1、大学英语六级分类模拟题 450 及答案解析(总分：497.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Section A(总题数：1，分数：71.00)The Uses of DifficultyThe brain likes a challenge - and putting a few obstacles in its way may well. boost its creativity. A Jack White, the former frontman of the White Stripes and an influent
2、ial figure among fellow musicians, likes to make things difficult for himself. He uses cheap guitars that won“t stay in shape or in tune. When performing, he positions his instruments in a way that is deliberately inconvenient, so that switching from guitar to organ mid-song involves a mad dash acro
3、ss the stage. Why? Because he“s on the run from what he describes as a disease that preys on every artist: “ease of use“. When making music gets too easy, says White, it becomes harder to make it sing. B It“s an odd thought. Why would anyone make their work more difficult than it already :is? Yet we
4、 know that difficulty can pay unexpected dividends. In 1966, soon after the Beatles had finished work on “Rubber Soul“, Paul McCartney looked into the possibility of going to America to record their next album. The equipment in American studios was more advanced than anything in Britain. which had l
5、ed the Beatles“ great rivals, the Rolling Stones, to make their latest album, “Aftermath“, in Los Angeles. McCartney found that EMI“s (百代唱片) contractual clauses made it prohibitively expensive to follow suit, and the Beatles had to make do with the primitive technology of Abbey Road. C Lucky for us.
6、 Over the next two years they made their most groundbreaking work, trolling the recording studio into a magical instrument of its own. Precisely because they were working with old-fashioned machines, George Martin and his team of engineers were forced to apply every ounce of their creativity to solv
7、e the problems posed to them by Lennon and McCartney. Songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows“, “Strawberry Fields Forever“, and “A Day in the Life“ featured revolutionary sound effects that dazzled and mystified Martin“s American counterparts. D Sometimes it“s only when a difficulty is removed that we rea
8、lise what it was doing for us. For more than two decades, starting in the 1960s, the poet Ted Hughes sat on the judging panel of an annual poetry competition for British schoolchildren. During the 1980s he noticed an increasing number of long poems among the submissions, with some running to 70 or 8
9、0 pages. These poems were verbally inventive and fluent, but also “strangely boring“. After making inquiries Hughes discovered that they were being composed on computers, then just finding their way into British homes. E You might have thought any tool which enables a writer to get words on to the p
10、age would be an advantage. But there may be a cost to such facility. In an interview with the Paris Review Hughes speculated that when a person puts pen to paper, “you meet the terrible resistance of what happened your first year at it, when you couldn“t write at all“. As the brain attempts to force
11、 the unsteady hand to do its bidding, the tension between the two results in a more compressed, psychologically denser expression. Remove that resistance and you are more likely to produce a 70-page ramble (不着边际的长篇大论). F Our brains respond better to difficulty than we imagine. In schools, teachers a
12、nd pupils alike often assume that if a concept has been easy to learn, then the lesson has been successful. But numerous studies have now found that when classroom material is made harder to absorb, pupils retain more of it over the long term, and understand it on a deeper level. G As a poet, Ted Hu
13、ghes had an acute sensitivity to the way in which constraints on self-expression, like the disciplines of metre and rhyme (韵律), spur creative thought. What applies to poets and musicians also applies to our daily lives. We tend to equate (等同) happiness with freedom, but, as the psychotherapist and w
14、riter Adam Phillips has observed, without obstacles to our desires it“s harder to know what we want, or where we“re heading. He tells the story of a patient, a first-time mother who complained that her young son was always clinging to her, wrapping himself around her legs wherever she went. She neve
15、r had a moment to herself, she said, because her son was “always in the way“. When Phillips asked her where she would go if he wasn“t in the way, she replied cheerfully, “Oh, I wouldn“t know where I was!“ H Take another common obstacle: lack of money. People often assume that more money will make th
16、em happier. But economists who study the relationship between money and happiness have consistently found that, above a certain income, the two do not reliably correlate. Despite the ease with which the rich can acquire almost anything they desire, they are just as likely to be unhappy as the middle
17、 classes. In this regard at least, F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong. I Indeed, ease of acquisition is the problem. The novelist Edward St Aubyn has a narrator remark of the very rich that, “not having to consider affordability, their desires rambled on like unstoppable bores, relentless (持续不断的) and whi
