六级邪修速成教程 第4章 24年6月阅读真题（上）

【正答率结算中，本次正答率为61%，积分 200】

几乎是赶在倒计时结束前的几分钟，岑越崎终于检查完毕提交了答案。

直到听到系统的播报，岑越崎高度紧绷的神经终于放松片刻。

全天的高强度学习带来的疲惫终于涌现，他伸了伸懒腰，倒在椅子上，又想起积分可以兑换奖励，立即打开了积分商城。

只有第一栏是可兑换的，岑越崎眯着眼睛仔细浏览着。

瞬时记忆10min，100积分。可迅速记住所见内容，过目不忘。

毫不犹豫半响，岑越崎兑换了瞬时记忆，他太需要了。

为了测试效果，他拿出单词书，随便翻开一页，扫一排陌生词汇，便闭上眼睛回忆起来。

方才的单词清晰如刻，逐一在脑海中浮现，岑越崎甚至能记住他们排列的顺序、以及音标、词义。

他猛地睁开眼，心跳加速，竟然真的有这样的能力存在。

倒计时还剩9分21秒，岑越崎立即翻到下一页，猛猛背起了单词。

终于，赶在结束之前背了40页单词。

倒计时归零的瞬间，他闭上眼睛，刚刚背诵过的单词仍历历在目。岑越崎激动的搓着手，以此速度，背完六级所有词汇两个小时就够了。

前所未有的满足感涌上心头，岑越崎燃气学习的熊熊之火。

六级，这次他势在必得！

The Curious Case of the Tree That Owns Itself

A)In the city of Athens, Georgia, there exists a rather curious local landmark a large white oak that is almost universally（普遍的） stated to own itself.

Because of this, it is considered one of the most famous trees in the world. So how did this tree come to own itself and the land around it?

B) Sometime in the 19th century a Georgian called Colonel William Jackson reportedly took a liking to the said tree and endeavored（努力） to protect it from any danger.

As to why he loved it so, the earliest （最早的）documented（具有证明文件的） account of this story is an anonymously written front page article in the Athens Weekly Banner published on August 12, 1890.

It states, "Col. Jackson had watched the tree grow from his childhood, and grew to love it almost as he would a human.Its luxuriant （繁茂的）leaves and sturdy limbs （粗壮的枝干）had often protected him from the heavy rains, and out of its highest branches he had many a time gotten the eggs of the feathered singers.He watched its growth, and when reaching a ripe （成熟）old age he saw the tree standing in its magnificent （宏伟的）proportions, he was pained to think that after his death it would fall into the hands of those who might destroy it."

C)Towards this end, Jackson transferred by means of a deed （契约）ownership of the tree and a little land around it to the tree itself.

The deed read, "W. H.Jackson for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears the said tree, and his great desire（强烈愿望） to see it protected has conveyed unto the said oak tree entire possession of itself and of all land withi- n eight feet of it on all sides."

D)In time, the tree came to be something of a tourist attraction, known as The Tree That Owns Itself.

However, in the early 20th century, the tree started showing signs of its slow death, with little that could be done about it.

Father time（时间老人） comes for us all eventually, even our often long lived, tall and leafy fellow custodians（守护者） of Earth.

Finally, on October 9, 1942, the over 30 meter tall and 200-400 year old tree fell, rumor（谣言） has it, as a result of a severe windstorm and/or via having previously died and its roots rotted.

E) About four years later, members of the Junior Ladies Garden Club (who'd tended to the tree before its unfortunate death tracked down a small tree grown from a nut taken from the original tree.

And so it was that on October 9, 1946, under the direction of Professor Roy Bowden of the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia, this little tree was transplanted to the location of its ancestor（祖先）.A couple of months later, an official ceremony was held featuring none other than the Mayor of Athens,Robert L McWhorter, to commemorate（纪念） the occasion.

