2017年12月六級(jí)閱讀真題及答案（第三套）

2017年12月六級(jí)閱讀真題及答案(第三套)

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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.

Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and Germany has just stated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as fuel by 2030. The country is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by 2050, ___26___ a shift to green energy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the registration of new cars in the country as they will not allow any gasoline ___27___ vehicle to be registered after 2030.

Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and ___28___ is because energy officials see that they will not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not ___29___ a large portion of vehicle emissions. The country is still ___30___ that it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the ___31___ of electric cars in the country has not occurred as fast as expected.

Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 million hybrid and electric car battery charging stations across the country. By 2030, Germany plans on having over 6 million charging stations ___32___. According to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as Volkswagen is still recovering from its emissions scandal.

There are ___33___ around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfed by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a ___34___ effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not ___35___, the results of such bans will likely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.

A) acceptanceI) incidentally

B) currentlyJ) installed

C) disruptingK) noticeable

D) eliminateL) powered

E) exhaustM) restoration

F) futileN) skeptical

G) hopefulO) sparking

H) implemented

答案解析：

26. [O] 語法分析，填動(dòng)詞ing，根據(jù)語義，O，發(fā)出火花，為正解。

27. [L] 語法分析，形容詞，根據(jù)語義，L，驅(qū)動(dòng)的，為正解。

28. [H] 語法分析，動(dòng)詞過去，根據(jù)語義，H ，實(shí)施，為正解。

29. [ D] 語法分析，動(dòng)詞原形，根據(jù)語義，D，消除，為正解。

30. [G] 語法分析，形容詞或動(dòng)詞ing，根據(jù)語義，G，有希望的，為正解。

31. [A] 語法分析，名詞，根據(jù)語義，A，接受，為正解。

32. [J] 語法分析，動(dòng)詞ing或過去分詞，根據(jù)語義，J，安裝，為正解。

33. [B] 語法分析，副詞，根據(jù)語義，B，當(dāng)前地，為正解。

34. [K] 語法分析，形容詞，根據(jù)語義，K，顯而易見的，為正解。

35. [F] 語法分析，形容詞，根據(jù)語義，F(xiàn)，無用的，為正解。

Apple’s Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Teach Industry

A) The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist’s smartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology industry and the United States government.

B) After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (討好) certain tech companies and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, tech giants began to recognize the United States government as a hostile actor. But if the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are destined to emerge victorious.

C) It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United States government’s mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sympathetic sort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer’s phone. The action stems from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.

D) In the other corner is the world’s most valuable company, whose chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has said he will appeal the court’s order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve a principle that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defend: Weaken a single iPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American government and you risk weakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.

E) There will probably be months of legal tussling, and it is not at all clear which side will prevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor. Yet underlying all of this is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public’s collective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.

F) Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldwide. If Apple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investigation, what is to prevent it from doing so for a request from the Chinese or the Iranians? If Apple is forced to write code that lets the F.B.I. get into the Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the male attacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsible if some hacker got hold of that code and broke into its other devices?

G) Apple’s stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started putting in place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption to limit access to people’s data. More than that, Apple - and, in different ways, other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft - have made their opposition to the government’s claims a point of corporate pride.

H) Appl’s emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputation, not to mention the investment of considerable technical and financial resources, on limiting the sort of mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for many cases involving governmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.

I) “A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption,” said Kurt Opsahl, general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group. “Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest companies in the world coming out with a lengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from Tim Cook. The profile has really been raised.”

J) Apple and other tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep making their devices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple’s public opposition to the government’s request is itself a hindrance to mass government intrusion. And to get at the contents of a single iPhone, the government says it needs a court order and Apple’s help to write new code; in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created before Apple found religion on (熱衷于) privacy, the F.B.I. may have been able to break into the device by itself.

K) You can expect that noose (束縛) to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether or not Apple loses this specific case, measures that it could put into place in the future will almost certainly be able to further limit the government’s reach.

L) That’s not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant. As Apple and several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write software that gives the F.B.I. access to the iPhone in question would establish an unsettling precedent. The order essentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in place, the precedent could be used to justify law enforcement efforts to get around encryption technologies in other investigations far removed from national security threats.

M) Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could ask to use it proactively (先發(fā)制人地), before a suspected terrorist attack - leaving Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare. “This is a brand-new salvo in the war against encryption,” Mr. Opsahl said. “We’ve had plenty of debates in Congress and the media over whether the government should have a backdoor, and this is an end run around that - here they come with an order to create that backdoor.”

N) Yet it’s worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty of technical means to close a backdoor over time. “If they’re anywhere near worth their salt as engineers, I bet they’re rethinking their threat model as we speak,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, a digital forensic expert who studies the iPhone and its vulnerabilities.

O) One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future versions of the iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will accept the sort of modified operating system that the F.B.I. wants Apple to create. That way, Apple could not unilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone — a user would have to consent to it.

P) “Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof,” Mr. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out that the judge’s order in this case required Apple to provide “reasonable security assistance” to unlock Mr. Farook’s phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPhones so that even its own engineers’ “reasonable assistance” will not be able to crack a given device when compelled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lasting force. In other words, even if the F.B.I. wins this case, in the long run, it loses.

36. It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their customers’ private data.

流行觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，科技公司承諾去保護(hù)客人的私人信息。

[E] They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public’s collective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.

E段，他們有我們的數(shù)據(jù)，他們的經(jīng)營依賴于全球集體信念，他們將為保護(hù)數(shù)據(jù)付出一切。

37. The US government believes that its access to people’s iPhones could be used to prevent terrorist attacks.

美國政府相信接觸iphone數(shù)據(jù)能夠阻止恐怖襲擊。

[M] Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could ask to use it proactively (先發(fā)制人地), before a suspected terrorist attack

M段，一旦被裝備上能夠接近iphone的方法，政府能夠先發(fā)制人地使用它，在一個(gè)疑似恐襲之前。

38. A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a terrorist’s iPhone.

一個(gè)聯(lián)邦法庭要求蘋果公司幫助FBI獲取恐怖分子手機(jī)的數(shù)據(jù)。

[C] The action stems from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.

C段，這個(gè)行為來自于周二一個(gè)聯(lián)邦法庭要求蘋果公司幫助FBI解鎖其中一個(gè)襲擊者的手機(jī)，這兩個(gè)襲擊者12月在加州殺了14個(gè)人。

39. Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government access to personal data.

隱私擁護(hù)者現(xiàn)在有著蘋果公司和他們?cè)谕粦?zhàn)線，去反對(duì)政府獲取私人數(shù)據(jù)。

[H] So now, for many cases involving governmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.

H段，所以現(xiàn)在，對(duì)于很多牽涉政府入侵手機(jī)的案例，曾經(jīng)獨(dú)自戰(zhàn)斗的隱私擁護(hù)者們發(fā)現(xiàn)現(xiàn)在有了世界上最有力的公司和他們?cè)谕粦?zhàn)線。

40. Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private data in massive scale.

S揭露美國政府曾經(jīng)十分努力去大規(guī)模獲取私人數(shù)據(jù)。

[B] After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (討好) certain tech companies and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale,

B段，2013年前FNSA合作人S揭露政府討好某些科技公司并且入侵進(jìn)其他公司去大規(guī)模獲取私人數(shù)據(jù)。

41. The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without Apple’s help.

FBI可能不需要蘋果公司的幫助就能獲取私人數(shù)據(jù)，對(duì)于早期iphone。

[J] in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created before Apple found religion on (熱衷于) privacy, the F.B.I. may have been able to break into the device by itself.

J段，在早期版本的iphone，在蘋果熱衷于隱私問題之前，F(xiàn)BI自己就能夠破解那個(gè)設(shè)備。

42. After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government intrusion into personal data by means of encryption.

在S的事故之后，蘋果清晰定位自己要反對(duì)政府干預(yù)私人數(shù)據(jù)通過解密方式。

[G] Apple’s stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started putting in place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption to limit access to people’s data. More than that, Apple - and, in different ways, other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft - have made their opposition to the government’s claims a point of corporate pride.

