2013年12月六级考试真题（第三套）PartlWritingDirections:For this part you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay about the impact of theinformation explosion by referring to the saying "A wealth of information creates a poverty ofattention."You can give examples to illustrate your point and then explain what you can do to avoidbeing distracted by irrelevant information.You should write at least 150 words but no more than200 words.Part IIListening Comprehension说明：2013年12月六级真题全国共考了两套听力。本套（即第三套）的听力内容与第二套的内容完全相同，只是选项的顺序不一样而已，故在本套中没有重复给出。Reading ComprehensionSection ADirections:In this section,there is a passage with ten blanks.You are required to select one wordfar each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.Read the passagethrough 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 thecentre.You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.Some performance evaluations require supervisors to take action.Employees who receive avery favorable evaluation may deserve some type of recognition or even a promotion.If supervisorsdo not acknowledge such outstanding performance,employees may either lose their 36 and reducetheir effort or search for a new job at a firm that will 37 them for high performance.Supervisorsshould acknowledge high performance so that the employee will continue to perform well in thefuture.Employees who receive unfavorable evaluations must also be given attention.Supervisors must38_the reasons for poor performance.Some reasons,such as a family illness,may have a temporaryadverse 39 on performance and can be corrected.Other reasons,such as a bad attitude,may not betemporary.When supervisors give employees an unfavorable evaluation,they must decide whetherto take any 40 actions.If the employees were unaware of their own deficiencies,the unfavorableevaluation can pinpoint (the deficiencies that employees must correct.In this case,thesupervisor may simply need to monitor the employees 41 and ensure that the deficiencies arecorrected.If the employees were already aware oftheir deficiencies before the evaluation period,however,they may be unable or unwilling to correct them.This situation is more serious,and the supervisormay need to take action.The action should be 42 with the firm's guidelines and may includereassigning the employees to new jobs,43 them temporarily,or firing them.A supervisor's actiontoward a poorly performing worker can44 the attitudes of other employees.If no 45 is imposedon an employee for poor performance,other employees may react by reducing their productivity aswell.A)additionalD)identifyB)affectJ)impactC)aptlyK)penaltyD)assimilateL)rewardE)circulationM)simplifyingF)closelyN)suspendingG)consistentO)vulnerableH）enthusiasmSection BDirections:In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.Eachstatement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.Identify the paragraph from whichthe information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is markedwith a letter.Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.The College Essay:Why Those 500 Words Drive Us Crazy[A]Meg is a lawyer-mom in suburban Washington,D.C.,where lawyer-moms are thick on theground.Her son Doug is one ofseveral hundred thousand high-school seniors who had a painfulfall.The deadline for applying to his favorite college was Nov.1,and by early October he hadyet to fill out the application.More to the point,he had yet to settle on a subject for the personalessay accompanying the application.According to college folklore,a well-turned essay has thepower to seduce (an admissions committee."He wanted to do one thing at a time,"Megsays,explaining her son's delay.“But really,.my son is a huge procrastinator(拖延者).Theessay is the hardest thing to do,so he's put it off the longest."Friends and other veterans of theprocess have warned Meg that the back and forth between editing parent and writing student canbe traumatic（痛苦的).[B]Back in the good old days-say,two years ago,when the last of my children suffered the ordeal()-a high-school student applying to college could procrastinate all the way to NewYear's Day of their senior year,assuming they could withstand the parental pestering (But things change fast in the nail-biting world of college admissions.The recent trend towardearly decision and early action among selective colleges and universities has pushed thetraditional deadline of January up to Nov.I or early December for many students.[C]If the time for heel-dragging has been shortened,the true source of the anxiety and panic remainswhat it has always been.And ifs not the application itself.A college application is a relativelystraightforward questionnaire asking for the basics:name,address,family history,employmenthistory.It would all be innocent enough-20 minutes of busy work-except it comes attachedto a personal essay.[D]"There are good reasons it causes such anxiety,"says Lisa Sohmer,director ofcollege counselingat the Garden School in Jackson Heights,N.Y."It's not just the actual writing By noweverything else is already set.Your course load is set,your grades are set,your test scores are set.But the essay is something you can still control,and it's open-ended.So the temptation is towrite and rewrite and rewrite."Or stall and stall and stall.[E]The application essay,along with its mythical importance,is a recent invention.In the 1930s,when only one in 10 Americans had a degree from a four-year college,an admissions committeewas content to ask for a sample of applicants'school papers to assess their writing ability.Bythe 1950s,most schools required a brief personal statement of why the student had chosen toapply to one school over another.