淘宝店铺：行知小课堂

2013 年 6 月六级考试真题（第二套）
PartⅠ Writing
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the remark “Good habits result from
resisting temptation.” You can cite examples to illustrate your point You should write at least 150 words
but no more than 200 words.

PartⅡ Listening Comprehension

Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation,
one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be
spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four
choices marked A)，B)，C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter
on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
1. A) She has completely recovered. C) She is still in a critical condition.
B) She went into shock after an operation. D) She is getting much better.
2. A) Ordering a breakfast. C) Buying a train ticket.
B) Booking a hotel room. D) Fixing a compartment.
3. A) Most borrowers never returned the books to her.
B) The man is the only one who brought her book back.
C) She never expected anyone to return the books to her.
D) Most of the books she lent out came back without jackets.
4. A) She left her work early to get some bargains last Saturday.
B) She attended the supermarket’s grand opening ceremony.
C) She drove a foil hour before finding a parking space.
D) She failed to get into the supermarket last Saturday.
5. A) He is bothered by the pain in his neck.
B) He cannot do his report without a computer.
C) He cannot afford to have a coffee break.
D) He feels sorry to have missed the report.
6. A) Only top art students can show their works in the gallery.
B) The gallery space is big enough for the man’s paintings.
C) The woman would like to help with the exhibition layout.
D) The man is uncertain how his art works will be received.
7. A) The woman needs a temporary replacement for her assistant.
B) The man works in the same department as the woman does.
C) The woman will have to stay in hospital for a few days.
D) The man is capable of dealing with difficult people.
8. A) It was better than the previous one. C) It exaggerated the city’s economic problems.
B) It distorted the mayor’s speech. D) It reflected the opinions of most economists.
Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

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9. A) To inform him of a problem they face. C) To discuss the content of a project report.
B) To request him to purchase control desks. D) To ask him to fix the dictating machine.
10. A) They quote the best price in the market.
B) They manufacture and sell office furniture.
C) They cannot deliver the steel sheets on time.
D) They cannot produce the steel sheets needed.
11. A) By marking down the unit price. C) By allowing more time for delivery.
B) By accepting the penalty clauses. D) By promising better after-sales service.
12. A) Give the customer a ten percent discount.
B) Claim compensation from the steel suppliers.
C) Ask the Buying Department to change suppliers.
D) Cancel the contract with the customer.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
13. A) Stockbroker. C) Mathematician.
B) Physicist. D) Economist.
14. A) Improve computer programming. C) Predict global population growth.
B) Explain certain natural phenomena. D) Promote national financial health.
15. A) Their different educational backgrounds. C) Chaos Theory and its applications.
B) Changing attitudes towards nature. D) The current global economic crisis.

Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both
the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best
answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1
with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A) They lay great emphasis on hard work. C) They require high academic degrees.
B) They name 150 star engineers each year. D) They have people with a very high IQ.
17. A) Long years of job training. C) Distinctive academic qualifications.
B) High emotional intelligence. D) Devotion to the advance of science.
18. A) Good interpersonal relationships. C) Sophisticated equipment.
B) Rich working experience. D) High motivation.
Passage Two
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19. A) A diary. C) Distinctive academic qualifications.
B) A fairy tale. D) Devotion to the advance of science.
20. A) He was a sports fan. C) Sophisticated equipment.
B) He loved adventures. D) High motivation.
21. A) Encourage people to undertake adventures. C) Raise people’s environmental awareness.
B) Publicise his colourful and unique life stories. D) Attract people to America’s national parks.
Passage Three
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
22. A) The first infected victim. C) The doctor who first identified it.
B) A coastal village in Africa. D) A river running through the Congo.

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 淘宝店铺：行知小课堂
23. A) They exhibit similar symptoms. C) They have almost the same mortality rate.
B) They can be treated with the same drug. D) They have both disappeared for good.
24. A) By inhaling air polluted with the virus. C) By drinking water from the Congo River.
B) By contacting contaminated body fluids. D) By eating food grown in Sudan and Zaire.
25. A) More strains will evolve from the Ebola virus.
B) Scientists will eventually find cures for Ebola.
C) Another Ebola epidemic may erupt sooner or later.
D) Once infected, one will become immune to Ebola.

Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen
carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the
blanks with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you
should check what you have written.
The ideal companion machine would not only look, feel, and sound friendly but would also be programmed to behave in
an agreeable manner. Those qualities that 26 other people enjoyable would be simulated as closely as possible, and the
machine would appear to be 27 ,stimulating and easygoing. Its informal conversational style would make interaction
comfortable, and yet the machine would remain slightly 28 and therefore interesting. In its first 29 , it might be
somewhat hesitant and unassuming, but as it came to know the user it would progress to a more 30 and intimate style. The
machine would not be a passive 31 but would add its own suggestions, information, and opinions; it would sometimes
32 in developing or changing the topic and would have a 33 of its own.
The machine would convey presence. We have all seen how a computer’s use of personal names often fascinates people
and needs them to treat the machine as if it were almost human. Such features are easily written into the software. By
introducing a degree of forcefulness and humour, the machine could 34 a vivid and unique character.
Friendships are not made in a day, and the computer would be more 35 as a friend if it simulated the gradual changes
that occur when one person is getting to know another. At an appropriate time it might also express the kind of affection that
stimulates attachment and intimacy.

Part III Reading Comprehension

Section A
Directions： In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word- far each blank from a list
of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making
your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each
item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank
more than once.
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
Proper street behaviour in the United States requires a nice balance of attention and inattention. You are supposed to
look at a passerby just enough to show that you are aware of his 36 If you look too little, you appear haughty(目中无人
的), too much and you are inquisitive（过分好奇地）.Usually what happens is that people eye each other until they are about
eight feet apart, at which point both cast down their eyes. Sociologist Erving Goffman describes this as “a kind of 37 of
lights”.

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 Much of eye behaviour is so 38 that we react to it only on the intuitive level. The next time you have a conversation
with someone who makes you feel liked, notice what he does with his eyes. Chances are he looks at you more often than is
usual with 39 a little longer than the normal. You 40 this as a sign — a polite one — that he is interested in you as a
person rather than just in the topic of conversation. Probably you also feel that he is both self-confident and sincere.
All this has been demonstrated in 41 experiments. Subjects sit and talk in the psychologist’s laboratory, 42 of the
fact that their eye behaviour is being observed from a one way vision screen. In one fairly typical experiment, subjects were
43 to cheat while performing a task, then were interviewed and observed. It was found that those who had cheated met the
interviewer’s eyes less often than was 44 , an indication that “shifty eyes” — to use the mystery writers’ stock phrase —
can 45 be a tip-off(表明）to an attempt to deceive or to feelings of guilt.

A) innocent I) actually
B) interpret J) subtle
C) sights K) induced
D) dimming L) hiding
E) normal M) presence
F) deceived N) doubtfully
G) glances O) elaborate
H) obscure

Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains
information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions
by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
A Nation That’s Losing Its Toolbox
[A] The scene inside the Home Depot on Weyman Avenue here would give the old-time American craftsman pause. In
Aisle 34 is precut plastic flooring, the glue already in place. In Aisle 26 are prefabricated windows. Stacked near the
checkout counters, and as colourful as a Fisher-Price toy, is a not-so-serious-looking power tool: a battery-operated
saw-and-drill combination. And if you don’t want to do it yourself, head to Aisle 23 or Aisle 35, where a help desk will
arrange for an installer.
[B] It’s all very handy stuff, I guess, a convenient way to be a do-it-yourselfer without being all that good with tools. But at
a time when the American factory seems to be a shrinking presence, and when good manufacturing jobs have vanished,
perhaps never to return, there is something deeply troubling about this dilution of American craftsmanship.
[C] This isn’t a lament(伤感) — or not merely a lament — for bygone times. It’s a social and cultural issue, as well as an
economic one. The Home Depot approach to craftsmanship — simplify it, dumb it down, hire a contractor— is one
signal that mastering tools and working with one’s hands is receding in America as a hobby, as a valued skill, as a
cultural influence that shaped thinking and behaviour in vast sections of the country.
[D] That should be a matter of concern in a presidential election year. Yet neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney
promotes himself as tool-savvy(使用工具很在行的）presidential timber, in the mold of a Jimmy Carter, a skilled
carpenter and cabinet maker. The Obama administration does worry publicly about manufacturing, a first cousin of
craftsmanship. When the Ford Motor Company, for example, recently announced that it was bringing some production

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home, the White House cheered. “When you see things like Ford moving new production from Mexico to Detroit,
instead of the other way around, you know things are changing,” says Gene Sperling, director of the National
Economic Council.

