2015.12 英语六级考试真题试卷（第一套）- 阅读

Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

It seems to be a law in the technology industry that leading companies eventually lose their positions, often quickly and brutally. Mobile phone champion Nokia, one of Europe's biggest technology success stories, was no __36__ , losing its market share in just a few years.

In 2007, Nokia accounted for more than 40% of mobile phone sales __37__. But consumers' preferences were already __38__ toward touch-screen smartphones. With the introduction of Apple's iPhone in the middle of that year, Nokia's market share __39__ rapidly and revenue plunged. By the end of 2013, Nokia had sold its phone business to Microsoft.

What sealed Nokia's fate was a series of decisions made by Stephen Elop in his position as CEO, which he __40__ in October 2010. Each day that Elop spent in charge of Nokia, the company's market value declined by $ 23 million, making him, by the numbers, one of the worst CEOs in history.

But Elop was not the only person at __41__ . Nokia's board resisted change, making it impossible for the company to adapt to rapid shifts in the industry. Most __42__ , Jorma Ollila, who had led Nokia's transition from an industrial company to a technology giant, was too fascinated by the company's __43__ success to recognize the change that was needed to sustain its competitiveness.

The company also embarked on a __44__ cost-cutting program, which included the elimination of thousands of jobs. This contributed to the __45__ of the company's once-spirited culture, which had motivated employees to take risks and make miracles. Good leaders left the company, taking Nokia's sense of vision and directions with them. Not surprisingly, much of Nokia's most valuable design and programming talent left as well.

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A) assumed
B) bias
C) desperate
D) deterioration
E) exception
F) fault
G) incidentally
H) notably
I) previous
J) relayed
K) shifting
L) shrank
M) subtle
N) transmitting
O) worldwide

【参考答案】EOKLA FHICD



First-Generation College-Goers: Unprepared and Behind

Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation.

A) When Nijay Williams entered college last fall as a first-generation student and Jamaican immigrant, he was academically unprepared for the rigors of higher education. Like many first-generation students, he enrolled in a medium-sized state university many of his high school peers were also attending, received a Pell Grant, and took out some small federal loans to cover other costs. Given the high price of room and board and the closeness of the school to his family, he chose to live at home and worked between 30 and 40 hours a week while taking a full class schedule.

B) What Nijay didn't realize about his school-Tennessee State University-was its frighteningly low graduation rate a mere 29 percent for its first-generation students. At the end of his first year, Nijay lost his Pell Grant of over $ 5000 after narrowly missing the 2.0 GPA cut-off, making it impossible for him to continue paying for school.

C) Nijay represents a large and growing group of Americans: first-generation college students who enter school unprepared or behind. To make matters worse, these schools are ill-equipped to graduate these students-young adults who face specific challenges and obstacles. They typically carry financial burdens that outweigh those of their peers, are more likely to work while attending school, and often require significant academic remediation (补习).

D) Matt Rubinoff directs I'm First, a nonprofit organization launched last October to reach out to this specific population of students. He hopes to distribute this information and help prospective college-goers find the best post-secondary fit. And while Rubinoff believes there are a good number of four-year schools that truly care about these students and set aside significant resources and programs for them, he says that number isn't high enough.

E) "It's not only the selective and elite institutions that provide those opportunities for a small subset of this population," Rubinoff said, adding that a majority of first-generation undergraduates tend toward options such as online programs, two-year colleges, and commuter state schools. "Unfortunately, there tends to be a lack of information and support to help students think bigger and broader."

F) Despite this problem, many students are still drawn to these institutions-and two-year schools in particular. As a former high school teacher, I saw students choose familiar, cheaper options year after year. Instead of skipping out on higher education altogether, they chose community colleges or state schools with low bars for admittance.

G) "They underestimate themselves when selecting a university," said Dave Jarrat, a marketing executive for Inside Track, a for-profit organization that specializes in coaching low-income students and supporting colleges in order to help students thrive. "The reality of it is that a lot of low-income kids could be going to elite universities on a full ride scholarship and don't even realize it."

H) "Many students are coming from a situation where no one around them has the experience of successfully completing higher education, so they are coming in questioning themselves and their college worthiness," Jarrat continued. That helps explain why, as I'm First's Rubinoff indicated, the schools to which these students end up resorting can end up being some of the poorest matches for them. The University of Tennessee in Knoxville offers one example of this dilemma. A flagship university in the South, the school graduates just 16 percent of its first-generation students, despite its overall graduation rate of 71 percent. Located only a few hours apart, The University of Tennessee and Tennessee State are worth comparing. Tennessee State's overall graduation rate is a tiny 39 percent, but at least it has a smaller gap between the outcomes for first-generation students and those of their peers.

