2014年英语专八考试阅读练习题(1)
2014年英语专业八级真题及详解【圣才出品】
2014年英语专业八级真题及详解TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2014)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT: 150 MIN PART ⅠLISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.How to Reduce StressLife is full of things that cause us stress. Though we may not like stress, we have to live with it.1. ____【答案】physical【解析】细节题。
这篇讲座主要围绕压力展开。
2014专八英语阅读理解
2014专八英语阅读理解Ah, the English proficiency exam in 2014, it was quite a challenge! I remember the reading comprehension section; it really tested our comprehension skills. One passage talked about the impact of technology on society, how it's changed the way we communicate and do things. It waswritten in a really informative tone, with facts andfigures to back up the points.Another passage was more descriptive, talking about a journey through a remote part of the world. The language was vivid, painting a picture in my mind as I read. I could almost smell the air and hear the sounds described.There was also a passage on the history of a famous invention. It had a more narrative style, telling the story of how it came to be and the impact it had. It was fascinating to read about the struggles and triumphs of the inventors.One passage stood out to me because of its use of humor. It was about the challenges of learning a new language and the funny mishaps that can happen. It made me laugh outloud while also nodding in agreement at the struggles described.Lastly, there was a passage on current environmental issues. It was written in a very passionate tone, urging readers to take action. The language was strong and emotive, making me feel the urgency of the situation.Overall, the reading comprehension section in the 2014 English proficiency exam was diverse and challenging. It really tested our ability to understand different types of writing and grasp the key ideas from each passage. It was a great experience!。
2014年英语专业八级真题及详解【圣才出品】
2014年英语专业八级真题及详解TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS(2014)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT:150MIN PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION(25MIN)SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture.You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY.While listening to the mini-lecture,please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s)you fill in is(are)both grammatically and semantically acceptable.You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.Now listen to the mini-lecture.When it is over,you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.How to Reduce StressLife is full of things that cause us stress.Though we may not like stress,we have to live with it.【答案与解析】(1)physical细节题。
这篇讲座主要围绕压力展开。
在提出问题“What is stress”之后，演讲者说到“The term was originally used in physics to describe the force exerted between two touching bodies.That was strictly a term describing a physical reaction”，即stress最初用在物理学中，指两个相互碰撞的物体之间产生的力量，严格地说是一个用来描述物理反应的术语。
2014年专八模拟题（阅读理解）
Computers monitor everything in Singapore from soil composition to location of manholes. At the airport, it took just 15 seconds for the computerized immigration system to scan and approve my passport. It takes only one minute to be checked into a public hospital. By 1998, almost every household will be wired for interactive cable TV and the Internet, the global computer network. Shoppers will be able to view and pay for products electronically. A 24-hour community telecomputing network will allow users to communicate with elected representatives and retrieve information about government services. It is all part of the government’s plan to transform the nation into what it calls the “Intelligent Island”. In so many ways, Singapore has elevated the concept of efficiency to a kind of national ideology. For the past ten years, Singapore’s work force was rated the best in the world-ahead of Japan and the U.S.-in terms of productivity, skill and attitude by the Business Environment Risk Intelligence service. Behind the “Singapore miracle” is a man Richard Nixon described as one of “the ablest leaders I have met,” one who, “in other times and other places, might have attained the world stature of a Churchill.” Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore’s struggle for independence in the 1950s, serving as Prime Minister from 1959 until 1990. Today (1995), at 71, he has nominally retired to the office of Senior Minister, where he continues to influence his country’s future. Lee offered companies tax breaks, political stability, cheap labor and strike-free environment. Nearly 90 percent of Singaporean adults now own their own homes and thanks to strict adherence to the principle of merit, personal opportunities abound. “If you’ve got talent and work hard, you can be anything here,” says a Malaysian-born woman who holds a high-level civil-service position. Lee likes to boast that Singapore has avoided the “moral breakdown” of Western countries. He attributes his nation’s success to strong family ties, a reliance on education as the engine of advancement and social philosophy that he claims is superior to America’s. In an interview with Reader’s Digest, he said that the United States has “lost its bearings” by emphasizing individual rights at the expense of society. “An ethical society,” he said, “is one which matches human rights with responsibilities.” 1.What characterizes Singapore’s advancement is its___. puter monitoring. B.work efficiency. C.high productivity. D.value on ethics. 2.From Nixon’s perspective, Lee is___. A.almost as great as Churchill. B.not as great as Churchill. C.only second to Churchill in being a leader. D.just as great as Churchill. 3.In the last paragraph, “lost its bearings” may mean___. A.become impatient. B.failed to find the right position. C.lost its foundation. D.grown band-mannered. 4.“You can be anything here”(Paragraph 5) may be paraphrased as___. A.You can hope for a very bright prospect. B.You may be able to do anything needed. C.You can choose any job as you like. D.You will become an outstanding worker. 5.In Singapore, the concept of efficiency___. A.has been emphasized throughout the country. B.has become an essential quality for citizens to aim at. C.is brought forward by the government in order to compete with America. D.is known as the basis for building the “Intelligent Island.”。
2014年专八答案
θθ20646623 这家很不错，记得用联通3G手机或4G，大部分都有信号。
1. 澳大利亚的全称是：the commonwealth of Austrilia2. 加拿大以什么著称，除了什么以外(矿产、森林、肥沃的土地)。
答案选the heavy industries.3. 美国社区大学一般提供two-year制课程4. 1997年苏格兰、威尔斯全民公决各自有了自己的议会5. 哪一个是头韵法，答案：safe and sound6 谁写的Mrs. Warren's Profession，答案是：George Bernard Shaw7 Sister Carrie是神马东东，答案：novel8 下面哪一个斜体部分为曲折语素，答案goes里面的es9 听其音，知其意是神马东东，答案：拟音Onomatopoeia10 "关上课本，认真听我讲“起的啥作用，答案：directive阅读真题第一篇：The future of news Back to the coffee house11. the appearance of advertisement in newspaper12. more people are involved in finding, discussing and distributing news13. planning the return to coffee-house news14. optimistic and cautious15. the participator nature of news阅读真题第二篇：Paris in winter16. regret17. more resturants to choose from18. can be happy if they want19. its implications for life20. thoughtfulness阅读理解第三篇21. Geographic location22. the government’s determination23. denmark’s energy-saving success offers the world a useful model24. the country’s previous experience of oil shortage25. energy saving cannot go together with economic growth。
2014年考研英语试题及答案阅读理解八
2014年考研英语试题及答案阅读理解八Passage 15There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (优先)it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling?If spelling become the only focal point of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely toplay safe. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience:This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation(动力)to seek improvement.71. Teachers are different in their opinions about .A) the necessity of teaching spellingB) the role of spelling in general language developmentC) the way of teaching spellingD) the complexities of the basic writing skills72. As used in the second paragraph, the expressionplay safemost probably means .A)to spell correctlyB)to write smoothlyC)to avoid using words one is not sure ofD)to use dictionaries frequently73. Teachers encourage the students to use dictionaries so that .A)students will be able to write more freelyB)students will be more skillful in writingC)students will be more confident in writingD)students will be independent enough74. The author's tone is .A) ironicC) satiricalB) practicalD) critical75. This passage mainly discusses .A)the necessity of spellingB)the role of developing writing skillsC)the complexities of spellingD)the relationship between spelling and the content of writingPassage 16Tea drinking was common in China for nearly one thousand years before anyone in Europe had ever heard about tea. People in Britain were much slower in finding out what tea was like, mainly because tea was very expensive. It could not be bought in shops and even those people who could afford to have it sentfrom Holland did so only because it was a fashionable curiosity. Some of them were not sure how to use it. They thought it was a vegetable and tried cooking the leaves. Then they served them mixed with butter and salt. They soon discovered their mistake but many people used to spread the used tea leaves on bread and give them to their children as sandwiches.Tea remained scarce and very expensive in England until the ships of the East India Company began to bring it direct from China early in the seventeenth century. During the next few years so much tea came into the country that the price fell and many people could afford to buy it.At the same time people on the Continent were becoming more and more fond of tea. Until then tea had been drunk without milk in it, but one day a famous French lady named Madame de Sevigne decided to see what tea tasted like when milk was added. She found it so pleasant that she would never again drink it without milk. Because she was such a great lady her friends thought they must copy everything she did, so they also drank their tea with milk in it. Slowly this habit spread until it reached England and today only very few Britons drink tea without milk.At first, tea was usually drunk after dinner in the evening No one ever thought of drinking tea in the afternoon until a duchess (公爵夫人) found that a cup of tea and a piece of cake at three or four o'clock stopped her gettinga sinking feelingas she called it. She invited her friends to have this new meal with her and so, tea-time was born.76. Which of the following is true of the introduction of tea into Britain?A)The Britons got expensive tea from India.B)Tea reached Britain from Holland.C)The Britons were the first people in Europe who drank tea.D)It was not until the 17th century that the Britons had tea.77. This passage mainly discusses .A)the history of tea drinking in BritainB) how tea became a popular drink in BritainC)how the Britons got the habit of drinking teaD)how tea-time was born78. Tea became a popular drink in Britain .A)in eighteenth centuryB)in sixteenth centuryC)in seventeenth centuryD)in the late seventeenth century79. People in Europe began to drink tea with milk because .A)it tasted like milkB) it tasted more pleasantC)it became a popular drinkD)Madame de Sevinge was such a lady with great social influence that people tried to copy the way she drank tea80. We may infer from the passage that the habit of drinking tea in Britain was mostly due to the influence of .A)a famous French ladyB)the ancient ChineseC)the upper social classD)people in Holland相关推荐：2014年考研英语试题及答案阅读理解（汇总）。
2014年专业八级考试试题及答案解析(一)
专业八级考试试题及答案解析(一)一、Listening Comprehension (News Broadcast)（共4小题,共4.0分）In this section, you will hear several news items. Listen to them carefully and then answer the questions that follow.第1题According to the news, US consumer confidence ______.A slipped in five successive monthsB slipped in seven successive monthsC has dropped to its lowest level in five yearsD slipped one more point this month【正确答案】：A【本题分数】：1.0分【答案解析】[听力原文]US consumer confidence dropped in November for the fifth straight month to its lowest level in more than seven years (1). The latest survey, a key indicator for the US economy, was released Tuesday by the Conference Board, a private business research group. The latest numbers show Americans are increasingly worried about jobs, as the number of unemployed keeps rising this year. Consumer confidence slipped another few points this month, more than experts were predicting. The figures show consumers are more concerned about the present economic situation than they have been in recent years. Also, persistent fears over terrorism apparently are adding to the people's worries (2). Economists say signs of falling confidence in the US economy could not have come at a worse time. It suggests less robust shopping during the end of the year holiday season. US retailers are already gloomy, as customers worried about their current financial situation seem to be shopping more cautiously. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of US economic activity.题目问美国消费者信心下滑的情况。
2014英语专八真题
2014英语专八真题试卷SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interviews and the question will be spoken ONCE ONLY. After each question there will be a ten-second pause. During the pause, you should read the four choices of A, B), C) and D), and mark the best answer to each question on ANSWERSHEET TWO.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the choices. Now, listen to the first interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on Part One of the interview.。
2014年专业英语八级真题及答案解析
A. positive stress
-where it occurs: Christmas, wedding,__5__
B. negative stress
—where it occurs: test-taking situations, friend´s death
Ⅲ. Ways to cope with stress
第14题
According to Angelina, what is the key issue in solving the refugee problem?
