English Weekly 英语周报大学网www.enboedu.com2006 年 12 月大学英语六级考试试题及参考答案Part I：Writing (30 minutes)1阅读经典书籍对人的成长至关重要2现在愿意阅读经典的人却越来越少，原因是.3我们大学生应该怎么做 The Importance of Reading ClassicsPart II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning ) (15 minutes) For questions 1-4, markY(for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;N(for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;NG(for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.For questions 5-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Space TourismMake your reservations now. The space tourism industry is officially open for business, and tickets are going for a mere $20 million for a one-week stay in space. Despite reluctance from National Air and Space Administration (NASA). Russia made American businessman Dennis Tito the worlds first space tourist. Tito flew into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket that arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on April 30,2001. The second space tourist, South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, took off aboard the Russian Soyuz on April 25, 2002, also bound for the ISS. Lance Bass ofN Sync was supposed to be the third to make the $20 million trip, but he did not join the three-man crew as they blasted off on October 30,2002, due to lack of payment. Probably the most incredible aspect of this proposed space tour was that NASA approved of it.These trips are the beginning of what could be a profitable 21st century industry. English Weekly 英语周报大学网www.enboedu.comThere are already several space tourism companies planning to build suborbital vehicles and orbital cities within the next two decades. These companies have invested millions, believing that the space tourism industry is on the verge of taking off. In 1997, NASA published a report concluding that selling trips into space to private citizens could be worth billions of dollars. A Japanese report supports these findings, and projects that space tourism could be a $10 billion per year industry within the next two decades. The only obstacles to opening up space to tourists are the space agencies, who are concerned with safety and the development of a reliable, reusable launch vehicle.Space Accommodations Russias Mir space station was supposed to be the first destination for space tourists. But in March 2001, the Russian Agency brought Mir down into the Pacific Ocean. As it turned out, bringing down Mir only temporarily delayed the first tourist trip into space. The Mir crash did cancel plans for a new reality-based game show from NBC, which was going to be called Destination Mir. The Survivor-like TV show was scheduled to air in fall 2001. Participants on the show were to go through training at Russias cosmonaut(宇航员 ) training center, Star City. Each week, one of the participants would be eliminated from the show, with the winner receiving a trip to the Mir space station. The Mir crash has ruled out NBCs space plans for now. NASA is against beginning space tourism until the International Space Station is completed in 2006. Russia in not alone in its interest in space tourism. There are several projects underway to commercialize space travel. Here are a few of the groups that might take tourists to space: Space Island Group is going to build a ring-shaped, rotating “commercial space infrastructure(基础结构 )”that will resemble the Discovery English Weekly 英语周报大学网www.enboedu.comspacecraft in the movie “2001:A Space Odyssey.” Space Island says it will build its space city out of empty NASA space-shuttle fuel tanks (to start, it should take around 12 or so), and place it about 400 miles above Earth. The space city will rotate once per minute to create a gravitational pull one-third as strong as Earths. According to their vision statement, Space Adventures plants to fly tens of thousands of people in space over the next 10-15 years and beyond, around the moon, and back, from spaceports both on Earth and in space, to and from private space stations, and aboard dozens of different vehicles. Even Hilton Hotels has shown interest in the space tourism industry and the possibility of building or co-funding a space hotel. However, the company did say that it believes such a space hotel is 15 to 20 years away. Initially, space tourism will offer simple accommodations at best. For instance, if the International Space Station is used as a tourist attraction, guests wont find the luxurious surroundings of a hotel room on Earth. It has been designed for conducting research, not entertainment. However, the first generation of space hotels should offer tourists a much more comfortable experience. In regard to a concept for a space hotel initially planned by Space Island, such a hotel could offer guests every convenience they might find at a hotel on Earth, and some they might not. The small gravitational pull created by the rotating space ci