entertaining2017年12月英语六级(第三套)

2021年1月9日发(作者：戚为民)

2017年12月英语六级考试真题（第三套）
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: for this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on
the saying
examples to illustrate your views. you should write at least 150 words but no more
than 200。
Part II
Listening comprehension(30miutes)
Part III Reading
Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and German
y has juststated that they plan to ban the sale of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as f
uel by 2030. Thecountry is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by
2050, 26 a shift to greenenergy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the reg
istration of new cars in the countryas they will not allow any gasoline 27 vehicle to be
registered after 2030.
Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and 28 is because energy officials see th
at theywill not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not 29 a large portion of
vehicleemissions. The country is still 30 that it will meet its emissions goals, like redu
cing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the 31 of electric cars in the country has not occu
rred as fast as ejected.
Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 milli
on hybridand electric car battery changing stations across the country. By 2030, Germ
any plans onhaving over 6 million charging stations 32 . According to the
International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as Volkswage
n is still recovering from its emissions scandal.
There are 33 around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads,
dwarfedby the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries
continue settinggoals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a
34 effect on thesurrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not 35 , the
results of such bans willlikely only start to be seen by generations down the line,
bettering the world for the future.
A) acceptance B) currently C) disrupting D) eliminate E) exhaust F) futile G) hopeful
H) implemented I) incidentally J) installed K) noticeable L) powered M) restoration N
) skepticalO) sparking
26-35: OLHDG AJBKF
Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attache
d to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify th
e paragraphfrom which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more
than once. Eachparagraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking th
e corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 2.
Apple's Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Tech Industry
[A] The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist'
ssmartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology
industryand the United States government.
[B] After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Sn
owden in 2013 that the government both cozied up to (讨
好) certain tech companies and hacked intoothers to gain access to private data on an
enormous scale, tech giants began to recognizethe United States government as a host
ile actor. But if the confrontation has crystallized inthis latest battle, it may already be
heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are desti
ned to emerge victorious.
[C] It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United Sta
tesgovernment's mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sym
patheticsort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer's phone. The action steins fro
m a federalcourt order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who kille
d 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.
[D] In the other corner is the world's most valuable company, whose chief executive,
TimothyCook, has said he will appeal the court's order. Apple argues that it is fighting
to preserve aprinciple that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defen
d: Weaken a singleiPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American govern
ment and you riskweakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.
[E] There will probably be months of legal confrontation, and it is not at all clear whic
h side willprevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor. Ye
t underlying all ofthis is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other compa
nies hold most of the cardsin this confrontation. They have our data, and their busines
ses depend on the global public'scollective belief that they will do everything they can
to protect that data.
[F] Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldw
ide. IfApple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investig
ation, what is toprevent it from doing so for a request from the Russians or the Iranian
s? If Apple is forced towrite code that lets the FBI get into the Phone 5c used by Syed
Rizwan Farook, the maleattacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsi
ble if some hacker got hold of thatcode and broke into its other devices?
[G] Apple's stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started
puttingin place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption (加
密）
to limit accessto people's data. More than that, Apple—and, in different ways, other te
ch companies, includingGoogle, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft—have made their o
pposition to the government'sclaims a point of corporate pride.
[H] Apple's emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputation, no
t tomention the investment of considerable technical and financial resources, on limiti
ng the sortof mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for man
y cases involvinggovernmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates fin
d themselves fightingalongside the most powerful company in the world.
[I]

alcounsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group.

world coming out with alengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from Ti
mothy Cook. Its profile has reallybeen raised.
[J] Apple and oilier tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep mak
ing theirdevices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple's public opposition to th
e government'srequest is itself a hindrance to mass government intrusion. And to get a
t the contents of asingle iPhone, the government says it needs a court order and Apple'
s help to write new code; in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created befo
re Apple found religion on (热衷
于) privacy, the FBI might have been able to break into the device by itself.
[K] You can expect that noose (束
缚) to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether or notApple loses this specific ca
se, measures that it could put into place in the future will almostcertainly be able to fu
rther limit the government's reach.
[L] That is not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant. As
appleand several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write sof
tware thatgives the FBI access to the iPhone in question would establish an unsettling
precedent. Theorder essentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in pl
ace, the precedentcould be used to justify law enforcement efforts to get around encry
ption technologies in otherinvestigations far removed from national security threats.
[M] Once aimed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could a
sk to useit proactively (先发制人
地), before a suspected terrorist attack—leaving Apple in a bind as towhether to comp
ly or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare.


nt should have a backdoor, and this is anend run (迂回战
术) around that—here they come with an order to create that backdoor.
[N] Yet it is worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty oft
echnical means to close a backdoor over time.

hreat model as we speak,
one and its vulnerabilities.
[O] One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zdziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future
versions ofthe iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will acce
pt the sort ofmodified operating system that the FBI wants Apple to create. That way,
Apple could notunilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone—a user would
have to consent to it.
[P]

udge's order in this case required Apple to provide
unlock Mr. Farook's phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPhones so tha
t even itsown engineers'
ce whencompelled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lastin
g force. Inother words, even if the FBI wins this case, in the long run, it loses.
36. It is a popular belief that tech companies are committed to protecting their custom
ers'private data.
37. The US government believes that its access to people's iPhones could be used to p
reventterrorist attacks.
38. A federal court asked Apple to help the FBI access data in a terrorist's iPhone.
39. Privacy advocates now have Apple fighting alongside them against government ac
cess topersonal data.
40. Snowden revealed that the American government had tried hard to access private
data on amassive scale.
41. The FBI might have been able to access private data in earlier iPhones without Ap
ple's help.
42. After the Snowden incident, Apple made clear its position to counter government i
ntrusioninto personal data by means of encryption.
43. According to one digital expert, no iPhone can be entirely free from hacking.
44. Timothy Cook's long web post has helped enhance Apple's image.
45. Apple's CEO has decided to appeal the federal court's order to unlock a user's iPho
ne.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some qu
estionsor unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B
), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter
on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
At the base of a mountain in Tanzania's Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright red, s
urrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salt
ywater. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they p
erished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The lake's landscape i
s bizarre anddeadly—and made even more so by the fact that it's the place where nearl
y 75 percent of theworld's flamingos (火烈鸟）are born.
The water is so corrosive that it can burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Fla
mingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that d
eath. Once everythree or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered wit
h the pink birds as theystop flight to breed. Three-quarters of the world's flamingos fly
over from other salt lakes inthe Rift Valley and nest on salt-crystal islands that appear
when the water is at a specific level—too high and the birds can't build their nests, to
o low and predators can move briskly acrossthe lake bed and attack. When the water h
its the right level, the baby birds are kept safe frompredators by a corrosive ditch.

water,