A.The current situation in Iraq.
B.The politics in the Middle East.
C.Refugees returning to normal life.
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Life is full of things that cause us stress. Though we may not like stress, we have to live with it.
Ⅰ. Definition of stress
A.__1__reaction
C.proposed that policies be made promptly
D.was much worried about the lack of action
第13题
Which of the following BEST explains what the global community should do?
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第17题
专业英语八级(阅读)练习试卷1(题后含答案及解析)
专业英语八级（阅读）练习试卷1(题后含答案及解析)题型有：1.44% required hospitalization. Based on that data, published in PLoS Medicine, Lipsitch anticipates far fewer deaths from 2009 H1N1than was initially believed. By the end of the flu season in the spring of 2010, Lipsitch predicts, anywhere from 6,000 to 45,000 people will have died from H1N1 in the U.S., with the number most likely to end up between 10,000 and 15,000. Those estimates are far below the death toll of the 1957 flu, which killed 69,800 people in the U.S., according to government figures, and smaller also than the early predictions for the2009 H1N1 flu deaths, which ranged from 30,000 to 90,000. It is not clear, however, that past pandemics are an appropriate gauge for evaluating the current flu or that the new projections are based on complete data. The eventual death toll of 2009 H1N1 may be less grim than the outcomes of previous pandemics, but it should be noted that 90 years ago, and even 40 years ago, health officials lacked the antiviral therapies and nationwide vaccination capabilities that are available today. That may have contributed to pandemics having a more devastating effect on the health of past populations. The new estimates are also less alarming than those provided—also by Lipsitch—to the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology last summer near the start of the pandemic. At the time, researchers had only patchy data on the number of people infected by, and seeking treatment for, the new flu. The initially bleak prediction of the impact of H1N1—with up to 50% of the U.S. population becoming infected in the fall and winter of 2009, resulting in as many as 90,000 deaths—was based on modeling of previous pandemics. Fortunately, the worst case scenario did not come to pass. “The worst case consistent with the data we have now is a lot milder than the worst case consistent with the data we had in the summer or spring,”Lipsitch says. Still, Lipsitch and other health officials acknowledge that the 2009 H1N1 pandemic is not over. What worries health officials most is that as both seasonal and H1N1 flu viruses circulate among the population, the two strains could recombine into a more virulent and aggressive version that could cause more widespread illness and even death. How viruses behave once they nestle into a host is completely unpredictable, but scientists know that in a lab dish, seasonal and H1N1 flu strains mix and match readily. “I’m thinking we may have dodged a bullet here if in fact we don’t get a more severe wave coming on the heels of the current wave,”says Redlener. “But we’ll see what happens.” A second wave could still prove more deadly than the seasonal flu, especially for young children. To date, 189 children have died of influenza in the U.S., the majority of them related to H1N1 infection, and that number is already higher than the total number of pediatric deaths attributed to flu in 2008. Lipsitch says that if current trends hold,H1N1 may end up causing as many influenza deaths, if not more, than the seasonal flu, which kills about 36,000 Americans each year. Instead of hitting the elderly the hardest, though, most of the deaths may be among young children and infants.6．What can be inferred from the passage?A．It is not as severe as experts expected.B．It is likely to have a second wave of H1N1.C．It is not likely to have a second wave of H1N1.D．No one knows for sure whether there will be a second wave of H1N1.正确答案：D解析：此题是推理判断题。
2014年英语专八考试题答案
2014年英语专八考试题答案653390834一、阅读理解(共4题，合计20分)In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the passages.TEXT AWhenever we could, Joan and I took refuge in the streets of Gibraltar. The Englishman's home is his castle because he has not much choice. There is nowhere to sit in the streets of England, not even, after twilight, in the public gardens. The climate, very often, does not even permit him to walk outside. Naturally, he stays indoors and creates a cocoon of comfort. That was the way we lived in Leeds. These southern people, on the other hand, look outwards. The Gibraltarian home is, typically, a small and crowded apartment up several flights of dark and dirty stairs. In it, one, two or even three old people share a few ill-lit rooms with the young family. Once he has eaten, changed his clothes, embraced his wife, kissed his children and his parents, there is nothing to keep the southern man at home. He hurries out, taking even his breakfast coffee at his local bar. He comes home late for his afternoon meal after an appetitive hour at his ear6. He sleeps for an hour, dresses, goes out again and stays out until late at night. His wife does not miss him, for she is out, too — at the market in the morning and in the afternoon sitting with other mothers, baby-minding in the sun.The usual Gibraltarian home has no sitting-room, living-room or lounge. The parlour of our working-class houses would be an intolerable waste of space. Easy-chairs, sofas and such-like furniture are unknown. There are no bookshelves, because there are no books. Talking and drinking, as well as eating, are done on hard chairs round the dining-table, between a sideboard decorated with the best glasses and an inevitable display cabinet full of family treasures, photographs and souvenirs. The elaborate chandelier over this table proclaims it as the hub of the household and of the family. "Hearth and home" makes very little sense in Gibraltar. One's home is one's town or village, and one's hearth is the sunshine.Our northern towns are dormitories with cubicles, by comparison. When we congregate — in the churches it used to be, now in the cinema, say, impersonally, or at public meetings, formally — we are scarcely ever man to man. Only in our pubs can you find the truly gregarious and communal spirit surviving, and in England even the pubs are divided along class lines.Along this Mediterranean coast, home is only a refuge and a retreat. The people live together in the open air — in the street, market-place. Down here, there is a far stronger feeling of community than we had ever known. In crowded and circumscribed Gibraltar, with its complicated inter-marriages, its identity of interests, its surviving sense of siege, one can see and feel an integrated society.To live in a tiny town with all the organization of a state, with Viceroy (总督), Premier, Parliament, Press and Pentagon, all in miniature, all within arm's reach, is an intensive course in civics. In such an environment, nothing can be hidden, for better or for worse. One's successes are seen and recognized;one's failures are immediately exposed. Social consciousness is at its strongest, with the result that there is a constant and firm pressure towards good social behaviour, towards courtesy and kindness. Gibraltar, with all its faults, is the friendliest and most tolerant of places. Straight from the cynical anonymity of a big city, we luxuriated in its happy personalism. We look back on it, like all its exiled sons and daughters, with true affection.我要找茬1 Which of the following best explains the differences in ways of living between the English and the Gibraltarians?[A] The family structure. [B] Religious belief.[C] The climate. [D] Eating habit.选择答案：A B C D不确定答案我要找茬2The italicized part in the third paragraph implies that[A] English working class homes are similar to Gibraltarian ones.[B] English working-class homes have spacious sitting-rooms.[C] English working-class homes waste a lot of space.[D] the English working-class parlour is intolerable in Gibraltar.选择答案：A B C D不确定答案我要找茬3We learn from the description of the Gibraltarian home that it is[A] modern. [B] luxurious. [C] stark. [D] simple.选择答案：A B C D不确定答案我要找茬4There is a much stronger sense of ______ among the Gibraltarians.[A] togetherness [B] survival [C] identity [D] leisure选择答案：A B C D不确定答案我要找茬5According to the passage, people in Gibraltar tend to be well-behaved because of the following EXCEPT[A] the entirety of the state structure, [B] constant pressure from the state.[C] the small size of the town. [D] transparency of occurrences.选择答案：A B C D不确定答案TEXT BFor office innovators, the unrealized dream of the "paperless" office is a classic example of high-tech hubris (傲慢). Today's office drone is drowning in more paper than ever bef ore.But after decades of hype, American offices may finally be losing their paper obsession. T he de2014年专八考试答案653390834mand for paper used to outstrip the growth of the U. S. economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in sales — despite a healthy economic scene.Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and comm unication systems. Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair."Old habits are hard to break," says Merilyn Dunn, a communications supplies director. " There are some functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn't work. Those f unctions are both its strength and its weakness. "In the early to mid-'90s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boos t paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year. The convenience of desktop printing allowed o ffice workers to indulge in printing anything and everything at very little effort or cost. But now, the growth rate or paper sales in the United States is flattening by about half a percent each year. Between 2004 and 2005, Ms. Dunn says, plain white office paper will see less than a 4 percent growth rate, despite the strong overall economy. A primary rea son for the change, says Dunn, is that for the first time ever, some 47 percent of the wor kforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices. "We're finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the wo rkplace," says John Maine, vice president of a pulp and paper economic consulting firm. " More information is being transmitted electronically, and more and more people are comfortable with the information residing only in electronic form without printing multiple bac kups. "In addition, Mr. Maine points to the lackluster employment market for white-collar worke rs — the primary driver of office paper consumption — for the shift in paper usage. The real paradigm shift may be in the way paper is used. Since the advent of advanced a nd reliable office-network systems, data storage has moved away from paper archives. T he secretarial art of "filing" is disappearing from job descriptions. Much of today's data m ay never leave its original digital format.The changing attitudes toward paper have finally caught the attention of paper companie s, says Richard Harper, a researcher at Microsoft. "All of a sudden, the paper industry ha s started thinking, 'We need to learn more about the behavioural aspects of paper use, '" he says. "They had never asked, they'd just assumed that 70 million sheets would be bo ught per year as a literal function of economic growth. "To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilit ies. For example, Xerox Corp. is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that res pond to a stylus, like a pen on paper. Notations can be erased or saved digitally. Another idea, intelligent paper, comes from Anoto Group. It would allow notations made with a stylus on a page printed with a special magnetic ink to simultaneously appear on a computer screen.Even with such technological advances, the improved capabilities of digital storage contin ue to act against "paperlessness," argues Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster. In his prop hetic and metaphorical 1989 essay, "The Electronic Pinata (彩罐)," he suggests that the i ncreasing amounts of electronic data necessarily require more paper."The information industry today is like a huge electronic pinata, composed of a thin pape r crust surrounding an electronic core," Mr. Saffo wrote. The growing paper crust "is mos t noticeable, but the hidden electronic core that produces the crust is far larger — and gr owing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but we hardly notice a t all. "In the same way that digital innovations have increased paper consumption, Saffo says, so has video conferencing — with its promise of fewer in-person meetings — boosting bu siness travel."That's one of the great ironies of the information age ," Saffo says. "It's just common se nse that the more you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a fac e-to-face meeting. The best thing for the aviation industry was the Internet. "TEXT CWhen George Orwell wrote in 1941 that England was "the most class-ridden country under the sun", he was only partly right. Societies have always had their hierarchies, with so me group perched at the top. In the Indian state of Bihar the Ranveer Sena, an