[E] Ask the administration or the Republicans or most academics why America needs more manufacturing, and they
respond that manufacturing gives birth to innovation, brings down the trade deficit, strengthens the dollar, generates
jobs, arms the military and brings about a recovery from recession. But rarely, if ever, do they publicly take the
argument a step further, asserting that a growing manufacturing sector encourages craftsmanship and that
craftsmanship is, if not a birthright, then a vital ingredient of the American self-image as a can-do, inventive,
we-can-make-anything people.
[F] Traditional vocational training in public high schools is gradually declining, stranding thousands
of young people who seek training for a craft without going to college. Colleges, for their part, have since 1985
graduated fewer chemical, mechanical, industrial and metallurgical( 冶 金 的 ） engineers, partly in response to the
reduced role of manufacturing, a big employer of them. The decline started in the 1950s, when manufacturing
generated a sturdy 28% of the national income, or gross domestic product, and employed one-third of the workforce.
Today, factory output generates just 12% of GDP and employs barely 9% of the nation’s workers.
[G] Mass layoffs and plant closings have drawn plenty of headlines and public debate over the years, and they still
occasionally do. But the damage to skill and craftsmanship — what’s needed to build a complex airliner or a tractor, or
for a worker to move up from assembler to machinist to supervisor — went largely unnoticed.
[H] “In an earlier generation, we lost our connection to the land, and now we are losing our connection to the machinery we
depend on,” says Michael Hout, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “People who work with their
hands,” he went on, “are doing things today that we call service jobs, in restaurants and laundries, or in medical
technology and the like.”
[I] That’s one explanation for the decline in traditional craftsmanship. Lack of interest is another. The big money is in
fields like finance. Starting in the 1980s, skill in finance grew in importance, and, as depicted in the news media and the
movies, became a more appealing source of income. By last year, Wall Street traders, bankers and those who deal in
real estate generated 21% of the national income, double their share in the 1950s. And Warren Buffett, the
good-natured financier, became a homespun folk hero, without the tools and overalls (工作服).
[J] “Young people grow up without developing the skills to fix things around the house,” says Richard Curtin, director of
the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. “They know about computers, of course, but
they don’t know how to build them.”
[K] Manufacturing’s shrinking presence undoubtedly helps explain the decline in craftsmanship, if only because many of
the nation’s assembly line workers were skilled in craft work, if not on the job then in their spare time. In a late 1990s
study of blue-collar employees at a General Motors plant (now closed) in Linden, NJ, the sociologist Ruth Milkman of
City University of New York found that many line workers, in their off-hours, did home renovation and other skilled
work. “I have often thought,” Ms Milkman says, “that these extracurricular jobs were an effort on the part of the
workers to regain their dignity after suffering the degradation of repetitive assembly line work in the factory.”
[L] Craft work has higher status in nations like Germany, which invests in apprenticeship（学徒）programmes for high
school students. “Corporations in Germany realised that there was an interest to be served economically and
patriotically in building up a skilled labour force at home; we never had that ethos（风气）,”says Richard Sennett, a
New York University sociologist who
has written about the connection of craft and culture.

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[M] The damage to American craftsmanship seems to parallel the steep slide in manufacturing employment. Though the
decline started in the 1970s, it became much steeper beginning in 2000. Since then, some 5.3 million jobs, or one-third
of the workforce in manufacturing, have been lost. A stated goal of the Obama administration is to restore a big chunk
of this employment, along with the multitude of skills that many of the jobs required.
[N] As for craftsmanship itself, the issue is how to preserve it as a valued skill in the general population. Ms Milkman, the
sociologist, argues that American craftsmanship isn’t disappearing as quickly as some would argue — that it has
instead shifted to immigrants. “Pride in craft, it is alive in the immigrant world,” she says.
[O] Sol Axelrod, 37, the manager of the Home Depot here, fittingly learned to fix his own car as a teenager, even changing
the brakes. Now he finds immigrant craftsmen. gathered in abundance outside his store in the early morning, waiting
for it to open so they can buy supplies for the day’s work as contractors. Skilled day laborers, also mostly immigrants,
wait quietly in hopes of being hired by the contractors. Mr Axelrod also says the recession and persistently high
unemployment have forced many people to try to save money by doing more themselves, and Home Depot in response
offers classes in fixing water taps and other simple repairs. The teachers are store employees, many of them older and
semi-retired from a skilled trade, or laid off. “Our customers may not be building cabinets or outdoor decks; we try to
do that for them,’’ Mr Axelrod says, “but some are trying to build up skill so they can do more for themselves in these
hard times.”
46. Mastering tools and working with one’s hands shapes people’s thinking and behaviour.

