2011年12月英语六级考试真题与答案

（单词翻译）

Section A

Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

11.

M: I don’t know what to do. I have to drive to Chicago next Friday for my cousin’s wedding, but I have got a Psychology¹ test to prepare for.

W: Why don’t you record your notes so you can study on the way?

Q: What does the woman suggest the man do?

12.

M: Professor Wright, you may have to find another student to play this role, the lines are so long and I simply can’t remember them all.

W: Look, Tony. It is still a long time before the first show. I don’t expect you to know all the lines yet. Just keep practicing.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

13.

M: Hello, this is Dr. Martin from the Emergency Department. I have a male patient with a fractured ankle.

W: Oh, we have one bed available in ward² 3, send him here and I will take care of him.

Q: What are the speakers talking about?

14.

W: Since Simon will graduate this May, the school paper needs a new editor. So if you are interested, I will be happy to nominate you.

M: Thanks for considering me. But the baseball team is starting up a new season. And I’m afraid I have a lot on my hands.

Q: What does the man mean?

15. W: Have you heard the news that Jame Smeil has resigned his post as prime minister?

M: Well, I got it from the headlines this morning. It’s reported that he made public at this decision at the last cabinet meeting.

Q: what do we learn about Jame Smeil?

16. W: The morning paper says the space shuttle is taking off at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

M: Yeah, it’s just another one of this year’s routine missions. The first mission was undertaken a decade ago and broadcast live then worldwide.

Q: what can we infer from this conversation?

17. M: We do a lot of camping in the mountains. What would you recommend for two people?

W: You’d probably be better off with the four real drive vehicle. We have several off-road trucks in stock, both new and used.

Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?

18. W: I hear you did some serious shopping this past weekend.

M: Yeah, the speakers of my old stereo finally gave out and there was no way to repair them.

Q: What did the man do over the weekend?

 

Conversation One

W: Now, could you tell me where the idea for the business first came from?

M: Well, the original shop was opened by a retired³ printer by the name of Gruby. Mr Gruby being left-handed himself, thought of the idea to try to promote a few products for left-handers.

W: And how did he then go about actually setting up the business?

M: Well, he looked for any left-handed products that might already be on the market which were very few. And then contacted the manufactures with the idea of having products produced for him, mainly in the scissors range to start with.

W: Right. So you do commission some part of your stock.

M: Yes, very much so. About 75 percent of our stock is specially⁴ made for us.

W: And the rest of it?

M: Hmm, the rest of it now, some 25, 30 years after Mr. Gruby’s initial efforts, there are more left-handed product actually on the market. Manufactures are now beginning to see that there is a market for left-handed products.

W: And what’s the range of your stock?

M: The range consists of a variety of scissors from children scissors to scissors for tailors, hairdressers etc. We also have a large range of kitchen ware⁵.

W: What’s the competition like? Do you have quite a lot of competition?

M: There are other people in the business now in specialists, but only as mail-order outlets⁷. But we have a shop here in central London plus a mail-order outlet⁶. And we are without any doubt the largest supplier of the left-handed items.

Q19: What kind of business does the man engaged in?

Q20: What does the man say about his stock of products?

Q21: What does the man say about other people in his line of business?

Conversation Two

M: Can we make you an offer? We would like to run the campaign for four extra weeks.

W: well, can we summarize the problem from my point of view? First of all, the campaign was late. It missed two important trade affairs. The ads also did not appear into key magazines. As a result, the campaign failed. Do you accept that summary of what happened?

M: well, the delay wasn’t entirely⁸ our fault. You did in fact make late changes to the specifications⁹ of the advertisements.

W: Uh, actually, you were late with the initial proposals so you have very little time and in fact, we only asked for small changes.

M: Well whatever, can we repeat our offer to run the campaign for 4 extra weeks?

W: That’s not really the point. The campaign missed two key trade affairs. Because of this, we are asking you either to repeat the campaign next year for free, or we only pay 50% of the fee for this year.

M: Could we suggest a 20% reduction to the fee together with the four week sustention to the campaign.

