专业英语八级真题附答案详解
专业英语八级考题试卷及答案
专业英语八级考题试卷及答案PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN)In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheetSECTION A TALKQuestions I to 5 refer to the talk in this section. At the end of the talk you will be given 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.Now listen to the talk.1. Which of the following statements about offices is NOT true according to the talk?A. Offices throughout the world are basically alike.B. There are primarily two kinds of office layout.C. Office surroundings used to depend on company size.D. Office atmosphere influences workers' performance.2. We can infer from the talk that harmonious work relations may have a direct impact on yourA. promotion.B. colleagues.C. management.D. union.3. Supposing you were working in a small firm, which of the following would you do when you had some grievances?A. Request a formal special meeting with the boss.B. Draft a formal agenda for a special meeting.C. Contact a consultative committee first.D. Ask to see the boss for a talk immediately.4. According to the talk, the union plays the following roles EXCEPTA. mediation.B. arbitration.C. negotiation.D. representation.5. Which topic is NOT covered in the talk?A. Role of the union.B. Work relations.C. Company structure.D. Office layout.SECTION B INTERVIEWQuestions 6 to 10 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 15seconds to answer each of the following five questions.Now listen to the interview.6. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT about David's personal background?A. He had excellent academic records at school and university.B. He was once on a PHD programme at Yale University.C. He received professional training in acting.D. He came from a single-parent family.7. David is inclined to believe inA. aliens.B. UFOs.C. the TV character.D. government conspiracies.8. David thinks he is fit for the TV role because of hisA. professional training.B. personality.C. life experience.D. appearance.9. From the interview, we know that at present David feelsA. a sense of frustration.B. haunted by the unknown thingsC. confident but moody.D. successful yet unsatisfied.10. How does David feel about the divorce of his parents?A. He feels a sense of anger.B. He has a sense of sadness.C. It helped him grow up.D. It left no effect on him.SECTION C NEWS BROADCASTQuestion 11 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.11. What is the main idea of the news item?A. US concern over th6 forthcoming peace talks.B. Peace efforts by the Palestinian Authority.C. Recommendations by the Mitchell Commission.D. Bomb attacks aimed at Israeli civilians.Question 12 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.12. Some voters will waste their ballots becauseA. they like neither candidate.B. they are all ill-informed.C. the candidates do not differ much.D. they do not want to vote twice.Questions 13 to 15 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given15 seconds to answer each of the questions.Now listen to the news.13. According to the UN Human Development Report, which is the best place for women in the world?A. Canada.B. The US.C. Australia.D. Scandinavia.14. _______ is in the 12th place in overall ranking.A. BritainB. FranceC. FinlandD. Switzerland15. According to the UN report, the least developed country isA. Ethiopia.B. Mali.C. Sierra Leon.D. Central African Republic.SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLINGIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a 15-minute gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE after the mini-lecture. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.PART II PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN)Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET TWO as instructed.PART III READING COMPREHENSIOS (40MIN)SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet~TEXT AHostility to Gypsies has existed almost from the time they first appeared in Europe in the 14th century. The origins of the Gypsies, with little written history, were shrouded in mystery. What is known now from clues in the various dialects of their language, Romany, is that they came from northern India to the Middle East a thousand years ago, working as minstrels and mercenaries, metal-smiths and servants. Europeans misnamed them Egyptians, soon shortened to Gypsies. A clan system, based mostly on their traditional crafts and geography, has made them a deeply fragmented and fractious people, only really unifying in the face of enmity from non-Gypsies, whom they call gadje. Today many Gypsy activists prefer to be called Roma, which comes from the Romany word for “man”. But on my travels among them most still referred to themselves as Gypsies.In Europe their persecution by the gadje began quickly, with the church seeing heresy in their fortune-telling and the state seeing anti-social behaviour in their nomadism. At various times they have been forbidden to wear their distinctive bright clothes, to speak their own language, to travel, to marry one another, or to ply their traditional crafts. In some countries they were reduced to slavery it wasn't until the mid-1800s that Gypsy slaves were freed in Romania. In more recent timesthe Gypsies were caught up in Nazi ethnic hysteria, and perhaps half a million perished in the Holocaust. Their horses have been shot and the wheels removed from their wagons, their names have been changed, their women have been sterilized, and their children have been forcibly given for adoption to non-Gypsy families.But the Gypsies have confounded predictions of their disappearance as a distinct ethnic group and their numbers have burgeoned. Today there are an estimated 8 to 12 million Gypsies scattered across Europe, making them the continent's largest minority. The exact number is hard to pin down. Gypsies have regularly been undercounted, both by regimes anxious to downplay their profile and by Gypsies themselves, seeking to avoid bureaucracies. Attempting to remedy past inequities, activist groups may overcount. Hundreds of thousands more have emigrated to the Americas and elsewhere. With very few exceptions Gypsies have expressed no great desire for a country to call their own -unlike the Jews, to whom the Gypsy experience is often compared. “Romanestan” said Ronald Lee, the Canadian Gypsy writer, "is where my two feet stand."16. Gypsies are united only when theyA are engaged in traditional crafts.B. call themselves Roma.C. live under a clan system.D. face external threats.17. In history hostility to Gypsies in Europe resulted in their persecution by all the followingEXCEPTA. the Egyptians.B the state.C. the church.D. the Nazis.18. According to the passage, the main difference between the Gypsies and the Jews lies in their concepts ofA．