47. The factor that people can earn more money in fields other than manufacturing contributes to the decline in traditional
craftsmanship.
48. According to the author, manufacturing encourages craftsmanship.

49. According to Ruth Milkman, American craftsmanship, instead of disappearing, is being taken up by immigrants.
50. The White House welcomed Ford’s announcement to bring some production back to America.

51. According to Mr Axelrod of Home Depot, people are trying to ride out the recession by doing more themselves.
52. America’s manufacturing in the 1950s constituted 28% of the gross domestic product.

53. In Ruth Milkman’s opinion, many assembly line workers did home renovation and other skilled work in their off-hours
in order to regain their dignity.
54. The author felt troubled about the weakening of American craftsmanship.

55. Compared with that in America, the status of craft work in Germany is higher.
Section C
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 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
The report from the Bureau of Labour Statistics was just as gloomy as anticipated. Unemployment in January jumped to
a 16-year high of 7.6 percent, as 598,000 jobs were slashed from U.S. payrolls in the worst single-month decline since
December, 1974. With 1.8 million jobs lost in the last three months, there is urgent desire to boost the economy as quickly as
possible. But Washington would do well to take a deep breath before reacting to the grim numbers.
Collectively, we rely on the unemployment figures and other statistics to frame our sense of reality. They are a vital part
of an array of data that we use to assess if we’re doing well or doing badly, and that in turn shapes government policies and

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corporate budgets and personal spending decisions. The problem is that the statistics aren’t an objective measure of reality;
they are simply a best approximation. Directionally, they capture the trends, but the idea that we know precisely how many
are unemployed is a myth. That makes finding a solution all the more difficult.
First, there is the way the data is assembled. The official unemployment rate is the product of a telephone survey of
about 60,000 homes. There is another survey, sometimes referred to as the “payroll survey”, that assesses 400,000
businesses based on their reported payrolls. Both surveys have problems. The payroll survey can easily double-count
someone: if you are one person with two jobs, you show up as two workers. The payroll survey also doesn’t capture the
number of self- employed, and so says little about how many people are generating an independent income.
The household survey has a larger problem. When asked straightforwardly, people tend to lie or shade the truth when
the subject is sex, money or employment. If you get a call and are asked if you’re employed, and you say yes, you’re
employed. If you say no, however, it may surprise you to learn that you are only unemployed if you’ve been actively looking
for work in the past four weeks; otherwise, you are “marginally attached to the labour force” and not actually unemployed.
The urge to quantify is embedded in our society. But the idea that statisticians can then capture an objective reality isn’t
just impossible. It also leads to serious misjudgments. Democrats and Republicans can and will take sides on a number of
issues, but a more crucial concern is that both are basing major policy decisions on guesstimates rather than looking at the
vast wealth of raw data with a critical eye and an open mind.
56. What do we learn from the first paragraph?
A) The US economic situation is going from bad to worse.
B) Washington is taking drastic measures to provide more jobs.
C) The US government is slashing more jobs from its payrolls.
D) The recent economic crisis has taken the US by surprise.
57. What does the author think of the unemployment figures and other statistics?
A) They form a solid basis for policy making. C) They signal future economic trends.
B) They represent the current situation. D) They do not fully reflect the reality.
58. One problem with the payroll survey is that .
A) it does not include all the businesses C) it magnifies the number of the jobless
B) it fails to count in the self-employed D) it does not treat all companies equally
59. The household survey can be faulty in that__________________ .
A) people tend to lie when talking on the phone
B) not everybody is willing or ready to respond
C) some people won’t provide truthful information
D) the definition of unemployment is too broad
60. At the end of the passage, the author suggests that___________________ .
A) statisticians improve their data assembling methods
B) decision makers view the statistics with a critical eye
C) politicians listen more before making policy decisions
D) Democrats and Republicans cooperate on crucial issues