W: We are not happy. We lost business.

M: I think we both made mistakes. The responsibility is on both sides.

W: Ok, let’s suggest a new solution. How about a 40% cut in fee, or a free repeat campaign?

M: Well, let’s take a break, we’re not getting very far. Perhaps we should think about this.

22: What do we learn about the man’s company?

23: Why was the campaign delayed according to the man?

24: What does the woman propose as a solution to the problem?

25: What does the man suggest they do at the end of the conversation?

 

Section B

Passage One

The University of Tennessee’s Walters Life Sciences building, is a model animal facility, spotlessly clean, careful in obtaining prior approval for experiments from an animal care committee. Of the 15,000 mice house there in a typical year, most give their lives for humanity. These are good mice and as such won the protection of the animal care committee. At any given time however some mice escape and run free. These mice are pests. They can disrupt experiments with the bacteria organisms they carry. They are bad mice and must be captured and destroyed. Usually, this is accomplished¹⁰ by means of sticky traps, a kind of fly paper on which they become increasingly stuck. But the real point of the cautionary tale, says animal behaviorist Herzau, is that the labels we put on things can affect our moral responses to them. Using stick traps or the more deadly snap traps would be deemed unacceptable for good mice. Yet the killing¹¹ of bad mice requires no prior approval. Once the research animal hits the floor and becomes an escapee, says Herza, its moral standard is instantly diminished. In Herzau’s own home, there was more ironic¹² example when his young son’s pet mouse Willy died recently, it was accorded a tearful ceremonial burial in garden. Yet even as they mourned Willy, says Herzau, he and his wife were setting snap traps to kill the pest mice in their kitchen with the bare change in labels from pet to pest, the kitchen mice obtained totally different moral standards

Questions:

26, What does the passage say about most of the mice used for experiments?

27, Why did the so-called bad mice have to be captured and destroyed?

28, When are mice killed without prior approval?

29, Why does the speaker say what the Herzau’s did at home is ironical¹³?

Passage Two

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence¹⁴ as natural and inevitable¹⁵. Second, there is the New York of the commuter¹⁶ — the city that is swallowed up by locusts¹⁷ each day and spat¹⁸ out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last, the city of final destination, the city that has a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition¹⁹, its poetical²⁰ deportment, its dedication²¹ to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity²² of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf²³ the Consolidated²⁴ Edison Company.

Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

30. What does the speaker say about the natives of New York?

31. What does the speaker say commuters give to New York?

32. What do we learn about the settlers of New York?

Passage Three

“If you asked me television is unhealthy”, I said to my roommate Walter, as I walked into the living room.“While you are sitting passively in front of the TV set, your muscles are turning to fat, your complexion²⁵ is fading, and your eyesight is being ruined.”

“Shh~”Walter put his finger to his lips, “This is an intriguing²⁶ murder mystery.”

“Really?” I replied.

“But you know, the brain is destroyed by TV viewing. Creativity is killed by that box. And people are kept from communicating with one another. From my point of view, TV is the cause of the declining interest in school and the failure of our entire educational system.”

“Ah ha, I can’t see your point.” Walter said softly. “But see? The woman on the witness stand in this story is being questioned about the murder that was committed one hundred years ago.”

Ignoring his enthusiastic description of the plot, I went on with my argument.

“As I see it,” I explained, “not only are most TV programs badly written and produced, but viewers are also manipulated by the mass media. As far as I am concerned, TV watchers are cut off from reality from nature, from the other people, from life itself! I was confident in my ability to persuade.

After a short silence, my roommate said, “Anyway, I’ve been planning to watch the football game. I am going to change the channel.”

“Don’t touch that dial!” I shouted, “I wanted to find out how the mystery turns out!”

I am not sure I got my point to cross.

