1、大学英语六级-81 及答案解析(总分：613.01，做题时间：90 分钟)一、BPart Writing(总题数：1，分数：106.00)1.Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Global Shortage of Fresh Water. You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below. 1.人们以为淡水是取之不尽的； 2.实际上淡水是非常紧缺的并分析其原因； 3.我
2、们应该怎么办。（分数：106.00）_二、BPart Reading (总题数：1，分数：10.00)BTHE BLENDING OF THE UNITED STATES/BFor years, Jorge Del Pinals job as assistant chief of the Census Bureaus Population Division was to fit people into neat, distinct racial and ethnic boxes: white, black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American. As the
3、son of an Anglo mother and a Hispanic father, however, he knew all along that the task was not always possible.For the 2000 decennial census, that will no longer be the case. For the flint time, the census forms will allow people to check off as many races as apply. As a result, the Census Bureau sh
4、ould obtain a better picture of the extent of intermarriage in the United States.In the absence of such a direct method, a few years ago veteran demographer Barry Edmonston used sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques to calculate how intermarriage is changing the face of the United States as
5、 part of an immigration study he directed for the National Research Council of the American Academy of Sciences. His research was summarized in a report entitled The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. But as the Canadian-born, white husband of sociologist Sharon
6、Lee, a Chinese-American, Edmonston really needed no computer to understand the transformation under way in this society. He and his family are living, breathing participants.The face of America is changing-literally. As former President Clinton has said, within 30 or 40 years, when there will be no
7、single race in the majority in the United States, “we had best be ready for it.“ For his part, Clinton is preparing for that, time by talking about racial tolerance and the virtues of multiculturalism. Others are debating immigration policy, Almost all discussion focuses on the potential divisivenes
8、s inherent in a nation that is no longer a predominantly white country with a mostly European ancestry.But afoot behind the scenes is another trend that, if handled carefully, could bring the country closer together rather than drive it apart. This quiet demographic counter-revolution is a dramatic
9、upsurge in intermarriage.Edmonstons study projected that by 2050, 21 percent of the U.S. population will be of mixed racial or ethnic ancestry, up from an estimate of seven percent today. Among third-generation Hispanic and Asian Americans, exogamy-marriage outside ones ethnic group or tribe-is at l
10、east 50 percent, he and others estimate. Exogamy remains much less prevalent among African Americans, but it has increased enormously, from about 1.5 percent in the 1960s to 8 to 10 percent today.Such a profound demographic shift could take place while no one was watching because, officially, no one
11、 was watching. Federal agencies traditionally collected racial data using a formula-one person, one race-similar to the time-honored voting principle. Thus, the Census Bureau could estimate that on census forms no more than two percent of the population would claim to be multiracial. In the absence
12、of a more straightforward count, no one could know for sure what the demographics are.Thats about to change. After the 2000 census, the U.S. Government should have a better idea. In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees federal statistical practices, approved a directive allowing
13、 people to cheek as many racial boxes as they believe apply to them. The shift was a compromise between the demands of some interest groups that wanted the addition of a “multiracial“ box, and those that objected to any change, fearing dilution of their numbers.Meanwhile, in the absence of official
14、numbers, with the heightened tension surrounding racial issues, and with the mutual suspicion that exists among competing racial and ethnic interest groups, theres little agreement on what intermarriage will mean for U.S. society in the future.Melting PotTo see the new face of the United States, go
15、to a grocery store and look at a box of Betty Crocker-brand food products. Bettys portrait is now in its eighth incarnation since the first composite painting debuted in 1936 with pale skin and blue eyes. Her new look is brown-eyed and dark-haired. She has a duskier complexion than her seven predece
16、ssors, with features representing an amalgam of white, Hispanic, Indian, African and Asian ancestry.A computer created this new Betty in the mid-1990s by blending photos of 75 diverse women. That process was relatively quick, General Mills Inc, spokesmen explain. But they acknowledge that it took qu
17、ite a while to spread the new image to the whole range of Betty Crocker products.The slow pace of that process itself could be a metaphor for gradual racial and ethnic intermixing in this country. Indeed, its taking a long time for the new blended American to surface in societys consciousness. Tiger
