大学英语六级考试 阅读模拟试题
Passage One
Media
摘要：本文作者在给出对大众传媒持否定态度的人的意见后，立刻表明了自己的观点，传媒的益处比缺点要多得多。
Every day we are all influenced by the mass media (television, movies, radio, magazines, newspapers and the like). Although some critics of the media claim that these means of communication are used primarily to control our thinking and get us to buy products that we don’t need, the media also contribute to keeping people informed. In other words, while dangers to exist, the benefits of the media far outweigh the disadvantages. Most of the messages brought to viewers, listeners, and readers are designed either to inform or to entertain---and neither of these goals can be considered dangerous or harmful.
If consumers of the media could be taught at an early age to examine messages critically---i.e., to think carefully about what is being communicated --- they would be able to take advantage of the information and enjoy the entertainment without being hurt by it. The key to critical thinking is recognizing the purposes of the news or script writers, the advisors, and so on. Are both sides of an issue being presented? Is the amount of the violence and killing shown necessary to the point of a story? Have enough facts about a product being advertised been presented?
Furthermore, in a country with a democratic form of government, the people can be kept informed by the mass media. To be able to express their views and vote intelligently, citizens need the opportunity to hear news, opinions, and public affairs programming. Information about current events is presented in depth on publicly funded TV channels and radio stations as well as in newspapers. In addition, the public broadcasting media can help viewers and listeners to complete or further their education. Recent immigrants, for example, can improve their command of English through TV. and radio, and, in addition, some college courses are taught on educational television. Another recognized advantage of the media is that it gives the people the information they need in their daily lives: weather and traffic reports are good examples. While commercials and advertising do not necessarily present accurate information, they do make people aware of the availability of products that could improve their lives. In addition, they create a larger demand for some items, which may lead to a reduction in their price.
While the media can be a valuable means of educating the public, when most people turn on the TV set or the radio, they want to be entertained. As a result, most programming consists of movies, plays, music, comedies, game shows, and sports events. Some of these offerings are of low quality, but, on the other hand, many are fun to watch and interesting, written and presented well.
Even though the mass media can be misused, most of effects are positive. We are all influenced by television, movies, radio, magazines, and newspapers, and---if we are careful to examine their massages critically--- these can all be of benefit to our lives. Notes:
1. 1. script n. 手稿，剧本 2. 2. availability n. 可用性，有效性
1. 1. The main point the author tries to make in this passage is most probably that _______. A) A) advertising is harmful when it presents inaccurate information B) B) the positive effects of the mass media outweigh the negative ones C) C) people should learn to take advantage of the media’s benefits
D) D) Television is more useful as a means of entertainment than as a means of providing information
2. 2. According to the author, the two main purposes of the mass media are to ______. A) A) control our thinking and get us to buy useless products B) B) provide people with information and entertainment
C) C) making people aware of the availability of products and create a large demand for some items
D) D) express the views of the public and help improve recent immigrants’ English
3. 3. The author feels that consumers of the mass media should be taught at an early age to ____.
A) A) bring their imagination into full play when watching programmes of low quality B) B) buy products advertised in commercials so that the demand increase C) C) turn off the TV set when ridiculous program comes on D) D) think critically about the messages brought to them
4. 4. It can be learned from paragraph 3 that citizens will be in a better position to express their views and make their choices if they are _____. A) A) highly educated through TV and radio B) B) well protected by the government C) C) highly paid by the employers D) D) well informed by the mass media
5. 5. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage? A) A) the mass media offers information needed in our daily lives.
B) B) Publicly funded broadcasting does not present information about current wents in depth. C) C) Information provided by commercials and advertising is always accurate. D) D) Many TV and radio programmes are not interesting.