I) Still, the University of Tennessee deserves credit for being transparent. Many large institutions keep this kind of data secret-or at least make it incredibly difficult to find. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for instance, admits only that the graduation rate for its first-generation pupils is "much lower" than the percentage of all students who graduate within four years (81 percent).

J) It is actually quite difficult to find reliable statistics on the issue for many schools. Higher education institutions are, under federal law, required to report graduation rates, but these reports typically only include Pell recipient numbers-not necessarily rates specific to first-generation students. Other initiatives fail to break down the data, too. Imagine how intimidating it can be for prospective students unfamiliar with the complexities of higher education to navigate this kind of information and then identify which schools are the best fit.

K) It was this lack of information that prompted the launch of I'm First in 2013, originally as an arm of its umbrella organization, the Center For Student Opportunity. "If we can help to direct students to more of these types of campuses and help students to understand them to be realistic and accessible places, have them apply to these schools at greater frequency and ultimately get in and enroll, we are going to raise the success rate," Rubinoff said, citing a variety of colleges ranging from large state institutions to smaller private schools.

L) Chelsea Jones, who now directs student programming at I'm First, was a first-generation college student at Howard. Like other student new to the intimidating higher-education world, she often struggled on her path to college, "There wasn't really a college-bound culture at my high school," she said. "I wanted to go to college but I didn't really know the process." Jones became involved with a college-access program through Princeton University in high school. Now, she attributes much of her understanding of college to that: "But once I got to campus, it was a completely different ball game that no one really prepared me for."

M) She was fortunate, though. Howard, a well-regarded historically black college, had an array of resources for its first-generation students, including matching kids with counselors, connecting first-generation students to one another, and TRIO, a national program that supported 200 students on Howard's campus. Still, Jones represents a small percentage of first-generation students who are able to gain entry into more elite universities, which are often known for robust financial aid packages and remarkably high graduation rates for first-generation students. (Harvard, for example, boasts a six-year graduation rate for underrepresented minority groups of 98 percent.)

N) Christian Vazquez, a first-generation Yale graduate, is another exception, his success story setting him far apart from students such as Nijay. "There is a lot of support at Yale, to an extent, after a while, there is too much support," he said, half-joking about the countless resources available at the school. Students are placed in small groups with counselors (trained seniors on campus); they have access to cultural and ethnic affinity (联系) groups, tutoring centers and also have a summer orientation specifically for first-generation students (the latter being one of the most common programs for students).

O) "Our support structure was more like: 'You are going to get through Yale? you are going to do well,'" he said, hinting at mentors (导师), staff, and professors who all provided significant support for students who lacked confidence about "belonging" at such a top institution.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

46. Many first-generation college-goers have doubts about their abilities to get a college degree.
47. First-generation college students tend to have much heavier financial burdens than their peers.
48. The graduation rate of first-generation students at Nijay's university was incredibly low.
49. Some top institutions like Yale seem to provide first-generation students with more support than they actually need.
50. On entering college, Nijay Williams had no idea how challenging college education was.
51. Many universities simply refuse to release their exact graduation rates for first-generation students.
52. According to a marketing executive, many students from low-income families don't know they could have a chance of going to an elite university.
53. Some elite universities attach great importance to building up the first-generation students' self-confidence.
54. I'm First distributes information to help first-generation college-goers find schools that are most suitable for them.
55. Elite universities tend to graduate first-generation students at a higher rate.

【参考答案】HCBNA IGODM


Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care.

The shift, little noticed outside the medical establishment but already controversial inside it, suggests that doctors are starting to redefine their roles, from being concerned exclusively about individual patients to exerting influence on how healthcare dollars are spent.

In practical terms, the new guidelines being developed could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment-at the end of life, for example-is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form of rationing.

Traditionally, guidelines have heavily influenced the practice of medicine, and the latest ones are expected to make doctors more conscious of the economic consequences of their decisions, even though there's no obligation to follow them. Medical society guidelines are also used by insurance companies to help determine reimbursement (报销) policies.

Some doctors see a potential conflict in trying to be both providers of patient care and financial overseers.

"There should be forces in society who should be concerned about the budget, but they shouldn't be functioning simultaneously as doctors," said Dr. Martin Samuels at a Boston hospital. He said doctors risked losing the trust of patients if they told patients, "I'm not going to do what I think is best for you because I think it's bad for the healthcare budget in Massachusetts."

Doctors can face some grim trade-offs. Studies have shown, for example, that two drugs are about equally effective in treating macular degeneration, and eye disease. But one costs $ 50 a dose and the other close to $ 2 000. Medicare could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year if everyone used the cheaper drug, Avastin, instead of the costlier one, Lucentis.

