2013年12月英语六级长篇阅读真题(第一套)

2014-12-02 17:09:12 字体放大:  

距离六级考试只剩10几天的时间了,这个时候,考生的知识储备和能力提高方面基本上大势已定。我们需要去对历年真题做一个回顾,一起来看一下这篇2013年12月英语六级长篇阅读真题(第一套)吧!

Section B

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet2.

The rise of the sharing economy

Last night 40 000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250 000 rooms in 30 000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it—-2.5 million of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new "sharing economy", in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinate via the internet.

A) You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast (家庭旅店),owning a timeshare (分时度假房)or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever —and therefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be divided and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb, RelayRides and SnapGoods match up owners and renters; smartphones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing.

What's mine is yours, for a fee

B) Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc (临时的)taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel (精品酒店〉as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps (胜过)ownership.

C) Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $ 26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to-peer lending or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the grid (电网).And it is not just individuals; the web makes it easier for companies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other.

D) Such "collaborative (合作的)consumption" is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $ 9 300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $ 250 a month; some make more than $ 1 000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.