upper-ca ste private army, even killed to stay there.By that measure class in Britain hardly seems entrenched (根深蒂固的). But in another w ay Orwell was right, and continues to be. As a new YouGov poll shows, Britons are surpri singly alert to class 2014年英语专八考试答案653390834— both their own and that of ot hers. And they still think class is sticky. According to the poll, 48% of people aged 30 or over say they expect to end up better off than their parents. But only 28% expect to end up in a different class. More than two-thirds think neither they nor their children will leav e the class they were born into.What does this thing that people cannot escape consist of these days? And what do peop le look at when decoding which class someone belongs to? The most useful identifying m arkers, according to the poll, are occupation, address, accent and income, in that order. The fact that income comes fourth is revealing: though some of the habits and attitudes that class used to define are more widely spread than they were, class still indicates som ething less blunt than mere wealth.Occupation is the most trusted guide to class, but changes in the labour market have ma de that harder to read than when Orwell was writing. Manual workers have shrunk along with farming and heavy industry as a proportion of the workforce, while the number of p eople in white-collar jobs has surged. Despite this striking change, when they were asked to place themselves in a class, Brits in 2006 huddled in much the same categories as the y did when they were asked in 1949. So, jobs, which were once a fairly reliable guide to class, have become misleading.A survey conducted earlier this year by Expertian shows how this convergence on similar types of work has blurred class boundaries. Expertian asked people in a number of differ ent jobs to place themselves in the working class or the middle class. Secretaries, waiters and journalists were significantly more likely to think themselves middle-class than acco untants, computer programmers or civil servants. Many new white-collar jobs offer no m ore autonomy or better prospects than old blue-collar ones. Yet despite the muddle over what the markers of class are these days, 71% of those polled by YouGov still said they f ound it very or fairly easy to figure out which class others belong to.In addition to changes in the labour market, two other things have smudged the borders on the class map. First, since 1945 Britain has received large numbers of immigrants who do not fit easily into existing notions of class and may have their own pyramids to scram ble up. The flow of new arrivals has increased since the late 1990s, multiplying this effect. Second, barriers to fame have been lowered. Britain's fast-growing ranks of celebrities — like David Beckham and his wife Victoria — form a kind of parallel aristocracy open to tal ent, or at least to those who are uninhibited enough to meet the requests of television producers. This too has made definitions more complicated.But many Brits, given the choice, still prefer to identify with the class they were born into rather than that which their jobs or income would suggest. This often entails pretending to be more humble than is actually the case: 220% of white-collar workers told YouGov t hat they consider themselves working class. Likewise, the Expertian survey found that on e in ten adults who call themselves working class are among the richest asset-owners, an d that over half a million households which earn more than $191,000 a year say they are working class. Pretending to be grander than income and occupation suggest is rarer, th ough it happens too.If class no longer describes a clear social, economic or even political status, is it worth pa ying any attention to.9 Possibly, yes. It is still in most cases closely correlated with educa tional attainment and career expectations.TEXT DThe train was whirling onward with such dignity of motion that a glance from the window seemed simply to prove that plains of Texas were pouring eastward. Vast fiats of green grass, dull-hued spaces of mesquite and cactus, little groups of frame houses, woods of li ght and tender trees, all were sweeping into the east, sweeping over the horizon, a preci pice.A newly married pair had boarded this coach at San Antonio. The man's face was redden ed from many days in the wind and sun, and a direct result of his new black clothes was that his brick-coloured hands were constantly performing in a most conscious fashion. Fr om time to time he looked down respectfully at his attire. He sat with a hand on each kn ee, like a man waiting in a barber's shop. The glances he devoted to other passengers w ere furtive and shy.The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, w ith small reservations of velvet here and there, and with steel buttons abounding. She co ntinually twisted her head to regard her puff sleeves, very stiff, and high. They embarras sed her. It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected to cook, dutif ully. The blushes caused by the careless scrutiny of some passengers as she had entered the car were strange to see upon this plain, under-class countenance, which was drawn in placid, almost emotionless lines.They were evidently very happy. "Ever been in a parlor-car before?" he asked, smiling wi th delight."No," she answered; "I never was. It's fine, ain't it?""Great! And then after a while we'll go forward to the dinner, and get a big lay-out. Fresh meal in the world. Charge a dollar. ""Oh, do they?" cried the bride. "Charge a dollar? Why, that's too much — for us — ain't it, Jack?""Nor this trip, anyhow," he answered bravely. "We're going to go the whole thing. " Later he explained to her about the trains. "You see, it's a thousand miles from one end of Texas to the other; and this runs right across it, and never stops but four times. " He had the pride of an owner. He pointed out to her the dazzling fittings of the coach; and i n truth her eyes opened wider and she contemplated the sea-green figured velvet, the s hining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil. At one end a bronze figure sturdily held a support for a separated chamber, and at convenient places on the ceiling were frescos in olive and silver.To the minds of the pair, their surroundings reflected the glory of their marriage that mor ning in San Antonio: this was the environment of their new estate; and the man's face in particular beamed with an elation that made him appear ridiculous to the Negro porter. This individual at times surveyed them from afar with an amused and superior grin. On o ther occasions he bullied them with skill in ways that did not make it exactly plain to the m that they were being bullied. He subtly used all the manners of the most unconquerabl e kind of snobbery. He oppressed them. But of this oppression they had small knowledge, and they speedily forgot that infrequently a number of travelers covered them with stare s of derisive enjoyment. Historically there was supposed to be something infinitely humor ous in their situation."We are due in Yellow Sky at 3:42," he said, looking tenderly into her eyes."Oh, are we?" she said, as if she had not been aware of it. To evince (表现出) surprise at her husband's statement was part of her wifely amiability. She took from a pocket a littl e silver watch: and as she held it before her, and stared at it with a frown of attention, t he new husband's face shone."I bought it in San Anton' from a friend of mine," he told her gleefully."It's seventeen minutes past twelve," she said, looking up at him with a kind of shy and c lumsy coquetry (调情; 卖俏). A passenger, noting this play, grew excessively sardonic, an d winked at himself in one of the numerous mirrors.At last they went to the dining-car. Two rows of Negro waiters, in glowing white suits, su rveyed their entrance with the interest, and also the equanimity (平静), of men who had been forewarned. The pair fell to the lot of a waiter who happened to feel pleasure in ste ering them through their meal. He viewed them with the manner of a fatherly pilot, his c ountenance radiant with benevolence. The patronage, entwined with the ordinary defere nce, was not plain to them. And yet, as they returned to their coach, they showed in thei r faces a sense of escape.With social and economic development, our people have more time and money to visit famous sites of historical interest. Their visits, on the one hand,can enrich their own life and meanwhile bring the sites substantial incomes. On the other hand, too many visits, especially during peak travel peak when there are more visitors, have caused huge problems. One solution to this is to charge higher fees during peak travel seasons, which I think is necessary and I am in complete favor of this decision.As we all know, today there is no entrance fee charged for many parks in our country while almost all famous sites of historical interest still need an entry fee. Some people can not accept this for they think that both parks and famous sites of historical interest are part of public services. They should have free access to them or at least shouldn’t pay too much for the visit since they have already paid taxes to the government. Then it is far impossible for those people to allow the sites to charge higher fees during peak travel seasons.On the surface, the arguments that people opposing to entry fees charged for famous sites of historical interest hold seem reasonable. But in fact, those people have ignored the unique features of famous sites of historical interest which normally imply ample historical and cultural values. Those sites differ from common parks. The relics in these sites are precious and fragile to destroy, and usually need special and professional preservation and administration, which turn out to be an expensive exercise that constantly demands resources. Entry fees must be charged. During peak travel seasons, there is no better measure than raising the entry fees to reduce the number of tourists. The purpose of charging higher fees is t o stop some people’ visits so as to better protect the valuable relics and at the same time ensure the safety of the tourists. It is obvious that some people will give up their visits considering the higher fees. Here economic means are applied to conserve precious things at the sites of historical interest in an appropriate and sustainable way.In a word, due to the unique features of relics and the need of the sustainable protection of sites of historical interest, we must control the number of visitors, especially during the peak travel seasons when there are too many tourists, to diminish the impact of human activities on these sites to its lowest level. And charging higher fees during the peak travel seasons, an effective economic means of regulation will be of great importance.Passage Four (Examinations Exert a Pernicious Influence on Education)We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were.It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to device anything more efficient and reliable than examinations.For all the pious claim that examinations text what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite.They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and aptitude.As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none.That is because so much depends on them.They are the mark of success of failure in our society.Your whole future may be decided in onefateful day.It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that you2014年专八考试答案653390834r mother died.Little things like that don’t count：the exam goes on.No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do.The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured.Can we wonder at the increasing number of ‘drop-outs’：young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself.The examination system does anything but that.What hasto be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize.Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming.They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedoms.Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise.The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress.The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner.Examiners are onlyhuman.They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes.Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time.They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates.And their word carries weight.After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s.There must surely be many sim pler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities.Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis.The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall：‘I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire.’The main idea of this passage is[A] examinations exert a pernicious influence on education.[B] examinations are ineffective.[C] examinations are profitable for institutions.[D] examinations are a burden on students.The author’s attitude toward examinations is[A]detest.[B] approval.[C] critical.[D] indifferent.The fate of students is decided by[A] education.[B] institutions.[C] examinations.[D] students themselves.According to the author, the most important of a good education is[A] to encourage students to read widely.[B] to train students to think on their own.[C] to teach students how to tackle exams.[D] to master his fate.Why does the author mention court?[A] Give an example.[B] For comparison.[C] It shows that teachers’ evolutions depend on the results of examinations.[D] It shows the results of court is more effectise.Vocabularypernicious 有害的，恶性的，破坏性的knack 窍门，诀窍embark 乘船，登记write off 勾销，注销。
