treatment
49. What is Yudell’s suggestion to scientists?
A) They be more precise with the language they use.
B) They refrain from using politically sensitive terms.
C) They throw out irrelevant concepts in their research.
D) They examine all possible variables in their research.
50. What can be inferred from Yudell’s remark in the last paragraph?
A) Clinging to racism prolongs inequity and discrimination.
B) Physiological disparities are quite striking among races.
C) Doing away with racial discrimination is challenging.
D) Racial terms are still useful in certain fields of study.
025系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 13
What is the place of art in a culture of inattention? Recent visitors to the Louvre report
that tourists can now spend only a minute in front of the Mona Lisa before being asked to
move on. Much of that time, for some of them, is spent taking photographs not even of the
painting but of themselves with the painting in the background.
One view is that we have democratised tourism and gallery-going so much that we
have made it effectively impossible to appreciate what we’ve travelled to see. In this
oversubscribed society, experience becomes a commodity like any other. There are queues to
climb Mt. Jolmo Lungma as well as to see famous paintings. Leisure, thus conceived, is hard
labour, and returning to work becomes a well-earned break from the ordeal.
What gets lost in this industrialised haste is the quality of looking. Consider an extreme
example, the late philosopher Richard Wollheim. When he visited the Louvre he could spend
as much as four hours sitting before a painting. The first hour, he claimed, was necessary for
misperceptions to be eliminated. It was only then that the picture would begin to disclose
itself. This seems unthinkable today, but it is still possible to organise. Even in the busiest
museums there are many rooms and many pictures worth hours of contemplation which
the crowds largely ignore. Sometimes the largest crowds are partly the products of bad
management; the Mona Lisa is such a hurried experience today partly because the museum is
being reorganised. The Uffizi in Florence, another site of cultural pilgrimage, has cut its entry
queues down to seven minutes by clever management. And there are some forms of art, those
designed to be spectacles as well as objects of contemplation, which can work perfectly well
in the face of huge crowds.
Olafur Eliasson’s current Tate Modern show, for instance, might seem nothing more than
an entertainment, overrun as it is with kids romping (喧闹地玩耍) in fog rooms and spray
mist installations. But it’s more than that: where Eliasson is at his most entertaining, he is at
his most serious too, and his disorienting installations bring home the reality of the destructive
effects we are having on the planet—not least what we are doing to the glaciers of Eliasson’s
beloved Iceland.
Marcel Proust, another lover of the Louvre, wrote: “It is only through art that we can
escape from ourselves and know how another person sees the universe, whose landscapes
would otherwise have remained as unknown as any on the moon.” If any art remains worth
seeing, it must lead us to such escapes. But a minute in front of a painting in a hurried crowd
won’t do that.
026第三部分 真题带刷
46. What does the scene at the Louvre demonstrate according to the author?
A) The enormous appeal of a great piece of artistic work to tourists.
B) The near impossibility of appreciating art in an age of mass tourism.
C) The ever-growing commercial value of long-cherished artistic works.
D) The real difficulty in getting a glimpse at a masterpiece amid a crowd.
47. Why did the late philosopher Richard Wollheim spend four hours before a picture?
A It takes time to appreciate a piece of art fully.
B) It is quite common to misinterpret artistic works.
C) The longer people contemplate a picture, the more likely they will enjoy it.
D) The more time one spends before a painting, the more valuable one finds it.
48. What does the case of the Uffizi in Florence show?
A) Art works in museums should be better taken care of.
B) Sites of cultural pilgrimage are always flooded with visitors.
C) Good management is key to handling large crowds of visitors.
D) Large crowds of visitors cause management problems for museums.
49. What do we learn from Olafur Eliasson’s current Tate Modern show?
A) Children learn to appreciate art works most effectively while they are playing.
B) It is possible to combine entertainment with appreciation of serious art.
C) Art works about the environment appeal most to young children.
