2024 年 12 月大学英语六级考试真题（第 3 套）阅读理解

1.

There are hundreds of personality quizzes online that assert they can ascertain whether the right or left half of your brain is dominant.
网上有数百个性格测试，声称能够确定你的大脑右半球还是左半球占主导地位。

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 reasoning.
据说左脑主导的人逻辑性强，在语言和数学方面表现出色，而右脑主导的人则更富有想象力、情商更高，且擅长空间推理。

There’s just one problem: That’s not how brains work.
但问题在于：大脑并非如此运作。

Popular science enthusiasts sort of took this idea and ran with it, and it’s become woven in popular culture now, and it’s not going away.
科普爱好者们对这一观点进行了演绎推广，如今它已融入流行文化，并且深入人心。

Despite this enduring belief, there’s no such thing as being “right-brained” or “left-brained”.
尽管这种观点长期存在，但事实上根本不存在 “右脑主导” 或 “左脑主导” 这回事。

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.
一个人更倾向于创造力还是逻辑性，与大脑某一半球占主导地位毫无关系。

But the actual science of how the two halves of our brains work together is sometimes stranger than fiction.
然而，关于大脑两半球如何协同工作的实际科学原理，有时比虚构的说法还要奇妙。

The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right.
人类的大脑分为左右两个半球。

In all vertebrate animals，the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vice versa.
在所有脊椎动物中，右半球控制身体的左侧，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.
长期以来，通过研究脑损伤患者的行为，科学家们已经知道大脑的不同区域负责不同的功能。

But many scientists struggled with this idea, because the very suggestion that the left and right halves of the brain operate differently disrupted the idea that nature tends toward perfect symmetry.
但许多科学家难以接受这一观点，因为 “左右脑功能不同” 的说法似乎违背了自然界趋向完美对称的理念。

Work by neuroscientists has revealed the importance of different hemispheres of the brain for different activities.
神经科学家的研究揭示了大脑不同半球在不同活动中所起的重要作用。

However, their research quickly saw some misinterpretations in the general public: Some presumed creative people must be right-brained and logical people left-brained.
然而，他们的研究成果在公众中很快就遭到了一些误解：有些人认为有创造力的人一定是右脑主导，而逻辑性强的人一定是左脑主导。

It is proven that not only is personality unrelated to the different halves of the brain, but people aren’t really right- or left-brained to begin with.
事实证明，不仅性格与大脑的不同半球无关，而且从根本上来说，人也并非真的存在左脑或右脑主导的情况。

The idea that we have left-dominant people and right-dominant people, and that this is related to personality, is categorically false.
那种认为存在左脑主导型人和右脑主导型人，且这种主导性与性格相关的观点，是完全错误的。

That’s never been supported in the neuroscience community.
这一观点从未得到神经科学界的支持。

Neuroscientists don’t believe that and never have.
神经科学家们从不相信这种说法，也从来没有相信过。

What scientists learned is that there are really important differences between the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.
科学家们发现，大脑左半球和右半球之间确实存在重要差异。

It’s just that they have nothing to do with personality or whether cognitive strategy is more logical or free spirited or creative.
只是这些差异与性格无关，也与认知方式是更偏向逻辑性、自由奔放还是创造性无关。

While researchers have shown the limitations of how the hemispheres of our brains influence our lives, it’s not difficult to understand the appeal of such ideas.
尽管研究人员已经指出了大脑半球对我们生活的影响存在局限性，但不难理解这类观点为何具有吸引力。

People are endlessly fascinated by themselves and their friends, and the subtle differences in how people think about the world are really meaningful to them.
人们总是对自己和朋友充满好奇，而人们看待世界的细微差异对他们来说意义重大。

When you come up with an online quiz that tells us something about ourselves, we’re drawn to that.
当你看到一个能揭示自身某些特质的在线测试时，总会不由自主地被吸引。

It’s irresistible.
这让人难以抗拒。

But you have to take it with an enormous grain of salt.
但对于测试结果，你必须持极大的怀疑态度。

 

2.