Questions 33- 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

33. As the speaker walked into the living room, what was being shown on TV?

34. What does the speaker say about watching television?

35. What can we say about the speaker?

 

Section C Compound Dictation

In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages of machines has been their inability to work on a micro scale. For example, doctors did not have devices allowing them to go inside the human body to detect health problems or to perform delicate surgery. Repair crews did not have a way of identifying broken pipes located deep within a high-rise apartment building. However, that’s about to change. Advances in computers and biophysics have started a micro miniature revolution that allows scientists to envision and in some cases actually build microscopic²⁷ machines. These devices promise to dramatically change the way we live and work.

Micromachines already are making an impact. At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, research scientists have designed a 4-inch silicon²⁸ chip that holds 700 tiny primitive²⁹ motors. At Lucas Nova Sensor³⁰ in Fremont, California, scientists have perfected the world’s first microscopic blood-pressure sensor. Threaded through a person’s blood vessels³¹, the sensor can provide blood pressure readings at the valve of the heart itself.

Although simple versions of miniature devices have had an impact, advanced versions are still several years away.

Auto³² manufacturers, for example, are trying to use tiny devices that can sense when to release an airbag and how to keep engines and breaks operating efficiently³³. Some futurists envision nanotechnology also being used to explore the deep sea in small submarine, or even to launch finger-sized rockets packed with micro miniature instruments.

“There is an explosion of new ideas and applications,” So, when scientists now think about future machines doing large and complex tasks, they’re thinking smaller than ever before.

 

Listening Comprehension

听力汇总

Part III Listening Comprehension

Section A

Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

11.

M: I don’t know what to do. I have to drive to Chicago next Friday for my cousin’s wedding, but I have got a Psychology test to prepare for.

W: Why don’t you record your notes so you can study on the way?

Q: What does the woman suggest the man do?

【答案】A）Listen to the recorded notes while driving.

12.

M: Professor Wright, you may have to find another student to play this role, the lines are so long and I simply can’t remember them all.

W: Look, Tony. It is still a long time before the first show. I don’t expect you to know all the lines yet. Just keep practicing.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

【答案】C）The man lacks confidence in playing the part.

13.

M: Hello, this is Dr. Martin from the Emergency Department. I have a male patient with a fractured ankle.

W: Oh, we have one bed available in ward 3, send him here and I will take care of him.

Q: What are the speakers talking about?

【答案】A）Arranging a bed for a patient.

14.

W: Since Simon will graduate this May, the school paper needs a new editor. So if you are interested, I will be happy to nominate you.

M: Thanks for considering me. But the baseball team is starting up a new season. And I’m afraid I have a lot on my hands.

Q: What does the man mean?

【答案】A）He is too busy to accept more responsibility.

15. W: Have you heard the news that Jame Smeil has resigned his post as prime minister?

M: Well, I got it from the headlines this morning. It’s reported that he made public at this decision at the last cabinet meeting.

Q: what do we learn about Jame Smeil?

【答案】C) He has left his position in the government.

16. W: The morning paper says the space shuttle is taking off at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

M: Yeah, it’s just another one of this year’s routine missions. The first mission was undertaken a decade ago and broadcast live then worldwide.

Q: what can we infer from this conversation?

【答案】D) The man is well informed about the space shuttle missions.

17. M: We do a lot of camping in the mountains. What would you recommend for two people?

W: You’d probably be better off with the four reel drive vehicle. We have several off-road trucks in stock, both new and used.

Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?

【答案】A) At a car renting company

18. W: I hear you did some serious shopping this past weekend.

M: Yeah, the speakers of my old stereo finally gave out and there was no way to repair them.

Q: What did the man do over the weekend?

 

Conversation One

W: Now, could you tell me where the idea for the business first came from?

M: Well, the original shop was opened by a retired printer by the name of Gruby. Mr Gruby being left-handed himself, thought of the idea to try to promote a few products for left-handers.

W: And how did he then go about actually setting up the business?

M: Well, he looked for any left-handed products that might already be on the market which were very few. And then contacted the manufactures with the idea of having products produced for him, mainly in the scissors range to start with.

W: Right. So you do commission some part of your stock.

M: Yes, very much so. About 75 percent of our stock is specially made for us.

W: And the rest of it?