F)This new tree became known as The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself and it was assumed that, as the original tree's heir, it naturally inherited （继承）the land it stood on.Of course, there are many dozens of other trees known to exist descending（下降） from the original, as people taking a nut from it to grow elsewhere was a certainty.That said, to date, none of the original tree's other children have petitioned （请愿）the courts for their share of the land, so it seems all good.In any event, The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself still stands today, though often referred to simply as The Tree That Owns Itself.

G)This all brings us around to whether Jackson ever actually gave legal ownership of the tree to itself in the first place and whether such a deed is legally binding（法律约束力）.

H)Well, to begin with, it turns out Jackson only spent about three years of his life in Athens, starting at the age of 43 from 1829 to 1832, sort of dismissing（解散） the idea that he loved the tree from spending time under it as a child and watching it grow, and then worrying about what would happen to it after he died.Further, an extensive （广泛的）search of land ownership records in Athens does not seem to indicate Jackson ever owned the land the tree sits on.He did live on a lot of land directly next to it for those three years, but whether he owned that land or not isn't clear.Whatever the case（不论怎样）, in 1832 a four acre parcel（英亩）, which included the land the tree was on and the neighboring land Jackson lived on, among others, was sold to University professor Malthus A Ward.In the transaction,Ward was required to pay Jackson a sum of $1,200 (about $31,000 today), either for the property itself or simply in compensation for （补偿）improvements Jackson had made on the lot（份额）.In the end, whether he ever owned the neighboring lot or was simply allowed to use it while he allegedly （据说）worked at the University, he definitely never owned the lot the tree grew on, which is the most important bit for the topic at hand.

J)After Professor Ward purchased the land, Jackson and his family purchased a 655 acre parcel a few miles away and moved there.

Ten years later, in 1844, Jackson seems to have come into financial difficulties and had his little plantation （种植园）seized by the Clarke County Sheriff's office and auctioned （拍卖）off to settle the mortgage（抵押）.Thus, had he owned some land in Athens itself, including the land the tree sat on, presumably he would have sold it to raise funds or otherwise had it taken as well.

K)And whatever the case there, Jackson would have known property taxes needed to be paid on the deeded land for the tree to be truly secure in its future.

Yet no account or record indicates any trust or the like was set up to facilitate （促进）this.

L)On top of all this, there is no hard evidence such a deed ever existed, despite the fact that deed records in Athens go back many decades before Jackson's death in 1876 and that it was supposed to have existed in 1890 in the archives according to the original anonymous news reporter who claims to have seen it.

M) As you might imagine from all of this, few give credit （相信）to this side of the story. So how did all of this come about then?

N)It is speculated （据推测）to have been invented by the imagination of the said anonymous author at the Athens Weekly Banner in the aforementioned 1890 front page article titled "Deeded to Itself", which by the way contained several elements that are much more easily proved to be false.

As to why the author would do this, it's speculated perhaps it was a 19th century version of a click-bait thought exercise on whether it would be legal for someone to deed such a non-conscious living thing to itself or not.

0)Whatever the case, the next known instance（实例） of the Tree That Owned Itself being mentioned wasn't until 1901 in the Centennial Edition of that same paper, the Athens Weekly Banner.

This featured another account very clearly just copying the original article published about a decade before, only slightly reworded（改写）.

The next account（描述） was in 1906, again in the Athens Weekly Banner, again very clearly copying the original account, only slightly reworded, the 19th century equivalent （相同的）of re-posts when the audience has forgotten about the original.

1.Jackson was said to have transferred his ownership of the oak tree to itself in order to protect it from being destr- oyed.

2.No proof has been found from an extensive search that Jackson had ever owned the land where the oak tree grew.

3.When it was raining heavily, Jackson often took shelter under a big tree that is said to own itself.

4.There is no evidence that Jackson had made arrangements to pay property taxes for the land on which the oak tree sat.

5.Professor Ward paid Jackson over one thousand dollars when purchasing a piece of land from him.

6.It is said the tree that owned itself fell in a heavy windstorm.

7.The story of the oak tree is suspected to have been invented as a thought exercise.

8.Jackson's little plantation was auctioned off to settle his debt in the mid-19th century.

