2011年12月大学英语六级真题
Section B
Directions:There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
What's the one word of advice a well-meaning professional would give to a recent college graduate? China\
When the Commerce Department reported last week that the trade deficit in June approached $50 billion, it set off a new round of economic doom saying. Imports, which soared to $200.3 billion in the month, are subtracted in the calculation of gross domestic product. The larger the trade deficit, the smaller the GDP. Should such imbalances continue, pessimists say, they could contribute to slower growth.
But there's another way of looking at the trade data. Over the past two years, the figures on imports and exports seem not to signal a double-dip recession – a renewed decline in the broad level of economic activity in the United States – but an economic expansion.
The rising volume of trade – more goods and services shuttling in and out of the United States –
is good news for many sectors. Companies engaged in shipping, trucking, rail freight, delivery, and logistics (物流) have all been reporting better than expected results. The rising numbers signify growing vitality in foreign markets – when we import more stuff, it puts more cash in the hands of people around the world, and U.S. exports are rising because more foreigners have the ability to buy the things we produce and market. The rising tide of trade is also good news for people who work in trade-sensitive businesses, especially those that produce commodities for which global demand sets the price – agricultural goods, mining, metals, and oil.
And while exports always seem to lag, U.S. companies are becoming more involved in the global economy with each passing month. General Motors sells as many cars in China as in America each month. While that may not do much for imports, it does help GM's balance sheet – and hence makes the jobs of U.S.-based executives more stable.
One great challenge for the U.S. economy is slack domestic consumer demand. Americans are paying down debt, saving more, and spending more carefully. That's to be expected, given what we've been through. But there's a bigger challenge. Can U.S.-based businesses, large and small, figure out how to get a piece of growing global demand? Unless you want to pick up and move to India, or Brazil, or China, the best way to do that is through trade. It may seem obvious, but it's no longer enough simply to do business with our friends and neighbors here at home.
Companies and individuals who don't have a strategy to export more, or to get more involved in foreign markets, or to play a role in global trade, are shutting themselves out of the lion's share of economic opportunity in our world.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
52. How do pessimists interpret the U.S. trade deficit in June? A) It reflects Americans' preference for imported goods. B) It signifies a change in American economic structure.
C) It is the result of America's growing focus on domestic market. D) It could lead to slower growth of the national economy.
53. What does the author say about the trade data of the past two years? A) It indicates that economic activities in the U.S. have increased. B) It shows that U.S. economy is slipping further into recession. C) It signals decreasing domestic demand for goods and services. D) It reflects the fluctuations in the international market. 54. Who particularly benefit from the rising volume of trade? A) People who have expertise in international trade. B) Consumers who favor imported goods and services. C) Producers of agricultural goods and raw materials. D) Retailers dealing in foreign goods and services.
55. What is one of the challenges facing the American economy?
A) Competition from overseas. C) Slack trade activities. B) People's reluctance to spend. D) Decreasing productivity. 56. What is the author's advice to U.S. companies and individuals? A) To import more cheap goods from developing countries. B) To move their companies to where labor is cheaper. C) To increase their market share overseas. D) To be alert to fluctuations in foreign markets.
Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
A recurring criticism of the UK's university sector is its perceived weakness in translating new knowledge into new products and services.
Recently, the UK National Stem Cell Network warned the UK could lose its place among the world leaders in stem cell research unless adequate funding and legislation could be assured. We should take this concern seriously as universities are key in the national innovation system.
However, we do have to challenge the unthinking complaint that the sector does not do enough in taking ideas to market. The most recent comparative data on the performance of universities and research institutions in Australia, Canada, USA and UK shows that, from a relatively weak starting position, the UK now leads on many indicators of commercialization activity.
When viewed at the national level, the policy interventions of the past decade have helped transform the performance of UK universities. Evidence suggests the UK's position is much stronger than in the recent past and is still showing improvement. But national data masks the very large variation in the performance of individual universities. The evidence shows that a large number of universities have fallen off the back of the pack, a few perform strongly and the rest chase the leaders.