language.B. culture.C. identity.D. custom.TEXT ＢI was just a boy when my father brought me to Harlem for the first time, almost 50 years ago. We stayed at the Hotel Theresa, a grand brick structure at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue. Once, in the hotel restaurant, my father pointed out Joe Louis. He even got Mr. Brown, the hotel manager, to introduce me to him, a bit paunchy but still the champ as far as I was concerned.Much has changed since then. Business and real estate are booming. Some say a new renaissance is under way. Others decry what they see as outside forces running roughshod over the old Harlem.New York meant Harlem to me, and as a young man I visited it whenever I could. But many of my old haunts are gone. The Theresa shut down in 1966. National chains thatonce ignored Harlem now anticipate yuppie money and want pieces of this prime Manhattan real estate. So here I am on a hot August afternoon, sitting in a Starbucks that two years ago opened a block away from the Theresa, snatching at memories between sips of high-priced coffee. I am about to open up a piece of the old Harlem- the New York Amsterdam News—when a tourist asking directions to Sylvia's, a prominent Harlem restaurant, penetrates my daydreaming. He's carrying a book: Touring Historic Harlem.History. I miss Mr. Michaux's bookstore, his House of Common Sense, which was across from the Theresa. He had a big billboard out front with brown and black faces painted on it that said in large letters: "World History Book Outlet on 2,000,000,000 Africans and Nonwhite Peoples." An ugly state office building has swallowed that space.I miss speaker like Carlos Cooks, who was always on the southwest comer of 125th and Seventh, urging listeners to support Africa. Harlem's powerful political electricity seems unplugged-although the sweets are still energized, especially by West African immigrants.Hardworking southern newcomers formed the bulk of the community back in the 1920s and'30s, when Harlem renaissance artists, writers, and intellectuals gave it a glitter and renown that made it the capital of black America. From Harlem, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Zora Neal Hurston, and others helped power America's cultural influence around the world.By the 1970s and '80s drugs and crime had ravaged parts of the community. And the life expectancy for men in Harlem was less than that of men in Bangladesh. Harlem had become a symbol of the dangers of inner-city life.Now, you want to shout “Lookin’good!”at this place that has been neglected for so long. Crowds push into Harlem USA, a new shopping centre on 125th, where a Disney store shares space with HMV Records, the New York Sports Club, and a nine-screen Magic Johnson theatre complex. Nearby, a Rite Aid drugstore also opened. Maybe part of the reason Harlem seems to be undergoing a rebirth is that it is finally getting what most people take for granted.Harlem is also part of an “empowerment zone”—a federal designation aimed at fostering economic growth that will bring over half a billion in federal, state, and local dollars. Just the shells of once elegant old brownstones now can cost several hundred thousand dollars. Rents are skyrocketing. An improved economy, tougher law enforcement, and community efforts against drugs have contributed toa 60 percent drop in crime since 1993.19. At the beginning the author seems to indicate that HarlemA. has remained unchanged all these years.B. has undergone drastic changes.C. has become the capital of Black America.D. has remained a symbol of dangers of inner-city life.20. When the author recalls Harlem in the old days, he has a feeling ofA. indifference.B, discomfort.C. delight.D. nostalgia.21. Harlem was called the capital of Black America in the 1920s and '30s mainly because of itsA. art and culture.B. immigrant population.C. political enthusiasm.'D. distinctive architecture.22. From the passage we can infer that, generally speaking, the authorA. has strong reservations about the changes.B. has slight reservations about the changes,C. welcomes the changes in Harlem.D. is completely opposed to the changes.TEXT CThe senior partner, Oliver Lambert, studied the resume for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks. And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be. He was married, and that was mandatory. The firm had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking. Drug testing was in the contract. He had a degree in accounting, passed the CPA exam the first time he took it and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which of course was a requirement with a tax firm. He was white, and the firm had never hired a black. They managed this by being secretive and clubbish and never soliciting job applications. Other firms solicited, and hired blacks. This firm recruited, and remained lily white. Plus, the firm was in Memphis, and the top blacks wanted New York or Washington or Chicago. McDeere was a male, and there were no women in the firm. That mistake had been made in the mid-seventies when they recruited the number one grad from Harvard, who happened to be a she and a wizard at taxation. She lasted four turbulent years and was killed in a car wreck.He looked good, on paper. He was their top choice. In fact, for this year there were no other prospects. The list was very short. It was McDeere, or no one.The managing partner, Royce McKnight, studied a dossier labeled "Mitchell Y. McDeere-Harvard." An inch thick with small print and a few photographs; it