2017年06月大学英语六级考试真题第二套(打印)

2017年06月大学英语六级考试真题(第2套) Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: Suppose you are asked to give advice on whether to attend college at home or abroad, write an essay to state your opinion. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Part II Listening Comprehension 说明：2017年6月大学英语六级真题全国共考了两套听力。本套（即第三套）的听力材料与第一套完全一样，只是选项的顺序不同而已，故本套不再重复给出。 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. Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often __26__ to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears (stimulating the left hemisphere) of __27__ was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ear. It was __28__ observed that the left side of the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated when we are in a __29__ environment the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any __30__ danger. The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been __31__ in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal __32__ also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other __33__ animals, shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always __34__ control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably drown. But, as the human study suggest, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for __35__ while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working. A) classified B) consciously C) dramatically D) exotic E) identified F) inherent G) marine H) novel I) potential J) predators K) referred L) species M) specifically N) varieties O) volunteers Section B Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2. Elite Math Competitions Struggle to Diversify Their Talent Pool [A] Interest in elite high school math competitions has grown in recent years, and in light of last summer’s U.S. win at the International Math Olympiad (IMO)---the first for an American team in more than two decades—the trend is likely to continue. [B] But will such contests, which are overwhelmingly dominated by Asian and white students from middle-class and affluent families, become any more diverse? Many social and cultural factors play roles in determining which promising students get on the path toward international math recognition. But efforts are in place to expose more black, Hispanic, and low-income students to advanced math, in the hope that the demographic pool of high-level contenders will eventually begin to shift and become less exclusive. [C] “The challenge is if certain types of people are doing something, it’s difficult for other people to break into it,” said Po-Shen Loh, the head coach of last year’s winning U.S. Math Olympiad team. Participation grows through friends and networks and if “you realize that’s how they’re growing, you can start to take action” and bring in other students, he said. [D] Most of the training for advanced-math competitions happens outside the confines of the normal school day. Students attend after-school clubs, summer camps, online forums and classes, and university-based “math circles”, to prepare for the competitions. [E] One of the largest feeders for high school math competitions—including those that eventually lead to the IMO—is a middle school program called Math Counts. About 100,000 students around the country participate in the program’s competition series, which culminates in a national game-show-style contest held each May. The most recent one took place last week in Washington, D.C. Students join a team through their schools, which provide a volunteer coach and pay a nominal fee to send students to regional and state competitions. The 224 students who make it to the national competition get an all-expenses- paid trip. [F] Nearly all members of last year’s winning U.S. IMO team took part in Math Counts as middle school students, as did Loh, the coach. “Middle school is an important age because students have enough math capability to solve advanced problems, but they haven’t really decided what they want to do with their lives,” said Loh. “They often get hooked then.” [G] Another influential feeder for advanced-math students is an online school called Art of Problem Solving, which began about 13 years ago and now has 15,000 users. Students use forums to chat, play games, and solve problems together at no cost, or they can pay a few hundred dollars to take courses with trained teachers. According to Richard Rusczyk, the company founder, the six U.S. team members who competed at the IMO last year collectively took more than 40 courses on the site. Parents of advanced- math students and Math Counts coaches say the children are on the website constantly. [H] There are also dozens of summer camps—many attached to universities—that aim to prepare elite math students. Some are pricey---a three-week intensive program can cost $4,500 or more—but most offer scholarships. The Math Olympiad Summer Training Program is a three-week math camp held by the Mathematical Association of America that leads straight to the international championship and is free for those who make it. Only about 50 students are invited based on their performance on written tests and at the USA Math Olympiad. [I] Students in university towns may also have access to another lever for involvement in accelerated math: math circles. In these groups, which came out of an Eastern European tradition of developing young talent, professors teach promising K-12 students advanced mathematics for several hours after school or on weekends. The Los Angeles Math Circle, held at the University of California, Los Angeles, began in 2007 with 20 students and now has more than 250. “These math circles cost nothing, or they’re very cheap for students to get involved in, but you have to know about them,” said Rusczyk. “Most people would love to get students from more underserved populations, but they just can’t get them in the door. Part of it is communication; part of it is transportation.” [J] It’s no secret in the advanced-math community that diversity is a problem. According to Mark Saul, the director of competitions for the Mathematical Association of America, not a single African-American or Hispanic student---and only a handful of girls---has ever made it to the Math Olympiad team in its 50 years of existence. Many schools simply don’t prioritize academic competitions. “Do you know who we have to beat?” asked Saul. “The football team, the basketball team---that’s our competition for resources, student time, attention, school dollars, parent efforts, school enthusiasm.” [K] Teachers in low-income urban and rural areas with no history of participating in math competitions may not know about advanced-math opportunities like Math Counts—and those who do may not have support or feel trained to lead them. [L] But there are initiatives in place to try to get more underrepresented students involved in accelerated math. A New York City-based nonprofit called Bridge to Enter Mathematics runs a residential summer program aimed at getting underserved students，mostly black and Hispanic, working toward math and science careers. The summer after 7th grade, students spend three weeks on a college campus studying advanced math for seven hours a day. Over the next five years, the group helps the students get into other elite summer math programs, high-performing high schools, and eventually college. About 250 students so far have gone through the program, which receives funding from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. [M] “If you look at a lot of low-income communities in the United States, there are programs that are serving them, but they’ re primarily centered around ‘Let’s get these kids’ grades up’, and not around ‘Let’s get these kids access to the same kinds of opportunities as more-affluent kids,’” said Daniel Zaharopol, the founder and executive director of the program. “We’re trying to create that pathway.” Students apply to the program directly through their schools. “We want to reach parents who are not plugged into the system,” said Zaharopol. [N] In the past few years, Math Counts added two new middle school programs to try to diversify its participant pool---the National Math Club and the Math Video Challenge. Schools or teachers who sign up for the National Math Club receive a kit full of activities and resources, but there’s no special teacher training and no competition attached. [O] The Math Video Challenge is a competition, but a collaborative one. Teams of four students make a video illustrating a math problem and its real-world application. After the high-pressure Countdown round at this year’s national Math Counts competition, in which the top 12 students went head to head solving complex problems in rapid fire, the finalists for the Math Video Challenge took the stage to show their videos. The demographics of that group looked quite different from those in the competition round---of the 16 video finalists, 13 were girls and eight were African-American students. The video challenge does not put individual students on the hot seat---so it’s less intimidating by design. It also adds the element of artistic creativity to attract a new pool of students who may not see themselves as “math people”. 36. Middle school is a crucial period when students may become keenly interested in advanced mathematics. 37. Elite high school math competitions are attracting more interest throughout the United States. 38. Math circles provide students with access to advanced-math training by university professors. 39. Students may take advantage of online resources to learn to solve math problems. 40. The summer program run by a nonprofit organization has helped many underserved students learn advanced math. 41. Winners of local contests will participate in the national math competition for free. 42. Many schools don’t place academic competitions at the top of their priority list. 43. Contestants of elite high school math competitions are mostly Asian and white students from well-off families. 44. Some math training programs primarily focus on raising students’ math scores. 45. Some intensive summer programs are very expensive but most of them provide scholarships. Section C D