2014英语专业八级真题及答案
B. Renters of normal height can stand up inside.
C. Bedding can be automatically changed.
D. Renters can take a shower inside the box.
A. London's preparations for the Notting Hill Carnival.
B. Main features of the Notting Hill Carnival.
C. Police's preventive measures for the carnival.
B. Chances for advancement might have been favoured by young people.
C. High income failed to come on top for being most important.
D. Job security came second according to the poll results.
A. (1)reaction
i.e.force exerted between two touching bodies
B. human reaction
i.e. response to (2)on someone
e.g. increase in breathing, heart rate, (3),
A. Recognition from colleagues should be given less importance.
2014年专业英语八级解析阅读题
专业英语八级解析阅读题一、Reading Comprehension (Comprehension)（共20小题,共20.0分）In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer. Mark your answers on Answer Sheet Two.第1题Countless medical studies have concluded that playing too many video games can be harmful to one's health. Now, however, it turns out that one of the more popular video-game consoles on the market, the Xbox 360, could be used to save lives.A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England has devised a way to use an Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. The new tool has the potential to revolutionize the medical industry because it is both faster and cheaper than the computer systems that are currently used by scientists to perform complex heart research. The system, detailed in a study in the August edition of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry, is based on a video-game demo created by Simon Scarle two years ago when he was a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, the division of the U.S.-based company that designs games for the Xbox 360. Scarle modified a chip in the console so that instead of producing graphics for the game, it now delivers data tracking how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells. This creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects or conditions such as arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart that causes it to pump less effectively. "This is a clever use of a processing chip ... to speed up calculations of heart rhythm.What used to take hours can be calculated in seconds, without having to employ an extremely expensive, high-performance computer," Denis Noble, director of Computational Physiology at Oxford University, tells TIME. To create a heart model now, researchers must use supercomputers or a network of PCs to crunch millions of mathematical equations relating to the proteins, cells and tissues of the heart, a time-consuming and costly process. Scarle's Xbox system can deliver the same results at a rate five times faster and 10 times more cheap, according to the study. "These game consoles aren't just glorified toys. [They] are pieces of very powerful computing hardware," Scarle says. "I can see this ... being most useful for student sand early-career scientists to just quickly and cheaply grab that extra bit of computing power they otherwise wouldn'tbe able to get."Scarle attributes his breakthrough creation to his unusual background of working as a software engineer in the gaming industry and performing electrocardio-dynamics research at the University of Sheffield in England. The idea for the heart-modeling tool came from a "little shooter game" he developed at Microsoft in which a player tries to gun down enemies in an arena meant to resemble a heart. "I did a game-ified version of my old cardiac code. I could actually present some 'proper' science [based on] the cool things us game developers do," Scarle says.The Xbox 360 isn't the only video-game console that is being used for scientific research. At the University of Massachusetts campus in Dartmouth, scientists are using Sony PlayStations to simulate black-hole collisions to try to solve the mystery of what happens when a super massive black hole swallows a star.So perhaps parents shouldn't be too worried if their children are spending an inordinate amount of time playing video games. Who knows, today's Grand Theft Auto or Halo addict may end up discovering a new moon around Saturn or finding a cure for cancer.Which of the following is NOT true about the Xbox 360?A It is a popular video-game.B It was originally developed to detect heart defects.C It is a good example that video games can benefit human beings.D It is preferred by the medical industry in terms of its speed and cost.【正确答案】：B【本题分数】：1.0分【答案解析】[解析] 此题是事实题。
2014 TEM 8 真题
TEM-8 (2014)PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN) TEXT AMy class at Harvard Business School helps students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. In each session, we look at one company through the lenses of different theories, using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what action will yield the needed results. On the last day of class, I asked my class to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves to find answers to two questions: First, How can I be sure I‘ll be happy in my career? Second, How can I be sure my relationships with my spouse and my family will become an enduring source of happiness? Here are some management tools that can be used to help you lead a purposeful life.1. Use Your Resources Wisely. Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent shape your life‘s strategy. I have a bunch of ―businesses‖that compete for these resources: I‘m trying to have arewarding relationship with my wife, raise great kids, contribute to my community, succeed in my career, and contribute to my church. And I have exactly the same problem that a corporation does. I have a limited amount of time, energy and talent. How much do I devote to each of these pursuits?Allocation choices can make your life turn out to very different from what yo u intended. Sometimes that‘s good: opportunities that you have never planned for emerge. But if you don‘t invest your resources wisely, the outcome can be bad. As I think about my former classmates who inadvertently invested in lives of hollow unhappiness, I can‘t help believing that their troubles related right back to a short-term perspective.When people with a high need for achievement have an extra half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy, they‘ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward. You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale teach a class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and energy in your relationships with your spouse and children typically doesn‘t offer the same immediate sense of achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It‘s really not until 20 years down the road that you can say, ―I raised a good son or a good daughter.‖You can neglect your relationship with your spouse andon a daily basis it doesn‘t seem as if thing are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to under invest in theirfamilies and overinvest in their careers, even though intimate and loving family relationships are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you‘ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you‘ll see that same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most.2. Create A Family Culture. It‘s one thing to see into the foggy future with a acuity and chart the course corrections a company must make. Butit‘s quite another to persuade employees to line up and work cooperatively to take the company in that new direction.When there is little agreement, you have to use ―power tools‖–coercion, threats, punishments and so on, to secure cooperation. But if employee‘s ways of working together succeed over and over, consensus begins to form. Ultimately, people don‘t even think about whether their way yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision, which means that they‘ve created a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which member s of a group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool.I use this model to address the question, How can I be my family becomes an enduring source of happiness? My students quickly see that the simplest way parents can elicit cooperation from children is to wield power tools. But there comes a point during the teen years when power tools no longer work. At that point, parents start wishing they had begun working with their children at a very young age to build a 1culture in which children instinctively behave respectfully toward one another, obey their parents, and choose the right thing to do. Families have cultures, just a companies do. Those cultures can be built consciously.If you want your kids to have strong self-esteem and the confidence that they can solve hard problems, those qualities won‘t magically materialize in high school. You have to design them into family‘s culture and you have think about this very early on. Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.11. According to the author, the key to successful allocation of resources in your life depends on whether youA. can manage your time wellB. have long-term planningC. are lucky enough to have new opportunitiesD. can solve both company and family problems12. What is the role of the statement ―Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward‖with reference to theprevious statement in the paragraph?A. To offer further explanationB. To provide a definitionC. To present a contrastD. To illustrate career development13. According to the author, a common cause of failure in business and family relationships isA. lack of planningB. short-sightednessC. shortage of resourcesD. decision by instinct14. According to the author, when does culture begin to emergeA. When people decide what and how to do by instinctB. When people realize the importance of consensusC. When people as a group decide how to succeedD. When people use ―power tools‖to reach agreement15. One of the similarities between company culture and family culture is thatA. problem-solving ability is essentialB. cooperation is the foundationC. respect and obedience are key elementsD. culture needs to be nurtured Text BIt was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in sight. Dr. Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down quietly at Apia (阿皮亚，西萨摩亚首都) for twelve months at least, and hefelt already better for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long chair talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat down under the light and took off his hat you saw that he had very red hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin whichaccompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very low, quiet voice.Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp (唠叨).‗Mrs. Davidson was saying she didn‘t know how they‘d have got through the journey if it hadn‘t been for us,‘ said Mrs. Macphail, a s she neatly brushed out her transformation (假发). ‗She said we were really the only people on the ship they cared to know.‘‗I shouldn‘t have thought a missionary was such a big bug (要人、名士) that he could afford to put on frills (摆架子).‘2‗It‘s not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn‘t hav e been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that roug h lot in the smoking-room.‘‗The founder of their religion wasn‘t so exclusive,‘ said Dr. Macp hail with a chuckle.‗I‘ve asked you over and over again not to joke about religion,‘ a nswered his wife. ‗I shouldn‘t like to have a nature like yours, Alec. You never look for the best in people.‘He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did n ot reply. After many years of married life he had learned that it was more conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He wa s undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settl ed down to read himself to sleep.When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at it with greedy eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beachrising quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. T he coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water‘s edge, a nd among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoaris (萨摩亚人); and here and there, gleaming white, a little church. Mrs. Davidson c ame and stood beside him. She was dressed in black, and wore round her neck a gold chain, from which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull hair very elaborately arranged, and s he had prominent blue eyes behind invisible pince-nez (夹鼻眼镜). He r face was long, like a sheep‘s, but she gave no impression of foolis hness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her voice, high, metall ic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a hard monotony, irr itating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the pneumatic drill.