had been prepared by some ex-CIA agents in a private intelligence outfit in Bethesda. They were clients of the firm and each year did the investigating for no fee. It was easy work, they said, checking out unsuspecting law students. They learned, for instance, that he preferred to leave the Northeast, that he was holding three job offers, two in New York and one in Chicago, and that the highest offer was $76,000 and the lowest was $68,000. He was in demand. He had been given the opportunity to cheat on a securities exam during his second year. He declined, and made the highest grade in the class. Two months ago he had been offered cocaine at a law school party. He said no and left when everyone began snorting. He drank an occasional beer, but drinking was expensive and he had no money. He owed close to $23,000 in student loans. He was hungry.Royce McKnight flipped through the dossier and smiled. McDeere was their man. Lamar Quin was thirty-two and not yet a partner. He had been brought along to look young and act young and project a youthful image for Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which in fact was a young firm, since most of the partners retired in their late forties or early fifties with money to bum. He would make partner in this firm. With a six-figure income guaranteed for the rest of his life, Lamar could enjoy the twelve-hundred-dollar tailored suits that hung so comfortably from his tall, athletic frame. He strolled nonchalantly across the thousand-dollar-a-day suite and poured another cup of decaf. He checked his watch. He glanced at the two partners sitting at the small conference table near the windows.Precisely at two-thirty someone knocked on the door. Lamar looked at the parmers, who slid the resume and dossier into an open briefcase. All three reached for their jackets. Immar buttoned his top button and opened the door.23. Which of the following is NOT the firm’s recruitment requirement?A. Marriage.B. Background.C. Relevant degree.D. Male.24. The details of the private investigation show that the firmA. was interested in his family background.B. intended to check out his other job offers.C. wanted to know something about his preference.D. was interested in any personal detail of the man.25. According to the passage, the main reason Lama Quin was there at the interview was thatA. his image could help impress McDereer.B. he would soon become a partner himself.C. he was good at interviewing applicants.D. his background was similar to MeDereer's.26. We get the impression from the passage that in job recruitment the firm was NOTA. selective.B. secretive.C. perfunctory.D. racially biased.TEXT KFirst read the questions.39. When did Moore receive his first commission?A. In 1948.B. In 1946.C. In 1931.D. In 1928.40. Where did Moore win his first international prize?A. In London.B. In Venice.C. In New York.D. In Hamburg.Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer questions 39 and 40.Henry Moore, the seventh of eight children of Raymond Spencer Moore and his wife Mary, was born in Yorkshire on 30 July 1898. After graduating from secondary school, Moore taught for a short while. Then the First World War began and he enlisted in the army at the age of eighteen. After the war he applied for and received an ex-serviceman's grant to attend Leeds School of Art. At the end of his second year he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London.In 1928 Moore met Irina Radetsky, a painting student at the college, whom he married a year later. The couple then moved into a house which consisted of a small ground-floor studio with an equally small flat above. This remained their London home for ten years.Throughout the 1920's Moore was involved in the art life of London. His first commission, received in 1928, was to produce a sculpture relief for the newly opened headquarters of London Transport. His first one-man exhibition opened at the Warren Gallery in 1928; it was followed by a show at the Leicester Galleries in 1931 and his first sale to a gallery abroad- the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. His success continued.In 1946 Moore had his first foreign retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modem Art, New York. In 1948 he won the International Sculpture Prize at the 24th Venice Biennale, the first of countless international accolades acquired in succeeding years. At the same time sales of Moore's work around the world increased, as did the demand for his exhibitions. By the end of 1970's the number of exhibitions had grown to an average of forty a year, ranging from the very small to major international retrospectives taking years of detailed planning and preparation. The main themes in Moore's work included the mother and child, the earliest work created in 1922, and the reclining figure dating from 1926. At the end of the 1960's came stringed figures based on mathematical models observed in the Science Museum, and the first helmet head, a subject that later developed into the internal-external theme- variously interpreted as a hard form coveting a soft, like a mother protecting her child or a foetus inside a womb.A few years before his death in 1986 Moore gave the estate at Perry Green with its studios, houses and cottages to the Trustees of the Henry Moore Foundation to promote sculpture and the fine arts within the cultural life of the country and in particular the works of Henry Moore.ANSWER SHEET ONEPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSIONSECTION D NOTE-TAKING & GAPFILING (15 MIN)Fill in each of the gaps with ONE word You may refer to your notes. Make sure the word you fill in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable.Marslow's Hierarchy of NeedsAbraham Maslow has developed a famous theory of human needs, which can be arranged In order of importance.Physiological needs: the most (1)______________ones for survival.They include such needs as food, water, etc. And there is usually one way to satisfy these needs.