答案：
Passage One:
1． 1． B. 参照短文第一段，作者在给出对大众传媒持否定态度的人的意见后，立刻表明
了自己的观点，传媒的益处比缺点要多得多。故B为正确答案。
2． 2． B. 参照第一段最后一句话，B选项与此句相符，故为正确答案。 3． 3． D. 参照第二段第一句话，D选项与此意相符，故D为正确选项。 4． 4． D. 参照第三段第二句话，D选项与此意相符，故D为正确选项。 5. A. 参照第四段第一句话，A选项与此意相符，故A为正确选项。
Passage Two
Chimps 摘要：本文描述了黑猩猩的群集生活以及它们的饮食状况，饮食主要包括水果和含有较多蛋白质的食物。同时描述了黑猩猩在获取食物和使用工具方面的能力。
Chimps apparently live in troops of between 20 and 50 animals. Within these troops they form small groups of varying composition; the most basic group consists of females or females plus offspring. Adult females spending much time together often turn out to be mother and daughter, or sisters. Mother and offspring live together consistently, at least for the first four or five years of life, longer than in any other primate except man. During this time the young learn from their mother and from other chimps all the complicated acquired behaviors of chimpanzee adult life. Life for the young chimpanzee is relaxed and tolerant, and an infant will spend much of its time playing with other infants, with its mother and with its brothers and sisters. After this five-year initial period, contacts with the mother are still maintained, particularly by daughters. Even sons returned from time to time from their wanderings to greet their mothers affectionately.
In the forest chimps are predominantly fruit eaters (upon occasion they are cannibalistic!), but in open woodland they may add more protein to their diet. Males sometimes kill colobus monkeys or bush-pig; often males will gang up in a group to achieve their ends. Meat is a very choice item in chimpanzee diet and is eaten slowly and deliberately with a mouthful of leaves between each bite. It is sometimes shared out with other chimps who will beg for pieces. This food sharing is very unusual among non human primates; mostly it is every primate for himself. When the season is right chimps in woodlands also eat termites, and they do this by “fishing” for them. When beginning a bout of termiting, an animal will carefully select stems or pieces of grass, trim them to the appropriate length, collect enough of them, and set out on the hunt for insects. It may pass over several termite hills if they are not ready and go on until it finds a mound ripe for fishing Using a finger, a hole is scraped and the prepared twig inserted. Withdrawn covered with termites, it is passed carefully over the lower lip until every delicious morsel is removed, and the operation repeated. Clearly, in doing so, chimps are taking natural objects, modifying them to a standard pattern and using them for an objective, which involves planning and forethought. They are, in fact, making tools. This has surprised many people, for previously man was considered to be the only toolmaker. In the chimpanzee, however, the intellectual abilities necessary for purposeful tool making are already developed at an infrahuman level. Other examples of chimp tool-use in natural surroundings have also been seen. For instance, chewed leaves are used as sponges to soak up water from holes in trees. They are also used to wipe dung or mud from the body. Stones and branches are used too in agonistic displays or when an animal is excited. They may be thrown under-or over-arm, often with considerable force and accuracy. Notes:
1. 1. chimp= chimpanzee n. 非洲的小人猿，黑猩猩 2. 2. primate n. 首领，灵长类的动物 3. 3. colobus n. 疣猴 4. 4. termite n. 白蚁
1. 1. what sort of groups do chimps live in? A) A) Groups of between 20 and 50 chimps
B) B) Groups consisting of mother, father and children
C) C) Groups basically made up of females or females with their young D) D) Groups consisting of chimps of the same sex
2. 2. What does a baby chimp do while it stays with its mother? A) A) it spends most of its time wondering. B) B) It spends its time learning and playing. C) C) It helps adult chimps hunt for food. D) D) It learns to be tolerant.
3. 3. Which of the following statements is False? A) A) meat is rare in a chimpanzee diet.
B) B) The kind of food chimpanzee eat depends partly on their environment. C) C) Fruit is the important food of chimpanzees. D) D) Food sharing is unusual among chimpanzees.