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

At some point in 2008, someone, probably in either Asia or Africa, made the decision to move from the countryside to

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the city. This nameless person pushed the human race over a historic threshold, for it was in that year that mankind became,
for the first time in its history, a predominantly urban species.
It is a trend that shows no sign of slowing. Demographers(人 口统计学家）reckon that three-quarters of humanity
could be city-dwelling by 2050, with most of the increase coming in the fast-growing towns of Asia and Africa. Migrants to
cities are attracted by plentiful jobs, access to hospitals and education, and the ability to escape the boredom of a farmer’s
agricultural life. Those factors are more than enough to make up for the squalor（肮脏 ）disease and spectacular poverty that
those same migrants must often at first endure when they become urban dwellers.
It is the city that inspires the latest book from Peter Smith. His main thesis is that the buzz of urban life, and the
opportunities it offers for cooperation and collaboration, is what attracts people to the city, which in turn makes cities into the
engines of art, commerce, science and progress. This is hardly revolutionary, but it is presented in a charming format. Mr
Smith has written a breezy guidebook, with a series of short chapters dedicated to specific aspects of urbanity — parks, say,
or the various schemes that have been put forward over the years for building the perfect city. The result is a sort of
high-quality, unusually rigorous coffee-table book, designed to be dipped into rather than read from beginning to end.
In the chapter on skyscrapers, for example, Mr Smith touches on construction methods, the revolutionary invention of
the automatic lift, the practicalities of living in the sky and the likelihood that, as cities become more crowded, apartment
living will become the norm. But there is also time for brief diversions onto bizarre ground, such as a discussion of the
skyscraper index (which holds that a boom in skyscraper construction is a foolproof sign of an imminent recession).
One obvious criticism is that the price of breadth is depth: many of Mr Smith’s essays raise as many questions as they
answer. Although that can indeed be frustrating, this is probably the only way to treat so grand a topic. The city is the
building block of civilisation and of almost everything people do; a guidebook to the city is really, therefore, a guidebook to
how a large and ever-growing chunk of humanity chooses to live. Mr Smiths book serves as an excellent introduction to a
vast subject, and will suggest plenty of further lines of inquiry.
61. In what way is the year 2008 historic?
A) For the first time in history, urban people outnumbered rural people.
B) An influential figure decided to move from the countryside to the city.
C) It is in this year that urbanisation made a start in Asia and Africa.
D) The population increase in cities reached a new peak in Asia and Africa.
62. What does the author say about urbanisation?
A) Its impact is not easy to predict. C) It is a milestone in human progress.
B) Its process will not slow down. D) It aggravates the squalor of cities.

63. How does the author comment on Peter Smith’s new book?
A) It is but an ordinary coffee-table book. C) It serves as a guide to art and commerce.
B) It is flavoured with humorous stories. D) It is written in a lively and interesting style.
64. What does the author say in the chapter on skyscrapers?
A) The automatic lift is indispensable in skyscrapers.
B) People enjoy living in skyscrapers with a view.
C) Skyscrapers are a sure sign of a city’s prosperity.
D) Recession closely follows a skyscraper boom.

65. What may be one criticism of Mr Smith’s book?

A) It does not really touch on anything serious.
B) It is too long for people to read from cover to cover.

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C) It does not deal with any aspect of city life in depth.
D) It fails to provide sound advice to city dwellers.
Part IV Translation

Directions : For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write
your answer on Answer Sheet 2.

明朝第三位皇帝朱棣在夺取（usurp)帝位后，从南京迁都北京，于 1406 年开始建造紫禁城这座宫殿，至明

永乐十八年（ 1420 年）落成。随着 1924 年清朝的最后一位皇帝溥仪退位（abdication)后被驱逐出皇宫，它失去
了原有的功能。在这五百余年中，共有 24 位皇帝曾在此居住，统治全国。今天，紫禁城是一个博物院，也是世界
上最受欢迎的旅游景点之 一。游客们可以看到传统的宫殿建筑，可以欣赏保存在宫殿里的珍宝，还可以听到一些
关于皇族和朝廷的传说和轶事。