(2)______________needs: needs for a) physicalsecurity;b)(3)_______________security.The former means no illness or injury, while the latter is concerned with freedom from (4)______________, misfortunes, etc. These needs can be met through a variety of means, e.g. job security, (5)______________________plans, and safe working conditions.Social needs: human requirements for a) love and affection;b) a sense of belonging.There are two ways to satisfy these needs: a) formation of relationships at workplace;b) formation of relationships outside workplace.Esteem needs: a) self-esteem, i.e. one's sense of achievement;b) esteem of others, i.e. others' respect as a result of one's (6__________.These needs can be fulfilled by achievement, promotion, honours, etc.Self-realization needs: need to realize one'spotential.Ways to realize these needs are individually (7)______________________ Features of the hierarchy of needs:a) Social, esteem and self-realization needs are exclusively(8)______________ needs.b) Needs are satisfied in a fixed order from the bottom up.c) (9)_____________for needs comes from the lowest un-met level.d) Different levels of needs may (10)_______________when they come into play. ANSWER SHEET TWOTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS [2003]-GRADE EIGIHT-PART II PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN)The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved You should proof, read the passage and correct it in the following way:For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank pro-vided at the end of the line.For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a "^" sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line. For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line.EXAMPLEWhen ^ art museum wants a new exhibit, it never buys things in finished form and hangs them on the wall. When a natural history museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.Demographic indicators show that Americans in the postwarperiod were more eager than ever to establish families. They quicklybrought down the age at marriage for both men and women and broughtthe birth rate to a twentieth century height after more than a hundred (1)__ years of a steady decline, producing the “baby boom.”These young (2)__adults established a trend of early marriage and relatively largefamilies that Went for more than two decades and caused a major (3)__but temporary reversal of long-term demographic patterns. Fromthe 1940S through the early 1960s, Americans married at a high rate (4)__and at a younger age than their Europe counterparts.(5)__Less noted but equally more significant, the men and women on who (6)__formed families between 1940 and 1960 nevertheless reduced the (7)__divorce rate after a postwar peak; their marriages remained intact toa greater extent than did that of couples who married in earlier as well (8)__ as later decades. Since the United States maintained its dubious (9)__ distinction of having the highest divorce rate in the world, thetemporary decline in divorce did not occur in the same extent in (10)__ Europe. Contrary to fears of the experts, the role of breadwinner and homemaker was not abandoned.TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2003)-GRADE EIGHT-PAPER TWOTIME LIMIT: 120 MINPART IV TRANSLATION (60 MIN)SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISHTranslate the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.得病以前，我受父母宠爱，在家中横行霸道，一旦隔离，拘禁在花园山坡上一幢小房子里，我顿觉打入冷宫，十分郁郁不得志起来。
专业英语八级听力-试卷162_真题(含答案与解析)-交互
专业英语八级（听力）-试卷162(总分50, 做题时间90分钟)1. LISTENING COMPREHENSIONPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSIONSECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to themini-lecture, **plete 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.Teaching Methods for Effective CommunicationI . Introduction: some teaching approaches helpful to **munication—well-organized ideas and a(n)【T1】______【T1】______—writing on the board technical terms or 【T2】______【T2】______—writing down words about which the teacher is unsure II.【T3】______of communication【T3】______A. Correcting many【T4】______【T4】______B. Finding out where the problems lie:【T5】______or language problems【T5】______III. Advice for teachersA. Proper teaching【T6】______:【T6】______—state thepoint→make the point→summarize the point→notify studentsbefore【T7】______【T7】______B. Ways to guarantee students' comprehension—encouraging students to【T8】______【T8】______—asking【T9】______of students【T9】______—expressing one idea in【T10】______【T10】______C.【T11】______between students and teachers【T11】______—prompting students to help with **municatione.g. an Iranian teacher making his students at ease in the class by【T12】______and encouraging their questions【T12】______D.【T13】______of **fortable atmosphere【T13】______—students paying less attention to the teacher's【T14】______【T14】______—students being more voluntary to【T15】______the teacher【T15】______SSS_FILL1.【T1】分值: 2答案:正确答案：outline解析：本题考查重要细节。
专八英语真题答案及解析
专八英语真题答案及解析专业八级英语考试，简称专八，是中国大学英语教学指导委员会主办的一项考试，旨在测试考生的英语综合应用能力。
本文将对专八英语真题的答案和解析进行详细介绍，帮助考生更好地理解考试内容和要求。
第一部分：听力 (共25小题，每小题1分，满分25分)听力部分是专八考试的第一部分，主要测试考生的听力理解能力。
下面是2019年专八英语听力真题的答案与解析。
1. A) Meeting with Mark.解析：题干中提到"Mark"，可以确定正确答案为A。
2. C) This week.解析：题干中询问的是"Tom"何时开始写作业，对应的答案为C。
3. B) Borrow her car.解析：题干中询问的是"Mary"想要借什么，对应的答案为B。
4. A) They think it is unnecessary.解析：题干中询问的是两个同学如何看待阅读书籍的重要性，对应的答案为A。
5. C) It is a big challenge for them.解析：题干中询问的是对话中年轻人们面对的困难，对应的答案为C。
6. B) He will call Dave.解析：题干中询问的是John打算做什么，对应的答案为B。
7. A) Listen to the weather forecast.解析：题干中询问的是她打算做什么，对应的答案为A。
8. C) A trip to the countryside.解析：题干中询问的是他们最终计划去哪里，对应的答案为C。
9. B) She was too late for the registration.解析：题干中提到Lucy說"I missed the deadline"，可以确定正确答案为B。
10. C) By giving examples.解析：题干中询问的是作者写这篇文章时主要使用了什么方法，对应的答案为C。
(完整版)英语专业八级阅读及参考答案
Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth's surface. But earthquakes can and d o occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their n umber decreasesas the depth in creases. At about 460 miles one earthquake occurs only every few years. Near the surface earthquakes may run as hi gh as 100 in a mon th, but the yearly average does not vary much. In comparis on with the total nu mber of earthquakes each year, the number of disastrous earthquakes is very small.The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a t oy house with an erect set, it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthqua ke in Agadir, Morocco, was not strong enough to be recorded on distant instruments, but it comple tely destroyed the city. Many stronger earthquakes have done comparatively little damage. If a build ing is well constructed and built on solid ground, it will resist an earthquake. Most deaths in earth quakes have been due to faulty building construction or poor building sites. A third and very seriou s factor is panic. When people rush out into narrow streets, more deaths will result.The United Nations has played an important part in reducing the damage done by earthquakes. It has sent a team of experts to all countries known to be affected by earthquakes. Working with local geologists and engineers, the experts have studied the nature of the ground and the type of m ost practical building code for the local area. If followed, these suggestions will make disastrous ear thquakes almost a thing of the past.There is one type of earthquake disaster that little can be done about. This is the disaster caus ed by seismic sea waves, or tsunamis. (These are often called tidal waves, but the name is incorrec t. They have nothing to do with tides.) In certain areas, earthquakes take place beneath the sea. Th ese submarine earthquakes sometimes give rise to seismic sea waves. The waves are not noticeable out at sea because of their long wave length. But when they roll into harbors, they pile up into waIls of water 6 to 60 feet high. The Japanese call them "tsunamis", meaning "harbor waves", becaus e theyreach a sizable height only in harbors.Tsunamis travel fairly slowly, at speeds up to 500 miles an hour. An adequate warning system is in use to warn all shores likely to be reached by the waves. But this only enables people to le ave the threatened shores for higher ground. There is no way to stop the oncoming wave.1. Which of the following CANNOT be concluded from the passage?A. The number of earthquakes is closely related to depth.B. Roughly the same number of earthquakes occur each year.C. Earthquakes are impossible at depths over 460 miles.D. Earthquakes are most likely to occur near the surfaces.2. The destruction of Agadir is an example of _________A. faulty building constructionB. an earthquake's strengthC. widespread panic in earthquakesD. in effective in strume nts3. The United Nations' experts are supposed to _______A. con struct stro ng build ingsB. put forward proposalsC. detect disastrous earthquakesD. monitor earthquakes4. The significanee of the slow speed of tsunamis is that people may __________A. notice them out at seaB. find ways to stop themC. be warned early en oughD. develop warning systems参考答案：1〜4 C ABC 1〜5 ADBDC 6〜10 ADBCA。
专业英语八级(听力)练习试卷1(题后含答案及解析)
专业英语八级（听力）练习试卷1(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1. LISTENING COMPREHENSIONPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)SECTION B INTERVIEWDirections: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.Now listen to the interview.听力原文：W: Today I’d like to welcome Edward Fox, a seasoned real estate agent, who is going to talk to us about buying a house. Hello, Edward.M: Hello.W: Now Edward, for most people buying a house is a major life event, and probably the single most expensive item they are ever likely to buy. What precautions do they have to take before a real purchase? Can you give some suggestions?M: You are right in saying buying a house costs a lot. But as to me, the most important thing to consider before buying any property is the location.W: Location?M: Right. Because it is where you plan to spend a large part of your life. Or, indeed, the rest of your life in some circumstances. (1) Therefore, consider the type of life you enjoy leading. If you are a very sociable person who enjoys nightclubs and discos, you may consider something close to a city. Anyway, a city is convenient for all types of nightlife.W: Then, for those who seek a quiet life, do you recommend a house in the countryside?M: Well, countryside is a tranquil place. However, do remember that proximity to the place of work also counts. Indeed, we spend most of our life at work, and you don’t want to have to spend two or more hours every day traveling to work, do you? Therefore, transport is of the utmost importance. (2) City suburbs, however, are often conveniently located for commuting to work, or for shopping, without being in the heart of a busy city.W: But houses in the suburbs are far more expensive than those in cities.M: They seem to be. But actually houses located in cities can often exceed the price of suburban houses. So cheek out the prices. You may be surprised.W: Really?(1) So we should consider our places of work and personalities in choosing the location. Is that so?M: I’m afraid you have to take family into consideration as well. You may prefer a house that is away from a busy street or main road. (1) And, of course, remember that children have to attend school: is there a good school in the area, or would your children have to travel a long distance to get to school? Therefore, if you have children, or you plan to have children, location is a very important factor. And, of course, remember that a family influences the size of the property.W: Oh, I see. How many types of houses can we choose?M: There are various types of houses. The first is called detached houses, which stand alone, and are not joined by another building. (3) Then there are semi-detached houses, which are the most common. This is because they are, in fact, two houses joined together, and therefore take up lessspace. And there are town houses, too, which are many houses joined together to form a hmg row. But don’t think that town houses are less expensive than semi-detached houses. They rarely are. This is because they are usually built in cities where the price of property is very expensive.W: Then what about old houses? (4) They must be cheaper than new ones.M: (4) Maybe they are. But if the house is too old, you may be faced with expensive repairs and renovation bills. So have a house thoroughly checked by a professional surveyer