1、大学英语六级考试 1990 年 1 月试卷Part I Listening Comprehension (20 minutes)Section A1. A) Read four chapters. B) Write an article.C) Speak before the class. D) Preview two chapters.2. A) The woman is being interviewed by a reporter.B) The woman is asking for a promotion.C) The woman is applying for a job.D) Th
2、e woman is being given an examination.3. A) His car was hit by another car.B) He was hurt while playing volleyball.C) He fell down the stairs.D) While crossing the street, he was hit by a car.4. A) Took a photo of him.B) Bought him a picture.C) Held a birthday party.D) Bought him a frame for his pic
3、ture.5. A) No medicine could solve the womans problem.B) The woman should eat less to lose some weight.C) Nothing could help the woman if she ate too little.D) The woman should choose the right foods.6. A) He meant she should make a phone call if anything went wrong.B) He meant for her just to wait
4、till help came.C) He was afraid something would go wrong with her carD) He promised to give her help himself.7. A) No, he missed it. B) Yes, he did.C) No, he didnt D) Yes, he probably did.8. A) He has edited three books.B) He has bought the wrong book.C) He has lost half of his money.D) He has found
5、 the book that will be used.9. A) At 7:30. B) At 8:30. C) At 9:00. D) At 9:3010. A) Six. B) Seven. C) Eight. D) Nine.Section BPassage One Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.11. A) They often take place in her major industries.B) British trade unions are more powerful,.C)
6、 There are more trade union members in Britain.D) Britain loses more working days through strikes every year.12. A) Such strikes are against the British law.B) Such strikes are unpredictable.C) Such strikes involve workers from different trades.D) Such strikes occur frequently these days.13. A) Trad
7、e unions in Britain are becoming more popular.B) Most strikes in Britain are against the British law.C) Unofficial strikes in Britain are easier to deal with now. D) Employer- worker relations in Britain have become tenser.Passage TwoQuestions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.14
8、. A) The victory over ones fellow runners.B) The victory over former winners.C) The victory of will- power over fatigue.D) The victory of ones physical strength.15. A) The runner who runs to keep fit.B) The runner who breaks the record.C) The runner who does not break the rules.D) The runner who cov
9、ers the whole distance.16. A) He won the first prize. B) He died because of fatigue.C) He fell behind the other runners. D) He gave up because he was tired.Passage ThreeQuestions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just beard.17. A) 17,000. B) 1,700. C) 24. D) 9,000.18. A) Its located in a co
10、llege town.B) Its composed of a group of old buildings.C) Its classrooms are beautifully designed.D) Its library is often crowded with students.19. A) Teachers are well paid at Deep Springs:B) Students are mainly from New York State.C) The length of schooling is two years.D) Teachers neednt pay for
11、their rent and meals.20. A) Take a walk in the desert. B) Go to a cinema.C) Watch TV programmes. D) Attend a party.Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)Passage OneQuestions 21 to 24 are based on the following passage:Automation refers to the introduction of electronic control and automatic oper
12、ation of pro-ductive machinery. It reduces the human factors, mental and physical, in production, and is de-signed to make possible the manufacture of more goods with fewer workers. The development ofautomation in American industry has been called the “Second Industrial Revolution“.Labours concern o
13、ver automation arises from uncertainty about the effects on employ-ment, and fears of major changes in jobs. In the main, labour has taken the view that resistanceto technical change is unfruitful. Eventually, the result of automation may well be an increase inemployment, since it is expected that v
14、ast industries will grow up around manufacturing, main-taining, and repairing automation equipment. The interest of labour lies in bringing about thetransition with a minimum of inconvenience and distress to the workers involved. AI, unionspokesmen emphasize that the benefit of the increased product
15、ion and lower costs made possibleby automation should be shared by workers in the form of higher wages, more leisure, and improved living standards.To protect the interests of their members in the era of automation, unions have adopted anumber of new policies. One of these is the promotion of supple
16、mentary unemployment benefitplans. It is emphasized that since the employer involved in such a plan has a direct financial interest in preventing unemployment, he will have a strong drive for planning new installations soas to cause the least possible problems in jobs and job assignments. Some union
17、s are working fordismissal pay agreements, requiring that permanently dismissed workers be paid a sum of moneybased on length of service. Another approach is the idea of the “improvement factor“, whichcalls for wage increases based on increases in productivity. It is possible, however, that labourwi
18、ll rely mainly on reduction in working hours in order to gain a full share in the fruits of automation.21. Though labour worries about the effects of automation, it does not doubt thatA) automation will eventually prevent unemploymentB) automation will help workers acquire new skillsC) automation wi
19、ll eventually benefit the workers no less than the employersD) automation is a trend which cannot be stopped22. The idea of the “improvement factor“ ( Line 7, Para. 3)probably implies thatA) wages should be paid on the basis of length of serviceB) the benefit of increased production and lower costs
20、should be shared by workersC) supplementary unemployment benefit plans should be promotedD) the transition to automation should be brought about with the minimum of inconvenience and distress to workers23. In order to get the full benefits of automation, labour will depend mostly onA) additional pay
21、ment to the permanently dismissed workersB) the increase of wages in proportion to the increase in productivityC) shorter working hours and more leisure timeD) a strong drive for planning new installations24. Which of the following can best sum up the passage?A) Advantages and disadvantages of autom
22、ation.B) Labour and the effects of automation.C) Unemployment benefit plans and automation.D) Social benefits of automation.Passage TwoQuestions 25 to 30 are based on the following passage:The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. Allhigh school graduates ou
23、ght to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, becausecollege will help them earn more money, become “better“ people, and learn to be more responsi-ble citizens than those who dont go.But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to halfour high sc
24、hool graduates are attending, those who dont fit the pattern are becoming more nu-merous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college studentsinterfere with each others experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the intensecompetition for admission