9.An official ceremony was held to celebrate the transplanting of a small tree to where its ancestor had stood.

10.The story of the Tree That Owns Itself appeared in the local paper several times, with slight alterations in wording.

Key: C-H-B-K-I-D-N-J-E-O

There are hundreds of personality quizzes （性格测试）online that assert they can ascertain （查明）whether the right or left half of your brain is dominant.

Left-brained people are supposedly logical and excel at language and math while right-brained people are more imaginative, emotionally intelligent and skilled with spatial （空间）reasoning.（推理） There's just one problem: That's not how brains work.

Popular science enthusiasts （科普爱好者）sort of took this idea and ran with it（发扬光大）, and it's become woven（融入） in popular culture now, and it's not going away.

Despite this enduring belief, there's no such thing as being "right-brained" or "left-brained."

Whether you're someone who tends more towards creativity or logic has nothing to do with one hemisphere of your brain being dominant over the other.

But the actual science of how the two halves of our brains work together is sometimes stranger than fiction.

The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right.

In all vertebrate（脊椎动物） animals, the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vice versa（反之亦然）.

And scientists have long known, thanks to the behaviors of patients who suffered brain injuries, that different areas of the brain do different things.

But many scientists struggled （感到困惑）with this idea, because the very suggestion that the left and right halves of the brain operate differently disrupted（破坏） the idea that nature tends toward perfect symmetry.（对称）

Work by neuroscientists （神经系统科学家）has revealed the importance of different hemispheres of the brain for different activities. However, their research quickly saw some misinterpretations（误解） in the general public: Some presumed creative people must be right-brained and logical people left-brained.

It is proven that not only is personality unrelated to the different halves （两等分的部分）of the brain, but people aren't really right-or left-brained to begin with.

The idea that we have left-dominant people and right-dominant people, and that this is related to personality, is categorically （绝对）false.

That's never been supported in the neuroscience community.

Neuroscientists don't believe that and never have.

What scientists learned is that there are really important differences between the left hemisphere（半脑） and the right hemisphere.

It's just that they have nothing to do with （无关）personality or whether cognitive strategy is more logical or free spirited or creative.

While researchers have shown the limitations（局限性） of how the hemispheres of our brains influence our lives, it's not difficult to understand the appeal of（吸引力） such ideas.

People are endlessly （无穷尽的）fascinated by themselves and their friends, and the subtle （微妙的）differences in how people think about the world are really meaningful to them.

When you come up with an online quiz that tells us something about ourselves, we're drawn to that.（被吸引）

It's irresistible.（不可抗拒的）

But you have to take it with an enormou（巨大的）s grain of salt（持怀疑态度）.

46.

What do numerous personality quizzes online claim they are able to do?

A) Distinguish between the two hemispheres of one's brain.

B) Determine whether one is left-brained or right-brained.

C) Tell if one is more of a linguist or of a mathematician.

D)Ascertain how one's brain performs different tasks.

47.

What does the author say is sometimes stranger than fiction（虚构）?

A)How one hemisphere of the brain impacts creativity.

B)How the two halves of our brains work alternately（交替）.

C)How the two hemispheres of our brains cooperate.

D)How one half of the brain dominates the other.

48.

Why did many scientists have difficulty endorsing（承认） the idea that different areas of the brain do different things?

A)It contradicts the assumption that the two hemispheres of the brain are symmetrical.

B)It dismisses（驳斥） the view that the universe has been evolving in a consistent（一致的） manner.

C)It is in conflict with the suggestion that the left and right halves of the brain work together.

D)It disrupts （打破）the idea that the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body.

49.

What belief have neuroscientists long rejected according to the passage?

A)There are left-dominant people and right-dominant people with different personalities.

B)There are noticeable differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

C)One's personality is hardly related to the different halves of the brain.

D) Different areas of the brain are responsible for different activities.

50.

What are we advised to do with an online quiz that tells us something about ourselves?

A) Challenge its authority.

B)Scrutinize（检查） its originality.