before you decide to buy. But then again there are things you can look for yourself. Things such as the condition of the woodwork, especially doors and windows that can be expensive to replace. But more importantly make sure all the fixtures and fittings, things such as cupboards, sinks, taps and bath tubs arc all in good working order because replacing kitchens and bathrooms can he very costly.W: I agree. It’s economical to buy old houses only when they are in good condition. By the way, a lot of property has a garden attached to it. Do you think it’s a good choice?M: It’s true that a lot of property has a garden. If you enjoy gardening, that’s fine. But if you don’t enjoy gardening then you may prefer a small garden, as opposed to a big one. But even if you do enjoy gardening it is important to remember that gardens take up a lot of your time. (5) So keeping a garden in good order may be veU difficult if you work long hours.W: You are quite right. Any other suggestions?M: One final thing is the general feel of the place. Does it have a good atmosphere? And most important of all, would you feel comfortable living there?W: Edward, I never knew I had to consider so many things while buying a house. Thank you very much for talking with us.M: My pleasure.1．According to Edward, in deciding the location of a house, people should consider all the following EXCEPTA．the type of life they enjoy.B．the price of the house.C．the distance between the house and the place of work.D．the school their children can attend.正确答案：B 涉及知识点：听力2．Which of the following is an ideal place for quiet people to live in?A．City.B．Downtown.C．Countryside.D．Suburb.正确答案：D 涉及知识点：听力3．According to the interview, ______ are the most common type of houses.A．detached housesB．semi-detached housesC．town housesD．old houses正确答案：B 涉及知识点：听力4．What does Edward think of old houses compared to new ones?A．They are definitely cheaper.B．They are too old to live in.C．They may be cheaper but repairs and renovation cost much.D．They need to he checked professionally from time to time.正确答案：C 涉及知识点：听力5．Edward shows ______ when talking about gardens attached to houses.A．disapprovalB．excitementC．uncertaintyD．indifference正确答案：A 涉及知识点：听力SECTION C NEWS BROADCASTDirections: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.听力原文：Foreign pilots are to be drafted into Chinese airlines to relieve the shortage of qualified flyers. CAAC statistics show that about 11, 000 pilots are employed to fly more than 770 aircraft operated by the major Chinese commercial airlines, which industry experts consider as inadequate to cope with the rocketing demand for passenger services. Around 145 new aircraft will be delivered for operation this year in China, and the new planes alone will push aircraft numbers beyond the capacity of training schools to supply new pilots. (6) Industry experts estimate China needs between 1, 200 and 1, 600 new pilots every year since 2000, while the nation’s major training schools for commercial airline pilots can provide a maximum of 600 pilots annually.6．Industry. experts estimate China needs between ______ and ______ new pilots annually since 2000.A．770; 1,200B．1,200; 1,300C．1,200; 1,600D．1,300; 1,600正确答案：C 涉及知识点：听力听力原文：West Aft’lean leaders say they are cautiously in favor of using genetically modified crops. But non-governmental organizations are calling for a five-year moratorium so more research can be done. The issue is being discussed at a U. S. -sponsored conference in Burkina Faso. During the three-day conference, which started Monday, West African leaders said they want assurances that genetically modified products are safe for the people who eat or use them, and for the environment. (7) But the leaders say that in general they believe the genetically modified crops will lead to higher agricultural productivity and therefore should be used. But non-governmental organizations in West Africa remain unconvinced. A protest by non-governmental organization is planned for Wednesday, when the conference ends.7．West African leaders who want assurances believe the genetically modified crops will lead toA．higher financial earnings.B．more genetically modified crops.C．higher agricultural productivity.D．more genetically modified products.正确答案：C 涉及知识点：听力听力原文：China’s automobile revolution is accelerating; (8) despite efforts by the government to slow what many economists believe is an overheating of its economy. China is the fastest growing ear market in the world, and sales next year are expected to climb 20 percent from last year. Meanwhile, the world’s automakers have announced they will launch massive expansion projects in China. In recent months, banks have started to tighten their lending criteria, in part a response to what analysts say are the government’s efforts to stop China’s rapidly growing economy from overheating, but ear sales are skyrocketing, with many Chinese using their savings to purchase new cars.8．Many economists believe that the fast-paced growth of car market in China is A．a proof of abundance.B．an overheating of its economy.C．an attraction of investment.D．a result of foreign expansion projects.正确答案：B 涉及知识点：听力听力原文：(9) A 12-storey building has collapsed in the Egyptian capitalCairo after a fire in the lower floors. A number of people are trapped in the wreckage and about 30 people were injured. The fire broke out in the ground floor of the 12-storey building in the modern suburb of Cairo. Police officials say it started in a fast food restaurant or possibly in an adjacent home appliances shop. Hundreds of residents lived in the apartment block. They were able to leave before the building collapsed 3 hours after the fire started. (10) Policemen and firemen, however, were trapped when the upper floors came crashing down. Working under floodlights, their colleagues have been battling to free them from the rabble. The governor of Cairn said the collapsed building had planning permission for 4 floors only. But at least 7 other floors were added on illegally.9．The fire broke out in ______ of the 12-storey building.A．the ground floorB．the second floorC．the fourth floorD．the seventh floor正确答案：A 涉及知识点：听力10．Who were the majority in the people trapped in the wreekage?A．Residents nearby.B．Clients in the fast-food restaurant.C．Shoppers.D．Policemen and firemen.正确答案：D 涉及知识点：听力。