‗This must seem like home to you,‘ said Dr. Macphail, wit h his t hin, difficult smile.‗Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We‘ve got another ten days'' journey to reach them.‘‗In these parts that‘s almost like being in the next street at home,‘ said Dr. Macphail facetiousl y.‗Well, that‘s rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does look at distances differently in the J South Seas. So far you‘re right.‘Dr. Macphail sighed faintly.16. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that Dr. MacphailA. preferred quietness to noiseB. enjoyed the sound of the mecha nical pianoC. was going back to his hometownD. wanted to befriend the Da vidsons17. The Macphails and the Davidsons were in each other‘e compan y because theyA. had similar experienceB. liked each otherC. shared dislike for some passengersD. had similar religious beli ef18. Which of the following statements best DESCRIBES Mrs. Mac phail?A. She was good at making friendsB. She was prone to quarrelli ng with her husbandC. She was skillful in dealing with strangersD. She was easy to get along with.19. All the following adjectives can be used to depict Mrs. Davids on EXCEPTA. arrogantB. unapproachableC. unpleasantD. irritable20. Which of the following statements about Dr. Macphail is INC ORRECT?A. He was sociable.B. He was intelligent.C. He was afraid of his wife.D. He was fun of the Davidsons.Text CToday we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personalit y styles. We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts—which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. One-third to one-half of Americans are introverts—in the other words, one out of every two or three people you know. If you're not an introvert yourself, you are s urely raising, managing, married to, or coupled with one.If these statistics surprise you, that's probably because so many peo ple pretend to be extroverts. Closet introverts pass undetected on play grounds, in high school locker rooms, and in the corridors of corporat e America. Some fool even themselves, until some life event---a layof f, an empty nest, an inheritance that frees them to spend time as they like---jolts them into taking stock of their true natures. You have onl y to第3/7页raise this subject with your friends and acquaintances to find that the most unlikely people consider themselves introverts.It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themselves. We live with a value system that I call the Extrovert Ideal—the o mnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comforta ble in the spotlight. The archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemp lation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups. We like to think that we value individuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual——the kind wh o's comfortable "putting himself out there." Sure, we allow technologic ally gifted loners who launch companies in garages to have any perso nality they please, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and our tolerance extends mainly to those who get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so. Introversion---along with its cousins sensitivit y, seriousness, and shyness---is now a second-class personality trait, so mewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounte d because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversi on is an enormously appealing personality style, but we've turned it in to an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.The Extrovert Ideal has been documented in many studies, though this research has never been grouped under a single name. Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarter, better-looking, more interesti ng, and more desirable as friends. Velocity of speech counts as well as volume: we rank fast talkers as more competent and likable than s low ones. Even the word introvert is stigmatized---one informal study, by psychologist Laurie Helgoe, found that introverts described their o wn physical appearance in vivid language, but when asked to describe generic introverts they drew a bland and distasteful picture.But we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Ideal so u nthinkingly. Some of our greatest ideas, art, and inventions---from the theory of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers to the personal comput er---came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in t o their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there.21. According to the author, there exists, as far as personality style s are concerned, a discrepancy betweenA. what people say they can do and what they actually canB. wh at society values and what people pretend to beC. what people profess and what statistics showD. what people pr ofess and what they hide from others22. The ideal extrovert is described as being all the following EX CEPTA. doubtfulB. sociableC. determinedD. bold23. According to the author, our society only permits ___ to have whatever personality they like.A. the youngB. the ordinaryC. the artisticD. the rich24. According to the passage, which of the following statements B EST reflects the author‘s opinion?A. Introversion is seen as an inferior trait because of its associatio n with sensitivity.B. Extroversion is arbitrary forced by society as a norm upon peop le.C. Introverts are generally regarded as either unsuccessful or as def icient.D. Extroversion and introversion have similar personality trait profil es.25. The author winds up the passage with a____ note.A. cautiousB. warningC. positiveD. humorousText DSpeaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scien tists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not relate d to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.第4/7页This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understa nding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hi ndered a child‘s academic and intellectual development.They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample eviden ce that in a bilingual‘s brain both language systems are active even w hen he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which o ne system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are fin ding out, isn‘t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests th at the bilingual experience improves the brain‘s so-called executive fu nction ? a command system that directs the attention processes that w e use for planning, solving problems and performing various other me ntally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions t o stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind ? like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language s ystems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one languag e system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the biling ual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that b ilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not r equire inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be m ore basic: a heightened ability to monitor t he environment. ―Bilingual s have to switch languages quite often ? you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,‖says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain.―It requires keeping track o f changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.‖In a study compari ng German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring t asks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects n ot only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in pa rts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were mor e efficient at it.The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infanc y to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).26. According to the passage, the more recent and old views of bi lingualism differ mainly inA. its practical advantagesB. its role in cognitionC. perceived language fluencyD. its role in medicine27. The fact that interference is now seen as a blessing in disguise means thatA. it has led to unexpectedly favourable resultsB. its potential ben efits have remained undiscoveredC. its effects on cognitive development have been minimalD. only a few researchers have realized its advantages28. What is the role of Paragraph Four in relation to Paragraph Th ree?A. It provides counter evidence to Paragraph Three.B. It offers an other example of the role of interference.C. It serves as a transitional paragraph in the passage.D. It furthe r illustrates the point in Paragraph Three.29. Which of the following can account for better performance of bilinguals in doing non-inhibition tasks?A. An ability to monitor surroundings.B. An ability to ignore dist ractions.C. An ability to perform with less effort.D. An ability to exercise suppression.30. What is the main theme of the passage?A. Features of bilinguals and monolinguals.B. Interference and sup pression.C. Bilinguals and monitoring tasks.D. Reasons why bilinguals are smarter.第5/7页PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)31. Which of the following is the French-speaking city in Canada?A. VancouverB. OttawaC. MontrealD. Toronto32. Which of the following are natives of New Zealand?A. The MaorisB. The AboriginalsC. The Red IndiansD. The Es kimos33. The established or national church in England isA. the Roman Catholic ChurchB. the United Reformed ChurchC. the Anglican ChurchD. the Methodist Church34. The 13 former British colonies in North America declared inde pendence from Great Britain inA. 1774B. 1775C. 1776D. 177735. ―Grace under pressure‖is an outstanding virtue of ____ her oes.A. Scott Fitzgerald‘sB. Ernest Hemingway‘sC. Eugene O‘Neill‘sD. William Faulkner‘s36. Widowers’ House was written byA. William Butler YeatsB. George Bernard ShawC. John Galswo rthyD. T. S. Eliot37. Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?A. William ShakespeareB. William BlakeC. Geoffrey ChaucerD. John Donne38. Which of the following pairs of words are homophones?A. wind (v.) / wind (n.)B. suspect (v.) / suspect (n.)C. convict (v.) / convict (n.)D. bare (adj.) / bear (v.)39. Which of the following sentences has the ―S+V+O‖structur e?A. He died a hero.B. I went to London.C. Mary enjoyed parties.D. She became angry.40. Which of the following CAN NOT be used as an adverbial?A. The lion‘s shareB. Heart and soul.C. Null and void.D. Ham mer and tongs.PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN) There is widespread consensus among scholars that second languag e acquisition (SLA) emerged as a distinct field of research from the l ate 1950s to early 1960s.There is a high level of agreement that the following questions (1) ______have possessed the most attention of researchers in this area: (2) _ _____Is it possible to acquire an additional language in theλsame sense one acquires a first language? (3) ______What is the explanation for the fact adults have (4) ______λmore difficulty in acquiring additional languages than children hav e?What motivates people to acquire additional language?λWhat is the role of the language teaching in the (5) ______λacquisition of additional languages?What social-cultural factors, if any, are relevant in studying theλlearning of additional languages?From a check of the literature of the field it is clear that all (6) _ _____the approaches adopted to study the phenomena of SLA so far hav eone thing in common: The perspective adopted to view the acquiri ngof an additional language is that of an individual attempts to do (7) ______so. Whether one labels it ―learning‖or ―acquiring‖an additio nallanguage, it is an individual accomplishment or what is under (8) ______focus is the cognitive, psychological, and institutional status of an individual. That is, the spotlight is on what mental capabilities are involving, what psychological factors play a role in the learning (9) ______or acquisition, and whether the target language is learnt in theclassroom or acquired through social touch with native speakers. (1 0) ______PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)第6/7页SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH当我在小学毕了业的时候，亲友一致的愿意我去学手艺，好帮助母亲。
2014年英语专八阅读真题题源