18、msical (反复无常的) at the same time. “ When Boston College, a private research university, wanted a better feel for its potential donors, it asked the psychologist Robert Kenny to investigate the mindset of the super-rich. He surveyed 165 households, most of which had a net worth of $25m or more. He fou
19、nd that many of his subjects were confused by the infinite options their money presented them with. They found it hard to know what to want, creating a kind of existential bafflement. One of them put it like this: “You know, Bob, you can just buy so much stuff, and when you get to the point where yo
20、u can just buy so much stuff, now what are you going to do?“ J The internet makes information billionaires out of all of us, and the architects of our online experiences are catching on to the need to make things creatively difficult. Twitter“s huge success is rooted in the simple but profound insig
21、ht that in a medium with infinite space for self- expression, the most interesting thing we can do is restrict ourselves to 140 characters. The music service This Is My Jam helps people navigate the tens of millions of tracks now available instantly via Spotify and iTunes. Users pick their favourite
22、 song of the week to share with others. They only get to choose one. The service was only launched this year, but by the end of September 650,000 jams had been chosen. Its co-founder Matt Ogle explains its raison d“tre (存在的理由) like this: “In an age of endless choice, we were missing a way to say: “T
23、his. This is the one you should listen to“. “ K Today“s world offers more opportunity than ever to follow the advice of the Walker Brothers and make it easy on ourselves. Compared with a hundred years ago, our lives are less tightly bound by social norms and physical constraints. Technology has cut
24、out much of life“s donkeywork, and we have more freedoms than ever: we can wear what we like and communicate with hundreds of friends at once at the crick of a mouse. Obstacles are everywhere disappearing. Few of us wish to turn the clock back, but perhaps we need to remind ourselves how useful the
25、right obstacles can be. Sometimes, the best route to fulfilment is the path of more resistance.（分数：71.00）(1).The rigorous requirements placed on the writing of poetry stimulate the poet“s creativity.（分数：7.10）(2).With creativity, even old-fashioned instruments may produce spectacular sound effects.（分
26、数：7.10）(3).More money does not necessarily bring greater happiness.（分数：7.10）(4).It is a false assumption that lessons should be made easier to learn.（分数：7.10）(5).Obstacles deliberately placed in the creation of music contribute to its success.（分数：7.10）(6).Those who enjoy total freedom may not find t
27、hemselves happy.（分数：7.10）(7).Ted Hughes discovered many long poems submitted for poetry competition were composed on computers.（分数：7.10）(8).Maybe we need to bear in mind that the right obstacles help lead us to greater achievements.（分数：7.10）(9).An investigation found that many of the super-rich were
28、 baffled by the infinite choices their money made available.（分数：7.10）(10).One free social networking website turned out to be successful because it limited each posting to one hundred and forty characters.（分数：7.10）三、Section B(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、Passage One(总题数：3，分数：213.00)Call it the “learning paradox“
29、 : the more you struggle and even fail while you“re trying to learn new information, the better you“re likely to recall and apply that information later. The learning paradox is at the heart of “productive failure,“ a phenomenon identified by researcher Manu Kapur. Kapur points out that while the mo
30、del adopted by many teachers when introducing students to new knowledge - providing lots of structure and guidance early on, until the students show that they can do it on their own - makes intuitive sense, it may not be the best way to promote learning. Rather, it“s better to let the learners wrest
31、le (较劲) with the material on their own for a while, refraining from giving them any assistance at the start. In a paper published recently, Kapur applied the principle of productive failure to mathematical problem solving in three schools. With one group of students, the teacher provided strong “sca
32、ffolding“ - instructional support - and feedback. With the teacher“s help, these pupils were able to find the answers to their set of problems. Meanwhile, a second group was directed to solve the same problems by collaborating with one another, without any prompts from their instructor. These studen
33、ts weren“t able to complete the problems correctly. But in the course of trying to do so, they generated a lot of ideas about the nature of the problems and about what potential solutions would look like. And when the two groups were tested on what they“d learned, the second group “significantly out