C) Evaluate its popularity.

D) Question its reliability.

Key: BCAAD

The term "environmentalist" can mean different things.

It used to refer to people trying to protect wildlife and natural ecosystems.

In the 21st century, the term has evolved to capture the need to combat （反对）human-made climate change.

The distinction between these two strands of environmentalism is the cause of a split （分离）within the scientific community about nuclear energy.

On one side are purists （纯粹主义者）who believe nuclear power isn't worth the risk and the exclusive（唯一的） solution to the climate crisis is renewable energy（可再生资源）.

The opposing side agrees that renewables are crucial, but says society needs an amount of power available to meet consumers' basic demands when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

Nuclear energy, being far cleaner than oil, gas and coal, is a natural option, especially where hydroelectric （水力发电的）capacity is limited.

Leon Clarke, who helped author reports for the （联合国）Intergovernmental （国际间的）Panel （座谈）on Climate Change, isn't an uncritical （不加批判的）supporter of nuclear energy, but says it's a valuable option to have if we're serious about reaching carbon neutrality.

"Core to all of this is the degree to which you think we can actually meet climate goals with 100% renewables," he said.

"If you don't believe we can do it, and you care about the climate, you are forced to think about something like nuclear."

The achievability （实现）of universal（普遍的） 100% renewability is similarly contentious.

（有争议的）

Cities such as Burlington, Vermont, have been "100% renewable" for years.

But these cities often have small populations, occasionally still rely on fossil fuel energy and have significant renewable resources at their immediate disposal（支配）.

Meanwhile, countries that manage to run off （摆脱）renewables typically do so thanks to extraordinary （非凡的）hydroelectric capabilities.

Germany stands as the best case study for a large, industrialized（工业化的） country pushing into green energy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 announced Energiewende, an energy transition that would phase out nuclear and coal while phasing（逐步） in renewables.

Wind and solar power generation has increased over 400% since 2010, and renewables provided 46% of the country's electricity in 2019.

But progress has halted（停滞） in recent years.

The instability（不稳定） of renewables doesn't just mean energy is often not produced at night, but also that solar and wind can overwhelm the grid during the day, forcing utilities（公共事业） to pay customers to use their electricity.

Lagging （落后的）grid （格子）infrastructure（基础设施） struggles to transport this overabundance（过多的） of green energy from Germany's north to its industrial south, meaning many factories still run on coal and gas.

The political limit has also been reached in some places, with citizens meeting the construction（建设） of new wind turbines（涡轮） with loud protests.

The result is that Germany's greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by around 11.5% Since 2010——slower than the EU average of 13.5%.

1.

What accounts for the divide within the scientific community about nuclear energy？

A) Attention to combating human-made climate change.

B) Emphasis on protecting wildlife and natural ecosystems.

C) Evolution of the term 'green energy' over the last century.

D) Adherence（坚持） to different interpretations （解释）of environmentalism.

2.

What is the solution to energy shortage proposed by purists' opponents?

A)Relying on renewables firmly and exclusively. （完全的）

B)Using fossil fuel and green energy alternately.（交替）

C) Opting for nuclear energy when necessary.

D)Limiting people's non-basic consumption.

3.

What point does the author want to make with cities like Burlington as an example?

A)It is controversial whether the goal of the whole world's exclusive（完全） dependence on renewables is attainable.

B)It is contentious （有争议的）whether cities with large populations have renewable resources at their immediate （直接）disposal（使用）.

C)It is arguable whether cities that manage to run off renewables have sustainable hydroelectric capabilities.

D) It is debatable whether traditional fossil fuel energy can be done away with entirely throughout the world.

4.

What do we learn about Germany regarding renewable energy?

A) It has increased its wind and solar power generation four times over the last two decades.

B)It represents a good example of a major industrialized country promoting green energy.

C)It relies on renewable energy to generate more than half of its electricity.

D) It has succeeded in reaching the goal of energy transition set by Merkel.

5.

What may be one of the reasons for Germany's progress having halted （停滞）in recent years?