M: Hmm, the rest of it now, some 25, 30 years after Mr. Gruby’s initial efforts, there are more left-handed product actually on the market. Manufactures are now beginning to see that there is a market for left-handed products.

W: And what’s the range of your stock?

M: The range consists of a variety of scissors from children scissors to scissors for tailors, hairdressers etc. We also have a large range of kitchen ware.

W: What’s the competition like? Do you have quite a lot of competition?

M: There are other people in the business now in specialists, but only as mail-order outlets. But we have a shop here in central London plus a mail-order outlet. And we are without any doubt the largest supplier of the left-handed items.

【材料评析】

这是一篇采访一名专为左撇子们提供产品的供应商的文章。文中分别谈到了创业理念的来源、产业如何创始、产业日前发展状况以及这家产品供应商所面对的行业现状。具体细节为：创业理念开始于一名名叫Gruby的退休印刷工，他本人是一名左撇子，所以想到找生产商帮他实现自己所想的专门为左撇子设计产品的理念。而这家供应商目前面对的行业现状为：市面上已有的左撇子产品比最初创业之时，增加了许多；但销售渠道来源主要是网络订单。而这些，并不对这家供应商公司构成竞争威胁，因为他们在伦敦有门店和网络销售的双重渠道。因此他们是这种左撇子产品的最大供应商。

本篇文章为考查细节信息抓取能力题。难度较大主要因为考生可能对产品制造加工行业涉及到的manufacture、stock、mail-order outlet 、supplier等专业术语不太熟悉，而形成困扰。但考生只要能听出这是一篇采访类型的文章，每次都能听到女士（采访者）的问题非常简短，应该立即警惕答案应该是针对男士（被访者）的回答提问。而女士（采访者）的问题中本身就已经暗示出接下来的回答中的关键词。如：女士问的“And what’s the range of your stock?”一句中，stock即为关键信息词。因此，这篇文章同时也提醒考生平时应该注意商务用语和商业常识方面的积累。

Q19: What kind of business does the man engaged in?

Q20: What does the man say about his stock of products?

Q21: What does the man say about other people in his line of business?

Conversation Two

M: Can we make you an offer? We would like to run the campaign for four extra weeks.

W: Well, can we summarize the problem from my point of view? First of all, the campaign was late. It missed two important trade affairs. The ads also did not appear into key magazines. As a result, the campaign failed. Do you accept that summary of what happened?

M: Well, the delay wasn’t entirely our fault. You did in fact make late changes to the specifications of the advertisements.

W: Uh, actually, you were late with the initial proposals so you have very little time and in fact, we only asked for small changes.

M: Well whatever, can we repeat our offer to run the campaign for 4 extra weeks?

W: That’s not really the point. The campaign missed two key trade affairs. Because of this, we are asking you either to repeat the campaign next year for free, or we only pay 50% of the fee for this year.

M: Could we suggest a 20% reduction to the fee together with the four week sustention to the campaign.

W: We are not happy. We lost business.

M: I think we both made mistakes. The responsibility is on both sides.

W: Ok, let’s suggest a new solution. How about a 40% cut in fee, or a free repeat campaign?

M: Well, let’s take a break, we’re not getting very far. Perhaps we should think about this.

【材料评析】

这篇对话是围绕一次商业活动的推广是否延期和如何收费的讨论。对话中，女士否决了延期四周这个提议。理由是这次的活动已经错过了两个重要的商业活动事件，而且也没有在重要杂志上打广告。而男士则坚持要求延期，并表示：活动被耽搁的原因是女士所在公司没有及时给出对广告的修改。而男士认为是女士所在公司提交细节修改建议太晚而导致耽搁。女士坚持无需延期，且不应延期，而应定为活动失败。因此，女士向男士的公司提出降低收费或者明年免费为她们公司做活动的要求。最后，男士提出延期四周并给出20%的降价。可惜女士仍然要求更低的40%的降价和下一期的免费活动推广。而男士提出还需再议。显然，他对此提议并不表示赞同。

这篇文章总体不难，考查文章大意。而文章本身围绕是否延期和如何收费这个中心讨论点展开，没有较生僻的词汇。但值得注意的是，考生需要通过对话推知谈话者的身份，并对说话者的语气和话外音所包含的内容有所把握。另外，这是一篇在真实的商务谈判场景中会经常出现的状况。考生注意平时对商业和商务常识方面的知识积累，会对把握整个听力对话的大意很有帮助。

22: What do we learn about the man’s company?

