1、大学英语六级分类模拟题 323 及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)Rates Are low, but Consumers won“t BorrowWith heavy debt loads and high joblessness, Americans are cautious. A. The US Federal Reserve (Fed)“s announcement last week that it intended to keep credit cheap for at least two
2、 more years was a clear invitation to Americans: go out and borrow. B. But many economists say it will take more than low interest rates to persuade consumers to take on more debt. There are already signs that the recent stock market fluctuations, turbulence in Europe and the US deficit have seared
3、consumers. On Friday, preliminary data showed that the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index had fallen this month to lower than it was in November 2008, when the United States was deep in recession. Under normal circumstances, the Fed“s announcement might have attracted ne
4、w home and ear buyers and prompted credit card holders to rack up fresh charges. But with unemployment high and those with jobs worried about keeping them, consumers are more concerned about paying off the loans they already have than adding more debt. And by showing its hand for the next two years,
5、 the Fed may have thoughtlessly invited prospective borrowers to put off large purchases. C. Lenders, meanwhile, are still dealing with the effects of the boom-gone-bust and are forcing prospective borrowers to go to extraordinary lengths to prove their creditworthiness. D. “I don“t think lenders ar
6、e going to be interested in extending a lot of debt in this environment,“ said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody“s Analytics, a macroeconomic consulting firm. “Nor do I think households are going to be interested in taking on a lot of debt.“ In housing, consumers have already shown a slow respons
7、e to low rates. Applications for new mortgages have de-creased this year to a 10-year low, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Sales of furniture and furnishings remain 22% below their pre-recession peak, according to Spending Pulse, a research report by MasterCard Advisors. Credit card r
8、ates have actually gone up slightly in the past year. The one bright spot in lending is the number of auto loans, which is up from last year. But some economists say that confidence among ear buyers is hitting new lows. E. For Xavier Walter, a former mortgage banker who with his wife, Danielle, accu
9、mulated $20,000 in credit card debt, low rates will not change his spending habits. As the housing market topped out five years ago, he lost his six-figure income. He and his wife were able to modify the mortgage on their four-bedroom house in Medford, New Jersey, as well as negotiate lower credit c
10、ard payments. Two years ago, Mr. Walter, a 34-year-old father of three, started an energy business. He has sworn off credit. “I“m not going to go back in debt ever again,“ he said, “If I can“t pay for it in cash, I don“t want it.“ F. Until now, one of the biggest restraints on consumer spending has
11、been a debt aftereffect. Since August 2008, when household debt peaked at $12.41 trillion, it has declined by about $1.2 trillion, according to an analysis by Moody“s Analytics of data from the Federal Reserve and Equifax, the credit agency. A large portion of that, though, was simply written off by
12、 lenders as borrowers defaulted on loans. By other measures, households have improved their position. The proportion of after-tax income that households spend to remain current on loan payments has fallen. G. Still, household debt remains high. That presents a paradox: many economists argue that the
13、 economy cannot achieve true health until debt levels decline. But credit, made attractive by low rates, is a time-tested way to increase consumer spending. With new risks of another downturn, economists worry that it will take years for debt to return to manageable levels. If the economy con-tracts
14、 again, said George Magnus, senior adviser at UBS, then “you could find a lot of households in a debt trap which they probably can never get out of“. H. Mortgage lenders, meanwhile, burned by the housing crash, are extra careful about approving new loans. In June, for instance, Fannie Mac, the large
15、st mortgage buyer in the United States, said that borrowers whose existing debt exceeded 45 to 50% of their income would be required to have stronger “compensating“ factors, which might include higher savings. Even those borrowers in strong financial positions are asked to provide unusual amounts of
16、 paperwork. Bobby and Katie Smith have an extremely good credit record, tiny student debt and a combined six-figure income. For part of their down payment, they planned to use about $5000 they had received as wedding gifts in February. But the lender would not accept that money unless the Smiths pro
17、vided a certified letter from each of 14 guests, stating that the money was a gift, rather than a loan. “We laughed for a good 15 or 20 minutes,“ recalled Mr. Smith, 34. Mr. Smith, a program director for a radio station in Orlando, Florida, said they ended up using other savings for their down payme