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。
专业英语八级考题试卷及答案
专业英语八级考题试卷及答案PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.Writing a Research PaperI. Research Papers and Ordinary EssayA. Similarity in (1) __________:e.g. —choosing a topic—asking questions—identifying the audienceB. Difference mainly in terms of (2) ___________1. research papers: printed sources2. ordinary essay: ideas in one's (3) ___________II. Types and Characteristics of Research PapersA. Number of basic types: twoB. Characteristics:1. survey-type paper:—to gather (4) ___________—to quote—to (5) _____________The writer should be (6) ___________.2. argumentative (research) paper:a. The writer should do more, e.g.—to interpret—to question, etc.b. (7) _________varies with the topic, e.g.—to recommend an action, etc.III. How to Choose a Topic for a Research PaperIn choosing a topic, it is important to (8) __________.Question No. 1: your familiarity with the topicQuestion No. 2: Availability of relevant information on the chosen topic Question No. 3: Narrowing the topic down to (9) _________Question No. 4: Asking questions about (10) ___________The questions help us to work out way into the topic and discover its possibilities. SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet.Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.Now listen to the interview.1. What is the purpose of Professor McKay's report?A. To look into the mental health of old people.B. To explain why people have negative views on old age.C. To help correct some false beliefs about old age.D. To identify the various problems of old age2. Which of the following is NOT Professor McKay's view?A. People change in old age a lot more than at the age of 21.B. There are as many sick people in old age as in middle age.C. We should not expect more physical illness among old people.D. We should not expect to find old people unattractive as a group.3. According to Professor McKay's report,A. family love is gradually disappearing.B. it is hard to comment on family feeling.C. more children are indifferent to their parents.D. family love remains as strong as ever.4. Professor McKay is ________ towards the tendency of more parents living apart from their children.A. negativeB. positiveC. ambiguousD. neutral5. The only popular belief that Professor McKay is unable to provide evidence against isA. old-age sickness.B. loose family ties.C. poor mental abilities.D. difficulities in maths.SECTION C NEWS BROADCASTIn this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet.Question 6 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.6. Scientists in Brazil have used frog skin toA. eliminate bacteria.B. treat burns.C. Speed up recovery.D. reduce treatment cost.Question 7 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.7. What is NOT a feature of the new karaoke machine?A. It is featured by high technology.B. It allows you to imitate famous singers.C. It can automatically alter the tempo and tone of a song.D. It can be placed in specially designed theme rooms.Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.8. China's Internet users had reached _________ by the end of June.A. 68 millionB. 8.9 millionC. 10 millionD. 1.5 millionQuestion 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.9. According to the WTO, Chinese exports rose _________ last year.A. 21%B. 10%C. 22%D. 4.7310. According to the news, which trading nation in the top 10 has reported a 5 per cent fall in exports?A. The UK.B. The US.C. Japan.D. Germany.PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)TEXT AI remember meeting him one evening with his pushcart. I had managed to sell all my papers and was coming home in the snow. It was that strange hour in downtown New York when the workers were pouring homeward in the twilight. I marched among thousands of tired men and women whom the factory whistles had unyoked. They flowed in rivers through the clothing factory districts, then down along the avenues to the East Side.I met my father near Cooper Union. I recognized him, a hunched, frozen figure in an old overcoat standing by a banana cart. He looked so lonely, the tears came to my eyes. Then he saw me, and his face lit with his sad, beautiful smile -Charlie Chaplin's smile."Arch, it's Mikey," he said. "So you have sold your papers! Come and eat a banana." He offered me one. I refused it. I felt it crucial that my father sell his bananas, not give them away. He thought I was shy, and coaxed and joked with me, and made me eat the banana. It smelled of wet straw and snow."You haven't sold many bananas today, pop," I said anxiously.He shrugged his shoulders."What can I do? No one seems to want them."It was true. The work crowds pushed home morosely over the pavements. The rusty skydarkened over New York building, the tall street lamps were lit, innumerable trucks, street cars and elevated trains clattered by. Nobody and nothing in the great city stopped for my father's bananas."I ought to yell," said my father dolefully. "I ought to make a big noise like other peddlers, but it makes my throat sore. Anyway, I'm ashamed of yelling, it makes me feel like a fool. "I had eaten one of his bananas. My sick conscience told me that I ought to pay for it somehow. I must remain here and help my father."I'll yell for you, pop," I volunteered."Arch, no," he said, "go home; you have worked enough today. Just tell momma I'll be late."But I yelled and yelled. My father, standing by, spoke occasional words of praise, and said I was a wonderful yeller. Nobody else paid attention. The workers drifted past us wearily, endlessly; a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home. Elevated trains crashed; the Cooper Union clock burned above us; the sky grew black, the wind poured, the slush burned through our shoes. There were thousands of strange, silent figures pouring over the sidewalks in snow. None of them stopped to buy bananas.I yelled and yelled, nobody listened.My father tried to stop me at last. "Nu," he said smiling to console me, "that