2012.12 英语六级考试真题试卷（第二套）阅读理解

Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)

Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

For many families, figuring out how many after-school activities are too many is a struggle. For parents who fear they're "over-scheduling" their children, a new study carries a comforting message. The paper, published last week by the Society for Research in Child Development, is the first to take a data-driven look at the issue-and whether being so busy is really a bad thing. The study suggests the phenomenon is more isolated than media reports suggest: in fact. 40% of children (ages 5-18) are engaged in no activities, typical kids spend just five hours a week in structured activities, and very few children-3-6%-spend 20 hours a week. On average, most kids spend far more time watching TV and playing games. And for kids who're extremely busy, there's also good news: the more activities they do, the better kids perform on measures of educational achievement and psychological adjustment. "This popular concern [about over-scheduling] has been generated by a couple of parenting books and the media," says Yale professor and lead author Joseph Mahoney. But looking at the data, "it's hard to argue that kids ."

That news will be welcome in households like the Oviedos', in Highland Park, Ill. Nine-year-old Bianca spends six hours a week in rhythmic-gymnastics classes and three hours a week at ballet, plus a half-hour piano lesson. "The alternative would be playing on the computer or watching TV," says her mother, Anca, who believes Bianca benefits by learning to focus, making new friends and acquiring new skills.

The new paper doesn't sway some experts who've advocated against activity-creep. They say kids arc far busier-and overstressed by it all-than the numbers suggest. "This is an example of researchers using big data sets to dispute the lived experience of many, many parents and families," says William Doherty, a University of Minnesota family- studies professor. Some skeptics question whether the self-reported time-diary data are really accurate; others say they don't account for all the time spent getting between activities. Alvin Rosenfeld. co-author of The Over-Scheduled Child, says: "If people follow this advice and do more activities, I think it'll be pretty damaging."

Despite the doubters, the new data are a small step toward a better understanding of what's best for kids. And no matter what the numbers show, there's no disputing that every child is different--and some will absolutely do better with less. Lisa DuIg of South Lyon, Mich., feels as though her 6-year-old twins are the only kids in town who don't take skiing and ice-skating lessons. "There is nothing wrong with cuddling up（依偎）on the couch with Mom and Dad," says Lisa. And for families who prefer to bond on the sidelines of soccer fields, the latest research can provide a different kind of comfort.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

47. The question in dispute in the passage is whether or not children are_____?
48. It can be inferred that a good way to keep children away from TV and video games is to engage them in______.
49. According to the new study, children will _____academically and psychologically if they involve themselves in more after-school activities.
50. There are skeptics who raise doubts about the new study, saying that its data may be _____________.
51. In spite of the controversy, the new study may help people see more clearly _____________.

参考答案
47. over-scheduled
48. (more) activities
49. perform better
50. inaccurate
51. what's best for kids

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 maked 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.

Who's poor in America? That's a question hard to answer. Hard because there's no conclusive definition of poverty. Low income matters, though how low is unclear. Poverty is also a state of mind that fosters self-defeating behavior-bad work habits, family breakdowns, and addictions. Finally, poverty results from bad luck: accidents, job losses, disability.

Despite poverty's messiness, we've measured progress against it by a single statistic: the federal poverty line. By this measure, we haven't made much progress. But the apparent lack of progress is misleading for two reasons.

First, it ignores immigration. Many immigrants are poor and low-skilled. They add to the poor. From 1989 to 2007, about three quarters of the increase in the poverty population occurred among Hispanics（西班牙裔美国人）- mostly immigrants and their children.

Second, the poor's material well-being has improved. The official poverty measure obscures this by counting only pre-tax cash income and ignoring other sources of support, including food stamps and housing subsidies. Although many poor live from hand to mouth, they've participated in rising living standards. In 2005, 91% had microwaves, 79% air-conditioning, and 48% cell phones.

The existing poverty line could be improved by adding some income sources and subtracting some expenses. Unfortunately, the administration's proposal for a "supplemental poverty measure" in 2011 goes beyond that. The new poverty number would compound public confusion. It also raises questions about whether the statistic is tailored to favor a political agenda.

The "supplemental measure" ties the poverty threshold to what the poorest third of Americans spend on food, housing, clothing, and utilities. The actual threshold will probably be higher than today's poverty line. Many Americans would find this weird: people get richer, but "poverty" stays stuck.

What produces this outcome is a different view of poverty. The present concept is an absolute one: the poverty threshold reflects the amount estimated to meet basic needs. By contrast, the new measure embraces a relative notion of poverty: people are automatically poor if they're a given distance from the top, even if their incomes are increasing.

