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1、六级考前冲刺试题三Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Career or Marriage?. You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.1. 目前许多大四女生不忙求职忙相亲2. 产生这种现象的原因3. 我的看法Career or Marriage?Part II Reading Comprehension(S
2、kimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 17, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 810, complete the sentences with the
3、information given in the passage.Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds PerfectIf you havent been listening to pop radio in the past few months, youve missed the rise of two seemingly opposing trends. In a medium in which mediocre (平庸的) singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly so
4、und great. Better than great: note- and pitch-perfect, as if theres been an unspoken tightening of standards at record labels or an evolutionary leap in the development of vocal cords. At the other extreme are a few hip-hop singers who also hit their notes but with a precision so exaggerated that on
5、 first listen, their songs sound comically artificial, like a chorus of 50s robots singing Motown.The force behind both trends is an ingenious plug-in called Auto-Tune, a downloadable studio trick that can take a vocal and instantly nudge it onto the proper note or move it to the correct pitch. Its
6、like Photoshop for the human voice. Auto-Tune doesnt make it possible for just anyone to sing like a pro, but used as its creator intended, it can transform a wavering (颤抖的) performance into something technically flawless. “Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect tim
7、e and perfect tune,” says producer Rick Rubin. “Thats how widespread Auto-Tune is.” Auto-Tunes inventor is a man named Andy Hildebrand, who worked for years interpreting seismic (i.e. relating to earthquakes) data for the oil industry. Using a mathematical formula called autocorrelation, Hildebrand
8、would send sound waves into the ground and record their reflections, providing an accurate map of potential drill sites. Its a technique that saves oil companies lots of money and allowed Hildebrand to retire at 40. He was debating the next chapter of his life at a dinner party when a guest challeng
9、ed him to invent a box that would allow her to sing in tune. After he worked on autocorrelation for a few months, Auto-Tune was born in late 1996.Almost immediately, studio engineers adopted it as a trade secret to fix flubbed (搞砸了的) notes, saving them the expense and trouble of having to redo sessi
10、ons. The first time common ears heard Auto-Tune was on the immensely irritating 1998 Cher hit “Believe.” In the first verse, when Cher sings “I cant break through” as though shes standing behind an electric fan, thats Auto-Tune but its not the way Hildebrand meant it to be used. The programs retune
11、speed, which adjusts the singers voice, can be set from zero to 400. “If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds,” says Hildebrand. “But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch ins
12、tantaneously” eliminating the natural transition between notes and making the singer sound jumpy and automated. “I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that,” he says.Like other trends set by Cher, the creative abuse of Auto-Tune quickly went out of fashion, although it continue
13、d to be an indispensable part of the engineers toolbox. But in 2003, T-Pain (Faheem Najm), a little-known rapper and singer, accidentally stumble onto the Cher effect while Auto-Tuning some of his vocals. “It just worked for my voice,” says T-Pain in his natural Tallahassee accent. “And there wasnt
14、anyone else doing it.”Since his 2005 first album, T-Pain has sent a dozen mechanically cheery singles into the Top 10. He contributed to four nominated songs at this years Grammys on Feb. 8, and his influence is still spreading. When Kanye West was looking for an effect to match some heartbroken lyr
15、ics, he flew T-Pain to Hawaii to see how many ways they could adjust Auto-Tune. Diddy gave a percentage of his upcoming albums profits to T-Pain in exchange for some lessons. Even Prince is rumored to be experimenting with Auto-Tune on his new record. “I know Auto-Tune) better than anyone,” says T-P
16、ain. “And even Im just figuring out all the ways you can use it to change the mood of a record.” Rubin, whos produced artists as diverse as the Dixie Chicks and Metallica, worries that the safety net of Auto-Tune is making singers lazy. “Sometimes a singer will do lots of takes when theyre recording a song, and you really can hear the emotional difference when someone does a great pe