23: Why was the campaign delayed according to the man?

24: What does the woman propose as a solution to the problem?

25: What does the man suggest they do at the end of the conversation?

 

Section B

Passage One

The University of Tennessee’s Walters Life Sciences building, is a model animal facility, spotlessly clean, careful in obtaining prior approval for experiments from an animal care committee. Of the 15,000 mice house there in a typical year, most give their lives for humanity. These are good mice and as such won the protection of the animal care committee. At any given time however some mice escape and run free. These mice are pests. They can disrupt experiments with the bacteria organisms they carry. They are bad mice and must be captured and destroyed. Usually, this is accomplished by means of sticky traps, a kind of fly paper on which they become increasingly stuck. But the real point of the cautionary tale, says animal behaviorist Herzau, is that the labels we put on things can affect our moral responses to them. Using stick traps or the more deadly snap traps would be deemed unacceptable for good mice. Yet the killing of bad mice requires no prior approval. Once the research animal hits the floor and becomes an escapee, says Herza, its moral standard is instantly diminished. In Herzau’s own home, there was more ironic example when his young son’s pet mouse Willy died recently, it was accorded a tearful ceremonial burial in garden. Yet even as they mourned Willy, says Herzau, he and his wife were setting snap traps to kill the pest mice in their kitchen with the bare change in labels from pet to pest, the kitchen mice obtained totally different moral standards

【材料评析】

本篇文章主要是讲述人们对待老鼠不同的道德态度。

同是一个实验室里面老鼠，如果是为了人类实验做贡献，就是人们眼中的好老鼠；而一旦老鼠从实验室里面跑出来，携带病菌危害到了人类健康，那么这些逃跑掉的老鼠就成为了人们眼中的坏老鼠。人类会使用那些捕鼠夹子来消灭坏老鼠，但是对待好老鼠的时候态度截然不同，比如作者儿子的宠物老鼠死掉了，他们家甚至给它办了一场葬礼。

作者的观点就是：如果我们对一样事物贴上了标签，那么在道德层面上，我们内心会根据标签的不同作出不同的反应。并不是事物本身有任何好与不好，只是人类自作主张给各个事物贴上了不同的标签。

Questions:

26 What does the passage say about most of the mice used for experiments?

【答案】D）They sacrifice their lives for the benefit of humans.

27 Why did the so-called bad mice have to be captured and destroyed?

【答案】C) They may affect the results of experiments.

28 When are mice killed without prior approval?

【答案】C) When they become escapees.

29, Why does the speaker say what the Herzau’s did at home is ironical?

【答案】A）While holding a burial ceremony for a pet mouse, they were killing pest mice.

Passage Two

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is swallowed up by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last, the city of final destination, the city that has a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.

【材料评析】

这篇文章的主题是城市和文化。属于散文性质。

讲述了不同的人带给纽约不同的气息。第一种，纽约本地人，让纽约完整持续；第二种，纽约上班族，让纽约躁动不安；第三种，来纽约寻梦的人，他们让纽约充满热情。作者在内心觉得纽约正是因为有这样三种人才能如此闪耀光彩，尤其是最后一类人，为纽约做出的贡献最大。

本篇文章中，The Three New Yorks 具有双关含义，既可以指纽约城，也可以指纽约人。有些学生可能看到这里就没看懂。遇到这种情况应该先接着往后看，然后猜这个three New Yorks到底指什么。

Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

30. What does the speaker say about the natives of New York?

【答案】D) They take it for granted.

31. What does the speaker say commuters give to New York?

【答案】A) Tidal restlessness.