D) Some forms of art can accommodate huge crowds of visitors.
50. What can art do according to Marcel Proust?
A) Enable us to live a much fuller life.
B) Allow us to escape the harsh reality.
C) Help us to see the world from a different perspective.
D) Urge us to explore the unknown domain of the universe.
027系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 14
Open data sharers are still in the minority in many fields. Although many researchers
broadly agree that public access to raw data would accelerate science, most are reluctant to
post the results of their own labors online.
Some communities have agreed to share online—geneticists, for example, post DNA
sequences at the GenBank repository (库), and astronomers are accustomed to accessing images
of galaxies and stars from, say, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a telescope that has observed
some 500 million objects—but these remain the exception, not the rule. Historically, scientists
have objected to sharing for many reasons: it is a lot of work; until recently, good databases
did not exist; grant funders were not pushing for sharing; it has been difficult to agree on
standards for formatting data; and there is no agreed way to assign credit for data. But the
barriers are disappearing, in part because journals and funding agencies worldwide are
encouraging scientists to make their data public. Last year, the Royal Society in London said
in its report that scientists need to “shift away from a research culture where data is viewed as
a private preserve”.
Funding agencies note that data paid for with public money should be public information,
and the scientific community is recognizing that data can now be shared digitally in ways that
were not possible before. To match the growing demand, services are springing up to make
it easier to publish research products online and enable other researchers to discover and cite
them.
Although calls to share data often concentrate on the moral advantages of sharing, the
practice is not purely altruistic (利他的). Researchers who share get plenty of personal
benefits, including more connections with colleagues, improved visibility and increased
citations. The most successful sharers—those whose data are downloaded and cited the
most often—get noticed, and their work gets used. For example, one of the most popular
data sets on multidisciplinary repository Dryad is about wood density around the world; it
has been downloaded 5,700 times. Co-author Amy Zanne thinks that users probably range
from climate-change researchers wanting to estimate how much carbon is stored in biomass,
to foresters looking for information on different grades of timber. “I’d much prefer to have
my data used by the maximum number of people to ask their own questions,” she says.
“It’s important to allow readers and reviewers to see exactly how you arrive at your results.
Publishing data and code allows your science to be reproducible.”
Even people whose data are less popular can benefit. By making the effort to organize
and label files so others can understand them, scientists become more organized and better
disciplined themselves, thus avoiding confusion later on.
028第三部分 真题带刷
46. What do many researchers generally accept?
A) It is imperative to protect scientists’ patents.
B) Repositories are essential to scientific research.
C) Open data sharing is most important to medical science.
D) Open data sharing is conducive to scientific advancement.
47. What is the attitude of most researchers towards making their own data public?
A) Opposed.
B) Ambiguous.
C) Liberal.
D) Neutral.
48. According to the passage, what might hinder open data sharing?
A) The fear of massive copying.
B) The lack of a research culture.
C) The belief that research data is private intellectual property.
D) The concern that certain agencies may make a profit out of it.
49. What helps lift some of the barriers to open data sharing?
A) The ever-growing demand for big data.
B) The advancement of digital technology.
C) The changing attitude of journals and funders.
D) The trend of social and economic development.
50. Dryad serves as an example to show how open data sharing .
A) is becoming increasingly popular
B) benefits sharers and users alike
C) makes researchers successful
D) saves both money and labor
029系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 15
Vernon Bowman, a 75-year-old farmer from rural Indiana, did something that got him
sued. He planted soybeans (大豆) sold as cattle feed. But Monsanto, the agricultural giant,
insists it has a patent on the kind of genetically modified seeds Bowman used and that the
patent continues to all of the progeny (后代) of those seeds.
Have we really gotten to the point that planting a seed can lead to a high-stakes Supreme
Court patent lawsuit? We have, and that case is Bowman vs. Monsanto, which is being argued
on Tuesday. Monsanto’s critics have attacked the company for its “merciless legal battles
against small farmers,” and they are hoping this will be the case that puts it in its place. They
are also hoping the court’s ruling will rein in patent law, which is increasingly being used to
claim new life forms as private property.
