2014年12月英语六级考试真题与答案

（单词翻译）

短对话：

1.

M: Before we play again, I’m going to buy a good tennis racket.

W: Your shoes aren’t in a very good shape either.

Q: What does the woman mean?

2.

M: Barbara, I’d like you could assist me in the lab demonstration¹. But aren’t you supposed to go to Dr. Smith’s lecture today?

W: I ask Cathy to take notes for me.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

3.

W: Steve invited me to the dinner party on Sunday evening. Have you received your invitation yet?

M: Yes, he found me this morning and told me he wanted all his old classmates to come to the reunion.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

4.

W: I’m afraid I’m a little bit seasick². I feel dizzy.

M: Close your eyes and relax. You’ll be all right as soon as we come at shore.

Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?

5.

W: I wonder what’s happened to our train. It should have been here twenty minutes ago according to the timetable. But it’s already 9:30.

M: There’s no need to get nervous. The announcement says it’s forty minutes late.

Q: When is the train arriving?

6.

M: John is handsome and wealthy. Believe it or not, he is still a bachelor.

W: He is a notorious guy in many girls’ eyes. I’m sick of hearing his name.

Q: What does the woman mean?

7.

M: Cars had lined up bumper³ to bumper. And I’ve been held up on the express way for the entire hour.

W: Really? It must be a pain in the neck. But be patient, anyway, you can do nothing but wait.

Q: What do we learn about the man?

8.

W: Yesterday I was surprised to see Mary using that washing machine you’re going to throw away.

M: Yes, it’s quite old and in a very poor condition. Frankly⁴ speaking, that she got it working amazes me a lot.

Q: What does the man imply about Mary?

长对话：

Conversation 1

M: A recent case I heard was of a man accused and found guilty of breaking into a house and stealing some money.

W: Well, was he really guilty, judge?

M: He admitted that he’d done it, and there were several witnesses saying that he had indeed done it. So I can only assume that he was guilty.

W: Why did he do it?

M: Well, the reasons were little muddied, probably at least it seemed in a trial that he did it to get some money to feed his family. You see, he’d been out of work for some time.

W: Well, he’d been out of work and he chose to break into a house to get money for his family and apparently⁵ in front of people that, err⁶... could see him do it.

M: His attorney presented testimony⁷ that he had indeed applied⁸ for jobs and was listed with several employment agencies, including the state employment agency, but they weren’t any jobs.

W: And he had no luck!

M: He had no luck and it’d been some time. He had two children and both of them were needing food and clothing.

W: So he was in desperate circumstances. Did you sentence him?

M: Yes.

W: But what good does it do to put the man into jail when he’s obviously in such need?

M: This particular fellow has been in prison before.

W: For the same thing?

M: No, for a different sort of crime.

W: Huh?

M: But he did know about crime, so I suppose there are folks that just have to go back to prison several times.

9. What did the judge say about the case he recently heard?

10. What do we learn about the man at the time of crime?

11. What did the judge say about the accused?

Conversation 2

M: Ah, how do you do, Ms. Wezmore?

W: How do you do?

M: Do sit down.

W: Thank you.

M: I’m glad you’re interested in our job. Now, let me explain it. We plan to increase our advertising⁹ considerably¹⁰. At present, an advertising agency handles our account, but we haven’t been too pleased with the results lately and we may give our account to another agency.

W: What would my work entail¹¹?

M: You’d be responsible to me for all advertising and to Mr. Grunt¹² for public relations. You’d brief the agency whoever it is on the kind of advertising campaign we want. You’d also be responsible for getting our leaflets, brochures and catalogs designed.

W: I presume you advertise in the national press as well as the trade press.

M: Yes, we do.

W: Have you thought about advertising on television?

M: We don’t think it’s a suitable medium for us. And it’s much too expensive.

W: I can just imagine a scene with a typist sitting on an old-fashioned typing chair, her back aching, exhausted¹³, then we show her in one of your chairs. Her back properly supported filling full of energy, typing twice as quickly.

M: Before you get carried away with your little scene, Ms. Wezmore, I regret to have to tell you again that we are not planning to go into television.

W: That’s a shame. I’ve been doing a lot of television work lately and it interests me enormously.

M: Then I really don’t think that this is quite the right job for you here, Ms. Wezmore.