34、performed“ the first. The apparent struggles of the floundering (挣扎的) group have what Kapur calls a “hidden efficacy“ : they lead people to understand the deep structure of problems, not simply their correct solutions. When these students encounter a new problem of the same type on a test, they“re a
35、ble to transfer the knowledge they“ve gathered more effectively than those who were the passive recipients of someone else“s expertise. In the real world, problems rarely come neatly packaged, so being able to discern their deep structure is key. But, Kapur notes, none of us like to fail, no matter
36、how often Silicon Valley entrepreneurs praise the beneficial effects of an idea that fails or a start-up company that crashes and burns. So we need to “ design for productive failure“ by building it into the learning process. Kapur has identified three conditions that promote this kind of beneficial
37、 struggle. First, choose problems to work on that “challenge but do not frustrate. “ Second, provide learners with opportunities to explain and elaborate on what they“re doing. Third, give learners the chance to compare and contrast good and bad solutions to the problems. And to those students who p
38、rotest this tough-love teaching style: you“ll thank me later.（分数：71.00）(1).Why does the author call the learning process a paradox?（分数：14.20）A.Pains do not necessarily lead to gains.B.What is learned is rarely applicable in life.C.Failure more often than not breeds success.D.The more is taught, the
39、less is learnt.(2).What does Kapur disapprove of in teaching?（分数：14.20）A.Asking students to find and solve problems on their own.B.Developing students“ ability to apply what they learn.C.Giving students detailed guidance and instruction.D.Allowing students a free hand in problem solving.(3).What do
40、people tend to think of providing strong “scaffolding“ in teaching?（分数：14.20）A.It will make teaching easier.B.It is a sensible way of teaching.C.It can motivate average students.D.It will enhance students“ confidence.(4).What kind of problem should be given to students to solve according to Kapur?（分
41、数：14.20）A.It should be able to encourage collaborative learning.B.It should be easy enough so as not to frustrate students.C.It should be solvable by average students with ease.D.It should be difficult enough but still within their reach.(5).What can be expected of “this tough-love teaching style“ (
42、 Line 8, Para. 5)?（分数：14.20）A.Students will be grateful in the 10ng run.B.Teachers will meet with a lot of resistance.C.Parents will think it too harsh on their kids.D.It may not be able to yield the desired results.The first week of July 1776 was a busy one for Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of
43、Independence , which he largely wrote, was adopted on the fourth. But he chose the same week to begin keeping a record of the temperature change in a notebook. This wasn“t a single example: for eight years, as president, Jefferson made detailed notes on the seasonal availability of various vegetable
44、s in the markets of Washington, DC. This wasn“t because he couldn“t focus, says Joshua. Kendall, author of America“s Obsessives (强迫症者): The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation . Rather, his obsessional habits were a self-soothing response to anxiety. When his wife died, he responded by cataloguing
45、 the tens of thousands of letters he“d sent or received. “A mind always employed is always happy,“ he liked to say. But that wasn“t a platitude(陈辞滥调): some of Jefferson“s compulsive industriousness made history, but all of it helped keep him mentally healthy. The core of Kendall“s argument is that m
46、any successful people show symptoms of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (强迫型人格障碍). Steve Jobs would get angry over a misplaced comma; he rejected one version of the Apple II computer because the lines on its internal circuit boards weren“t straight enough. But, if-Kendall is correct, Jobs w
47、asn“t a person consumed solely by his own ambition: he focused on shaping and perfecting the physical world just to avoid con fronting his innermost self. Kendall quotes a psychiatrist who says it often begins with an insecure growing-up: “Children who have little control over the key events and peo
48、ple in their lives begin to focus on something they can control.“ Avoiding self-reflection, they make poor parents and partners. But their avoidance also leads to their success. This is disturbing, since the “experiential avoidance“ the effort not to feel certain feelings, or think certain thoughtsi
49、s widely considered as a bad thing. It“s blamed for everything from social anxiety to self-harm; the fast-developing acceptance and commitment therapy is dedicated to overcoming it, by helping people safely to “feel their feelings“. Could it really bring benefits? The question strikes deep at how we think about psychological disorders. By definition, they interfere with life. But what counts as interfering is subjective: is it “better“ to be a great innovator than an ordinary spouse, or vice versa? The happiest among Kendall“s obsessives are those with self-awareness:
