专业英语八级(作文)模拟试卷76(题后含答案及解析)

专业英语八级（作文）模拟试卷76(题后含答案及解析)
题型有：1. summarize briefly both merits and demerits of lottery; 2. express your opinion towards lottery, especially whether national lotteries should be abolished. The Good and Bad of National Lotteries Lotteries and prize draws are big businesses throughout the world, and entice significant annual investments from individuals who dream of scooping a huge and potentially life-changing cash prize. According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, Americans spent a total of $50.4 billion on lotteries last year. In actual fact, while your chances of winning the lottery anywhere are decidedly slim, the sheer size of the U.S. population and popularity of the game means that Americans must climb an even steeper mountain towards any potential windfall. This was evident to see in the formative part of this year, as the nation’s Mega Millions jackpot soared to $656 million. When the first winner was announced, an estimated 1.5 billion tickets had been sold nationwide. Americans still invested more than $1 billion into chasing their fanciful dreams of wealth and fortune. This is reflective of a growing trend, where lottery sales continue to soar despite the uncertain economic climate. There has been a significant rise in the number of syndicates that are purchasing tickets. This proves that rather than being discouraged by the seeming insurmountable odds of victory, Americans are instead looking for innovative ways to improve their chances and actively investing more into buying tickets. Now, while an estimated one in three global lotteries are won by syndicates, the likelihood of winning remains remote in the extreme. Even for those who win the lottery, their financial future or long-term happiness is not necessarily secured. Acquiring huge sums of money can inspire any number of extreme emotive reactions. There are individual state statistics which suggest that the majority of people only purchase lottery tickets when the jackpot has been steadily building over a period of weeks, with just nine to 12% of Illinois residents playing regularly. This would suggest that rather than being symbolic of a growing gambling culture in the U.S., national lotteries are in fact played responsibly and only intermittently by most participants. Another factor in favor of lotteries is the money that they generate for state funded projects, with public education bodies in particular benefiting from the investment made by participants. People who play the lottery responsibly are contributing towards local community development, which actually means that their small weekly investment at least creates some form of social change. In terms of monetary value, 34 cents out of every $1 spent on lottery tickets is invested into education, with 58 cents being awarded to winners in the form of prizes and 6 cents paid to participating retailers for sales commissions. National lotteries across the globe are always likely to be the subject of extreme opinion and controversy. Europe is looking to invest more during periods of sustained austerity. The fact remains, however, that participants have an individual responsibility to play the game responsibly, and spend within their means while pursuing the dream of huge cash prizes. As long as they do so, then there is no reason why they cannot enjoy the lottery while also contributing to state funded
educational projects.
正确答案：National Lotteries Should Be Preserved Both merits and demerits of lotteries are discussed in the article by the author who is in favor of lotteries. In terms of demerits, the likelihood of winning the lottery remains remote in the extreme and there is no guarantee that those who win the lottery can have their financial future or long-term happiness necessarily secured. When it conies to merits, the good news is that national lotteries are played responsibly and only intermittently by most participants and the money that lotteries generate contribute to social good. I am with the author and I do not think we should abolish national lotteries. First and foremost, national lotteries provide a chance for average people to wish for a fortune and contribute their bits to charities. However remote the chance is, lottery-purchasers can hope for a better and different life. Besides, should their dream not come true, they won’t be devastated, because their investment of lottery will go to the charity foundations which help out poor children in less developed areas. There is nothing more satisfying than an investment like lotteries, which are able to transform our life or the life of others. Whilst some people are worried that lotteries might lead people into the abyss of addiction, they are not as monstrous as other forms of gambling. The frequency of national lotteries is usually once a week or even twice a month, and it is impossible for people to be on a winning streak, which is the root cause for being addicted to casino gambling. Up till now, there are very few, if any, reports about people taking out all their savings or even borrowing against their houses to purchase lotteries. The concerns of addiction are hence exaggerated. In conclusion, national lotteries are both a hope given to those who want to live otherwise and a significant contribution to various social undertakings. Therefore, it should not be abolished simply because of the underserved concerns of addiction.
解析：材料主要围绕彩票的利与弊展开阐述。

材料开篇首先明确彩票的巨大影响和经济效益(big businesses throughout the world, and entice significant annual investments from individuals)；然后指出彩票的两大弊端：一是中奖率极低(the likelihood of winning remains remote in the extreme．)，二是即使中奖也未必能保证过上富裕和长久幸福的生活(financial future or long-term happiness is not necessarily secured)；最后点明彩票的两大优势：一是大多数人购买彩票只是偶尔为之(only intermittently)；二是彩票收入的一部分用于社会公益事业，比如支持公立教育(public education)和当地的社区发展(local community development)。

材料的结论是，只要人们本着负责任的态度(play the game responsibly)、在经济承受能力范围之内(spend within their means)购买彩票，我们就没有理由反对。

开篇：简要总结文章的主要内容，包括彩票的弊端和优势，随后提出个人观点：不赞成取消彩票。

主体：分两方面阐述原因。

1．彩票能给彩票购买者和他人带来希望——中奖自己圆梦，中不了奖则帮别人圆梦。

彩票的收入是用于慈善事业、体育事业等。

因此不会白买彩票。

2．彩票不会使人上瘾。

上瘾的形成需要在短时间内有连续赢得高额奖金的诱惑，但是彩票开奖周期长，而且赢得高额奖金的机率相对于赌场小。

结尾：重申观点，我们不应该取消彩票。

知识模块：作文
2．The National Tourism Administration has recently issued a document to support the legalization of tips in the tourism industry in China. Some believe tips are necessary, as tour guides in China are paid much less than they deserve, but others doubt the effectiveness of tips in helping boost tour guides’ incomes and worry that it will increase tourists’ traveling costs. The following are opinions from three media. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the opinions from both sides; 2. give your comment.Zhang Fengyi (Xi’an Evening News) Amid various disputes and inconveniences existing in the tourism industry, the state hopes to make tip payment a system that will encourage tour guides to provide better services when they have higher and more stable incomes. However, whether this will really happen is quite doubtful. Anyway, tips are only desserts after a dinner, not the main course. Besides, we in China don’t have the tradition of paying tips. Most consumers believe, after paying a certain amount of money to the travel agency, they deserve to be well served. They resist paying tips. When tips are given on free will, tourists can choose to pay or not. Once tips become a system, tourists will have to pay tips, or their tour guides will make the journey uncomfortable for them. Besides, possibilities remain that apart from collecting tips, some tour guides may continue to force tourists to shop. Therefore, before tips are legalized, a pay system for tour guides is necessary to ensure them a basic income and a decent life. Only when these worries no longer exist can tips truly play a role of encouragement.Song Guifang () We have to realize that tour guides in China are struggling with their wages and social security falling far behind the rapid development of the tourism industry itself. If tour guides can expect payment that shows respect to their services, we can expect an overall improvement in the tourism industry. In China, the public treats tips as an extra payment for certain service items, and thus there is resistance to tips. Given the conditions tour guides are now in, tips actually act as a kind of compensation to them, rather than bonuses. It sometimes happens that when we want to go to certain places to know more about local customs and scenic spots, we can’t find a qualified tour guide. It’s time to think of a way to make tour guides feel that their work is respected and that they don’t need to exploit tourists to make a living. The legalization of tips may help solve the problem to some extent, but in the long run, we need to explore a new model for the sustainable development of the tourism industry.Zhu Dazhi (China Youth Daily) We worry that the legalization of tips will make a voluntary payment a compulsory system, adding to the cost of traveling. This worry is not groundless. The Chinese society is not used to the practice of giving tips, and now it is planned that a system is to be set up to force people to give tips. This is not what tips are invented for. The priority now is not to push forward the tip system but to regulate and develop the tourism industry into a healthy sector and to let tour guides earn a payment that is at least equal to their work. When the tourism sector embraces sound development, even without a compulsory system, tourists tip the guides that offer them good services.Shu Shengxiang (Beijing Youth Daily) Ideally, tips are paid to show respect and gratitude. In Western countries, although customers can choose to pay or not, giving tips has long been a common practice.
The current salary system in China’s tourism sector is such a mess that a large number of tour guides don’t have base pay or basic insurance. A percentage drawn from the sum tourists pay for souvenirs during the trip has almost become a major income source of tour guides. Forcing tourists to shop has become a hidden rule in the tourism sector, which has seriously damaged tourists’traveling experience and affected the long-term development of the tourism industry. It is against this backdrop that some travel agencies and local governments begin to seek to set up a tip system in the tourism industry, with the intention of dragging this industry out of the vicious cycle. If tour guides can make money by asking tourists to buy souvenirs, they are likely to offer quality services on this precondition. However, once they are forbidden to accept kickbacks from shops and instead depend on tips, which are usually much lower than the brokerage given by souvenir shops, the service quality may deteriorate. Besides, it’s quite possible that the guides will be comfortable with those who have paid them tips, while at the same time they will be harsh to those who have not done so. As a result, something supposed to be based on free will become compulsory.
正确答案：Legalizing Tips in Tourism Industry: Neither Fair nor Effective The National Tourism Administration has recently issued a document to support the legalization of tips in the tourism industry in China, which sparked a hot debate on whether tips should be legalized in the tourism industry or not. Supporters believe that legalizing tips will help solve the long-standing problem of forcing tourists to shop and thus improve consumers’ experience. Tips will also make tour guides feel their work is respected. However, opponents believe that legalizing tips would lead to unfair treatment of tour guides to consumers who pay tips and those who don’t. They also express concern that tips are usually much lower than the kickbacks tour guides get from shops so tips will not help alleviate this serious issue. I believe that tips should not be legalized in the tourism industry. Firstly, it is not fair to legalize tips only in tourism industry. Those who work in other industries in the service sector provide quality service to consumers as well and deserve the same amount of respect and gratitude from consumers as those who work in tourism industry do. Therefore, it is not fair to legalize tips only in tourism industry but not in other industries of the service sector. Secondly, legalizing tips is not an effective solution to the wrong conduct of getting kickback from shop by forcing tourists to shop. The reason for tour guides to do this is that they are not fairly paid by their employers. As people do not have the habit or the mindset of giving tips in China, tour guides will get less from tips than they do from continuing the wrong conduct of getting kickbacks. It is not hard to predict which choices tour guides will make. Therefore, it is not fair to legalize tips in tourism industry but not in other industries of the service sector and this does not represent an effective way to end the wrong conduct plaguing the industry.
解析：国家旅游局近日发布文件支持旅游业小费合法化(the legalization of tips)。

材料围绕这一话题给出不同媒体的网民意见。

新华网的网民认为这一做法在一定程度上有助于解决当前的旅游业问题(help solve the problem to some extent)，因为这能让导游感到被尊重(their work is respected)，减少导游利用游客
(exploit tourists)谋生的行为，改善游客的出行体验。

然而，大部分网民都持反对意见。

反对者认为解决当前旅游业的矛盾和种种不便，关键是保障导游的基本收入(basic income)和让他们过上体面的生活(decent life)。

在这个前提下，小费才能真正发挥它的激励作用(encouragement)。

否则，小费合理化将存在以下弊端：对于游客而言，首先，由于中国没有给小费的传统，游客会拒绝给小费(resist paying tips)，那么导游可能不会为他们安排舒适的旅行甚至强制购物；其次，小费合法化将增加旅行成本(adding to the cost of traveling)。

对于导游而言，小费合法化之后他们则不能收取回扣(are forbidden to accept kickbacks)，但小费通常比回扣费低得多(much lower)。

开篇：由国家旅游局的政策引出话题：是否应将旅游业小费合法化。

主体：首先概括材料中的正反观点；然后表明自己的观点，并解释原因。

结尾：总结全文，重申将旅游业小费合法化的不合理性。

知识模块：作文
3．As online shopping becomes yet more prevalent, and prepaid credit cards take the place of more and more low-value cash transactions, cash is now on its way out, accounting for just 40% of payments last year globally and dropping. From the following excerpts, you may find both benefits and concerns of removing cash from the economy. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize the trend of cashless society, and then 2. express your opinion towards the tendency.Excerpt 1 To see how a society might operate without cash, we can look to Sweden, which is almost cashless already. In Stockholm, you don’t need to carry bills or change. You can make donations to your church using a credit card, and give money to a friend using an inter-person payment app called Swish—when splitting a restaurant check, for example. Many banks don’t accept or provide cash in their branches, and payment apps are on the rise. Swedish banks and businesses have good reason to prefer electronic payments. Stockholm has been a heist capital, with robberies targeting banks and cash-carrying security vans. But it’s not just the banks that prefer payments that can’t be stolen. Stockholm native Peter Mathsson says that locals rarely use cash. Even the smallest transaction is made with a card. Living experiments like Sweden prove that cash-free living is not only possible, but desirable and potentially advantageous. In fact, many parts of the world are already cash free. People pay for a single cup of coffee with a credit card, often without signing or entering a PIN. People are already happy to operate without cash, and with new options like Apple Pay, which lets you use your iPhone and your fingerprint to pay with better security than an actual card, that trend is likely to accelerate. The end of cash may seem like fancy thinking, but look at how money has changed since credit and debit cards started to usurp cash. We already route money around with bank transfers enacted from our tablets, we pay for Uber cars with the convenience of a phone app, and we travel abroad without even thinking about buying foreign currency before we go. And PayPal, the original cashless payment system, turned 18 years old this year.Excerpt 2 Governments and their agencies love electronic transactions. Without cash, it’s much harder to hide money from the tax man. The police and government agencies like the NSA love the trackable records that cashless payments leave behind. Last year, France and Spain both enacted laws that
limit cash transactions. The promise is that banning cash would end black markets, but for honest citizens, the end of paper cash brings many unsettling downsides. Credit card transactions are already trackable, and electronic cash could bring that lack of anonymity to every single transaction you make. Once this information exists, it will become a target of government agencies such as the police and intelligence services and trafficked to insurance companies, tax collectors, fraud squads, and even marketers. “When all our payment transactions are tracked,”says Rainey Reitman, activism director at the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, “it creates a trove of data we have no control over. It’s easy to imagine a daring divorce lawyer or a government agent trying to gain access to our financial history to try to build a story about who we are.”
正确答案：Cashless Transaction Has Two Sides Human beings are always blessed with new inventions while plagued by the downsides of them. Cashless transactions, due to its convenience, are embraced by many modern citizens, especially urban dwellers. Those who advocate for cashless transactions argue that a cash-free society will reduce the risk of cash robberies and improve living experience by facilitating payment. By contrast, there are concerns over the fact that paying by electronic means leaves behind transaction records which, if exposed to unscrupulous personnel or organizations, will bring catastrophes to innocent citizens. In my opinion, the trend of cashless society has both pros and cons. There is no doubt that electronic transactions have many benefits. The most obvious one is that people are no longer worried about being robbed of cash, since they do not need to carry cash with them. Bank transactions will be made simpler by this trend. Prior to the advent of phone apps, people who need to convert currency or pay off their credit card have no choice but to queue in the bank to handle relevant dealing. Now however, a simple touch on the smart phone will save all the trouble. On the level of governments, electronic transactions are trackable, thereby making it easier for government agencies to crack down on illegal dealing or money laundry. Traceability is, however, the primary concern over a cashless society, since people hate the idea that their transactions are monitored and tracked. Security of accounts is another big issue. Hackers may decode the encryption key of bank accounts and incur huge losses of both banks and individuals. That Google temporarily shut down its wallet system due to a security vulnerability is a good illustration of the possibility of accounts being hacked by immoral users. In addition, average citizens have little control over how the database that stores all the personal information would work and they are deeply concerned that their private information may be illegally given out or sold to others. Overall, when enjoying the convenience of cash-free transactions, people should not lose sight of the accompanied risks. Before a sound system of electronic transactions can be invented, cashless payment is still no substitute for cash.
解析：材料围绕“无现金交易”进行了讨论，两个选段分别分析了这一现象的利弊。

选段一以瑞典为例指出无现金交易能带来各种让人满意的潜在好处(desirable and potentially advantageous)，它不仅能让银行避免钱款被盗(can’t be stolen)，而且当地人也乐意选择这种支付方式(already happy to operate．．．)，
很少使用现金(rarely use cash)，所以现金交易可能会成为历史。

选段二主要说明了无现金交易的潜在弊端。

虽然禁止现金交易有助于打击黑市(black markets)，但对于诚实的市民(honest citizens)而言则有诸多弊端。

无现金交易的实名制(lack of anonymity)导致了信息被追踪(trackable)，因此可能会被包括欺诈团伙(fraud squads)在内的团体利用。

开篇：总结材料大意，概括出其中无现金交易的利弊。

随后提出自己对这一趋势的看法——无现金交易有利也有弊。

主体：分两方面阐述无现金社会的利弊。

1．论述无现金社会的好处。

2．论述无现金社会的潜在弊端。

结尾：总结全文，指出虽然无现金交易给人们带来方便，但人们也应该看到它存在的弊端。

在有效可靠的系统发明之前，现金交易依然有存在的必要。

知识模块：作文
4．Bookstores are disappearing in cities and town, both big and small, while online sellers like Amazon, e-readers and other evolving technologies threaten both physical books and the brick and mortar venues. The following article is discussing the prospects of physical bookstores. Read it carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the article’s main idea; 2. give your comment. Two of the world’s largest bookstore chains—Barnes & Noble and Borders—are in danger of being forced into bankruptcy; their plight raises the broader question of whether bookstores will survive in any significant number. There are two clear threats, both Internet-related, to the bookstore. The newest is the e-book, in which the contents of a book are transmitted over the Internet to an electronic reader owned by the book’s buyer. No bookstore is involved. Slightly older is the sale, as opposed to the delivery, of a book online; Amazon is the principal seller in this market No bookstore is involved unless Amazon doesn’t have the book in inventory. A possible third threat is diminished appetite for books. It seems that the amount of entertainment and instruction available online is so great that online substitution for reading books must have reduced the demand for them. At the same time, however, the demand for books should be stimulated by the fall in cost when books are bought online, cutting out the middleman—the bookstore. It seems inevitable that the number of books sold through bookstores will plummet. Books bought through bookstores are more costly not only in price (to cover the costs of the bookstore), but also in customers’ time—the time required to travel to and from the bookstore, find the book one wants to buy, and complete the purchase. The only offsetting advantages of the bookstore are the opportunity it provides for browsing and the fact that the customer can see and handle the book before buying it. But these advantages are offset to a considerable extent (doubtless more than offset, for many customers) by the use by online sellers of artificial-intelligence programs to recommend books to their customers, by the much vaster inventory of an online seller like Amazon, by ease of search, by the reader reviews that the seller presents, and by the seller’s ability to allow customers to look inside the online book before ordering it, much as if he were leafing through a printed book in a bookstore. At present fewer than 30 percent of all books are bought online (either in hard copy or as an e-book), this figure is estimated to grow to 75 percent within a few years. Very few bookstores will have enough customers to
survive if bookstore sales fall from 70 percent to 25 percent of all book sales, except those bookstores specializing in out of print books—whose customers will largely be online. In time, moreover, with more and more publishing electronic, there will be fewer and fewer “out of print” books. As technology continues its forward march, online booksellers will find it increasingly feasible to duplicate and indeed improve on the point-of-sale services that bookstores offer. Bookstores will decline, and perhaps vanish when the current older generation, consisting of people habituated to printed books (as to printed newspapers), dies off. Yet this may well represent genuine economic progress, just as department stores and supermarkets represent progress though they cause the demise of countless small retailers.
正确答案：Customer Centricity Is the Future of Physical Bookstores In discussion about the somber prospect of physical bookstores, the article above states that these bookstores are imperiled by three threats: the rise of online book sellers, the adoption of e-books and diminished interest in books. Sales of online bookstores and e-books are expected to grow significantly within a few years, imposing tremendous pressure on physical bookstores, large or small. It is not surprising that the author of the article see the brick-and-mortar bookstores difficult to maintain their operation. However, I would rather support the positive transformation than claiming the demise of physical bookstores as I believe, also explained by the article, the driving force behind those threats is us, the customers. Given the advances in digital technology that undo the conventional advantages of brick-and-mortar bookstores, no one will argue that consumers can buy books without a physical bookstore. An e-book offers the customer experience of easy access and convenience, and in most cases, a lower price. All these indicate that the plight of physical bookstores is rooted in the changes of customer expectations and demands. To address this plight, physical bookshops have to provide service in a customer centric way. For one thing, they must improve the experience of buying books. A bookstore, for example, can incorporate a bar or cafes on the top floor, or many other ways to encourage customers to linger longer and spend more. For another, a bookstore should embrace books of all forms: rare, second-hand, digital, self-printed and so on, offering option of buying printed books or e-books in-store. To survive and thrive, bookstores must go all out to acquire, engage and retain its customers. In short, the future of physical bookstores lies in customer centricity, so it is high time for physical bookstores to figure out what customers expect and how to address it.
解析：材料开篇以最大的两家实体书店所面临的困境引出话题——实体书店是否走向没落。

第二、三段总结了实体书店面临的三大威胁，前两个是和互联网相关的电子书(e-book)和网店销售(sale of a book online)，第三个是读者对书籍的兴趣下降(diminished appetite for books)。

第四段介绍了实体书店在价格(price)和时效性(time)方面都处于劣势，且其本身的优势如可实时浏览(browsing)也正在被网店的人工智能项目所取代(are offset)。

最后两段用数据呈现出实体书店衰亡的现状，最后指出在在高科技不断进步的形势下。

大量小型零售商将面临消亡的厄运，但这很好地说明了经济的发展(represent genuine economic progress)。

由以上分析可知，材料的论点是实体书店必然走向没落。

开篇：总结文章大
意，材料列举三种威胁对实体书体的影响，以此说明实体书店前景黯淡。

主体：首先提出个人观点，支持实体书店积极改革，而不是直接断定实体书店将消亡，指出问题的关键在于顾客需求的变化。

其次，进一步指出实体书店为摆脱困境和谋求发展，必须采取以顾客为中心的做法，结合文章和现实举例论证。

结尾：总结全文，鼓励实体书店了解顾客需求并围绕顾客采取必要措施。

知识模块：作文。