Monsanto and its supporters, not surprisingly, see the case very differently. They
argue that when a company like Monsanto goes to great expense to create a valuable new
genetically modified seed, it must be able to protect its property interests. If farmers like
Bowman are able to use these seeds without paying the designated fee, it will remove the
incentives for companies like Monsanto to innovate.
Monsanto accused Bowman of patent infringement and won an $84,456 damage award.
Rather than pay up or work out a settlement, Bowman decided to appeal—all the way to
the Supreme Court. He said “Monsanto should not be able, just because they’ve got billions
of dollars to spend on legal fees, to try to terrify farmers into obeying their agreements by
massive force and threats.”
The central issue in the case is whether patent rights to living things extend to the
progeny of those things. Monsanto argues that its patents extend to later generations. But
Bowman’s supporters argue that Monsanto is trying to expand the scope of patents in ways
that would enrich big corporations and hurt small farmers. They say that if Monsanto wins,
the impact will extend far beyond agriculture—locking up property rights in an array of
important areas. Knowledge Ecology International contends that the Supreme Court’s ruling
could have “profound effects” on other biotech industries.
If this were a Hollywood movie, the courageous old Indiana farmer would beat the
profit-minded corporation before the credits rolled. But this is a real-life argument before
a Supreme Court that has a well-earned reputation for looking out for the interests of large
corporations. This case gives the court an opportunity to rein in the growing use of patents
to protect genetically engineered crops and other life forms—but the court may well use it to
give this trend a powerful new endorsement.
030第三部分 真题带刷
46. Why did Vernon Bowman get sued?
A) He used genetically modified seeds to feed his cattle.
B) He planted soybeans without paying for the patent.
C) He made a profit out of Monsanto’s commercial secrets.
D) He obtained Monsanto’s patented seeds by illegal means.
47. What are Monsanto’s critics hoping the Supreme Court will do?
A) Allow small farmers to grow genetically modified soybeans.
B) Punish Monsanto for infringing on small farmers’ interests.
C) Rule against Monsanto’s excessive extension of its patent rights.
D) Abolish the patent law concerning genetically engineered seeds.
48. What is the argument of Monsanto and its supporters?
A) Patent rights should be protected to encourage innovation.
B) Bowman cannot plant the seeds without Monsanto’s consent.
C) Monsanto has the right to recover the costs of its patented seeds.
D) Patent law on genetically modified seeds should not be challenged.
49. What is the key issue in the Bowman vs. Monsanto case?
A) Whether patent for seeds is harmful to agricultural production.
B) Whether the biotech industry should take priority over agriculture.
C) Whether measures should be introduced to protect small farmers.
D) Whether patent for living things applies to their generations.
50. What do we learn from the last paragraph?
A) Hollywood movies usually have an unexpected, dramatic impact on real-life arguments.
B) The Supreme Court will try to change its reputation for supporting large corporations.
C) The Supreme Court is likely to persuade the parties concerned to work out a settlement.
D) The ruling would be in Bowman’s favor if the case were argued in a Hollywood movie.
031系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 16
Could you get by without using the Internet for four and a half years? That’s 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 mostfollowed woman on Instagram suggests
it’s 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 (戒隐) 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 schoolchildren are struggling to complete
their homework feels particularly irritating.
Consequently, it’s 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.
032第三部分 真题带刷
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.
B) She has won Instagram’s most followers.
C) She has refrained from using social media.
D) She has succeeded in a bid on the Internet.
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” (Lines
3-4, 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.
B) Edging further towards web 3.0.
C) Getting more educational resources.
D) Opening more social media accounts.
033系统班·六级阅读讲义
Passage 17
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 born screaming for attention and full
of organic drives for fulfillment in various areas.