18、 Woods, the young golf great, publicized the trend by identifying himself as Cablinasian, a mixture of Caucasian, black, Native American and Asian.For the most part, the market-place-net government-is leading the way in this evolution. Mixed-race models, particularly men, are in great demand, accord
19、ing to fashion industry experts. And multiracial child actors are now more likely to be tapped for television advertisements.That serious scholars should be talking about a melting pot is itself a reversal. As a metaphor for American diversity, the melting pot was first discredited after World War I
20、, when the European immigrants streaming into American cities formed distinct ethnic and national enclaves that didnt melt together.The timing was off, it turned out, and the metaphorical pot was in the wrong place. Interracial and multiethnic fusion started after World War and happened in the subur
21、bs. City folk moved from their Italian, Irish, Polish or Jewish urban neighborhoods into diffuse suburban settings, then sent their kids to large public universities, throwing them together with youngsters from other ethnic backgrounds who, nonetheless, came from families with similar lifestyles.Whe
22、ther blacks will follow other minorities into the melting pot remains a subject of debate. Skeptics point to the much smaller proportion of black-white marriages and say it wont happen soon. Others respond that the statistical base is very small because, until 1967, such marriages were illegal in 19
23、 states.Countervailing ForcesWhile many forces arc at work to facilitate intermarriage, others militate against it. This is particularly the case for African Americans,The growing segment of the black community that is going to college, entering the middle class and moving out to the suburbs is also
24、 fallowing the general trend toward intermarriage. This tendency is particularly noticeable in California and in cities such as Dallas (Texas), Las Vegas (Nevada) and Phoenix (Arizona), where residential segregation has been less pronounced than in the older northeastern and midwestern U.S.cities, a
25、ccording to Reynolds Farley, who has studied African American residential patterns. In California, for example, among 25-to-34-year-old African Americans, 14 percent of the married black women and 32 percent of the married black men had spouses of a different race, Edmonston noted.But in the isolate
26、d urban neighborhoods of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, the old pattern remains. “There is a considerable fraction of the black population that still lives in inner-city areas-in Detroit, Chicago, New York Citythat has not been caught up in dynamic economic growth,“ said Farley, formerly a professo
27、r at the University of Michigan and now a vice president of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. “Theyve been left behind, and they arc quite far out of it.“Another countervailing force is immigration. Immigrants generally dont marry outside their racial or ethnic group. Their children do t
28、o some extent, but out-marriage really is most prevalent in the third generation. The most recent large-scale wave of immigration has produced only first-or second-generation Americans.Regardless of the real degree of racial and ethnic intermixing that goes on, the test of a blended society will be
29、the pro- portion of people who identify as multiracial or multiethnic. Until now, that percentage has been small. Thats partly because people tend to assume the racial or ethnic identity of one parent-often the minority parent, in the case of blacks and Hispanics. But to a large extent, that identit
30、y has been imposed by society.“I have a Spanish name and I speak Spanish, so people see me as being of Spanish origin,“ DelPinal, the Census Bureau official, explained.Racial identification can stem from other sources, such as heightened ethnic pride or the opportunity to benefit from affirmative ac
31、tion and other programs. Over the last few decades, having Native American ancestry has apparently become popular. Between 1970 and 1980, the number of people who checked “American Indian“ on their census forms grew from 800,000 to 1.4 million, a much faster increase than could be accounted for by b
32、irths minas deaths. “People decided they wanted to identify as American Indians, to some extent because of rising ethnic consciousness,“ observed Jeffrey S. Pas- sol, director of the Immigration Policy Program at the Urban Institute and a former director of the Census Bureaus Population Division.It
33、is this positive approach to racial or ethnic identification on which liberal elements of the Jewish community are trying to capitalize. For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. (In many communities, prayers for the dead were recited for a Jew who married a non-Jew. ) As a resu