32. What do we learn about the settlers of New York?

【答案】B) They are adventurers from all over the world.

Passage Three

“If you asked me television is unhealthy”, I said to my roommate Walter, as I walked into the living room.“While you are sitting passively in front of the TV set, your muscles are turning to fat, your complexion is fading, and your eyesight is being ruined.”

“Shh~”Walter put his finger to his lips, “This is an intriguing murder mystery.”

“Really?” I replied.

“But you know, the brain is destroyed by TV viewing. Creativity is killed by that box. And people are kept from communicating with one another. From my point of view, TV is the cause of the declining interest in school and the failure of our entire educational system.”

“Ah ha, I can’t see your point.” Walter said softly. “But see? The woman on the witness stand in this story is being questioned about the murder that was committed one hundred years ago.”

Ignoring his enthusiastic description of the plot, I went on with my argument.

“As I see it,” I explained, “not only are most TV programs badly written and produced, but viewers are also manipulated by the mass media. As far as I am concerned, TV watchers are cut off from reality from nature, from the other people, from life itself! I was confident in my ability to persuade.

After a short silence, my roommate said, “Anyway, I’ve been planning to watch the football game. I am going to change the channel.”

“Don’t touch that dial!” I shouted, “I wanted to find out how the mystery turns out!”

I am not sure I got my point to cross.

【材料评析】

这是一篇很有趣的记叙文。讲述了作者和室友的一段关于看电视问题的对话。

作者一直在强调看电视如何如何不好，并且列举出了一大堆的原因：会让身体变胖，面色枯黄，视力下降，并且会让孩子们的创造能力，交际能力下降。但是他的室友一直没有接他的话，一直专心于看自己的电视节目。

文章最幽默的是，最后一个情节，当室友说要换台的时候，作者立刻不愿意了，真是非常地讽刺，原来作者自己也是离不开电视机，受不了电视节目的诱惑的。

这篇文章难度比较低，生词几乎没有，大家只要看懂情节，基本上所有问题也可以回答出来，需要仔细认真，在听听力的时候虚拟场景。

Questions 33- 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

33. As the speaker walked into the living room, what was being shown on TV?

【答案】D） A murder mystery

34. What does the speaker say about watching television?

【答案】C）It is unhealthy for the viewers.

35. What can we say about the speaker?

【答案】B) He can’t resist the temptation of T.V. either.

 

Section C Compound Dictation

In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages of machines has been their inability to work on a micro scale. For example, doctors did not have devices allowing them to go inside the human body to detect health problems or to perform delicate surgery. Repair crews did not have a way of identifying broken pipes located deep within a high-rise apartment building. However, that’s about to change. Advances in computers and biophysics have started a micro miniature revolution that allows scientists to envision and in some cases actually build microscopic machines. These devices promise to dramatically change the way we live and work.

Micromachines already are making an impact. At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, research scientists have designed a 4-inch silicon chip that holds 700 tiny primitive motors. At Lucas Nova Sensor in Fremont, California, scientists have perfected the world’s first microscopic blood-pressure sensor. Threaded through a person’s blood vessels, the sensor can provide blood pressure readings at the valve of the heart itself.

Although simple versions of miniature devices have had an impact, advanced versions are still several years away.

Auto manufacturers, for example, are trying to use tiny devices that can sense when to release an airbag and how to keep engines and breaks operating efficiently. Some futurists envision nanotechnology also being used to explore the deep sea in small submarine, or even to launch finger-sized rockets packed with micro miniature instruments.

“There is an explosion of new ideas and applications,” So, when scientists now think about future machines doing large and complex tasks, they’re thinking smaller than ever before.

【答案】

36. detect

37. delicate 38. identifying 39. apartment

40. revolution 41. dramatically 42. primitive 43. vessels 44. Although simple versions of miniature devices have had an impact, advanced versions are still several years away 45. that can sense when to release an airbag and how to keep engines and breaks operating efficiently 46. when scientists now think about future machines doing large and complex tasks, they’re thinking smaller than ever before