G段，S之后，蘋果立場(chǎng)明確了，當(dāng)這個(gè)公司開始將它的技術(shù)默認(rèn)設(shè)置為限制解密去獲取人們數(shù)據(jù)。很多別的公司，包括谷歌，臉書，T和微軟等等，一起清楚說明反對(duì)政府做這些事.

43. According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.

根據(jù)一個(gè)數(shù)字專家，沒有iphone是完全可以免除入侵的。

[P] “Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof,” Mr. Zdziarski said,

P段，沒有100%防入侵的東西存在。

44. Timothy Cook’s long web post has helped enhance Apple’s image.

TC的長網(wǎng)頁聲明幫助加強(qiáng)蘋果的形象。

[I] Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest companies in the world coming out with a lengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from Tim Cook.

I段，然后你有著幾家公司參與了，但不是其中一個(gè)全球最大的公司，站出來，用很長且令人印象深刻的帖子，就像昨天TC做的那樣。

45. Apple’s CEO has decided to appeal the federal court’s order to unlock a user’s iPhone.

蘋果公司CEO決定上訴，對(duì)于聯(lián)邦法庭命令解鎖用戶iphone這個(gè)事。

[D] In the other corner is the world’s most valuable company, whose chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has said he will appeal the court’s order.

D段，另一方面，世界上最有價(jià)值的公司的首席執(zhí)行官TDC說，他將會(huì)對(duì)于法庭的命令上訴。

Section C

Passage One

Question 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

At the base of a mountain in Tanzania’s Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright red, surrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The lake’s landscape is bizarre and deadly- and made even more so by the fact that it’s the place where nearly 75percent of the world’s flamingos(火烈鳥) are born.

The water is so corrosive that it can burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Flamingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that death. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed. Three –quarters of the world’s flamingos fly over from other salt lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on salt- crystal islands that appear when the water is at specific level- too high and the birds can’t build their nests, too low and predators can more briskly across the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level. The baby birds are kept safe form predators by a corrosive ditch.

“Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water,” says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester. “ Humans cannot, and would die if their legs were exposed for any length of time.” So far this year, water levels have been too high for the flamingos to nest.

Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty lagoons (瀉湖) form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. Three species of tilapia (羅非魚) thrive there part-time. “Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into the lagoons when the lake is low and the lagoons are separate,” Harper said. “All the lagoons join when the lake is high and fish must retreat to their stream refuges or die.” Otherwise, no fish are able to survive in the naturally toxic lake.

This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has once again started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and detergents. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upset the natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now, though, life prevails – even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.

46. What can we learn about Lake Natron?

A) It is simply uninhabitable for most animals.

B) It remains little known to the outside world.

C) It is a breeding ground for a variety of birds.

D) It makes an ideal habitat for lots of predators.

A. 原文第一段，在坦桑尼亞GF山腳，Lake Natron有著亮紅色的光，它被不幸落入鹽湖的動(dòng)物的尸體包圍著。蝙蝠，燕子和更多其他動(dòng)物，被化學(xué)地以他們生還最后一個(gè)的姿勢(shì)保存，封印在水中的碳酸鈉沉淀中。這個(gè)湖的地貌是奇特并且致命的，以及被一個(gè)事實(shí)——這個(gè)地方是世界上幾乎75%的火烈鳥的出生地，變得更加如此。因此可以得出，這個(gè)湖水對(duì)于大部分動(dòng)物是致命的，不適宜生存，選A。 B選項(xiàng)，外界不了解這個(gè)地點(diǎn)，未提及。C選項(xiàng)，它是各種鳥的生殖區(qū)域未提及。D選項(xiàng)對(duì)于很多捕食者是理想的居住地，未提及。

47. Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their babies can ______.