[F]Today nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors go off to college,including two-year and four-yearinstitutions.Even apart from the increased competition,the kids enter a process that has beenutterly transformed from the one baby boomers knew.Nearly all application materials aresubmitted online,and the Common Application provides a one-size-fits form accepted by morethan 400 schools,including the nation's most selective.[G]Those schools usually require essays of their own,but the longest essay,500 words maximum,isgenerally attached to the Common Application.Students choose one of six questions.Applicants are asked to describe an ethical dilemma they've faced and its impact on them,ordiscuss a public issue of special concern to them,or tell of a fictional character or creative workthat has profoundly influenced them.Another question invites them to write about theimportance (to them,again)of diversity-a word that has assumed magic power in Americanhigher education.The most popular option:write on a topic of your choice.[H]"Boys in particular look at the other questions and say,'Oh,that's too much work,'"says JohnBoshoven,a counselor in the Ann Arbor,Mich.,public schools."They think if they do a topic oftheir choice,I'll just go get that history paper I did last year on the Roman Empire and turn itinto a first-person application essay!'And they end up producing something utterly ridiculous."[I]Talking to admissions professionals like Boshoven,you realize that the list of"don'ts"in essaywriting is much longer than the"dos.""No book reports,no history papers,no characterstudies,"says Sohmer.[J“It drives you crazy,how easily kids slip into cliches(老生常谈)says Boshoven.“They don'trealize how typical their experiences are.'I scored the winning goal in soccer against our arch-rival''My grandfather served in World War II,and I hope to be just like him someday.'Thatmay mean a lot to that particular kid.But in the world of the application essay,it's nothing.You'll lose the reader in the first paragraph."[K]"The greatest strength you bring to this essay,"says the College Board's how-to book,"is 17years or so of familiarity with the topic:YOU.The form and style are very familiar,and best ofall,you are the world-class expert on the subject of YOU...It has been the subject of your closescrutiny every morning since you were tall enough to see into the bathroom mirror.The keyword in the Common Application prompts is "you."[L]The college admission essay contains the grandest American themes-status anxiety,parentalpiety()intellectual standards-and so it is only a matter oftime before it becomes infectedby the country's culture of excessive concern with self-esteem.Even if the question is ostensibly(about something outside the self(describe a fictional character or solve a problem ofgeopolitics),the essay invariably returns to the favorite topic:what is its impact on YOU?[M]"For all the anxiety the essay causes,"says Bill McClintick of Mercersburg Academy inPennsylvania,"it's a very small piece of the puzzle.I was in college admissions for 10 years.Isaw kids and parents beat themselves up over this.And at the vast majority ofplaces,it is simplynot a big variable in the college's decision-making process."[N]Many admissions officers say they spend less than a couple of minutes on each application,including the essay.According to a recent survey of admissions officers,only one in four privatecolleges say the essay is of"considerable importance"in judging an application.Among publiccolleges and universities,the number drops to roughly one in 10.By contrast,86 percent place"considerable importance"on an applicant's grades,70 percent on"strength of curriculum."[O]Still,at the most selective schools,where thousands of candidates may submit identically highgrades and test scores,a marginal item like the essay may serve as a tie-breaker between twoequally qualified candidates.The thought is certainly enough to keep the pot boiling underparents like Meg,the lawyer-mom,as she tries to help her son choose an essay topic.For amoment the other day,she thought she might have hit on a good one."His father's fromFrance,"she says."I said maybe you could write about that,as something that makes youdifferent.You know:half French,half American.I said,"You could write about your identityissues.'He said,'I don't have any identity issues!'And he's right.He's a well-adjusted,normalkid.But that doesn't make for a good essay,does it?"46.Today many universities require their applicants to write an essay of up to five hundred words.47.One recent change in college admissions is that selective colleges and universities have moved thetraditional deadline to earlier dates.48.Applicants and their parents are said to believe that the personal essay can sway the admissionscommittee.49.Applicants are usually better off if they can write an essay that distinguishes them from the rest.50.Not only is the competition getting more intense,the application process today is also totallydifferent from what baby boomers knew.51.In writing about their own experiences many applicants slip into cliches,thus failing to engage thereader.52.According to a recent survey,most public colleges and universities consider an applicant's gradeshighly important.53.Although the application essay causes lots of anxiety,it does not play so important a role in thecollege's decision-making process.54.The question you are supposed to write about may seem outside the self,but the theme of theessay should center around its impact on you.55.In the old days,applicants only had to submit a sample of their school papers to show their