2019年12月英语六级真题第3套

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2019 年 12 月六级第三套

Part I Writing (30 minutes)

Directions:

For this part you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on the importance

of having a sense of community responsibility. You should write at least 150 words but no

more than 200 words.

听力同第二套

Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

Section A

Directions:

In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to

select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the

passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in

the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on

Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in

the bank more than once.

The number of devices you can talk to is multiplying—first it was your phone, then

your car, and now you can tell your kitchen appliances what to do. But even without

gadgets that understand our spoken commands, research suggests that, as bizarre as it

sounds, under certain26, people regularly ascribe human traits to everyday objects.

Sometimes we see things as human because we are27. In one experiment, people who

reported feeling isolated were more likely than others to attribute28to various gadgets.

In turn, feeling close to objects can 29 loneliness. When college students were reminded

of a time they had been30in a social setting, they compensated by exaggerating their

number of friends—unless they were first given tasks that caused them to interact with

their phone as if it had human qualities. According to the researchers, the

participants’ phones 31 substituted for real friends.

At other times, we personify products in an effort to understand them. One study found

that three in four respondents yelled at their computer. Further, the more their computer

gave them problems, the more likely the respondents were to report that it had its own

“beliefs and32.”

So how do people assign traits to an object? In part, we rely on looks. On humans,

wide faces are33with dominance. Similarly, people rated cars, clocks, and watches with

wide faces as more dominant-looking than narrow-faced ones, and preferred them—

especially in 34 situations. An analysis of car sales in Germany found that cars with

gills that were upturned like smiles sold best. The purchasers saw this 35 as

increasing a car’s friendliness..

A) alleviateF) competitive K) feature

B) apparentlyG) concededL) lonely

C) arrogantH) consciousnessM) seperate

D) associatedI) desiresN) spectacularly

E) circumstancesJ) excludedO) warrant

Section B

Directions:

In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached

to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the

paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than

once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the question by marking the

corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Why More Farmers are Switching to Grass-Fed Meat and Dairy

[A] Though he didn’t come from a farming family, from a young age Tim Joseph was

fascinated by the idea of living off the land. Reading magazines like The Stockman

Grass Farmer and Graze, he got hooked on the idea of grass-fed agriculture. The idea

that all energy and wealth comes from the sun really intrigued him He thought the

shorter the distance between the sun and the end product, the higher the profit to the

farmer.

[B] Joseph wanted to put this theory to the test. In 2009, he and his wife Laura launched

Maple Hill Creamery, an organic, all grass-fed yogurt company in northern New York. He

quickly learned what the market has demonstrated: Demand for grass-fed products

currently exceeds supply. Grass-fed beef is enjoying a 25-30% annual growth rate.

Sales of grass-fed yogurt and kefir on the other hand, have in the last year

increased by over 38%. This is in comparison with a drop of just under 1% in the total

yogurt and kefir market according to natural and organic market research company

SPINS. Joseph’s top priority became getting his hands on enough grass-fed milk to

keep customers satisfied, since his own 64-cow herd wasn’t going to suffice.

[C] His first partnership was with Paul and Phyllis Amburgh, owners of the Dharma Lea

farm in New York. The Amburghs, too, were true believers in grass-fed. In addition to

supplying milk from their own 85-head herd, they began to help other farmers in the

area convent from conventional to certified organic and grass-fed in order to enter

the Maple Hill supply chain. Since 2010, the couple has helped 125 small dairy farms

convert to grass-fed, with more than 80% of those farms coming on board during the

last two years.

[D] All this conversion has helped Maple Hill grow 40-50% every year since it began with

no end in sight. Joseph has learned that a farmer has to have a certain mindset to

successfully convert. But convincing open-minded dairy people is actually not that

hard, when you look at the economics. Grass-fed milk can fetch up to 2.5 times the

price of conventional milk. Another factor is the squeeze that conventional dairy

farmers have felt as the price of grain they feed their cows has gone up, tightening

their profit margins. By replacing expensive grain feed with regenerative management

practices, grass-fed farmers are insulated from jumps in the price of feed. These

practices include grazing animals on grasses grown from the pastureland’s natural

seed bunk, and fertilized by the cows’ own fertilizer.

[E] Champions of this type of regenerative grazing also point to its animal welfare,

climate and health benefits: Grass-fed animals live longer out of confinement. Grazing

herds stimulate microbial ( 微生物的 ) activity in the soil, helping to capture water

and separate carbon. And grass-fed dairy and meat have been shown to be higher in

certain nutrients and healthy fats.

[F] In the grass fed system, farmers are also not subject to the wildly fluctuating milk

prices of the international commodity market. The unpredictability of global demand

and the lag-time it takes to add more cows to a herd to meet demand can result in

events like the recent cheese surplus. Going grass-fed is a safe refuge, a way for

family-scale farms to stay viable. Usually a farmer will get to the point where

financially, what they’re doing is not working. That’s when they call Maple Hill. If

the farm is well managed and has enough land, and the desire to convert is sincere, a

relationship can begin. Through regular regional educational meetings, a large annual

meeting, individual farm visits and thousands of phone calls, the Amburghs pass on the

principles of pasture management. Maple Hill signs a contract pledging to buy the

farmer’s milk at a guaranteed base price, plus quality premiums and incentives for

higher protein, butter fat and other solids.

[G] While Maple Hill's conversion program is unusually hands on and comprehensive, it’s

just one of a growing number of businesses committed to slowly changing the way

America farms. Joseph calls sharing his knowledge network through peer-to-peer

learning a core piece of the company’s culture. Last summer, Massachusetts grass-fed

beef advocate John Smith launched Big Picture Beef, a network of small grass-fed beef

farms in New England and New York that is projected to bring to market 2,500 head of

cattle from 125 producers this year. Early indications are that Smith will have no

shortage of farm members. Since he began to informally announce the network at farming

conferences and on social media, he’s received a steady stream of inquiries from

interested farmers.

[H] Smith says he’ll provide services ranging from formal seminars to on-farm workshops

on holistic management, to one-on-one hand-holding and an almost 24/7 phone hotline

for farmers who are converting. In exchange, he guarantees an above-market price for

each animal and a calf-to-customer electronic ear tag ID system like that used in the

European Union.

[1] Though advocates portray grass fed products as a win-win situation for all, they do

have downsides. Price, for one, is an issue. Joseph says his products are priced 10-

20% above organic versions, but depending on the product chosen, compared to non-

organic conventional yogurt, consumers could pay a premium of 30-50% or more for

grass-fed. As for the meat, Smith says his grass-fed hamburger will be priced 20-25%

over the conventional alternative. But a look at the prices on online grocer Fresh

Direct suggests a grass-fed premium of anywhere from 35-60%.

[J] And not every farmer has the option of going grass-fed. For both beef and dairy

production it requires, at least in the beginning, more pastureland. Grass-fed beef

production tends to be more labor-intensive as well. But Smith counters that if you

factor in the hidden cost of government corn subsidies, environment degradation, and

decreased human heath and animal welfare, grass-fed is the more cost-effective model.

“The sun provides the lowest cost of production and the cheapest meat,” he says.

[K] Another grass-fed booster spurring farmers to convert is EPIC, which makes meat-based

protein bars. Founders Taylor Collins and his wife, Katie Forrest, used to be

endurance athletes; now they’re advocates of grass-fed meat. Soon after launching

EPIC’S most successful product - the Bison Bacon Cranberry Bar - Collins and Forrest

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