Initially, we compete for 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 “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 for “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 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.
034第三部分 真题带刷
46. 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.
47. 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.
48. What do we learn about the “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.
49. What can we conclude from Darwin’s assertion in The Origin of Species?
A) All species inherently depend on others for 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.
50. What conclusion did Margaret Mead reach after studying dozens of different 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
035系统班·六级阅读讲义
第四部分 长篇阅读
The College Essay: Why Those 500 Words Drive Us Crazy
[A] Meg is a lawyer-mom in suburban Washington, D.C., where lawyer-moms are thick
on the ground. Her son Doug is one of several hundred thousand high-school seniors who
had a painful fall. The deadline for applying to his favorite college was Nov. 1, and by early
October he had yet to fill out the application. More to the point, he had yet to settle on a
subject for the personal essay accompa-nying the application. According to college folklore,
a well-turned essay has the power to seduce (诱惑) an admissions committee. “He wanted
to do one thing at a time,” Meg says, explaining her son’s delay. “But really, my son is a huge
procrastinator (拖延者). The essay is the hardest thing to do, so he’s put it off the longest.”
Friends and other veterans of the process have warned Meg that the back and forth between
editing parent and writing student can be traumatic (痛苦的).
[B] Back in the good old days—say, two years ago, when the last of my children suffered
the ordeal (折磨)—a high-school student applying to college could procrastinate all the way
to New Year’s Day of their senior year, assuming they could withstand the parental pestering
( 烦扰 ). But things change fast in the nail-biting world of college admissions. The recent trend
toward early decision and early action among selective colleges and universities has pushed
the traditional deadline of January up to Nov. 1 or early December for many students.
[C] If the time for heel-dragging has been shortened, the true source of the anxiety
and panic remains what it has always been. And it’s not the application itself. A college
application is a relatively straightforward questionnaire asking for the basics: name, address,
family history, employment history. It would all be innocent enough—20 minutes of busy
work—except it comes attached to a personal essay.
[D] “There are good reasons it causes such anxiety,” says Lisa Sohmer, director of
college counseling at the Garden School in Jackson Heights, N.Y. “It’s not just the actual
writing. By now everything else is already set. Your course load is set, your grades are set,
your test scores are set. But the essay is something you can still control, and it’s open-ended.
036第四部分 长篇阅读
So the temptation is to write and rewrite and rewrite.” Or stall and stall and stall.
[E] The application essay, along with its mythical importance, is a recent invention.
In the 1930s, when only one in 10 Americans had a degree from a four-year college, an
admissions committee was content to ask for a sample of applicants’ school papers to assess
their writing ability. By the 1950s, most schools required a brief personal statement of why
the student had chosen to apply to one school over another.
[F] Today nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors go off to college, including two-year
and four-year institutions. Even apart from the increased competition, the kids enter a process
that has been utterly transformed from the one baby boomers knew. Nearly all application
materials are submitted online, and the Common Application provides a one-size-fits form
accepted by more than 400 schools, including the nation’s most selective.
[G] Those schools usually require essays of their own, but the longest essay, 500 words
maximum, is generally attached to the Common Application. Students choose one of six
questions. Applicants are asked to describe an ethical dilemma they’ve faced and its impact
on them, or discuss a public issue of special concern to them, or tell of a fictional character
or creative work that has profoundly influenced them. Another question invites them to write
about the importance (to them, again) of diversity—a word that has assumed magic power in
American higher education. The most popular option: write on a topic of your choice.
[H] “Boys in particular look at the other questions and say, ‘Oh, that’s too much work,’”
says John Boshoven, a counselor in the Ann Arbor, Mich., public schools. “They think
if they do a topic of their choice, ‘I’ll just go get that history paper I did last year on the
Roman Empire and turn it into a first-person application essay!’ And they end up producing
something utterly ridiculous.”
[I] Talking to admissions professionals like Boshoven, you realize that the list of
“don’ts” in essay writing is much longer than the “dos.” “No book reports, no history papers,
no character studies,” says Sohmer.
[J] “It drives you crazy, how easily kids slip into clichés (老生常谈),” says Boshoven.
“They don’t realize how typical their experiences are. ‘I scored the winning goal in soccer
against our arch- rival,’ ‘My grandfather served in World War II, and I hope to be just like him
someday.’ That may mean a lot to that particular kid. But in the world of the application essay,
037系统班·六级阅读讲义
it’s nothing. You’ll lose the reader in the first paragraph.”
[K] “The greatest strength you bring to this essay,” says the College Board’s how-
to book, “is 17 years or so of familiarity with the topic: YOU. The form and style are very
familiar, and best of all, you are the world-class expert on the subject of YOU ... It has been
the subject of your close scrutiny every morning since you were tall enough to see into the
bathroom mirror.” The key word in the Common Application prompts is“ you.”
[L] The college admission essay contains the grandest American themes—status anxiety,
parental piety (孝顺), intellectual standards—and so it is only a matter of time before it becomes
infected by the country’s culture of excessive concern with self-esteem. Even if the question
is ostensibly (表面上) about something outside the self (describe a fictional character or solve a
problem of geopolitics), the essay invariably returns to the favorite topic: what is its impact on
YOU?
[M] “For all the anxiety the essay causes,” says Bill McClintick of Mercersburg
Academy in Pennsyl- vania, “it’s a very small piece of the puzzle. I was in college admissions
for 10 years. I saw kids and parents beat themselves up over this. And at the vast majority of
places, it is simply not a big variable in the college’s decision-making process.”
[N] Many admissions officers say they spend less than a couple of minutes on each
application, includ- ing the essay. According to a recent survey of admissions officers, only
one in four private colleges say the essay is of “considerable importance” in judging an
application. Among public colleges and universities, the number drops to roughly one in 10.
By contrast, 86 percent place “considerable importance” on an applicant’s grades, 70 percent
on “strength of curriculum.”
[O] Still, at the most selective schools, where thousands of candidates may submit
identically high grades and test scores, a marginal item like the essay may serve as a tie-
breaker between two equally qualified candidates. The thought is certainly enough to keep the
pot boiling under parents like Meg, the lawyer-mom, as she tries to help her son choose an
essay topic. For a moment the other day, she thought she might have hit on a good one. “His
father’s from France,” she says. “I said maybe you could write about that, as something that
makes you different. You know: half French, half American. I said, ‘You could write about
your identity issues.’ He said, ‘I don’t have any identity issues!’ And he’s right. He’s a well-
adjusted, normal kid. But that doesn’t make for a good essay, does it?”
038第四部分 长篇阅读
36. Today many universities require their applicants to write an essay of up to five hundred
words.
37. One recent change in college admissions is that selective colleges and universities have
moved the traditional deadline to earlier dates.
38. Applicants and their parents are said to believe that the personal essay can sway the
admissions committee.
39. Applicants are usually better off if they can write an essay that distinguishes them from the
rest.
40. Not only is the competition getting more intense, the application process today is also
totally different from what baby boomers knew.
41. In writing about their own experiences many applicants slip into clichés, thus failing to
engage the reader.
42. According to a recent survey, most public colleges and universities consider an applicant’s
grades highly important.
43. Although the application essay causes lots of anxiety, it does not play so important a role
in the college’s decision-making process.
44. The question you are supposed to write about may seem outside the self, but the theme of
the essay should center around its impact on you.
45. In the old days, applicants only had to submit a sample of their school papers to show their
writing ability.
039系统班·六级阅读讲义
Treasure Fever
A) Most visitors come to Cape Canaveral, on the northeast coast of Florida, for the tourist
attractions. It’s 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, for 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 carrying 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 (打捞人员) and their investors—as well as marine archaeologists
(考古学家) 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
040
