1、 2021 年 12 月大学英语六级考试真题（第 3 套）Part IWriting(30 minutes)(请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on theshort passage given below. In your essay, you are to comment on the phenomenondescribed in the passage and suggest measures to address
2、 the issue. You should writeat least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Young people spend a lot of time on the internet. However, they are sometimes unableto recognize false information on the internet, judge the reliability of onlineinformation sources, or tell real news stories from fake ones.P
3、art II（略）Listening ComprehensionReading Comprehension(30 minutes)(40 minutes)Part IIISection A（略）Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statementsattached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.Identify the paragraph from whi
4、ch the information is derived. You may choose aparagraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer thequestions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Do music lessons really make children smarter?AA recent analysis found that most research mischaracterizes the re
5、lationshipbetween music and skills enhancement.BIn 2004, a paper appeared in the journal Psychological Science, titled “ MusicLessons Enhance IQ.” The author; composer and psychologist Glenn Schellenberghad conducted an experiment with 144 children randomly assigned to four groups:one learned the ke
6、yboard for a year, one took singing lessons, one joined an actingclass, and a control group had no extracurricular training. The IQ of the children inthe two musical groups rose by an average of seven points in the course of a year;those in the other .two groups gained an average of 4.3 points.C Sch
7、ellenberg had 1ong been skeptical of the science supporting claims hat musiceducation enhances childrens abstract reasoning, math, or language sills. If childrenwho play the piano are smarter, he says, it doesnt necessarily mean they are smarterbecause they play the piano. It could be that the young
8、sters who play the piano also1 happen to be more ambitious or better at focusing on a task. Correlation, after all,does not prove causation.D The 2004 paper was specifically designed to address those concerns. And as apassionate musician, Schellenberg was delighted when he turned up credible evidenc
9、ethat music has transfer effects on general intelligence. But nearly a decade later, in2013, the Education Endowment Foundation funded a bigger study with more than900 students. That study failed to confirm Schellenbergs findings, producing noevidence that music lessons improved math and literacy sk
10、ills.E Schellenberg took that news in stride while continuing to cast a skeptical eye onthe research in his field, Recently, he decided to formally investigate just how oftenhis fellow researchers in psychology and neuroscience make what he believes areerroneousor at least prematurecausal connection
11、s between music and intelligence.His results, published in May, suggest hat many of his peers do just that.FFor his recent study, Schellenberg asked two research assistants to look forcorrelational studies on the effects of music education. They found a total of 114papers published since 2000. To as
12、sess whether the authors claimed any causation,researchers then looked for telltale verbs in each papers title and abstract, verbs like“enhance” ,“promote” ,“facilitate” , and “strengthen” . The papers were categorized asneuroscience if the study employed a brain imaging method like magnetic resonan
13、ce,or if the study appeared in a journal that had “brain”, “neuroscience”, or a related termin its title. Otherwise the papers were categorized as psychology. Schellenberg didnttell his assistants what exactly he was trying to prove.G After computing their assessments, Schellenberg concluded that th
14、e majority ofthe articles erroneously claimed that music training had a causal effect. Theoverselling, he also found, was more prevalent among neuroscience studies, threequarters of which mischaracterized a mere association between music training andskills enhancement as a cause-and-effect relations
15、hip. This may come as a surprise tosome. Psychologists have been battling charges that they dont do “real” science forsome time in large part because many findings from classic experiments haveproved unreproducible. Neuroscientists, on the other hand, armed with brain scansand EEGs(脑电图), have not be
16、en subject to the same degree of critique.H To argue for a cause-and-effect relationship, scientists must attempt to explain whyand how a connection could occur. When it comes to transfer effects of music,scientists frequently point to brain plasticity the fact that the brain changesaccording to how
17、 we use it. When a child learns to play the violin, for example,several studies have shown that the brain region responsible for the fine motor skillsof the left hands fingers is likely to grow. And many experiments have shown thatmusical training improves certain hearing capabilities, like filterin
18、g voices frombackground noise or distinguishing the difference between the consonants (辅音) band g.IBut Schellenberg remains highly critical of how the concept of plasticity has beenapplied in his field. “Plasticity has become an industry of its own,” he wrote in hisMay paper. Practice does change th
19、e brain, he allows, but what is questionable is theassertion that these changes affect other brain regions, such as those responsible for2 spatial reasoning or math problems.JNeuropsychologist Lutz Jncke agrees. “Most of these studies dont allow forcausal inferences,” he said. For over two decades,
20、Jncke has researched the effects ofmusic lessons, and like Schellenberg, he believes that the only way to trulyunderstand their effects is to run longitudinal studies. In such studies, researcherswould need to follow groups of children with and without music lessons over a longperiod of timeeven if
21、the assignments are not completely random. Then they couldcompare outcomes for each group.K Some researchers are staring to do just that. The neuroscientist Peter Schneiderfrom Heidelberg University in Germany, for example, has been following a group ofchildren for ten years now. Some of them were h
22、anded musical instruments and givenlessons through a school-based program in the Ruhr region of Germany called JedemKind ein Instrument, or“an instrument for every child,” which was carried out withgovernment funding. Among these children, Schneider has found that those who wereenthusiastic about mu
23、sic and who practiced voluntarily showed improvements inhearing ability, as well as in more general competencies, such as the ability toconcentrate.L To establish whether effects such as improved concentration are caused by musicparticipation itself, and not by investing time in an extracurricular a
24、ctivity of any kind,Assal Habibi, a psychology professor at the s University of Southern California, isconducing a five-year longitudinal study with children from low-income communitiesin Los Angeles. The youngsters fall into three groups: those who take after schoolmusic, those who do after-school
