2011年12月大学英语六级真题Part IWriting(30 minutes)Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitledThe Way to Successby commenting on Abraham Lincolns famous remark, Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend, the first four sharpening the axe. You should write at least150words but no more than200words.The Way to Success注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。Part IIReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)Directions:In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer thequestions onAnswer Sheet 1.For questions 1-7, choose the best answer fromthe four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Googles Plan for Worlds Biggest Online Library: Philanthropy Or Act of Piracy?In recent years, teams of workers dispatched by Google have been working hard to makedigital copies of books. So far, Google has scanned more than 10 million titles from libraries inAmerica and Europe-including half a million volumes held by the Bodleian in Oxford. The exactmethod it uses is unclear; the company does not allow outsiders to observe the process.Why is Google undertaking such a venture? Why is it even interested in all those out-of-printlibrary books, most of which have been gathering dust on forgotten shelves for decades? Thecompany claims its motives are essentially public-spirited. Its overall mission, after all, is to organisethe worlds information, so it would be odd if that information did not include books.The company likes to present itself as having lofty aspirations. This really isnt about making money. We are doing this for the good of society. As Santiago de la Mora, head of Google Books for Europe, puts it: By making it possible to search the millions of books that exist today, we hopeto expand the frontiers of human knowledge.Dan Clancy, the chief architect of Google Books, does seem genuine in his conviction that thisis primarily aphilanthropic(慈善的) exercise. Googles core business is search and find, soobviously what helps improve Googles search engine is good for Google, he says. But we havenever built aspreadsheet(电子数据表) outlining the financial benefits of this, and I have neverhad to justify the amount I am spending to the companys founders.It is easy, talking to Clancy and his colleagues, to be swept along by their missionary passion.But Googles book-scanning project is proving controversial. Several opponents have recentlyemerged, ranging from rival tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon to small bodies representing authors and publishers across the world. In broad terms, these opponents have levelled two setsof criticisms at Google.First, they have questioned whether the primary responsibility for digitally archiving the worldsbooks should be allowed to fall to a commercial company. In a recent essay in theNew YorkReview of Books,Robert Darnton, the head of Harvard Universitys library, argued that because such books are a common resource the possession of us all only public, not-for-profit bodiesshould be given the power to control them.The second related criticism is that Googles scanning of books is actually illegal. This allegation has led to Google becomingmired in(陷入) a legal battle whose scope and complexity makesthe Jarndyce and Jarndyce case in Charles DickensBleak Houselook straightforward.At its centre, however, is one simple issue: that of copyright. The inconvenient fact about mostbooks, to which Google has arguably paid insufficient attention, is that they are protected bycopyright. Copyright laws differ from country to country, but in general protection extends for theduration of an authors life and for a substantial period afterwards, thus allowing the authors heirs to benefit. (In Britain and America, this post-death period is 70 years.) This means, of course, thatalmost all of the books published in the 20th century are still under copyrightand the last centurysaw more books published than in all previous centuries combined. Of the roughly 40 millionbooks in US libraries, for example, an estimated 32 million are in copyright. Of these, some 27million are out of print.Outside the US, Google has made sure only to scan books that are out of copyright and thus in the public domain (works such as the Bodleians first edition ofMiddlemarch,which anyone canread for free on Google Books Search).But, within the US, the company has scanned both in-copyright and out-of-copyright works. Inits defence, Google points out that it displays only small segments of books that are in copyrightarguing that such displays are fair use. But critics allege that by making electronic copies ofthese books without first seeking the permission of copyright holders, Google has com