25、to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, anddrop out- often encouraged by college administrators.Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves- they are spoiled andthey are expecting too much. But thats a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesnt
26、explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right.Weve been told that young people have to go to college because our economy cant absorb anarmy of untrained eighteen- year - olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can nolonger absorb an army
27、 of trained twenty - two - year - olds, either.Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest thatcollege may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the comple-tion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and stat
28、istics upside down, itseems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps collegedoesnt make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things - maybe itsjust the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick - learning peop
29、le aremerely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those suc-cessful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not.This is heresy(异端邪说) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a littleschooling is goo
30、d, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.25. According to the passage, the author believes that _A) people used to question the value of college educationB) people used to have full confidence in higher educationC) all high school graduates went to collegeD) very
31、 few high school graduates chose to go to college26. In the 2nd paragraph, “those who dont fit the pattern“ refers toA) high school graduates who arent suitable for college educationB) college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxisC) college students who arent any better for their higher
32、educationD) high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college27. The drop- out rate of college students seems to go up becauseA) young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at collegeB) many young people are required to join the armyC) young people have little motiva
33、tion in pursuing a higher educationD) young people dont like the intense competition for admission to graduate school28. According to the passage the problems of college education partly arise from the fact thatA) society cannot provide enough jobs for properly trained college graduatesB) high schoo
34、l graduates do not fit the pattern of college educationC) too many students have to earn their own livingD) college administrators encourage students to drop out29. In this passage the author argues thatA) more and more evidence shows college education may not be the best thing for highschool gradua
35、tesB) college education is not enough if one wants to be successfulC) college education benefits only the intelligent, ambitious, and quick - learning peopleD) intelligent people may learn quicker if they dont go to college30. The “surveys and statistics“ mentioned in the last paragraph might have s
36、hown thatA) college- educated people are more successful than non - college - educated peopleB) college education was not the first choice of intelligent peopleC) the less schooling a person has the better it is for himD) most people have sweet memories of college lifePassage ThreeQuestions 31 to 35
37、 are based on the following passage:Ours has become a society of employees. A hundred years or so ago only one out of everyfive Americans at work was employed, i. e., worked for somebody else. Today only one out offive is not employed but working for himself. And when fifty years ago “being employed
38、“ meantworking as a factory labourer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding a professional or management job re-quiring intellectual and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characteried American societyduring t
39、hese last fifty years: middle - class and upper - class employees have been the fastest-growing groups in our working population- growing so fast that the industrial worker, that old-est child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance despite the ex-pans/on of industrial
40、production.Yet you will fine little if anything written on what it is to be an employee. You can find agreat deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can alsofind a good deal of work in a chosen field, whether it be the mechanist s trade or bookkeeping(簿记). Ever
41、y one of these trades requires different skills, sets different standards, and requiresa different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especiallyin the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowle
42、dge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of theirtrade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work,the greater the emphasis on ability to
43、 work within the organization rather than on technical a-bilities or professional knowledge.31. It is implied that fifty years agoA) eighty percent of American working people were employed in factoriesB) twenty percent of American intellectuals were employeesC) the percentage of intellectuals in the
44、 total work force was almost the same as that of in-dustrial workersD) the percentage of intellectuals working as employees was not so large as that of industri-al workers32. According to the passage, with the development of modern industry,A) factory labourers will overtake intellectual employees i
45、n numberB) there are as many middle - class employees as factory labourersC) employers have attached great importance to factory labourersD) the proportion of factory labourers in the total employee population has decreased33. The word “dubious“ ( L. 2, Para. 2) most probably meansA) valuable B) use
46、ful C) doubtful D) helpful34. According to the writer, professional knowledge or skill isA) less important than awareness of being a good employeeB) as important as the ability to deal with public relationsC) more important than employer- employee relationsD) as important as the ability to co- opera
47、te with others in the organization35. From the passage it can be seen that employeeship helps oneA) to be more successful in his career B) to be more specialized in his fieldC) to solve technical problems D) to develop his professional skillPassage FourQuestions 36 to 40 are based on the following p
48、assage:We all know that the normal human daily cycle of activity is of some 7 - 8 hours sleep al-ternating with some 16 - 17 hours wakefulness and that, broadly speaking, the sleep normallycoincides with the hours of darkness. Our present concern is with how easily and to what extentthis cycle can b
49、e modified.The question is no mere academic one. The ease, for example, with which people canchange from working in the day to working at night is a question of growing importance in industry where automation calls for round - the- clock working of machines. It normally takesfrom five days to one week for a person to adapt to a reversed routine of sleep and wak
