四六级

        英语六级复习备考中，历年真题的复习很重要！通过研究英语六级考试历年真题，我们可以把握方向和内容，下面是2009年12月英语六级简答与传统阅读真题及答案解析，一起学习吧！

　　PartⅣ Reading Comprehension(Reading inDepth)(25 minutes)

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there is a shortpassage with 5 questions or incompletestatements. Read the passage carefully. Thenanswer the questions or complete thestatements in the fewest possible words. Pleasewrite your answers on Answer Sheet 2.

　　Questions 47 to 51 are based on the followingpassage.

　　Many countries have made it illegal to chat into a hand?held mobile phone while driving. But thelatest research further confirms that the danger lies less in what a motorist?s hands do whenhe takes a call than in what the

　　conversation does to his brain. Even using a “hands?free” device can divert a driver?sattention to an alarming extent.

　　Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick, and Todd Horowitz of the Harvard Medical School rana series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond toa series of moving tasks on a

　　computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was leftundistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation using a speakerphone. As Kunarand Horowitz report, those who were

　　making the equivalent of a hands?free call had an average reaction time 212 millisecondsslower than those who were not. That, they calculate, would add 5.7 metres to the brakingdistance of a car travelling at 100kph. They

　　also found that the group using the hands?free kit made 83% more errors in their tasks thanthose who were not talking.

　　To try to understand more about why this was, they tried two further tests. In one, membersof a group were asked simply to repeat words spoken by the caller. In the other, they had tothink of a word that began with

　　the last letter of the word they had just heard. Those only repeating words performed the sameas those with no distraction, but those with the more complicated task showed even worsereaction times—an average of 480

　　milliseconds extra delay. This shows that when people have to consider the information theyhear carefully, it can impair their driving ability significantly.

　　Punishing people for using hand?held gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even thoughthey can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogetherwhen they get behind the wheel

　　might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls.

　　47. Carrying on a mobile phone conversation while one is driving is considered dangerousbecause it seriously distracts ____.

　　48. In the experiments, the two groups of volunteers were asked to handle a series of movingtasks which were considered ____.

　　49. Results of the experiments show that those who were making the equivalent of a hands?free call took to react than those who were not ____.

　　50. Further experiments reveal that participants tend to respond with extra delay if they arerequired to do ____.

　　51. The author believes persuasion, rather than ____, might be the only way to stop peoplefrom using mobile phones while driving.

　　Section B

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.

　　There is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over?educated, eco?conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality around

　　the nation?s schools singled out those in the smugly（自鸣得意的）green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The city?s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools,

　　elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory?s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium

　　and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.

　　Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists（活跃分子）and various parent?teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel?casting factory

　　on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus children?s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents

　　believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in

　　synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how today?s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe—

　　whether it?s possible to keep them safe—in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, “safe” could even mean.

　　“There's no way around the uncertainty,” says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies children?s health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means you aren?t going to know if

　　they do.” A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete

　　hazards are beside the point. It?s the dangers parents can?t—and may never—quantify that occur all of sudden. That?s why I?ve rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential cancer?causing

　　substance, but although I?ve lived blocks from a major fault line(地质断层) for more than 12 years, I still haven?t bolted our bookcases to the living room wall.

　　52. What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal?

　　A) Heavy metals in lab tests threaten children?s health in Berkeley.

　　B) Berkeley residents are quite contented with their surroundings.

　　C) The air quality around Berkeley?s school campuses is poor.

　　D) Parents in Berkeley are over?sensitive to cancer risks their kids face.

　　53. What response did USA Today's report draw?

　　A) A heated debate.

　　B) Popular support.

　　C) Widespread panic.

　　D) Strong criticism.

　　54. How did parents feel in the face of the experts' studies?

　　A) They felt very much relieved.B) They were frightened by the evidence.

　　C) They didn?t know who to believe.

　　D) They weren?t convinced of the results.

　　55. What is the view of the 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics?

　　A) It is important to quantify various concrete hazards.

　　B) Daily accidents pose a more serious threat to children.

　　C) Parents should be aware of children?s health hazards.

　　D) Attention should be paid to toxic chemical exposure.

　　56. Of the dangers in everyday life, the author thinks that people have most to fear from ____.

　　A) the uncertain

　　B) the quantifiable

　　C) an earthquake

　　D) unhealthy food