最新预测：英语六级新题型试卷（五）

Tape scripts

Section A

Directions: (omitted)

1. W: Bob, what brings you here?

M: I've been running a temperature for a couple of days and finally I decided I'd better come and see you.

Q: Who are the two speakers?

2. M: Where shall we have lunch? All I want is a sandwich. Isn't there a new snack bar in the neighborhood?

W: I've been there a couple of times. It's quick, and the price is reasonable. But the food they serve isn't anything to speak of.

Q: What does the woman think of the new snack bar?

3. W: Where have you been all this time? It's 8:00 now and the play started forty minutes ago.

M: I'm sorry, Jane. I thought you told me it started at 8:20.

Q: When did the play start?

4. M: Are you done with your Christmas shopping yet?

W: Almost. I got a watch for my brother, and a book for my mother. But I haven't come up with an idea what to buy for my dad yet—probably a new fishing pole or a table lamp.

Q: What has the woman bought for her mother?

5. W: Excuse me, Sir. No visitors are allowed here. This is the recovery room.

M: I'm sorry. I must have gotten off the elevator on the wrong floor.

Q: Where did the conversation most probably take place?

6. M: Your brother Mac didn't recognize me at first.

W: I'm not surprised. Why on earth did you lose so much weight?

Q: What can we learn about the man by the woman's response?

7. M: It's been quite a while since I last saw Bill. What do you think he's doing these days?

W: I bumped into him the other day in the library. He told me he had moved to a new apartment on the other side of the campus.

Q: Where did the woman meet Bill?

8. W: So you are going to spend your winter vacation in London?

M: Oh, anywhere but London! We want to see the country itself, not just the modern capital.

Q: Where is the man most probably going for his winter vacation?

9. M: Sometimes I wonder if Susan is really so ignorant as she seems.

W: I know what you mean. Sometimes people are not what they look.

Q: What can be inferred from their conversation?

10. W: When is your class over in the afternoon?

M: It's supposed to end at 4:30, but our teacher never lets us out on time.

Q: What does the man say about his class?

Section B

Directions: (omitted)

Passage One

The first rockets were almost certainly made in China. They may have been used as early as A.D. 994. Again, in the 1230s there were some references to rockets being used in China. The earlier ones may have been merely arrows tipped with something easily burnt. But later ones seemed to have been rockets driven by gunpowder which was invented in China. There were tubes of black powder attached to arrows. The arrow feathers were later left off when the firers realized that the rockets still flew straight after the feathers had been burnt off by the exhaust from the rockets. Soon the new weapons were being used in Europe as well. These early inventors had discovered the basic principle of the rocket by chance. It is a device containing fuel and oxygen, which, when they are burnt, create a backward gas which thrusts the rocket forward. Gunpowder was used as fuel for rockets for many years, and still is in fireworks. And though better fuel now enables man to reach the moon, the principle of this back thrust remains the same.

Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.

11. Where were the first rockets made?

12. According to historical records, when was the earliest the Chinese may have used rockets?

13. According to the passage, why did the ancient Chinese people remove the arrow feathers?

Passage Two

Postage stamps are usually issued by a sovereign nation. The idea for the adhesive postage stamp was first suggested by an English schoolmaster in 1837. His conception was derived from similar labels that had been issued almost a century earlier in many parts of Europe to collect a tax on newspapers. On May 1, 1840, Great Britain released the world's first officially issued adhesive postage stamp. The stamp features a portrait of Queen Victoria. It established a postal precedent in Great Britain. Since that time, all regular-issue stamps have portrayed the reigning monarch. Because these stamps proved to be so successful, by 1860 most nations had adopted the use of the postage stamps. Designs at first imitated those of Great Britain, but later pictorial designs were more and more used toward the end of the 19th century, and stamps created to commemorate important events began to be issued. Among the wide range of pictorials are stamps devoted to sports, art and music, aviation, birds and flowers, literature, ships, and telecommunication.

Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.

14. Who first suggested the idea for the adhesive postage stamp?

15. When was the first official adhesive postage stamp issued?

16. What was on the first adhesive postage stamp?

Passage Three

In November 1965, New York was blacked out by an electricity failure. The authorities promised that it would not happen again. Pessimists were certain that it would occur again within five years at the latest. In July 1977, there was a repeat performance which produced varying degrees of chaos throughout the city of eight million people. In 1965, the failure occurred in the cool autumn and at a time of comparative prosperity. In 1977, the disaster was much more serious because it came when unemployment was high and the city was suffering from one of its worst heat waves.

In 1965, there was little crime or looting during the darkness, and fewer than a hundred people were arrested. In 1977, hundreds of stores were broken into and looted. Looters smashed shop windows and helped themselves to jewelry, clothes or television. Nearly 4,000 people were arrested but far more disappeared into the darkness of the night. The number of policemen available was quite inadequate and they wisely refrained from using their guns against mobs which far outnumbered them.

The vast majority of New Yorkers, however, were not involved in looting. They helped strangers, distributed candles and batteries, and tried to survive in a nightmare world without traffic lights, refrigerators, elevators, water and electrical power. For 24 hours New York realized how helpless it was without electricity.

Questions 18 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.

17. What did the authorities say abort the blackout?

18. It can be inferred from the passage that the New Yorkers reacted to the power failure in 1965 ______.

19. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

20. How long did the blackout in 1977 last?