2014年英语专八阅读真题题源第一篇：The Bottom Line on HappinessBy Clayton M ChristensenMy class at Harvard Business School helps students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. In each session, we look at one company through the lenses of different theories, using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what action will yield the needed results. On the last day of class, I asked my class to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves to find answers to those three questions: First, How can I be sure I’ll be happy in my career? Second, How can I be sure my relationships with my spouse and my family will become an enduring source of happiness? Third, How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sou nds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in prison. Jeff Skillin of Enron fame was my classmate at Harvard Business School.I graduated HBS in 1979, and over the years, I’ve seen more and more of my classmates come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shockin g number unwittingly implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center.Having a clear purpose has been essential to me. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhode Scholar, I was in a very demand academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking and praying about why God put me on this earth. It was a very challenging commitment because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take time away from my studies, but I stuck with it and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.My purpose grew out of my religious faith, but faith isn’t the only thing that gives people direction. For example, one of my former students decided that his purpose was bring honestly and economic prosperity to his country and to raise children who were as capably committed to his cause, and to each other, as he was. His purpose is focused on family and others, as is mine.Here are some management tools that can be used to help you lead a purposeful life.1. Use Your Resources Wisely – Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent shape your life’s strategy. I have a bunch of ―businesses‖ that compete for these resources: I’m trying to have a rewarding relationship with my wife, raise great kids, contribute to my community, succeed in my career, and contribute to my church. And I have exactly the same problem that a corporation does. I have a limited amount of time, energy and talent. How much do I devote to each of these pursuits?Allocation choices can make your life turn out to very different from what you intended. Sometimes that’s good: opportunities that you have never planned for emerge. But if you don’t invest your resources wisely, the outcome can be bad. As I think about my former classmates who inadvertently invested in lives of hollow unhappiness, I can’t help believing that their troubles related right back to a short-term perspective.When people with a high need for achievement have an extra half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy, they’ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward. You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale teach a class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and energy in your relationships with your spouse and children typically doesn’t offer the same immediate sense of achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It’s really not until 20 years down the road that you can say,―I raised a good son or a good daughter.‖ You can neglect your relationship with your spouse and on a daily basis it doesn’t seem as if thing are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to under invest in their families and overinvest in their careers, even though intimate and loving family relationships are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endea vors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you’ll see that same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most.2. Create A Family Culture - It’s one thing to see into the foggy future with a acuity and chart the course corrections a company must make. But it’s quite another to persuade employees to line up and work cooperatively to take the company in that new direction.When the re is little agreement, you have to use ―power tools‖ – coercion, threats, punishments and so on, to secure cooperation. But if employee’s ways of working together succeed over and over, consensus begins to form. Ultimately, people don’t even think about w hether their way yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision, which means that they’ve created a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which member s of a group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool.I use this model to address the question, How can I be my family becomes an enduring source of happiness? My students quickly see that the simplest way parents can elicit cooperation from children is to wield power tools. But there comes a point during the teen years when power tools no longer work. At that point, parents start wishing they had begun working with their children at a very young age to build a culture in which children instinctively behave respectfully toward one another, obey their parents, and choose the right thing to do. Families have cultures, just a companies do. Those culture can be built consciously or evolve inadvertently.If you want your kids to have strong self-esteem and the confidence that they can solve hard problems, those qualities won’t magically materialize in high school. You have to design them into family’s culture and you have think about this very early on. Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.3. Avoid ―Just this Once‖ –We’re taught in finance and economics that in choosing investments, w e should ignore sunk and fixed cost and instead base decisions on the marginal costs – that is, the price of each individual new step or purchase. But I teach that this practice biases companies toward using what they’ve already put in place – what helped them succeed in the past –instead of guiding them to create the capabilities they’ll need in the future. If we knew the future would be exactly the same as the past, this would be fine. But if the future’s different, and it almost always is, then it’s the wrong thing to do.The marginal cost doctrine addresses the third question I discuss with my students: how to live a life of integrity. Often when we need to choose between right and wrong, a voice in our head says, ―Look, I know that as a general rule, m ost people shouldn’t do this. But in this particular extenuating circumstance, just this once, it’s okay.‖ The marginal coast of doing something wrong ―just this once‖ always seems to alluringly low. It suckers you in, and you don’t look at where that path is ultimately headed and at the full coast that the choice entails. Justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of ―just this once.‖I’d like to share a story about how I came to understand the potential damage of ―just this once‖ in my own life. I played on the Oxford University varsity basketball team. We worked our tails off and finished the season undefeated. The guys on the team were the best friends I’ve ever had in my life. We got to th e British equivalent of the NCAA tournament and made it to the final four. It turned out that the championship game was scheduled for a Sunday. I had made a personal commitment to God at age 16 that I would never play ball on Sunday. So I went to the coach and explained my problem. He was incredulous. My teammates were, too, because I was the starting center. Every one of the guys on the team came to and said, ―You’ve got to pay. Can’t you break the rule just this one time?‖ I’m a deeply religious man, so I went way and prayed about what I should do. I got a very clear feeling that I shouldn’t break my commitment, so I didn’t play in the championship game.In many ways, that was a small decision, involving one of several thousand Sundays in my life. In theory, I could have crossed over the line just that one time and then never done it again. But looking back, I can see that resisting the temptation of ―just this one‖ was one of the most important decisions I have ever made. My life has been an unending stream of extenuating circumstances. Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed.The lesson I learn is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold to them 98 per cent of the time. If you give in to ―just this once.‖ Based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates did, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.4. Remember to be Humble –It’s crucial to take a sense of humility in to the world. If you attitude is that only smarter people have to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited. Generally you can be humble only if you feel really good about yourself and want to help those around you feel really good about themselves too. When we see people acting in an abusive, arrogant, or demeaning manner toward others, their behavior almost always is a symptom of their lack of self-esteem. They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.5. Choose the Right Yardstick –Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.第二篇：2. Why Bilinguals Are SmarterSPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins ? one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function ? a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind ? like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. ―Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often ? you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,‖ says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. ―It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.‖ In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and hiscolleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy,7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism ? measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language ? were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?第三篇：内向者的力量Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles.We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable.We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts——which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. One-third to one-half of Americans are introverts——in the other words, one out of every two or three people you know. If you'er not an introvert yourself, you are surely raising, managing, married to, or coupled with one.If these statistics surprise you, that's probably because so many people pretend to be extroverts.Closet introverts pass undetected on playgrounds, in high school locker rooms, and in the corridors of corproate America.Some fool even themselves, until some life event——a layoff, an empty nest, an inheritance that frees them to spend time as they like——jolts them into taking stock of their true natures. You have only to raise this subject with your friends and acquaitances to find that the most unlikely people consider themselves introverts.It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themsevles. We live with a value system that I call the Extrovert Ideal—— the omnipresentbelief tht the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. The archetypalextrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups.We like to think that we value individuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual—— the kind who's comfortable "putting himself out there." Sure,we allow technologically gifted loners who launch companies in garages to have any personality they please, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and our tolerance extends mainly to those wo get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so.Introversion——along with its cousions sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness——is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.Introverts living under the Extrovert Idal are like women in a a man's world,discounted because of a trait that goes to the coreof who they are. Extorversion is an enormouslyappealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.The Extrovert Idal has been documented in many studies, though this research has never been grouped under a single name.Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarteer, better-looking, more interesting, and more desirable as friends. Velocityof speech counts as well as volume: we rank fast talkers as more competent and likable than slow ones. Even the word introvet is stigmatized——one informal study,by psychologist Laurie Helgoe, found that introverts described their own physical appearance in vivid language, but when asked to describe generic introverts they drew a bland and distasteful picture.But we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Idal so unthinkingly. Some of our greatest ideas, art, and inventions——from the theory of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers to the personal computer——came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there.第四篇：毛姆短篇小说《雨》刚开始的选段By W. Somerset MaughamIt was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in sight. Dr. Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down quietly at Apia for twelve months at least, and he felt already better for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long chair talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat down under the light and took off his hat you saw that he had very red hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin which accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very low, quiet voice.Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp."Mrs. Davidson was saying she didn't know how they'd have got through the journey if it hadn't been for us," said Mrs. Macphail, as she neatly brushed out her transformation. "She said we were really the only people on the ship they cared to know.""I shouldn't have thought a missionary was such a big bug that he could afford to put on frills.""It's not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn't have been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot in the smoking-room.""The founder of their religion wasn't so exclusive," said Dr. Macphail with a chuckle."I've asked you over and over again not to joke about religion," answered his wife. "I shouldn't like to have a nature like yours, Alec. You never look for the best in people."He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not reply. After many years of married life he had learned that it was more conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He was undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled down to read himself to sleep.When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at it with greedy eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beach rising quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water's edge, and among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoaris; and here and there, gleaming white, a little church. Mrs. Davidson came and stood beside him. She was dressed in black, and wore round her neck a gold chain, from which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind invisible pince-nez. Her face was long, like a sheep's, but she gave no impression of foolishness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the quick movementsof a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her voice, high, metallic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the pneumatic drill."This must seem like home to you," said Dr. Macphail, with his thin, difficult smile."Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We've got another ten days' journey to reach them.""In these parts that's almost like being in the next street at home," said Dr. Macphail facetiously."Well, that's rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does look at distances differently in the J South Seas. So far you're right."Dr. Macphail sighed faintly."I'm glad we're not stationed here," she went on. "They say this is a terribly difficult place to work in. The steamers' touching makes the people unsettled; and then there's the naval station; that's bad for the natives. In our district we don't have difficulties like that to contend with. There are one or two traders, of course, but we take care to make them behave, and if they don't we make the place so hot for them they're glad to go."Fixing the glasses on her nose she looked at the green island with a ruthless stare."It's almost a hopeless task for the missionaries here. I can never be sufficiently thankful to God that we are at least spared that."Davidson's district consisted of a group of islands to the North of Samoa; they were widely separated and he had frequently to go long distances by canoe. At these times his wife remained at their headquarters and managed the mission. Dr. Macphail felt his heart sink when he considered the efficiency with which she certainly managed it. She spoke of the depravity of the natives in a voice which nothing could hush, but with a vehemently unctuous horror. Her sense of delicacy was singular. Early in their acquaintance she had said to him:"You know, their marriage customs when we first settled in the islands were so shocking that I couldn't possibly describe them to you. But I'll tell Mrs. Macphail and she'll tell you."Then he had seen his wife and Mrs. Davidson, their deck-chairs close together, in earnest conversation for about two hours. As he walked past them backwards and forwards for the sake of exercise, he had heard Mrs. Davidson's agitated whisper, like the distant flow of a mountain torrent, and he saw by his wife's open mouth and pale face that she was enjoying an alarming experience. At night in their cabin she repeated to him with bated breath all she had heard.。
2014年英语专八真题阅读理解答案
2014年英语专八真题阅读理解答案(网友回忆版) 11. A have 12. C to offer 13. B to provide 14. D decide 15. A cultuer 16. B perfered 17. D similar 18. D easy 19. B unapproachalbe 20. D sociable 21. B say 22. B sociabel 23. A young 24. D 25C 26. D role 27. C effects 28. B offer 29. D exercise 30. A features第一篇：The Bottom Line on HappinessBy Clayton M ChristensenMy class at Harvard Business School helps students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. In each session, we look at one company through the lenses of different theories, using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what action will yield the needed results. On the last day of class, I asked my class to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves to find answers to those three questions: First, How can I be sure I’ll be happy in my career? Second, How can I be sure my relationships with my spouse and my family will bec ome an enduring source of happiness? Third, How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted,it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in prison. Jeff Skillin of Enron fame was my classmate at Harvard Business School.I graduated HBS in 1979, and over the years, I’ve seen more and more of my classmates come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number unwittingly implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center.Having a clear purpose has been essential to me. But it was something I had to thing long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhode Scholar, I was in a very demand academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking and praying about why God put me on this earth. It was a very challenging commitment bec ause every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take time away from my studies, but I stuck with it and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.My purpose grew out of my religious faith, but faith isn’t the only thing that gives people direction. For example, one of my former students decided that his purpose was bring honestly and economic prosperity to his country and to raisechildren who were as capably committed to his cause, and to each other, as he 第二篇：2. Why Bilinguals Are SmarterSPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development. They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers wereasked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins ? one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging bec ause it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function ? a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind ? like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in othercontexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often ? you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side ofa screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism ? measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language ? were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.was. His purpose is focused on family and others, as is mine.第三篇：内向者的力量Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles.We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable.We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts——which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. One-third to one-half of Americans are introverts——in the other words, one out of every two or three people you know. If you'er not an introvert yourself, you are surely raising, managing, married to, or coupled with one.If these statistics surprise you, that's probably because so many people pretend to be extroverts.Closet introverts pass undetected on playgrounds, in high school locker rooms, and in the corridors of corproate America.Some fool even themselves, until some life event——a layoff, an empty nest, an inheritance that frees them to spend time as they like——jolts them into taking stock of their true natures. You have only to raise this subject with your friends and acquaitances to find that the most unlikely people consider themselves introverts.It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themsevles. We live with a value system that I call the Extrovert Ideal—— the omnipresentbelief tht the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. The archetypalextrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups.We like to think that we value individuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual—— the kind who's comfortable "putting himself out there." Sure,we allow technologically gifted loners who launch companies in garages to have any personality they please, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and our tolerance extends mainly to those wo get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so.Introversion——along with its cousions sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness——is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.Introverts living under the Extrovert Idal are like women in a a man's world,discounted because of a trait that goes to the coreof who they are. Extorversion is an enormouslyappealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.The Extrovert Idal has been documented in many studies, though this research has never been grouped under a single name.Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarteer, better-looking, more interesting, and more desirable as friends. Velocityof speech counts as well as volume: we rank fast talkers as more competent and likable than slow ones. Even the word introvet is stigmatized——one informal study,by psychologist Laurie Helgoe, found that introverts described their own physical appearance in vivid language, but when asked to describe generic introverts they drew a bland and distasteful picture.But we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Idal so unthinkingly. Some of our greatest ideas, art, and inventions——from the theory of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers to the personal computer——came from quiet and cerebralpeople who knew how to tune in to their inner worlds a第四篇：毛姆短篇小说《雨》刚开始的选段By W. Somerset MaughamIt was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in sight. Dr. Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down quietly at Apia for twelve months at least, and hefelt already better for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the deck was quiet at last.A little way off he saw his wife in a long chair talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat down under the light and took off his hat you saw that he had very red hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin which accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very low, quiet voice.Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp."Mrs. Davidson was saying she didn't know how they'd have got through the journey if it hadn't been for us," said Mrs. Macphail, as she neatly brushed out her transformation. "She said we were really the only people on the ship they cared to know.""I shouldn't have thought a missionary was such a big bug that he could afford to put on frills.""It's not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn't have been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot in the smoking-room.""The founder of their religion wasn't so exclusive," said Dr. Macphail with a chuckle."I've asked you over and over again not to joke about religion," answered his wife. "I shouldn't like to have a nature like yours, Alec. You never look for the best in people."He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not reply. After many years of married life he had learned that it was more conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He was undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled down to read himself to sleep.When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at it with greedy eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beach rising quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly tothe water's edge, and among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoaris; and here and there, gleaming white, a little church. Mrs. Davidson came and stood beside him. She was dressed in black, and wore round her neck a gold chain, from which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind invisible pince-nez. Her face was long, like a sheep's, but she gave no impression of foolishness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her voice, high, metallic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the pneumatic drill."This must seem like home to you," said Dr. Macphail, with his thin, difficult smile. "Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We've got another ten days' journey to reach them.""In these parts that's almost like being in the next street at home," said Dr. Macphail facetiously."Well, that's rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does look at distances differently in the J South Seas. So far you're right."Dr. Macphail sighed faintly."I'm glad we're not stationed here," she went on. "They say this is a terribly difficult place to work in. The steamers' touching makes the people unsettled; and then there's the naval station; that's bad for the natives. In our district we don't have difficulties like that to contend with. There are one or two traders, of course, but we take care to make them behave, and if they don't we make the place so hot for them they're glad to go."Fixing the glasses on her nose she looked at the green island with a ruthless stare."It's almost a hopeless task for the missionaries here. I can never be sufficiently thankful to God that we are at least spared that."Davidson's district consisted of a group of islands to the North of Samoa; they were widely separated and he had frequently to go long distances by canoe. At these times his wife remained at their headquarters and managed the mission. Dr. Macphail felt his heart sink when he considered the efficiency with which she certainly managed it. She spoke of the depravity of the natives in a voice which nothing could hush, but with a vehemently unctuous horror. Her sense of delicacy was singular. Early in their acquaintance she had said to him:"You know, their marriage customs when we first settled in the islands were so shocking that I couldn't possibly describe them to you. But I'll tell Mrs. Macphail and she'll tell you."Then he had seen his wife and Mrs. Davidson, their deck-chairs close together, in earnest conversation for about two hours. As he walked past them backwards and forwards for the sake of exercise, he had heard Mrs. Davidson's agitated whisper, like the distant flow of a mountain torrent, and he saw by his wife's open mouth and pale face that she was enjoying an alarming experience. At night in their cabin she repeated to him with bated breath all she had heard.nd the treasures to be found there.11. A have12. C to offer13. B to provide14. D decide15. A cultuer16. B perfered17. D similar18. D easy19. B unapproachalbe20. D sociable21. B say22. B sociabel23. A young24. D 25C26. D role27. C effects28. B offer29. D exercise30. A features。