One hundred thirty-five students, four teachers, one giant classroom: This is what 9th grade looks like at Westwood High School, in Mesa, Arizona’s largest school system.
135 名学生，4 名教师，一间巨大的教室：这便是亚利桑那州最大的学区 —— 梅萨市韦斯特伍德高中九年级的课堂模样。

There, an innovative teaching model has taken hold, and is spreading to other schools in the district and beyond.
在那里，一种创新性的教学模式已然扎根，并正推广至该学区内及其他地区的更多学校。

Five years ago, faced with high teacher turnover and declining student enrollment, Westwood’s leaders decided to try something different.
五年前，面对教师流失率高和学生入学人数下降的问题，韦斯特伍德高中的领导层决定尝试一些新举措。

Working with professors at Arizona State University’s teachers college, they piloted a classroom model known as team teaching, which allows teachers to dissolve the walls that separate their classes across physical or grade divides.
他们与亚利桑那州立大学教育学院的教授们合作，试点了一种名为 “团队教学” 的课堂模式，这种模式能让教师打破班级之间的物理或年级壁垒。

The teachers share large groups of students — sometimes 100 or more — and rotate between group instruction, one-on-one interventions, small study groups, or whatever the teachers as a team agree is a priority that day.
教师们共同负责一大批学生 —— 有时多达 100 人甚至更多，他们会轮流开展集体授课、一对一辅导、小组学习，或是进行教学团队当天一致认为需要优先进行的任何活动。

What looks at times like chaos is in fact a carefully orchestrated plan: Each morning, the Westwood teams meet to hammer out a personalized program for every student the team will focus on that day.
有时看似混乱的场景，实则是精心策划的安排：每天早上，韦斯特伍德高中的教学团队都会开会，为团队当天要重点关注的每一位学生制定个性化的学习计划。

By giving teachers more opportunity to collaborate, Mesa’s administrators hoped to fill staffing gaps and boost teacher morale and retention.
梅萨学区的管理人员希望，通过为教师提供更多合作机会，能够填补人员空缺，提升教师的士气并提高留存率。

Initial research suggests the gamble could pay off.
初步研究表明，这场冒险或许会有所回报。

“Teachers are doing fantastic things, but it’s very rare a teacher walks into another room to see what’s happening,” said Andi Fourlis, superintendent of Mesa Public Schools.
“教师们在做着出色的工作，但一位教师走进另一个教室去看看情况，这种事却极为罕见，” 梅萨公立学校总监安迪・福利斯说。

“Our profession is so slow to advance because we are working in isolation.”
“我们的职业发展如此缓慢，就是因为我们在孤立地工作。”

Of course, overhauling teaching approaches can’t fix all the frustrations teachers have, such as low pay, but early results from Mesa show team teaching may be helping to reverse low morale.
当然，改革教学方法并不能解决教师们所有的困扰，比如薪资偏低的问题，但梅萨学区的早期结果显示，团队教学或许有助于扭转教师士气低落的局面。

In a survey of hundreds of the district’s teachers, researchers found those who worked on teams reported greater job satisfaction, more frequent collaborations with colleagues, and more positive interactions with students.
在对该学区数百名教师的调查中，研究人员发现，那些参与团队教学的教师对工作的满意度更高，与同事的合作更频繁，与学生的互动也更积极。

Another benefit of teams, teachers say, is that they can help each other improve their instruction.
教师们表示，团队教学的另一个好处是他们可以互相帮助，改进教学。

During one planning session, English teacher Jeff Hall shared a performance appraisal with a science teacher: Her recent lecture on something she called “the central dogma of biology” had bewildered him and their other teammates.
在一次备课会议上，英语教师杰夫・霍尔向一位科学教师分享了自己的听课感受：她最近关于 “生物学中心法则” 的讲座让他和其他团队成员都感到困惑。

“If the science is too confusing for me, can you imagine the frustration you feel as kids?” Hall said.
“如果连我都觉得这部分科学知识太晦涩，你能想象孩子们会有多沮丧吗？” 霍尔说。

But the science teacher, he said, wouldn’t have known about the confusion on her own.
但他表示，这位科学教师自己根本不会意识到学生们存在这样的困惑。

The model is not for everyone.
这种模式并非适用于所有人。

Some teachers approached about volunteering for a team have said they prefer to work alone.
一些被问及是否愿意加入教学团队的教师表示，他们更倾向于独自工作。

Team teaching can also be a scheduling nightmare, especially at schools like Westwood where only some staff work in teams.
团队教学在排课方面也可能是个难题，尤其是在像韦斯特伍德高中这样只有部分教职工参与团队教学的学校。

There are also thorny questions like how to evaluate four teachers on the performance of 135 students.
此外，还存在一些棘手的问题，比如如何根据 135 名学生的表现来评估 4 名教师的教学成果。

But for the time being, it seems to be working.
但就目前而言，这种模式似乎是可行的。