06年12月新六级英语真题阅读理解

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 the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

I’ve heard from and talked to many people who described how Mother Nature simplified their lives for them. They’d lost their home and many or all of their possessions through fires, floods, earthquakes, or some other disaster. Losing everything you own under such circumstances can be distressing, but the people I’ve heard from all saw their loss, ultimately, as a blessing.

"The fire saved us the agony of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of," one woman wrote. And once all those things were no longer there, she and her husband saw how they had weighed them down and complicated their lives.

"There was so much stuff we never used and that was just taking up space. We vowed when we started over, we’d replace only what we needed, and this time we’d do it right. We’ve kept our promise: we don’t have much now, but what we have is exactly what we want."

Though we’ve never had a catastrophic loss such as that, Gibbs and I did have a close call shortly before we decided to simplify. At that time we lived in a fire zone. One night a firestorm raged through and destroyed over six hundred homes in our community. That tragedy gave us the opportunity to look objectively at the goods we’d accumulated.

We saw that there was so much we could get rid of and not only never miss, but be better off without. Having almost lost it all, we found it much easier to let go of the things we knew we’d never use again.

Obviously, there’s a tremendous difference between getting rid of possessions and losing them through a natural disaster without having a say in the matter. And this is not to minimize the tragedy and pain such a loss can generate.

But you might think about how you would approach the acquisition process if you had it to do all over again. Look around your home and make a list of what you would replace.

Make another list of things you wouldn’t acquire again no matter what, and in fact would be happy to be rid of.

When you’re ready to start unloading some of your stuff, that list will be a good place to start.

47.Many people whose possessions were destroyed in natural disasters eventually considered their loss_______. as a blessing 48.Now that all their possessions were lost in the fire, the woman and her husband felt that their lives had been _____. simplified 49.What do we know about the author’s house from the sentence "Gibbs and I did have a close call ___________"(Para.4)? their house need to be simplified 50.According to the author, getting rid of possessions and losing them through a natural disaster are vastly_______. different 51.What does the author suggest people do with unnecessary things?____________ Make a list of the unnecessary things before unloading them.  

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 decided 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.

In a purely biological sense, fear begins with the body’s system for reacting to things that can harm us- the so-called fight-or-flight response. "An animal that can’t detect danger can’t stay alive," says Joseph LeDoux. Like animals, humans evolved with an elaborate mechanism for processing information about potential threats. At its core is a cluster to neurons(神经元)deep in the brain known as the amygdala(扁桃核)。
 
LeDoux studies the way animals and humans respond to threats to understand how we form memories of significant events in our lives. The amygdala receives input from many parts of the brain, including regions responsible for retrieving memories. Using this information, the amygdala appraises a situation-I think this charging dog wants to bite me-and triggers a response by radiating nerve signals throughout the body. These signals produce the familiar signs of distress:trembling,prespiration and fast-moving feet, just to name three.

This fear mechanism is critical to the survival of all animals, but no one can say for sure whether beasts other than human know they’re afraid. That is, as LeDoux says, "if you put that system into a brain that has consciousness, then you get the feeling of fear."

Humans, says Edward M. Hallowell, have the ability to call up images of bad things that happened in the past and to anticipate future events. Combine these higher thought processes with our hardwired danger-detection systems, and you get a near-universal human phenomenon:worry.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, says Hallowell. "When used properly, worry is an incredible device," he says. After all, a little healthy worrying is okay if it leads to constructive action-like having a doctor look at that weird spot on your back.

Hallowell insists, though, that there’s a right way to worry. "Never do it alone, get the facts and then make a plan," he says. Most of us have survived a recession, so we’re familiar with the belt-tightening strategies needed to survive a slump.

Unfortunately, few of us have much experience dealing with the threat of terrorism, so it’s been difficult to get facts about how we should respond. That’s why Hallowell believes it was okay for people to indulge some extreme worries last fall by asking doctors for Cipro(抗炭疽菌的药物) and buying gas masks.

52.The "so-called fight-or-flight response"(Para.1) refers to "______". A, the biological process in which human beings' sense of self-defense evolves B, the instinctive fear human beings feel when faced with potential danger C, the act of evaluating a dangerous situation and making a quick decision D, the elaborate mechanism in the human brain for retrieving information 53.From the studies conducted by LeDoux we learn that______. A, reactions of humans and animals to dangerous situations are often unpredictable B, memories of significant events enable people to control fear and distress C, people's unpleasant memories are derived from their feelings of fear D, the amygdala plays a vital part in human and animal responses to potential danger 54.Fromthe passage we know that______. A, a little worry will do us good if handled properly B, a little worry will enable us to survive a recession C, fear strengthens the human desire to survive danger D, fear helps people to anticipate certain future events 55.Which of the following is the best way to deal with your worries according to Hallowell?  A, Ask for help from the people around you. B, Use the belt-tightening strategies for survival. C, Seek professional advice and take action. D, Understand the situation and be fully prepared. 56.In Hallowell’s view, people’s reaction to the terrorist threat last fall was ______.  A, ridiculous B, understandable C, over-cautious D, sensible

Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

Amitai Etzioni is not surprised by the latest headings about scheming corporate crooks(骗子). As a visiting professor at the Harvard Business School in 1989, he ended his work there disgusted with his students’ overwhelming lust for money. "They’re taught that profit is all that matters," he says, "Many schools don’t even offer ethics(伦理学)"courses at all."

Etzioni expressed his frustration about the interests of his graduate students."By and large, I clearly had not found a way to help classes full of MBAs see that there is more to life than money, power, fame and self-interest," he wrote at the time.Today he still takes the blame for not educating these "business-leaders-to-be.""I really fell like I failed them," he says.” If I was a better teacher maybe I could have reached them." 

Etzioni was a respected ethics expert when he arrived at Harvard. He hoped his work at the university would give him insight into how questions of morality could be applied to places where self-interest flourished. What he found wasn’t encouraging. Those would-be executives had, says Etzioni, little interest in concepts of ethics and morality in the boardroom-and their professor was met with blank stares when he urged his students to see business in new and different ways.

Etzioni sees the experience at Harvard as an eye-opening one and says there’s much about business schools that he’d like to change. "A lot of the faculty teaching business are bad news themselves,"Etzioni says. From offering classes that teach students how to legally manipulate contracts, to reinforcing the notion of profit over community interests, Etzioni has seen a lot that’s left him shaking his head. And because of what he’s seen taught in business schools, he’s not surprised by the latest rash of corporate scandals. "In many ways things have got a lot worse at business schools, I suspect,” says Etzioni.

Etzioni is still teaching the sociology of right and wrong and still calling for ethical business leadership.” People with poor motives will always exist," he says. "Sometimes environments constrain those people and sometimes environments give those people opportunity."Etzioni says the booming economy of the last decade enabled those individuals with poor motives to get rich before getting in trouble. His hope now:that the cries for reform will provide more fertile soil for his long-standing messages about business ethics.