2014年12月英语六级听力真题原文：短文（沪江网校版）
Many foreign students are attracted not only to the academic programs at a particular U.S. college but also to the larger community, which affords the chance to soak up the surrounding culture. Few foreign universities put much emphasis on the cozy communal life that characterizes American campuses from clubs and sports teams to student publications and drama societies. “The campus and the American university have become identical in people’s minds,” says Brown University President Vartan Gregorian. “In America it is assumed that a student’s daily life is as important as his learning experience.”
Foreign students also come in search of choices. America’s menu of options—research universities, state institutions, private liberal-arts schools, community colleges, religious institutions, military academies—is unrivaled. “In Europe,” says history professor Jonathan Steinberg, who has taught at both Harvard and Cambridge, “there is one system, and that is it.” While students overseas usually must demonstrate expertise in a specific field, whether law or philosophy or chemistry, most American universities insist that students sample natural and social sciences, languages and literature before choosing a field of concentration.
Such opposing philosophies grow out of different traditions and power structures. In Europe and Japan, universities are answerable only to a ministry of education, which sets academic standards and distributes money.
While centralization ensures that all students are equipped with roughly the same resources and perform at roughly the same level, it also discourages experimentation. “When they make mistakes, they make big ones,” says Robert Rosenzweig, president of the Association of American Universities. “They set a system in wrong directions, and it’s like steering a supertanker.”
16. What does the speaker say characterizes American campuses?
17. What does Brown University president Vartan Gregorian say about students' daily life?
18. In what way is the United States unrivaled according to the speaker?
19. What does the speaker say about universities in Europe and Japan?
短文二
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard your Sea-link ferry from Folkestone to Boulogne and wish you a pleasant trip with us. We are due to leave Folkestone in about five minutes and a journey to Boulogne will take approximately two hours. We are getting good reports of the weather in the Channel and in France, so we should have a calm crossing. Sun and temperatures of 30 degrees celsius are reported on the French coast. For your convenience on the journey, we'd like to point out that there ar e a number of facilities available on board. There's a snack bar serving sandwiches and hot and cold refreshments situated in the front of A deck. There is also a restaurant serving hot meals situated on B deck. If you need to change money or cash travelers' checks, we have a bank on board. You can find a bank on C deck. Between the ship's office and the duty free shop, toilets are situated on B deck at the rear of the ship and on A deck next to the snack bar. For the children, there's a games room on C deck next to the duty free shop. Here children can find a variety of electronic games. Passengers are reminded that the lounge on B deck is for the sole use of passengers traveling with cars and that there is another lounge on C deck at the front of the ship for passengers traveling without cars. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to wish you a pleasant journey and hope that you'll travel with us again in the near future.
20. What does the speaker say about the Sea-link ferry?
21. Where is the snack bar situated?
22. What does the speaker say about the lounge on B deck?
短文三
On Christmas Eve in 1994, humans entered a cave in the mountains of southeastern France for what was probably the first time in 20,000 years. The vivid images of more than 300 animals that Jean-Marie Chauvet and his assistants found on the cave walls were like none that they had seen before. Unusual in the Grotte Chauvet, as the cave is now called in honor of its discoverer, are paintings of many flat sheeting animals. Other known caves from the same geographical area and time period contain only paintings of plantites. The paintings in this cave refute the old theory that Cro-Magnoon people painted animals that they hunted and then ate. Now many specialists believe that cave paintings were not part of a ritual to bring good luck to hunters. They point out that while deer made up a major part of their diet, there're no drawings of deer. They believe that the animals painted were those central to the symbolic and spiritual life of the times; animals that represented something deep and spiritual to the people. Scientists are hopeful that Groo Chavie will yield new information about the art and lifestyle of Cro-Magnoon people. They readily admit, however, that little is understood yet as to the reasons why ice age artists created their interesting and detailed paintings. Scientists also wonder why some paintings were done in areas that are so difficult to get to, in caves, for example, that are 2,400 feet underground, and accessible only by crawling through narrow passageways.
23. How did the cave get its name?
24. What is the old theory about the paintings in the cave?
25. What do scientists readily admit according to the speaker?