2014年英语专八考试阅读练习题
In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence has so come to be taken for granted as a means of solving differences, that it is not even questioned.There are countries where the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there are countries where the black man protests by setting fire to cities and by looting and pillaging.Important people on both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly argue in favor of violence – as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other.What is really frightening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when it comes to the crunch, we have made no actual progress at all.We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basically unchanged.The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing.We have still not learnt that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute.The sheer horror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing.No solution ever comes to light the morning after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us.The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and herder to get a hearing.They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because they advocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement.If half the energy that goes into violent acts were put to good use, if our efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums and ghettos, at improving living-standards and providing education and employment for all, we would have gone a long way to arriving at a solution.Our strength is sapped by having to mop up the mess that violence leaves in its wake.In a well-directed effort, it would not be impossible to fulfill the ideals of a stable social programme.The benefits that can be derived from constructive solutions are everywhere apparent in the world around us.Genuine and lasting solutions are always possible, providing we work within the framework of the law.Before we can even begin to contemplate peaceful co-existence between the races, we must appreciate each other’s problems.And to do this, we must learn about them: it is a simple exercise in communication, in exchanging information.'Talk, talk, talk,’the advocates of violence say,‘all you ever do is talk, and we are none the wiser.’It’s rather like the story of the famous barrister who painstakingly explained his case to the judge.After listening to a lengthy argument the judge complained that after all this talk, he was none the wiser.‘Possible, my lord,’the barrister replied,‘none the wiser, but surely far better informed.’Knowledge is the necessary prerequisite to wisdom: the knowledge that violence creates the evils it pretends to solve.1.What is the best title for this passage?[A]Advocating Violence.[B]Violence Can Do Nothing to Diminish Race Prejudice.[C]Important People on Both Sides See Violence As a Legitimate Solution.[D]The Instincts of Human Race Are Thirsty for Violence.2.Recorded history has taught us ___________[A]violence never solves anything.[B]nothing.[C]the bloodshed means nothing.[D]everything.3.It can be inferred that truly reasonable men ___________[A]can’t get a hearing.[B]are looked down upon.[C]are persecuted.[D]Have difficulty in advocating law enforcement.4.“He was none the wiser”means ___________[A]he was not at all wise in listening.[B]He was not at all wiser than nothing before.[C]He gains nothing after listening.[D]He makes no sense of the argument.5.According the author the best way to solve race prejudice is ___________[A]law enforcement.[B]knowledge.[C]nonviolence.[D]Mopping up the violent mess.V ocabulary1.acute 严重的，剧烈的，敏锐的2.loot v.抢劫，掠夺;n.赃物3.pillage v.抢劫，掠夺4.crunch v.吱嘎吱嘎咬或嚼某物;n.碎裂声eg.when it comes to the crunch = if/when the decisive moment comes. 当关键时刻来到时。
2014年专八阅读理解练习题及答案
What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art, or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible. How could such extremely complex influences pass from the mother to the child? There is no connection between their nervous systems. Even the blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. An emotional shock to the mother will affect her child, because it changes the activity of her glands and so the chemistry her blood. Any chemical change in the mother’s blood will affect the child for better or worse. But we can not see how a looking for mathematics or poetic genius can be dissolved in blood and produce a similar liking or genius in the child. In our discussion of instincts we saw that there was reason to believe that whatever we inherit must be of some very simple sort rather than any complicated or very definite kind of behavior. It is certain that no one inherits a knowledge of mathematics. It may be, however, that children inherit more or less of a rather general ability that we may call intelligence. If very intelligent children become deeply interested in mathematics, they will probably make a success of that study. As for musical ability, it may be that what is inherited is an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or the vocal organs connections between nerves and muscles that make it comparatively easy to learn the movements a musician must execute, and particularly vigorous emotions. If these factors are all organized around music, the child may become a musician. The same factors, in other circumstance might be organized about some other center of interest. The rich emotional equipment might find expression in poetry. The capable fingers might develop skill in surgery. It is not the knowledge of music that is inherited, then nor even the love of it, but a certain bodily structure that makes it comparatively easy to acquire musical knowledge and skill. Whether that ability shall be directed toward music or some other undertaking may be decided entirely by forces in the environment in which a child grows up. 1. Which of the following statements is not true? A. Some mothers try to influence their unborn children by studying art and other subjects during their pregnancy. B. It is utterly impossible for us to learn anything about prenatal development. C. The blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. D. There are no connection between mother’s nervous systems and her unborn child’s. 2. A mother will affect her unborn baby on the condition that ____. A. she is emotionally shocked B. she has a good knowledge of inheritance C. she takes part in all kind of activities D. she sticks to studying 3. According to the passage, a child may inherit____. A. everything from his mother B. a knowledge of mathematics C. a rather general ability that we call intelligence D. her mother’s musical ability 4. If a child inherits something from his mother, such as an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or of the vocal organs, he will ____. A. surely become musician B. mostly become a poet C. possibly become a teacher D. become a musician on the condition that all these factors are organized around music 5. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?A. Role of Inheritance.B. An Unborn Child.C. Function of instincts.D. Inherited Talents. 答案：BACDA。
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In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence has so come to be taken for granted as a means of solving differences, that it is not even questioned.There are countries where the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there are countries where the black man protests by setting fire to cities and by looting and pillaging.Important people on both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly argue in favor of violence – as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other.What is really frightening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when it comes to the crunch, we have made no actual progress at all.We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basically unchanged.The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing.We have still not learnt that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute.The sheer horror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing.No solution ever comes to light the morning after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us.The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and herder to get a hearing.They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because they advocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement.If half the energy that goes into violent acts were put to good use, if our efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums and ghettos, at improving living-standards and providing education and employment for all, we would have gone a long way to arriving at a solution.Our strength is sapped by having to mop up the mess that violence leaves in its wake.In a well-directed effort, it would not be impossible to fulfill the ideals of a stable social programme.The benefits that can be derived from constructive solutions are everywhere apparent in the world around us.Genuine and lasting solutions are always possible, providing we work within the framework of the law.Before we can even begin to contemplate peaceful co-existence between the races, we must appreciate each other’s problems.And to do this, we must learn about them: it is a simple exercise in communication, in exchanging information.'Talk, talk, talk,’the advocates of violence say,‘all you ever do is talk, and we are none the wiser.’It’s rather like the story of the famous barrister who painstakingly explained his case to the judge.After listening to a lengthy argument the judge complained that after all t his talk, he was none the wiser.‘Possible, my lord,’the barrister replied,‘none the wiser, but surely far better informed.’Knowledge is the necessary prerequisite to wisdom: the knowledge that violence creates the evils it pretends to solve.1.What is the best title for this passage?[A]Advocating Violence.[B]Violence Can Do Nothing to Diminish Race Prejudice.[C]Important People on Both Sides See Violence As a Legitimate Solution.[D]The Instincts of Human Race Are Thirsty for Violence.2.Recorded history has taught us ___________[A]violence never solves anything.[B]nothing.[C]the bloodshed means nothing.[D]everything.3.It can be inferred that truly reasonable men ___________[A]can’t get a hearing.[B]are looked down upon.[C]are persecuted.[D]Have difficulty in advocating law enforcement.4.“He was none the wiser”means ___________[A]he was not at all wise in listening.[B]He was not at all wiser than nothing before.[C]He gains nothing after listening.[D]He makes no sense of the argument.5.According the author the best way to solve race prejudice is ___________[A]law enforcement.[B]knowledge.[C]nonviolence.[D]Mopping up the violent mess.V ocabulary1.acute 严重的，剧烈的，敏锐的2.loot v.抢劫，掠夺;n.赃物3.pillage v.抢劫，掠夺4.crunch v.吱嘎吱嘎咬或嚼某物;n.碎裂声eg.when it comes to the crunch = if/when the decisive moment comes. 当关键时刻来到时。
5.war-paint 出战前涂于身上的颜料。
(美印第安战士用)e to light = become known 显露，为人所知7.sap 剥削，使伤元气，破坏I was sapped by months of hospital treatment. 我住院治疗几个月，大伤元气。
8.mop up 擦去，对付，处理9.wake 船迹，航迹in the wake of sth. = come after 随某事之后到来。
难句译注1.What is really frightening, what really fills you with despair is the realization that when it comes to the crunch, we have made no actual progress at all.【结构简析】when it comes to the crunch = when / if the decisive moment comes.当关键时刻来到时。
【参考译文】真正令人可怖的，令人绝望的是，在关键时刻，人们意识到我们一点儿也没有进步/前进。