2009年12月大学英语六级(CET-6)真题试卷Part IWriting(30 minutes)Directions:For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Should Parents SendTheir Kids to Art Classes?You should write at least 150 words following the outline givenbelow.1.现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班2.对这种做法有人表示支持，也有人并不赞成3.我认为.…Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes?PartⅡReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)Directions:In this part,you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer thequestions on Answer Sheet 1.For questions 1-7,choose the best answer from the four choicesmarked [A],[B].[C]and [D].For questions 8-10,complete the sentences with the informationgiven in the passage.Bosses Say“Yes”to Home WorkRising costs of office space,time lost to stressful commuting,and a slow recognition that workershave lives beyond the office-all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home.For the small business,there are additional benefits too-staff are more productive,and happier,enabling firms to keep their headcounts (and their recruitment costs to a minimum.It can alsoprovide competitive advantage,especially when small businesses want to attract new staff but don't have thebudget to offer huge salaries.While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time,many have done little aboutit,skeptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision,orconcerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their homephone bills to the business.Yet this is now changing.When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remoteworking solutions among small and medium sized UK businesses in April this year,it found that 28%more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices thana year ago.The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote workingsolutions from small businesses seeking its advice,and claims that as many as 60-70%of the businesses thatcome through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.Technology advances,including the widespread availability of broadband,are making the1/23introduction ofremote working a piece of cake."If systems are set up properly,staff can have access to all the resources they have in the officewherever they have an intemet connection,"says Andy Poulton,e-business advisor at Business Link forBerkshire and Wiltshire."There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this."One is the availability of broadband everywhere,which now covers almost all of the country (BTclaims that,by July,99.8%of its exchanges will be broadband enabled,with alternative plans in place foreven the most remote exchanges)."This is the enabler,"Poulton says.Yet while broadband has come down in price too,those service providers targeting the businessmarket warn against consumer services masquerading ()as business friendly broadband."Broadband is available for as little as f 15 a month,but many businesses fail to appreciate thehidden costs of such a service,"says Neil Stephenson,sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet,aninternet service provider based in the northeast of England."Providers offering broadband for rock bottomprices are notorious for poor service,with regular breakdowns and heavily congested networks.Itis always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business only provider that canoffer more reliability,with good support."Such services don't cost too much-quality services can be foundfor upwards of f30 a month.The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time,and take full advantage of services such as internet based backup or even internet based phone services.Internet based telecoms,or VolP (Voice over IP)to give it its technical title,is an interesting tool toany business supporting remote working.Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced pricephone calls(which experts point out is misleading for the average business),but because of the sophisticatedvoice services that can be exploited by the remote worker-facilities such as voicemail and call forwarding,which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.By law,companies must"consider seriously"requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a childunder the age of six,or a disabled child under 18.It was the need to accommodate employees with youngchildren that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently.Thecompany,which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure (to provide connectivity with a new,second office,decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time.Marketing director Jack O Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce,many ofwhom are parents:"One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave.She was intending to work part time,but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare.By offering her the ability to work from home,we have doubled her capacity-now she works a day a weekfrom home,and a day in the office.This is great for her,and for us as we retain someone highly qualified."For Wright Vigar,which has now equipped all of its fee earners to be able to work at maximumproductivity when away from the offices(whether that's from home,or while on the road),this strategy isnot just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office,but enabling them to workmore flexible hours that fit around their home life.O'Hem says:"Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this,we can't see anyreason why a parent can't be on hand to deal with something important at home,if they have the ability tocomplete a project later in the day."Supporting this new way of working came with a price,though.Although the firm was updating itssystems anyway,the company spent 10-15%more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC,andabout the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks andaccess all their usual resources.2/23Although Wright Vigar hasn't yet quantified the business benefits,it claims that,in addition to beingable to retain key staff with young families,it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of"dead"timein their working days.That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings"With Wi-Fi (fast,wireless internet connections)popping up all over the place,even on trains,ourfee-earners can be productive as they travel,and between meetings,instead of having to kill time at theshops,.”he adds.The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary officesfor several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved byadopting a teleworking strategy,which has involved handing her company's data management over to aremote hosting company,Dataset,so it can be accessible by all the company's consultants over broadbandinternet connections.It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether,following therealization that it just didn't need them any more."The main motivation behind adopting home working wasto increase my own productivity,as a single mum to an 11 year old,"says Hargreaves."But I soonrealised that,as most of our business is done on the phone,email and at offsite meetings,we didn't need ouroffices at all.We're now saving f 16,000 a year on rent,plus the cost of utilities,not to mention what wouldhave been spent on commuting."1.What is the main topic of this passage?A)How business managers view hi-tech.B)Relations between employers and employees.C)How to cut down the costs of small businessesD)Benefits of the practice of teleworking.2.From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter-Tel,we learn that.A)more employees work to full capacity at homeB)employees show a growing interest in small businessesC)more businesses have adopted remote working solutionsD)attitudes toward IT technology have changed3.What development has made flexible working practices possible according to Andy Poulton?A)Reduced cost of telecommunications.B)Improved reliability of internet serviceC)Availability of the VolP service.D)Access to broadband everywhere.4.What is Neil Stephenson's advice to firms contracting internet services?A)They look for reliable business-only providers.B)They contact providers located nearest to them.C)They carefully examine the contractD)They contract the cheapest provider.5.Intemet-based telecoms facilitates remote working byA)offering sophisticated voice servicesB)giving access to emailing in real timeC)helping clients discuss business at homeD)providing calls completely free of charge3/23