A)Its grid infrastructure's （基础设施）capacity has fallen behind its development of green energy.

B)Its overabundance of green energy has forced power plants to suspend（延缓） operation during daytime.

C)Its industrial south is used to running factories on conventional energy supplies.

D)Its renewable energy supplies are unstable both at night and during the day.

Key: D-C-A-B-A

Blame（归咎于） your worthless workdays on meeting recovery syndrome（综合征）

A) Phyllis Hartman knows what it's like to make one's way through the depths （深渊）of office meeting hell.Managers at one of her former human resources jobs arranged so many meetings that attendees would fall asleep at the table or intentionally（故意的 ） arrive late.With hours of her day blocked up （占据）with unnecessary meetings, she was often forced to make up her work during overtime."I was actually working more hours than I probably would have needed to get the work done," says Hartman, who is founder and president（主席 ） of PGHR Consulting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

B)She isn't alone in her frustration（沮丧）.Between 11 million and 55 million meetings are held each day in the United States, costing most organisations between 7% and 15% of their personnel budgets.Every week, employees spend about six hours in meetings, while the average manager meets for a staggering （惊人的 ）23 hours.

C)And though experts agree that traditional meetings are essential for making certain decisions and developing strategy, some employees view them as one of the most unnecessary parts of the workday.The result is not only hundreds of billions of wasted dollars, but an annoyance （烦恼 ）of what organisational psychologists call "meeting recovery syndrome (MRS)" : time spent cooling off （冷静 ）and regaining focus after a useless meeting. If you run to the office kitchen to get some relief with colleagues after a frustrating meeting, you're likely experiencing meeting recovery syndrome.

D) Meeting recovery syndrome is a concept that should be familiar to almost anyone who has held a formal job.It isn't ground-breaking （独创的 ）to say workers feel fatigued（疲惫） after a meeting, but only in recent decades have scientists deemed the condition worthy of further investigation.With its links to organisational efficiency and employee wellbeing, MRS has attracted the attention of psychologists aware of the need to understand its precise（精确的） causes and cures.

E) Today, in so far as researchers can hypothesise（假设）, MRS is most easily understood as a slow renewal （更新 ）of finite （有限的）mental and physical resources.When an employee sits through an ineffective meeting their brain power is essentially being drained（耗尽） awayetings drain vitality（活力） if they last too long, fail to engage employees or turn into one-sided（片面的） lectures.The conservation of resources theory, originally proposed in 1989 by Dr Stevan Hobfoll, states（指出 ） that psychological stress occurs when a person's resources are threatened or lost.When resources are low, a person will shift into defence to conserve（保护） their remaining supply.In the case of office meetings, where some of employees' most valuable resources are their focus, alertness（警觉性 ） and motivation, this can mean an abrupt （突然 ）halt （中止）in productivity as they take time to recover.

F)As humans, when we transition from one task to another on the job - say from sitting in a meeting to doing normal work --it takes an effortful（努力的） cognitive switch.We must detach （分离 ）ourselves from the previous task and expend significant mental energy to move on.If we are already drained to dangerous levels, then making the mental switch to the next thing is extra tough.It's common to see people cyber-loafing（网上闲逛 ） after a frustrating meeting, going and getting coffee, interrupting a colleague and telling them about the meeting, and so on.

G) Each person's ability to recover from horrible meetings is different.Some can bounce back （恢复 ）quickly, while others carry their fatigue until the end of the workday.Yet while no formal MRS studies are currently underway, one can loosely （粗略的）speculate （预测）on the length of an average employee's lag time.Switching tasks in a non-MRS condition takes about 10 to 15 minutes.With MRS, it may take as long as 45 minutes on average.It's even worse when a worker has several meetings that are separated （分隔的）by 30 minutes."Not enough time to transition in a non-MRS situation to get anything done, and in an MRS situation, not quite enough time to recover for the next meeting," says researcher Joseph Allen."Then, add the compounding （组合）of back-to-back（紧接的） bad meetings and we may have an epidemic（传染病） on our hands."