12. What does the man think of their present advertising agency?

13. What would the woman be responsible for to Mr. Grunt?

14. What is the woman most interested in doing?

15. What does the man think of the woman applicant¹⁴?

短文一

Many foreign students are attracted not only to the academic programs at a particular U.S. college but also to the larger community, which affords the chance to soak up the surrounding culture. Few foreign universities put much emphasis on the cozy¹⁵ communal¹⁶ life that characterizes American campuses from clubs and sports teams to student publications and drama societies. “The campus and the American university have become identical in people’s minds,” says Brown University President Vartan Gregorian. “In America it is assumed that a student’s daily life is as important as his learning experience.”

Foreign students also come in search of choices. America’s menu of options—research universities, state institutions, private liberal-arts schools, community colleges, religious institutions, military academies—is unrivaled. “In Europe,” says history professor Jonathan Steinberg, who has taught at both Harvard and Cambridge, “there is one system, and that is it.” While students overseas usually must demonstrate expertise¹⁷ in a specific field, whether law or philosophy or chemistry, most American universities insist that students sample natural and social sciences, languages and literature before choosing a field of concentration.

Such opposing philosophies grow out of different traditions and power structures. In Europe and Japan, universities are answerable only to a ministry¹⁸ of education, which sets academic standards and distributes money.

While centralization ensures that all students are equipped with roughly the same resources and perform at roughly the same level, it also discourages experimentation¹⁹. “When they make mistakes, they make big ones,” says Robert Rosenzweig, president of the Association of American Universities. “They set a system in wrong directions, and it’s like steering²⁰ a supertanker.”

16. What does the speaker say characterizes American campuses?

17. What does Brown University president Vartan Gregorian say about students' daily life?

18. In what way is the United States unrivaled according to the speaker?

19. What does the speaker say about universities in Europe and Japan?

短文二

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard your Sea-link ferry from Folkestone to Boulogne and wish you a pleasant trip with us. We are due to leave Folkestone in about five minutes and a journey to Boulogne will take approximately two hours. We are getting good reports of the weather in the Channel and in France, so we should have a calm crossing. Sun and temperatures of 30 degrees celsius²¹ are reported on the French coast. For your convenience on the journey, we'd like to point out that there ar e a number of facilities available on board. There's a snack bar serving sandwiches and hot and cold refreshments²² situated²³ in the front of A deck. There is also a restaurant serving hot meals situated on B deck. If you need to change money or cash travelers' checks, we have a bank on board. You can find a bank on C deck. Between the ship's office and the duty free shop, toilets are situated on B deck at the rear of the ship and on A deck next to the snack bar. For the children, there's a games room on C deck next to the duty free shop. Here children can find a variety of electronic games. Passengers are reminded that the lounge on B deck is for the sole use of passengers traveling with cars and that there is another lounge on C deck at the front of the ship for passengers traveling without cars. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to wish you a pleasant journey and hope that you'll travel with us again in the near future.

20. What does the speaker say about the Sea-link ferry?

21. Where is the snack bar situated?

22. What does the speaker say about the lounge on B deck?

短文三

On Christmas Eve in 1994, humans entered a cave in the mountains of southeastern France for what was probably the first time in 20,000 years. The vivid images of more than 300 animals that Jean-Marie Chauvet and his assistants found on the cave walls were like none that they had seen before. Unusual in the Grotte Chauvet, as the cave is now called in honor of its discoverer, are paintings of many flat sheeting animals. Other known caves from the same geographical²⁴ area and time period contain only paintings of plantites. The paintings in this cave refute the old theory that Cro-Magnoon people painted animals that they hunted and then ate. Now many specialists believe that cave paintings were not part of a ritual to bring good luck to hunters. They point out that while deer made up a major part of their diet, there're no drawings of deer. They believe that the animals painted were those central to the symbolic²⁵ and spiritual life of the times; animals that represented something deep and spiritual to the people. Scientists are hopeful that Groo Chavie will yield new information about the art and lifestyle of Cro-Magnoon people. They readily admit, however, that little is understood yet as to the reasons why ice age artists created their interesting and detailed²⁶ paintings. Scientists also wonder why some paintings were done in areas that are so difficult to get to, in caves, for example, that are 2,400 feet underground, and accessible only by crawling through narrow passageways.

23. How did the cave get its name?

24. What is the old theory about the paintings in the cave?

25. What do scientists readily admit according to the speaker?