This type of uneven distribution is not peculiar to the UK and is mirrored across other economies. In the UK, research is concentrated: less than 25% of universities receive 75% of the research funding. These same universities are also the institutions producing the greatest share of PhD graduates, science citations, patents and license income. The effect of policies generating long-term resource concentration has also created a distinctive set of universities which are research-led and commercially active. It seems clear that the concentration of research and
commercialization work creates differences between universities.
The core objective for universities which are research-led must be to maximize the impact of their research efforts. These universities should be generating the widest range of social, economic and environmental benefits. In return for the scale of investment, they should share their expertise in order to build greater confidence in the sector.
Part of the economic recovery of the UK will be driven by the next generation of research commercialization spilling out of our universities. There are three dozen universities in the UKwhich are actively engaged in advanced research training and commercialization work.
If there was a greater coordination of technology transfer offices within regions and a simultaneous investment in the scale and functions of our graduate schools, universities could, and should, play a key role in positioning the UK for the next growth cycle. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
57. What does the author think of UK universities in terms of commercialization? A) They fail to convert knowledge into money. B) They do not regard it as their responsibility. C) They still have a place among the world leaders. D) They have lost their leading position in many ways.
58. What does the author say about the national data on UK universities' performance in commercialization?
A) It masks the fatal weaknesses of government policy. B) It does not rank UK universities in a scientific way. C) It does not reflect the differences among universities. D) It indicates their ineffective use of government resources.
59. We can infer from Paragraph 5 that \A) government aid to non-research-oriented universities
B) compulsory cooperation between universities and industries
C) fair distribution of funding for universities and research institutions D) concentration of resources in a limited number of universities 60. What does the author suggest research-led universities do? A) Publicise their research to win international recognition. B) Fully utilise their research to benefit all sectors of society. C) Generously share their facilities with those short of funds. D) Spread their influence among top research institutions.
61. How can the university sector play a key role in the UK's economic growth? A) By establishing more regional technology transfer offices.
B) By asking the government to invest in technology transfer research. C) By promoting technology transfer and graduate school education. D) By increasing the efficiency of technology transfer agencies.
2011年6月大学英语六级真题
Section B
Directions:There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or
unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on
Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants goodor 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 boostto the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produceto new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there sucha discrepancy 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 placeon public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguingthat 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 isfelt. 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 intolower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental
connection at thecheckout 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 byGeorge 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
stateswith both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried themmost, in other words, was the fiscal (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. Evenfor those most acutely affected–say, low-skilled workers, or California residents–the
impactisn't all that dramatic. \saysDaniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon. \thosefactors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive,but a small one.\注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。 52. 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. 53. 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.
54. 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.
55. What is the chief concern of native high-skilled, better-educated employees about the inflow
ofimmigrants?
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.
56. 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. Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
Picture a typical MBA lecture theatre twenty years ago. In it the majority of students will have conformed to the standard model of the time: male, middle class and Western. Walk into a class today, however, and you'll get a completely different impression. For a start, you will now see plenty more women–the University of Pennsylvania's WhartonSchool, for example, boasts that 40% of its new enrolment is female. You will also see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationals of practically every country.
It might be tempting, therefore, to think that the old barriers have been broken down and equal opportunity achieved. But, increasingly, this apparent diversity is becoming a mask for a new type of conformity. Behind the differences in sex, skin tones and mother tongues, there are common attitudes, expectations and ambitions which risk creating a set of clones among the business leaders of the future.
Diversity, it seems, has not helped to address fundamental weaknesses in business leadership. So what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world? According toValerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, the key lies in the process by which MBA programmesrecruit their students. At the moment candidates are selected on a fairly narrow set of criteria such as prior academic and career performance, and analytical and problem solving abilities. This is then coupled to a school's picture of what a diverse class should look like, with the result that passport, ethnic origin and sex can all become influencing factors. But schools rarely dig down to find out what really makes an applicant succeed, to create a class which also contains diversity of attitude and approach–arguably the only diversity that, in a business context, really matters.
Professor Gauthier believes schools should not just be selecting candidates from traditional