25、sports, and those with no structured after-schoolprogram at all. After two years, Habibi and her colleagues reported seeing structuralchanges in the brains of the musically trained children, both locally and in thepathways connecting different parts of the brain.M That may seem compelling, but Habib
26、is children were not selected randomly. Didthe children who were drawn to music perhaps have something in them from the startthat made them different but eluded the brain scanners? “As somebody who startedtaking piano lessons at the age of five and got up every morning at seven to practice,that expe
27、rience changed me and made me part of who I am today,” Schellenberg said.“The question is whether those kinds of experiences do so systematically acrossindividuals and create exactly the same changes. And I think that is that huge leap offaith.”N Did he have a hidden talent that others didnt have? O
28、r more endurance than hispeers? Music researchers tend, like Schellenberg, to be musicians themselves, and ashe noted in his recent paper, “the idea of positive cognitive and neural side effectsfrom music training (and other pleasurable activities) is inherently appealing.” He alsoadmits that if he
29、had children of his own, he would encourage them to take musiclessons and go to university. “I would think that it makes them better people, morecritical, just wiser in general,” he said.O But those convictions should be checked at the entrance to the lab, he added.Otherwise, the work becomes religi
30、on or faith. “You have to let go of your faith if youwant to be a scientist.”3 36. Glenn Schellenbergs latest research suggests many psychologists andneuroscientists wrongly believe in the causal relationship between music and IQ.37. The belief in the positive effects of music training appeals to ma
31、ny researcherswho are musicians themselves.38. Glenn Schellenberg was doubtful about the claim that music education helpsenhance childrens intelligence.39. Glenn Schellenberg came to the conclusion that most of the papers assessed madethe wrong claim regarding musics effect on intelligence.40.You mu
32、st abandon your unverified beliefs before you become a scientist.41. Lots of experiments have demonstrated that people with music training can betterdifferentiate certain sounds.42. Glenn Schellenbergs findings at the beginning of this century were not supportedby a larger study carried out some ten
33、 years later.43. One researcher shares Glenn Schellenbergs view that it is necessary to conductlong-term developmental studies to understand the effects of music training.44. Glenn Schellenbergs research assistants had no idea what he was trying to provein his new study.45. Glenn Schellenberg admits
34、 that practice can change certain areas of the brain butdoubts that the change can affect other areas.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed bysome questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choicesmarked A), B), C) and D). You sh
35、ould decide on the best choice and mark thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.The trend toward rationality and enlightenment was endangered long before theadvent of the World Wide Web. As Neil
36、Postman noted in his 1985 book AmusingOurselves to Death, the rise of television introduced not just a new medium hut a newdiscourse: a gradual shift from a typographic (印刷的) culture to a photographic one,which in turn meant a shift from rationality to emotions, exposition to entertainment.In an ima
37、ge-centered and pleasure-driven world, Postman noted, there is no place forrational thinking, because you simply cannot think with images. It is text that enablesus to “uncover lies, confusions and overgeneralizations, and to detect abuses of logicand common sense. It also means to weigh ideas, to c
38、ompare and contrast assertions,to connect one generalization to another.”The dominance of television was not confined to our living rooms. It overturnedall of those habits of mind, fundamentally changing our experience of the world,affecting the constructively and tactfully, exactly how their inflat
39、ed sense of4 deservingness is somewhat distorted. Theyd then go further to explain the specific,and objective, criteria the employee must meet to receive their desired rewards. Thisshift away from unrealistic expectations is successful because entitled employees feelmore confident that ethical leade
40、rs will deliver on their promises. This occurs becausetheyre perceived to be fair and trustworthy. The researchers, however, exercisecaution by warning no one single response in the perfect remedy. But theres nodenying ethical leadership is at least a critical step in the right direction.51. What do
41、es a recent study find about a growing number of workers?A) They attempt to make more contributions.B) They feel they deserve mote than they get.C) They attach importance to job satisfaction.D) They try to diminish workplace dysfunction.52. Why dont some employees work hard according to many scholar
42、s?A) They lack a strong sense of self-worth.B) They were spoiled when growing up.C) They have received unfair treatment.D) They are overindulged by their boss.53. What is a manager supposed to do to enable workers to do a better job?A) Be aware of their emotions.B) Give them timely promotions.C) Kee
43、p a record of their performance.D) Seek ways to sustain their motivation.54. What do the research findings reveal about ethical leaders?A) They are held accountable by their employees.B) They are always transparent in their likes and dislikes.C) They convey their requirements in a straightforward wa
44、y.D) They make it a point to be on good term with their employees.55. What kind of leaders are viewed as ethical by entitled employees?A) Those who can be counted on to fulfill commitments.B) Those who can do things beyond normal expectations.C) Those who exercise caution in making major decisions.D
45、) Those who know how to satisfy their employees needs.49. What does the passage say about the World Wide Web?A) It was developed primarily for universities worldwide.B) It was created to connect people in different countries.C) It was viewed as a means to quest for knowledge.D) It was designed as a
46、discussion forum for university students.50.What do we learn about users of social media?5 A)They are bent on looking for an alternative space for escape.B)They are constantly seeking approval from their audience.C)They are forever engaged in hunting for new information.D)They are unable to focus th
47、eir attention on tasks for long.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.According to a recent study, a small but growing proportion of the workforce isaffected to some degree by a sense of entitlement. Work is less about what they cancontribute but more about what they can t
48、ake. It can lead to workplace dysfunctionand diminish their own job satisfaction. Im not referring to employees who arelegitimately dissatisfied with their employment conditions due to, say, being deniedfair pay or flexible work practices. Im talking about those who consistently believethey deserve special treatment and generous rewards. Its an e