H)In an effort to combat the side effects of MRS, Allen, along with researcher Joseph Mroz and colleagues at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, published a study detailing（详细陈述 ）the best ways to avoid common traps（方法）, including a concise（简洁的 ） checklist（清单） of do's and don'ts applicable （适合的）to any workplace.Drawing from around 200 papers to compile （编制）their comprehensive（综合的） list, Mroz and his team may now hold a remedy（补救 ） to the largely undefined problem of MRS.

I) Mroz says a good place to start is asking ourselves if our meetings are even necessary in the first place.If all that's on the agenda is a quick catch-up, or some non-urgent information sharing, it may better suit the grou- p to send around an email instead."The second thing I would always recommend is keep the meeting as small as possible," says Mroz."If they don't actually have some kind of immediate input（投入 ）, then they can follow up later.They don't need to be sitting in this hour-long meeting."Less time in meetings would ultimately lead to more employee engagement in the meetings they do attend, which experts agree is a proven remedy（治疗方法） for MRS.

J) Employees also feel taxed（负担 ） when they are invited together to meetings that don't inspire participation, says Cliff Scott, professor of organisational science.It takes precious time for them to vent their emotions, complain and try to regain focus after a pointless(无意义的） meeting 一 one of the main traps of MRS.Over time as employees find themselves tied up in more and more unnecessary meetings - and thus dealing with increasing lag times from MRS the waste of workday hours can feel insulting.（侮辱 ）

K)Despite the relative scarcity（不足 ） of research behind the subject, Hartman has taught herself many of the same tricks suggested in Mroz's study, and has come a long way since her days of being stuck with unnecessary meetings.The people she invites to meetings today include not just the essential employees, but also representatives from every department that might have a stake（利益冲突） in the issue at hand.Managers like her, who seek input even from non-experts to shape their decisions, can find greater support and cooperation from their workforce, she says.

L)If an organisation were to apply all 22 suggestions from Mroz and Allen's findings, the most noticeable difference would be a stark （完全的）decrease in the total number of meetings on the schedule, Mroz says.Less time in meetings would ultimately lead to increased productivity, which is the ultimate objective of convening a meeting.While none of the counter-MRS ideas have been tested empirically（经验主义的） yet, Allen says one trick with promise is for employees to identify things that quickly change their mood from negative to positive.As simple as it sounds, finding a personal happy place, going there and then coming straight back to work might be key to facilitating（促进） recovery.

M) Leaders should see also themselves as "stewards（管家） of everyone else's valuable time", adds Steven Rogelberg, author of The Surprising Science of Meetings.Having the skills to foresee potential traps and treat employees' endurance （忍耐力）with care allows leaders to provide effective short-term deterrents to MRS.

N)Most important, however, is for organisations to awaken to the concept of meetings being flexible, says Allen. By reshaping the way they prioritise （按优先顺序处理 ）employees' time, companies can eliminate （消除）the very sources （根源 ）of MRS in their tracks.

1.Although employees are said to be fatigued by meetings, the condition has not been considered worthy of further research until recently.

2.Mroz and his team compiled a list of what to do and what not to do to remedy the problem of MRS.

3panies can get rid of the root cause of MRS if they give priority to workers' time.

4.If workers are exhausted to a dangerous degree, it is extremely hard for them to transition to the next task.

5.Employees in America spend a lot of time attending meetings while the number of hours managers meet is sever- al times more.

6.Phyllis Hartman has learned by herself many of the ways Mroz suggested in his study and made remarkable succ- ess in freeing herself from unnecessary meetings.

7.When meetings continue too long or don't engage employees, they deplete vitality.（活力 ）

8.When the time of meetings is reduced, employees will be more engaged in the meetings they do participate in.

9.Some employees consider meetings one of the most dispensable （非必要的）parts of the workday.

10.According to Mroz, if all his suggestions were applied, a very obvious change would be a steep decrease in the number of meetings scheduled.

Key: D-H-N-F-B-K-E-I-C-L