英语六级冲刺阅读训练及答案(20篇).pdf
The Earth comprises three principal layers:the dense,iron-rich core,the mantle madeof silicate（硅 酸 盐）that are semi-molten at depth,and the thin,solid-surface crustThere are two kinds of crust,a lower and denser oceanic crust and an upper,lightercontinental crust found over only about 40 percent of the Earths surface.The rocks ofthe crust are of very different ages.Some continental rocks are over 3,000 millionyears old,while those of the ocean floor are less than 200 million years old.Thecrusts and the top,solid part of the mantle,totaling about 70 to 100 kilometers inthickness,at present appear to consist of about 15 rigid plates,7 of which are verylarge.These plates move over the semi-molten lower mantleto produce all of themajor topographical（地 形 学 的）features of the Earth.Active zones where intensedeformation occur are confined to the narrow,interconnecting boundaries of contactof the plates.There are three main types of zones of contact:spreading contacts where platesmove apart,converging contacts where plates move towards each other,and transformcontacts where plates slide past each other.Newoceanic crust is formed along one ormore margins of each plate by material issuing from deeper layers of the Earth*s crust,for example,by volcanic eruptions（爆 发）of lava（火 山 熔 岩）at mid-ocean ridges.Ifat such a spreading contact the two plates support continents,a rift（裂 缝）is formedthat will gradually widen and become flooded by the tea.The Atlantic Ocean formedlike this as the American and Afro-European plates moved in opposite directions.When two plates carrying continents collide,the continental blocks,too light to bedrawn down,continue to float and therefore buckle（起 褶 皱）to form a mountainchain along the length of the margin of the plates.练 习 题：Choose correct answers to the question:l.The Earth s c r u s t.A.can be classified into two typesB.is formed along the margins of the platesC.consists of semi-molten rocksD.is about 70 to 100 kilometers thick2.The 15 plates of the Earth are formed from_.A.the oceanic crusts and continental crustsB.the crusts and the mantleC.the crusts and the top and solid part of the mantleD.the continental crusts and the solid part of the mantle3.Seriously-deformed zones appearA.whenever the crusts move over mantleB.when the plates move towards each otherC.in the narrow boundaries where two plates meetD.to be the major topographical feature of the Earth4.According to the second paragraph,the formation of the Atlantic Ocean is theexample o f.A.spreading contactsB.the influence of volcanic eruptionsC.converging contacts0.transform contacts5.This passage is p r o b a b l y.A.a newspaper advertisementB.a chapter of a novelC.an excerpt from a textbookD.a scientific report of new findingsA remarkable variety of insects live in this planet More species of insects existthan all other animal species together.Insects have survived on earth for more than300 million years,and may possess the ability to survive for millions more.Insects can be found almost everywhere-on the highest mountains and onthe bottom of rushing streams,in the cold South Pole and in bubbling hot springs.They dig through the ground jum p and sing in the trees,and run and dance in the air.They come in many different colors and various shapes.Insects are extremely usefulto humans,pollinating（授 粉）our crops as well as flowers in meadows,forests,desertsand other areas.But licks and some insects,such as mosquitoes and fleas,cantransmit disease.There are many reasons why insects are so successful at surviving.Theiramazing ability to adapt permits them to live in extreme ranges of temperatures andenvironments.The one place they have not yet been found to any major extent is inthe open oceans.Insects can survive on a wide range,of natural and artificial foods-paint,pepper,glue,books,grain,cotton,other insects,plants and animals Becausethey are small they can hide in tiny spaces.A strong,hard but flexible shell covers their soft organs and is resistant tochemicals,water and physical impact.Their wings give them the option of flyingaway from dangerous situations or toward food or males.Also,insects have anenormous reproductive capacity:An African ant queen can lay as many as 43,000eggs a day.Another reason for their success is the strategy of protective color.An insectmay be right before our eyes,but nearly invisible because it is cleverly disguised likea green leaf,lump of brown soil,gray lichen（青 苔）,a seed or some other naturalobject Some insects use bright,bold colors to send warning signals that they tastebad,sting or are poison.Others have wing patterns that look like the eyes of a hugepredator,bitter-tasting insects;hungry enemies are fooled into avoiding them.