18、nt to buy a $300,000 four-bedroom house in April. I. For those not as creditworthy as the Smiths, low rates are irrelevant because they no longer qualify for mortgages. That leaves the eligible pool of loan applicants wealthier, “older and whiter,“ said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finan
19、ce. “It“s creating much more of a divide,“ he said, “between the haves and the have-nots.“ Car shoppers with the highest credit ratings can also get loans more easily, and at lower rates, said Paul C. Taylor, chief economist of the National Auto-mobile Dealers Association. J. During the recession, i
20、nability to obtain credit severely cut auto buying as lenders rejected even those with good credit ratings. Now automakers are increasing their subprime (次级债的) lending again as well, but remain hesitant to approve large numbers of risky customers. K. The number of new auto loans was up by 16% in the
21、 second quarter compared with the previous year, said Melinda Zabritski, director of automotive credit at Experian, the information services company. But some economists warn that consumer confidence is falling. According to CNW Marketing Research, confidence among those who intend to buy a car this
22、 year is at its lowest since it began collecting data on this measure in 2000. L. On credit cards, rates have actually inched higher this year, largely because of new rules that curb the issuer“s ability to charge fees or raise certain interest rates at will. M. At the end of the second quarter, rat
23、es averaged 14.01% on new card offers, up from 13.75% a year earlier, according to Mail Monitor, which tracks credit cards for Synovate, a market research firm. According to data from the Federal Reserve, total outstanding debt on revolving credit cards was down by 4.6% during the first half of the
24、year compared with the same period a year earlier. N. Even if the Fed“s announcement helps keep rates steady, or pushes them down, businesses do not expect customers to suddenly charge up a storm. O. “It“s not like, “Oh, credit is so cheap, let“s go back to the heydays (鼎盛时期),“ “ said Elizabeth Crow
25、ell, who owns Sterling Place, two high-end home furnishing and gift stores in New York. “People still fear for their jobs. So I think where maybe after other recessions they might re-turn to previous spending habits, the pendulum hasn“t swung back the same way.“（分数：25.00）(1).The lenders in the curre
26、nt credit market are becoming more cautious.（分数：2.50）(2).According to Guy Cecala, the banks“ policy on mortgage lending will result in a wider gap between the rich and the poor.（分数：2.50）(3).The purpose of the announcement issued by the US Federal Reserve last week is to encourage consumers to get mo
27、re bank loans.（分数：2.50）(4).The author cites Xavier Waiter“s case to show that people now won“t buy things unless they have the money.（分数：2.50）(5).The reason for people“s reluctance to take on more debt despite the low interest rates is that they are pessimistic about employment prospects.（分数：2.50）(6
28、).The economists“ concern regarding the current economy is the unmanageable debt levels.（分数：2.50）(7).Credit card interest rates have gradually increased recently because new rules do not allow the issuers to raise certain interest rates or charge fees.（分数：2.50）(8).During the recession, the number of
29、 car buyers decreased because it was difficult to obtain credit.（分数：2.50）(9).According to Elizabeth Crowell, the current recession, unlike previous ones, has not seen a swing back in people“s spending habits.（分数：2.50）(10).We can learn from the Smiths“ story that mortgage lenders are now careful abou
30、t borrowers“ qualifications.（分数：2.50）In a Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper TextbooksA. They text their friends all day long. At night, they do research for their term papers on laptops and commune with their parents on Skype. But as they walk the paths of Hamilton College, a poster-perfect
31、 liberal arts school in this upstate village, students are still hauling around bulky, old-fashioned textbooksand loving it. “The screen won“t go blank,“ said Faton Begolli, a junior from Boston. “There can“t be a virus. It wouldn“t be the same without books. They“ve defined “academia“(学术) for a tho
32、usand years.“ B. Though the world of print is receding before a tide of digital books, blogs and other Web sites, a generation of college students growing up with technology appears to be holding fast to traditional textbooks. That loyalty comes at a price. Textbooks are expensivea year“s worth can
33、cost $ 700 to $900and students“ frustrations with the expense, as well as the emergence of new technology, have produced a perplexing array of options for obtaining them. C. Internet retailers like Amazon and Textbooks. corn are selling new and used books. They have been joined by several Web servic
