2018.12六级真题卷一

　作文题目： 　　For this part， you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on how to balance academic study and extracurricular activities。 You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words。 PartII listening comprehension Conversation one 　　M: Hey, I just read a great book about physics. I think you'd like it. It is called The Physics of the World. It is written by a scientist named Sylvia Mundus. 　　W: Oh I read that book. It was great. The writer is a warm and competent guide to the mysteries of physics. I think it promises enrichment for any reader from those who know little about science to the career physicist. 　　M: And it's refreshing to see a strong curious clever woman adding her voice to the scientific discourse and a field that has been traditionally dominated by men. I think she has to be commended for making an effort to include anecdotes about little known female scientists. You know, they were often victims of a generation firmly convinced that the women’s place was in the home. 　　W: I like how the book is clearly written with each chapter brought to life by pieces of fascinating knowledge. For example in one chapter, she exposes a myth that I’ve heard taught by university physics professors. I’ve often heard that medieval glass windows are thicker at the bottom because glass flows like fluid. This, she shows, is not true. The distortion is actually thanks to a peculiarity of the glassmakers’ process. 　　M: Yeah, I like how she cultivates scientific engagement by providing the host of Do It Yourself experiments that bring the same foundation of principles of classical physics that govern everything from the solar system to your kitchen table. From using complex laws of psychics to test whether a spinning egg is cooked, to measuring atmosphere pressure by lifting a piece of cardboard. Her hands-on examples make her book a truly interactive read. 　　W: Yes, I must say this equation-free book is an ideal read for scientists of all stripes, anyone teaching science and even people who dislike psychics. 　　Questions 1-4 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 　　Q1: What does the woman say about the book the man recommended? 　　Q2: What can we find in the book the man recommended? 　　Q3: How does the author bring her book to life? 　　Q4: How does the book cultivate readers’ interest in psychics? Conversation Two 　　M: Hi professor! I was hoping I could have a moment of your time, if you are not too busy. I'm having some problems getting started on my dissertation and I was hoping you could give me some advice on how to begin. 　　W: Sure. I have quite a few students though. So can you remind me what your topic is? 　　M: The general topic I chose is aesthetics. But that's as far as I've got. I don't really know where to go from there. 　　W: Yeah, that's much too large a topic. You really need to narrow it down in order to make it more accessible, otherwise you will be writing a book. 　　M: Exactly. That's what I wanted to ask you about. I was hoping it would be possible for me to change topics. I'm really more interested in nature than beauty. 　　W: I'm afraid you have to adhere to the assigned topic. Still, if you are interested in nature, then that certainly can be worked into your dissertation. We've talked about Hume before in class right? 　　M: Oh yeah. He's the philosopher who wrote about where our ideas of beauty come from. 　　W: Exactly. I suggest you go to the library and get a copy of his biography. Start from there. But remember to stick to the parameters of the assignment. This paper is a large part of your accumulative grade, so make sure to follow the instructions. If you take a look at his biography, you can get a good idea of how his life experiences manifest themselves in his theories of beauty, specifically, the way he looked towards nature as the origin of what we find beautiful. 　　M: Great! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, professor. I'll let you get back to class now. 　　W: If there is anything else you need, please come see me in my office anytime. 　　Questions 5-8 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 　　Q5: What is the man's problem? 　　Q6: What does the professor think of the man's topic? 　　Q7: What is the man really more interested in? 　　Q8: What does the professor say the man has to do?  　　听力篇章 　　Passage 1: 　　During the Arctic winter from October to March, the average temperature in the frozen north typically hovers around minus 20 degrees Celsius. But this year, the Arctic is experiencing much higher temperatures. 　　On February 20th, the temperature in Greenland climbed above freezing or zero degree Celsius and it stayed there for over 24 hours. Then, on February 24th, the temperature on Greenland northern tip reached 6 degree Celsius. Climate scientists described the phenomenon as stunning. 　　Weather conditions that drive this bizarre temperature surge have visited the Arctic before. They typically appear about once in a decade. However, the last such increasing temperature took place two years ago. 　　This is troubling as climbing Arctic temperatures combined with rapid sea-ice loss are creating a new type of climate feedback loop which could accelerate Arctic warming. Indeed, sea-ice cover in the Arctic is melting faster than expected. Without those masses of cooling sea ice, warm air brought to the Arctic can penetrate further inland than it ever did before. The air can stay warmer, and longer too. This drives additional melting. 　　Overall, Earth is warming at a rapid pace — 2014 through 2017 rank as the hottest years on record —and the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anyplace else on Earth. This raises unique challenges for Arctic wildlife and indigenous people who depend on Arctic ecosystems to survive. 　　Previously, climate forecasts predicted that Arctic summer ice would disappear entirely by around 2060. But based on what scientists are seeing now, the Arctic may be facing summers without ice within 20 years. 　　Q9: What did climate scientists describe as stunning? 　　Q10: What does the passage say about the temperature surge in the Arctic? 　　Q11: What may occur in 20 years according to scientists' recent observations? Passage 2 　　A good dose of will power is often necessary to see any task through, whether it’s sticking to a spending plan or finishing a great novel. And if you want to increase that will power, a new study suggests, you just simply have to believe you have it. According to the study, what matters most is what we think about our will power. If we believe it’s a finite resource, we act that way. We feel exhausted any breaks between demanding mental tasks. However, people who view their will power as a limitless resource get energized instead. The researchers used a psychological assessment tool to test the validity of the study. They asked one thousand one hundred Americans and one thousand six hundred Europeans to grade different statements such as “after a challenging mental activity, my energy is depleted and I must rest to get it refueled again” or “I can focus on a mental task for long periods without feeling tired.” Although there was little difference between men and women over all, Americans were more likely to admit to needing breaks after completing mentally challenging tasks. European participants, on the other hand, claimed they were able to keep going. Based on the findings, the researchers suggest that the key to boosting your will power is to believe that you have an abundant supply of it. Your feelings about your will power affect the way you behave. But these feelings are changeable, they said. Changing your beliefs about the nature of your self-control can have positive effects on character development. This leads to healthier behaviors and perceptions of other people. 　　12. What is often necessary for carrying through a task? 　　13. What is the finding of the new study? 　　14. What do we learn about European participants as compared with their American counterparts? 　　15. What do the researchers say concerning people’s feelings about will power?  　　讲话/报道/讲座 　　Recording 1 　　Here is my baby niece Sarah. Her Mon is a doctor and her dad is a lawyer. By the time Sarah goes to college, the jobs her parents do are going to look dramatically different. 　　In 2013, researchers at Oxford University did a study on the future of work. They concluded that almost one in every two jobs have a high risk of being automated by machines. Machine learning is the technology that's responsible for most of this disruption. It's the most powerful branch of artificial intelligence. It allows machines to learn from data and copy some of