4. 4. In order to catch termites, a chimp ________. A) A) cleans the grass off a termite hill
B) B) fished them out with a “twig” made of stems or bits of grass C) C) gets them out with its fingers D) D) uses its lower lip
5. 5. What does the writer regard as evidence of intellectual ability similar to man in chimpanzees?
A) A) Getting together to catch preys
B) B) Eating meat slowly together with leaves
C) C) Tool-making and tool-use in natural surroundings D) D) Chewing leaves
答案：
Passage Two 1. 1.C. 第1题因文中的“plus offspring” 与选项中的“with their young ”同义，故答案应选C）。 2. 2.B. 第2题从第一段的第5。6句的叙述可知年幼猩猩的生活主要是学习和玩耍，故答案应选B）。 3. 3.A. 第3题根据文中第二段第三句“Meat is a very choice item in chimpanzee diet ”， 答案选择A）。这里“very choice ”意为“非常上等的”，“choice ”用作形容词。 4. 4.B. 根据文章第二段第六句知道答案应为B。 5. 5.C. 第5题从文中第二段的叙述中可知正确答案为C）。该段叙述了猩猩有目的地制造工具和使用工具的能力与人类相近。
Passage Three
TV commercials
摘要：在日益充满恐惧且人们感情脆弱的现实世界里，电视商务已被看作为一块宁静和舒适的绿洲，它展示给我们的是一个快乐的世界。但在不同的国家，电视商务的情况不同，如美国的电视商务就不同于英国，美国更加注重电视商务交流的实际效果。
In a world increasingly fearsome and fragile, TV commercials present an oasis of calm and comfort. For six minutes in every hour, viewers know that they will be drifted away from this cruel world into an idealized well-ordered land. You and I may experience real life as largely tired and chaotic but in the world of the TV commercials happy families may be seen to gather at breakfast-time for convivial bowls of cornflakes, their teeth free of decay, their hair innocent of dandruff, their shirt whiter than snow.
TV advertising in Britain, obsessed with the symbol of the good life, exploits a strong desire for evidence of old fashioned security. Things were better in the old days: bread was crusty and beer was a man’s drink. But in selling the idea of a better life, it strikes me that most British commercials fail in their primary function. I cannot be alone among those who usually remember everything about TV advertising except the product it is designed to publicize.
In other superb commercial, a distinguished-looking Italian butler drives a car headlong into a vast dining-hall to serve champagne. What on earth was it selling? The champagne? The car? What car? Search me. Viewers reveled in the medium and forgot the message. American advertisers don’t make such mistakes. A typical U.S commercial features a woman in a kitchen holding a highly visible bottle of something or other and selling it hard. Not art, no craft, just the message. America sells the steak, while Britain sells the sizzle.
A nation needs symbols. We need proof that lovely things still endure, like a team of shire horses criss-crossing the landscape at sundown. We want to be reminded that they still exist, that we may still come across pockets of reason and beauty in a world less sensible and less beautiful each day. TV commercials provide us with those symbols. They provide a link with the way we like to think we were. They help us to keep in touch with lost innocence. Notes:
1. 1. convivial adj. 欢乐的，欢宴的 2. 2. obsess v. 迷住，使困扰
3. 3. sizzle v.&n. 咝咝地响；咝咝声
1．1．According to the passage, TV commercials _____. A) A) present us a pleasant world B) B) tell us the outside world
C) C) keep us well-informed about the idealized land. D) D) bring about more happy families.
2. Most British commercials fail to achieve their main aim because ______. A) A) they lack originality
B) B) the names given to the products are too difficult to remember. C) C) They only concentrate on the appearance of the product. D) D) They do not concentrate on the main points
3. What does the phrase “ reveled in” in Paragraph 3 most probably mean? A) A) involved in
B) B) enjoined enormously C) C) devoted to
D) D) rejected completely
4. 4. How are American commercials different from British ones?
A) A) they put more emphasis on the emotional needs of the audience. B) B) They adopt a more subtle approach. C) C) They were longer.
D) D) They communicate more effectively.