练 习 题：Choose correct answers to the question:1.Insects can be found in large amounts in the following places EXCEPTA.on the mountains with little airB.in the cold polar areasC.in the hot desert areasD.in the open oceans2.Insects protect themselves from chemicals byA.hiding in tiny spacesB.having a strong shellC.flying away when necessaryD.changing colors or shapes3.Some insects disguise like natural objects so as toA.frighten away their enemiesB.avoid being discoveredC.send warning signalsD.look bitter-tasting4.The passage mentions that i n s e c t s.A.can be found in any extreme environmentsB.have survived longer than any other creaturesC.can be fed on any natural or man-made foodsD.are important fbr the growth of crops and flowers5.The passage is mainly aboutA.how insects survive in different placesB.why insects can survive so successfullyC.what insects can do to the environmentD.where insects can be found in quantityThe fridge is considered necessary.It has been so since the 1960s when packagedfood list appeared with the label:Store in the refrigerator.In my fridge less Fifties childhood,1 was fed well and healthy.Themilkman came every day,the grocer,the butcher（肉 商）,the baker,and the ice-creamman delivered two or three times each week.The Sunday meat would last untilWednesday and surplus（剩 余 的）bread and milk became all kinds of cakes.Nothingwas wasted,and we were never troubled by rotten food.Thirty years on fooddeliveries have ceased,fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country.The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of foodpreservation.Many well-tried techniques already existed-natural cooling,drying,smoking,salting,sugaring,bottling.What refrigeration did promote was marketing-marketing hardware andelectricity,marketing soft drinks,marketing dead bodies of animals around the worldin search of a good price.Consequently,most of the worlds fridges are to be found,not in the tropicswhere they might prove useful,but in the rich countries with mild temperatures wherethey are climatically almost unnecessary.Every winter,millions of fridges hum awaycontinuously,and at vast expense,busily maintaining an artificially-cooled spaceinside an artificially-heated house-while outside,nature provides the desiredtemperature free of charge.The fridges effect upon the environment has been evident,while itscontribution to human happiness has been not important.If you dont believe me,tryit yourself,invest in a food cabinet and mm off your fridge next winter.You may noteat the hamburgers（汉 堡 包）,but at least youll get rid of that terrible hum.练 习 题：Choose correct answers to the question:l.The statement nIn my fridgeless fifties childhood,I was fed well andhealthily.suggests t h a t.A.the author was well-fed and healthy even without a fridge in his fifties.B.the author was not accustomed to fridges even in his fifties.C.there was no fridge in the authors home in the 1950s.D.the fridge was in its early stage of development in the 1950s.2.Why does the author say that nothing was wasted before the invention offridges?A.People would not buy more food than was necessary.B.Food was delivered to people two or three times a week.C.Food was sold fresh and did not get rotten easily.D.People had effective ways to preserve their food.3.Who benefited the least from fridges according to the author?A.Inventors.B.Consumers.C.Manufacturers.D.Travelling salesmen.4.Which of the following phrases in the fifth paragraph indicates the fridgesnegative effect on the environment?A.Hum away c o n tin u o u sly.B.Climatically almost unnecessary v.C.Artificially-cooled spacen.D.With mild te m p e ra tu re s.5.What is the authors overall attitude toward fridges?A.Neutral.B.Critical.C.Objective.D.Compromising.四 Moreover,insofar as any interpretation of its author can be made from the five orsix plays attributed to him,the Wake field Master is uniformly considered to be a manof sharp contemporary observation.He was,formally,perhaps clerically educated,ashis Latin and music,his Biblical and patristic lore indicate.He is,still,celebratedmainly fbr his quick sympathy for the oppressed and forgotten man,his sharp eye forcharacter,a ready ear for colloquial vernacular turns of speech and a humoralternately rude and boisterous,coarse and happy.Hence despite his conscious artistryas manifest in his feeling for intricate metrical and stanza forms,he is looked upon asa kind of medieval Steinbeck,indignantly angry at,uncompromisingly and evenbrutally realistic in presenting the plight of the agricultural poor.Thus taking the play and the author together,it is mow fairly conventionalto regard the former as a kind of ultimate point in the secularization of the medievaldrama.Hence much emphasis on it as depicting realistically humble manners andpastoral life in the bleak hills of the West Riding of Yorkshire on a typically cold bightof December 24th.After what are often regarded as almost“documentaries“given inthe three successive monologues of the three shepherds,critics go on to affirm that therealism is then intensified into a burlesque mock-treatment of the Nativity.Finally asa