34、es that rent textbooks to students by the semester. Some 1, 500 college bookstores are also offering rentals this fall, up from 300 last year. Here at Hamilton, students this year have a newway to avoid the middleman: a nonprofit Web site, created by the college“s Entrepreneur Club, that lets them s
35、ell used books directly to one another. The explosion of outlets and formatsincluding digital books, which are rapidly becoming more sophisticatedhas left some students bewildered. After completing the difficult job of course selection, they are forced to weigh cost versus convenience, analyze their
36、 own study habits and guess which texts they will want for years to come and which they will not miss. D. “It depends on the course,“ said Victoria Adesoba, a student at New York University who was standing outside that school“s bookstore, a powder-blue book bag slung over her shoulder. “Last semest
37、er, I rented for psychology, and it was cheaper. But for something like organic chemistry, I need to keep the book. E-textbooks are good, but it“s tempting to go on Facebook, and it can strain your eyes.“ For all the talk that her generation is the most technologically knowledgeable adept in history
38、, paper-and-ink textbooks do not seem destined to disappear anytime soon. E. According to the National Association of College Stores, digital books make up just under 3% of textbook sales, although the association expects that share to grow to 10-15% by 2012 as more tides are made available as e-boo
39、ks. In two recent studiesone by the association and another by the Student Public Interest Research Groupsthree-quarters of the students surveyed said they still preferred a bound book to a digital version. Many students are reluctant to give up the ability to flip quickly between chapters, write in
40、 the margins and highlight passages, although new software applications are beginning to allow students to use e-textbooks that way. F. “Students grew up learning from print books,“ said Nicole Alien, the textbooks campaign director for the research groups, “so as they transition to higher education
41、, it“s not surprising that they prefer a format that they are most accustomed to.“ Indeed, many Hamilton students grow passionate about the weighty volumes they still carry from dorm room to lecture hall to library, even as they compulsively (克制不住地) check their smartphones for text messages and e-ma
42、ils. “I believe that the codex is one of mankind“s best inventions,“ said Jonathan Piskor, a junior from North Carolina, using the Latin term for book. G. That passion may be one reason that Barnes the company does not allow outsiders to observe the process. Why is Google undertaking such a venture?
43、 B. Why is it even interested in all those out-of-print library books, most of which have been gathering dust on forgotten shelves for decades? The company claims its motives are essentially public-spirited. Its overall mission, after all, is to “organise the world“s information“, so it would be odd
44、 if that information did not include books. The company likes to present itself as having lofty aspirations. “This really isn“t about making money. We are doing this for the good of society.“ As Santiago de la Nora, head of Google Books for Europe, puts it: “By making it possible to search the milli
45、ons of books that exist today, we hope to expand the frontiers of human knowledge.“ C. Dan Clancy, the chief architect of Google Books, does seem genuine in his conviction that this is primarily a philanthropic (慈善的) exercise. “Google“s core business is search and find, so obviously what helps impro
46、ve Google“s search engine is good for Google,“ he says. “But we have never built a spreadsheet (电子数据表) outlining the financial benefits of this, and I have never had to justify the amount I am spending to the company“s founders.“ D. It is easy, talking to Clancy and his colleagues, to be swept along
47、 by their missionary passion. But Google“s book-scanning project is proving controversial. Several opponents have recently e-merged, ranging from rival tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon to small bodies representing authors and publishers across the world. In broad terms, these opponents have
48、levelled two sets of criticisms at Google. E. First, they have questioned whether the primary responsibility for digitally archiving the world“s books should be allowed to fall to a commercial company, in a recent essay in the New York Review of Books, Robert Darnton, the head of Harvard University“
49、s library, argued that because such books are a common resourcethe possession of us allonly public, not-for-profit bodies should be given the power to control them. F. The second, related criticism is that Google“s scanning of books is actually illegal. This allegation has led to Google becoming mired in (陷入) a legal battle whose scope and complexity makes the Jarndyce and Jamdyce case in Charles Dickens“ Bleak House look straightforward. At its centre, however, is one simple issue: that of copyright. The inconvenient fact about most books, to which Google has arguably paid insufficie