But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved Avastin for use in the eye, and using it rather than the alternative, Lucentis, might carry an additional, although slight, safety risk. Should doctors consider Medicare's budget in deciding what to use?

"I think ethically (在道德层面上) we are just worried about the patient in front of us and not trying to save money for the insurance industry or society as a whole," said Dr. Donald Jensen.

Still, some analysts say that there's a role for doctors to play in cost analysis because not many others are doing so. "In some ways," said Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, "it represents a failure of wider society to take up the issue."

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

56. What do some most influential medical groups recommend doctors do?
A) Reflect on the responsibilities they are supposed to take.
B) Pay more attention to the effectiveness of their treatments.
C) Take costs into account when making treatment decisions.
D) Readjust their practice in view of the cuts in health care.

57. What were doctors mainly concerned about in the past?
A) Specific medicines to be used.
B) Effects of medical treatment.
C) Professional advancement.
D) Patients' trust.

58. What may the new guidelines being developed lead to?
A) The redefining of doctors' roles.
B) Overuse of less effective medicines.
C) Conflicts between doctors and patients.
D) The prolonging of patients' suffering.

59. What risk do doctors see in their dual role as patient care providers and financial overseers?
A) They may be involved in a conflict of interest.
B) They may be forced to divide their attention.
C) They may have to use less effective drugs.
D) They may lose the respect of patients.

60. What do some experts say about doctors' involvement in medical cost analysis?
A) It may add to doctors' already heavy workloads.
B) It will help to save money for society as a whole.
C) It results from society's failure to tackle the problem.
D) It raises doctors' awareness of their social responsibilities.


Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

Economic inequality is the "defining challenge of our time," President Barack Obama declared in a speech last month to the Center for American Progress. Inequality is dangerous, he argued, not merely because it doesn't look good to have a large gap between the rich and the poor, but because inequality itself destroys upward mobility, making it harder for the poor to escape from poverty. "Increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream," he said.

Obama is only the most prominent public figure to declare inequality Public Enemy No. 1 and the greatest threat to reducing poverty in America. A number of prominent economists have also argued that it's harder for the poor to climb the economic ladder today because the rungs(横档) in that ladder have grown farther apart.

For all the new attention devoted to the 1 percent, a new dataset from the Equality of Opportunity Project at Harvard and Berkeley suggests that, if we care about upward mobility overall, we're vastly exaggerating the dangers of the rich-poor gap. Inequality itself is not a particularly strong predictor of economic mobility, as sociologist Scott Winship noted in a recent article based on his analysis of this data.

So what factors, at the community level, do predict if poor children will move up the economic ladder as adults? What explains, for instance, why the Salt Lake City metro area is one of the 100 largest metropolitan areas most likely to lift the fortunes of the poor and the Atlanta metro area is one of the least likely?

Harvard economist Raj Chetty has pointed to economic and racial segregation, community density, the size of a community's middle class, the quality of schools, community religiosity, and family structure, which he calls the "single strongest correlate of upward mobility. " Chetty finds that communities like Salt Lake City, with high levels of two-parent families and religiosity, are much more likely to see poor children get ahead than communities like Atlanta, with high levels of racial and economic segregation.

Chetty has not yet issued a comprehensive analysis of the relative predictive power of each of these factors. Based on my analyses of the data, of the factors that Chetty has highlighted, the following three seem to be most predictive of upward mobility in a given community.-

1. Per-capita(人均) income growth
2. Prevalence of single mothers (where correlation is strong, but negative)
3. Per-capita local government spending

In other words, communities with high levels of per-capita income growth, high percentages of two-parent families, and high local government spending—which may stand for good schools—are the most likely to help poor children relive Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches story.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

61. How does Obama view economic inequality?
A) It is the biggest obstacle to social mobility.
B) It is the greatest threat to social stability.
C) It is the No. 1 enemy of income growth.
D) It is the most malicious social evil of our time.

62. What do we learn about the inequality gap from Scott Winship's data analysis?
A) It is fast widening across most parts of America.
B) It is not a reliable indicator of economic mobility.
C) It is not correctly interpreted.
D) It is overwhelmingly ignored.

63. Compared with Atlanta, metropolitan Salt Lake City is said to_.
A) have placed religious beliefs above party politics
B) have bridged the gap between the rich and the poor
C) offer poor children more chances to climb
D) suffer from higher levels of racial and economic segregation

64. What is strongly correlated with social mobility according to economist Raj Chetty?
A) Family structure.
B) Racial equality.
C) School education.
D) Community density.

65. What does the author seem to suggest?
A) It is important to increase the size of the middle class.
B) It is highly important to expand the metropolitan areas.
C) It is most imperative to focus our efforts on the elimination of income inequality.
D) It is better to start from the community to help poor children move up .