sort of epilogue or after-thought in deference to the Biblical origins of the materials,the play slides back into an atavistic mood of early innocent reverence.Actually,aswe shall see,the final scene is not only the culminating scene but perhaps the raisondetre of introductory“realism.vThere is much on the surface of the present play to support the conventionalview of its mood of secular realism.All the same,the“realism“of the Wake fieldMaster is of a paradoxical turn.His wide knowledge of people,as well as booksindicates no cloistered contemplative but one in close relation to his times.Still,thatlife was after all a predominantly religious one,a time which never neglected thebelief that man was a rebellious and sinful creature in need of redemption,So deeply(one can hardly say“naively“of so sophisticated a writer)and implicitly religious isthe Master that he is less able(or less willing)to present actual history realisticallythan is the author of the Brome“Abraham and Isaac”.His historical sense is evenless realistic than that of Chaucer who just a few years before had done for his owntime costume romances,such as The Knight s Tale,Troilus and Cressida,etc.Moreover Chaucer had the excuse of highly romantic materials for taking libertieswith history.1.Which of the following statements about the Wake field Master is NOTTrue?A.He was Chaucer?s contemporary.B.He is remembered as the author of five or six realistic plays.C.He write like John Steinbeck.D.HE was an accomplished artist.2.By“patristic”,the author meansA.realistic.B.patrioticC.superstitious.C.pertaining to the Christian Fathers.3.The statement about the secularization of the medieval drama“refersto theA.introduction of mundane matters in religious plays.B.presentation of erudite material.C.use of contemporary introduction of religious themes in the early days.4.In subsequent paragraphs,we may expect the writer of this passage toA,justify his comparison with Steinbeck.B.present a point of view which attack the thought of the secondparagraph.C.point out the anachronisms in the play.D.discuss the works of Chaucer.五 The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and artcentered on whether photographJ s fidelity to appearances and dependence on amachine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art.Throughoutthe nineteenth century,the defence of photography was identical with the struggle toestablish it as a fine art.Against the charge that photography was a soulless,mechanical copying of reality,photographers asserted that it was instead a privilegedway of seeing,a revolt against commonplace vision,and no less worthy an art thanpainting.Ironically,now that photography is securely established as a fine art,manyphotographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such.Seriousphotographers variously claim to be finding,recording,impartially observing,witnessing events,exploring themselves一 anything but making works of art.They areno longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art,except toproclaim that their own work is not involved with art.It shows the extent to whichthey simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism:the better the art,the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.Photographers disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more aboutthe harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography isor is not art.For example,those photographers who suppose that,by taking pictures,they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind usof those Abstract Expression ist painters who imagined they were getting away fromthe intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on thephysical act of painting.Much of photography s prestige today derives from theconvergence of its aims with those of recent art,particularly with the dismissal ofabstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the 1960?s.Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertionsdemanded by abstract art.Classical Modernist painting一 that is,abstract art asdeveloped indifferent ways by Picasso,Kandinsky,and Matisse一 presupposes highlydeveloped skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art.Photography,like Pop painting,reassures viewers that art is not hard;photographyseems to be more about its subjects than about art.Photography,however,has developed all the anxieties andsei仔 consciousness of a classic Modernist art.Many professionals privately havebegun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of thetraditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget thatphotography is a distinctive and exalted activity一 in short,an art.1.What is the author mainly concerned with?The author is concerned withA.defining the Modernist attitude toward art.B.explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.C.explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers towardphotography as art