The new indicator is a "propaganda device" to promote income redistribution by showing that poverty is stubborn or increasing. The Census Bureau has estimated statistics similar to the administration's proposal. In 2008, the traditional poverty rate was 13.2%; estimates of the new statistic range up to l7%. The new poverty statistic exceeds the old, and the gap grows .

As senator Daniel Moynihan said, the administration is defining poverty up. It's legitimate to debate how much we should aid the poor or reduce economic inequality. But the debate should not be swayed by misleading statistics that few Americans could possibly understand. Government statistics should strive for political neutrality（中立）. This one fails.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

52. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A) Poverty is very often defined as a state of mind.
B) Poverty is a problem hard to tackle in America.
C) Bad work habits and bad luck lead to poverty.
D) There is no consensus on the concept of poverty.

53. What does the author say about the poor in America?
A) Their living standards have actually improved.
B) Most of them are immigrants and their descendants.
C) Their chances of rising above the poverty line are slim.
D) Most of them rely on government subsidies for survival.

54. What does the author think of the administration's proposal for a "supplemental poverty measure"?
A) It is intended to further help the poor.
B) It is made to serve political purposes.
C) It is a positive response to changed circumstances.
D) It is an attempt to combat the economic recession.

55. What is characteristic of the new measure of poverty?
A) It defines poverty by the gap between the rich and the poor.
B) It raises the threshold for the poor to get welfare benefits.
C) It is more accurate and scientific in terms of statistics.
D) It truly reflects the practical needs of the poor.

56. What does the author want to say by quoting Daniel Moynihan?
A) Economic equality is but an empty dream.
B) Political neutrality can never be achieved.
C) The administration's statistics are biased.
D) The debate over poverty will get nowhere.


Passage Two
Questions 57 to 62 are based on the following passage.

Eleven summers ago I was sent to a management program at the Wharton School to be prepared for bigger things. Along with lectures on finance and entrepreneurship and the like, the program included a delightfully out-of-place session with Al Filreis, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, on poetry.

For three hours he talked us through "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." The experience-especially when contrasted with the horrible prose of our other assigned reading-sent me fleeing to the campus bookstore, where I resumed a long-interrupted romance with meter and rhyme（韵）.

Professor Filreis says that he is "a little shocked" at how intensely his Wharton students respond to this unexpected deviation from the businesslike, not just as a relief but as a kind of stimulus. Many write afterward asking him to recommend books of poetry. Especially now.

"The grim economy seems to make the participants keener than ever to think 'out of the box' in the way poetry encourages," he told me.

Which brings me to Congress, an institution stuck deeper inside the box than just about any other these days. You have probably heard that up on Capitol Hill（美国国会山）,they're very big on prayer breakfasts, where members gather over scrambled eggs and ask God for wisdom. You can judge from the agonizing debt spectacle we've watched this summer how well that's working. Well, maybe it's time to add some poetry readings to the agenda.

I'm not suggesting that poetry will guide our legislators to wisdom any more than prayer has. Just that it might make them a little more human. Poetry is no substitute for courage or competence, but properly applied, it is a challenge to self-certainty, which we currently have in excess. Poetry serves as a spur to creative thinking, a reproach to dogma and habit, a remedy to the current fashion for pledge signing.

The poet Shelley, in defense of poetry nearly two centuries ago, wrote, "A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own." Shelley concludes that essay by calling poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the world, "because they bring imagination to the realm of "reasoners and mechanists."

The relevance of poetry was declared more concisely in five lines from the love poem "Asphodel. That Greeny Flower," by William Carlos Williams:

It is difficult
to get the news form poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

57. Why did the author participate in the Wharton School management program?
A) He was a passionate lover of classical poetry.
B) He was being trained for an important position.
C) He had just been promoted to top management.
D) He was interested in finance and entrepreneurship.

58. What did the author think of Professor Filreis's poetry session?
A) It diverted students' attention from the assigned reading
B) It made the management program appear romantic.
C) It was extremely appealing to the students.
D) It pulled students out of prose reading sessions.

59. What was the impact of the poetry session on the program participants according to Professor Filreis?
A) It inspired them to view things from broader perspectives.
B) It led them to think poetry indispensable to management.
C) It helped them develop a keener interest in literature.
D) It encouraged them to embark on a political career.

60. What does the author think of Capitol Hill's prayer over breakfast?
A) It is a ritual that has lost its original meaning.
B) It doesn't really help solve the .
C) It provides inspiration as poetry reading does.
D) It helps people turn away from the debt spectacle.

61. What do we learn from Shelley's essay?
A) Poetry can relieve people of pains and sufferings.
B) It takes poetic imagination to become a legislator.
C) Legislators should win public acknowledgement.
D) It is important to be imaginative and sympathetic.



2012年12月英语六级真题试卷（第一套）在线练习版
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