A) find safe shelter more easily C) stay away from predators

B) grow thick feathers on their feet D) get accustomed to the salty water

C.原文第二段第四句開始，清晰定位water is at a specific level，世界上3/4的火烈鳥從其他鹽湖地區(qū)飛到Rift Valley并在鹽結(jié)晶島上筑巢，這些鹽結(jié)晶島只有在特定水位時(shí)才會(huì)出現(xiàn)——水位太高時(shí)鳥無法筑巢，水位太低捕食者能吃迅速越過湖床并且攻擊他們。當(dāng)水位處于正確高度時(shí)，嬰兒火烈鳥是安全的由于一個(gè)腐蝕性的溝壑阻止了捕食者。C選項(xiàng)為正解。

48. Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that _______.

A) they can move swiftly across lagoons C) they breed naturally in corrosive ditches

B) they can survive well in salty water D) they know where and when to nest

B. 此題并不能清晰定位，根據(jù)順序原則，找到第三段第一句，火烈鳥已經(jīng)進(jìn)化出了非常厚的的皮膚因此他們能夠忍耐高鹽的水。直接選B，ACD未提及。

49. Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?

A) They can take refuge in the less salty waters.

B) They can flee quick enough from predators.

C) They can move freely from lagoon to lagoon.

D) They can stand the heat of the spring water.

A. Tilapia 定位至全文第四段第二句，3/4的羅非魚能夠幸存在那里一些時(shí)候。魚類有著庇護(hù)所在小溪中并且他們能夠去到瀉湖里當(dāng)湖水低并且瀉湖是分離的時(shí)候，H說。當(dāng)水位高時(shí)，所有瀉湖聯(lián)合在一起，魚類必須撤回到他們的小溪避難所中，否則他們就會(huì)死亡。

“Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into the lagoons when the lake is low and the lagoons are separate,” Harper said. “All the lagoons join when the lake is high and fish must retreat to their stream refuges or die.”

50. What may be the consequence of Tanzanian government’s planned operation?

A) The accelerated extinction of flamingos.

B) The change of flamingos’ migration route.

C) The overmining of Lake Natron’s soda ash.

D) The disruption of Lake Natron’s ecosystem.

D. 全文最后一段第一句，這種獨(dú)特的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)面臨壓力。原因就是緊接第二句，政府計(jì)劃。同時(shí)末段第三句，雖然計(jì)劃位置為40英里外，但環(huán)保主義者們依然擔(dān)心它會(huì)影響生態(tài)系統(tǒng)和繁殖區(qū)域。所以正選為D項(xiàng)。

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

It is the season for some frantic last-minute math across the country,employees of all stripe are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have left it their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations altogether and just power through the holidays into 2017: More than half of American workers don’t use up all of their allotted vacation days each year.

Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan recently explained in Harvard Business Review (HBR), leisure time was once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way – these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are seen as the mark of someone important.

In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much we’ve come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read two passages, on about a man who led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worked and over –scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social status, the majority of the participants said the latter. The same held true for people who used products that implied they were short on time: In one experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery service Peapod were seen as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further up on the social ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were just used to listen to music.

51. What do most employees plan to do towards the end of the year?

A) Go for a vacation. C) Set an objective for next year.

B) Keep on working. D) Review the year’s achievements.

A. 第一段末句，盡管許多假期沒休，但他們不再算計(jì)這件事情，直接將假期推到下一年。

52.How would people view dedication to work in the past?

A) They would regard it as a matter of course.

B) They would consider it a must for success.

C) They would look upon it with contempt.

D) They would deem it a trick of businessmen.

C。 第二段第一句話說，不久之前，人們會(huì)輕視那些沉迷工作的的情況。

53. What did the researchers find through a series of experiments?

A) The busier one appears, the more respect one earns.

B) The more one works, the more one feels exploited.

C) The more knowledge one has, the more competent one will be.

D) The higher one’s status, the more vacation time one will enjoy.

A。清晰定位第三段，研究者展示出，我們多么的欽佩忙碌這個(gè)事情。

54. What may account for the change of people’s attitude towards being busy?

A) The fast pace of life in modern society.

B) The fierce competition in the job market.

C) The widespread use of computer technology.

D) The role of knowledge in modern economy.

55. What does the author advise us to do at the end of the passage ?

A) Schedule our time properly for efficiency.

B) Plan our weekends in a meaningful way.

C) Plan time to relax however busy we are.

D) Avoid appearing busy when we are not.