34、lt, out-marriage was rare. Before World War , it amounted to less than seven percent of Jewish marriages, according to Mayer of CUNY. But in 1970, a National Jewish Population Survey discovered that in the previous five years, 30 percent of new Jewish marriages were to non-Jews. By 1990, that figure
35、 was more than 50 percent.After many meetings, much soul-searching and a lot of acrimonious debate, various synagogue groups in the most liberal denominations and Jewish civic organizations decided to reverse their approach. They still try to discourage intermarriage, but once it occurs, they tend t
36、o welcome new interfaith families.（分数：10.00）(1).The 2000 decennial census aims at obtaining the exact number of population as well as a better picture of the extent of intermarriage in the United States.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(2).The results of census have always been the compromise of certain groups of in
37、terest.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(3).Theres little agreement on what intermarriage will mean for U.S. society in the future as there is a lack of official numbers, a heightened tension surrounding racial issues, and the mutual suspicion that exists among different racial groups.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(4).The racial
38、and ethnic intermixing in this country is sometimes gradual and sometimes accelerated in history.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(5).Sophisticated _ techniques have been already employed to calculate how intermarriage is changing the face of the United States.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(6).President Clinton advised that peopl
39、e _ as no single race will exceed other races in number 30 or 40 years later.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(7).It is _ that plays the leading role in the ethnic intermixing of the U. S.（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(8).In cities or towns where _ is not serious, it is more likely that black people would enter intermarriage.（分数：
40、1.00）填空项 1:_(9).Regardless of the real degree of racial and ethnic intermixing that goes on, the test of a blended society will be the pro portion of people（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_(10).More and more people in the U.S. tend to identify as American Indians partly because they _ .（分数：1.00）填空项 1:_三、BPart Listen
41、in(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、BSection A/B(总题数：4，分数：105.00)Conversation One （分数：21.00）(1). A. He hiked along the Colorado River. B. He explored the Colorado River. C. He camped along the Colorado River. D. He visited the Colorado city.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(2). A. Because they want to sell canteens. B. Because they
42、 want to educate the tourists about park conditions. C. Because the tourists may get sick or die from dehydration. D. Because the tourists may get lost.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(3). A. Because she had too many things with her. B. Because she was sick. C. Because she was quite lazy. D. Because she didnt want
43、 to get sick at high altitudes.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.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
44、 each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the.four choices marked , and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. （分数：35.00）(1). A. He doesnt like the paintings. B. He hasnt seen the painti
45、ngs yet. C. He doesnt enjoy his art history course. D. He would like to own one of the paintings.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(2). A. Her name is on the top of the list. B. She is expecting a job interview. C. She will be the last to be interviewed. D. She must fix a date for the job interview.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.
46、(3). A. Their father is unable to keep his promise. B. Their father is going on a vacation without her. C. Their father isnt telling her the truth. D. Their father doesnt want to travel abroad.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(4). A. Substitute for Laura at work. B. Meet Laura at the restaurant. C. Go out of town w
47、ith Laura. D. Accept a full-time job.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(5). A. He thinks the woman is wasting her time. B. He is eager to know the womans answer. C. He can wait and there is no need for the woman to hurry. D. He thinks the woman should make full use of her time.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.（分数：21.00）(1). A. E-co
48、mmerce. B. Wireless communications. C. Business and the web. D. New technology.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(2). A. High bandwidth Internet connections. B. Cable. C. Related technologies. D. Electronic devices.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.(3). A. Online business. B. Some new products. C. Cable modems. D. A new high-speed network.（分数：7.00）A.B.C.D.（分数：28.00）(1). A.New foods to try when traveling. B.Making reservations for the best travel. C.Avoiding gaining weight while traveling. D.Adjustin