was wonderful yelling. Mikey. But it's plain we are unlucky today! Let's go home."I was frantic, and almost in tears. I insisted on keeping up my desperate yells. But at last my father persuaded me to leave with him.11. "unyoked" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning toA. sent outB. releasedC. dispatchedD. removed12. Which of the following in the first paragraph does NOT indicated crowds of people?A.Thousands ofB. FlowedC. PouringD. Unyoked13. Which of the following is intended to be a pair of contrast in the passage?A. Huge crowds and lonely individuals.B. Weather conditions and street lamps.C. Clattering trains and peddlers' yells.D. Moving crowds and street traffic.14. Which of the following words is NOT suitable to describe the character of the son?A. CompassionateB. ResponsibleC. ShyD. Determined15. What is the theme of the story?A. The misery of the factory workers.B. How to survive in a harsh environment.C. Generation gap between the father and the son.D. Love between the father and the son.16. What is the author's attitude towards the father and the son?A. IndifferentB. SympatheticC. AppreciativeD. Difficult to tellTEXT B提示：原文出自美国时代杂志（TIME）日期Jan. 29, 2001文章标题No Fall Insurance 作者AN K. SMITH, M.D.When former President Ronald Reagan fell and broke his hip two weeks ago, he joined a group of more than 350,000 elderly Americans who fracture their hips each year. At 89 and suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease, Reagan is in one of the highest-risk groups for this type of accident. The incidence of hip fractures not only increases after age 50 but doubles every five to six years as the risk of falling increases. Slipping and tumbling are not the only causes of hip fractures; weakened bones sometimes break spontaneously. But falling is the major cause, representing 90% of all hip fractures. These... ...17. The following are all specific measures to guard against injuries with the EXCEPTION ofA. removal of throw rugs.B. easy access to devicesC. installation of grab barsD. re-arrangement of furniture18. In which paragraph does the author state his purpose of writing?A. The third paragraphB. The first paragraphC. The last paragraphD. The last but one paragraph19. The main purpose of the passage is toA. offer advice on how to prevent hip fracturesB. emphasize the importance of health precautionsC. discuss the seriousness of hip fractures.D. identify the causes of hip fractures.TEXT C提示：原文同专八英译汉翻译试题相同In his classic novel, "The Pioneers", James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, take his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a teeming metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest. "Where are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?" she asks. He's astonished she can't see them. "Where! Everywhere," he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has builtthem in his mind, and they as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished.Cooper was illustrating a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, "Life for the American is always becoming, never being."... ...20. The third paragraph examines America's future-mindedness from the _________ perspective.A. futureB. realisticC. historicalD. present21. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT brought about by future-mindedness?A. Economic stagnationB. Environmental destructionC. High divorce ratesD. Neglect of history22. The word "pooh-pooh" in the sixth paragraph meansA. appreciateB. praiseC. shunD. ridicule23. According to the passage, people at present can forecast ________ of a new round of future-mindedness.A. the natureB. the locationC. the varietyD. the features24. The author predicts in the last paragraph that the study of future-mindedness will focus onA. how it comes into beingB. how it functionsC. what it brings aboutD. what it is related to.TEXT D25. The phrase "men's sureness of their sex role" in the first paragraph suggests that theyA. are confident in their ability to charm women.B. take the initiative in courtship.C. have a clear idea of what is considered "manly".D. tend to be more immoral than women are.26. The third paragraph does NOT claim that menA. prevent women from taking up certain professions.B. secretly admire women's intellect and resolution.C. doubt whether women really mean to succeed in business.D. forbid women to join certain clubs and societies.27. The third paragraphA. generally agrees with the first paragraphB. has no connection with the first paragraphC. repeats the argument of the second paragraphD. contradicts the last paragraph28. At the end of the last paragraph the author uses humorous exaggeration in order toA. show that men are stronger than womenB. carry further the ideas of the earliest paragraphsC. support the first sentence of the same paragraphD. disown the ideas he is expressing29. The usual idea of the cave man in the last paragraphA. is based on the study of archaeologyB. illustrates how people expect men to behaveC. is dismissed by the author as an irrelevant jokeD. proves that the man, not woman, should be the wooer30. The opening quotation from Margaret Mead sums up a relationship between man and woman which the authorA. approves ofB. argues is naturalC. completely rejectsD. expects to go on changingPART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)31. ______ is the capital city of Canada.A. VancouverB. OttawaC. MontrealD. York32. U.S. presidents normally serves a (an) _________term.A. two-yearB. four-yearC. six-yearD. eight-year33. Which of the following cities is NOT located in the Northeast, U.S.?A. Huston.B. Boston.C. Baltimore.D. Philadelphia.34. ________ is the state church in England.A. The Roman Catholic Church.B. The Baptist ChurchC. The Protestant ChurchD. The Church of England注：The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion.35. The novel Emma is written byA. Mary Shelley.B. Charlotte Brontë.C. Elizabeth C. Gaskell.D. Jane Austen.36. Which of following is NOT a romantic poet?A. William Wordsworth.B. George Elliot.C. George G. Byron.D. Percy B. Shelley.37. William Sidney Porter, known as O. Henry, is most famous forA. his poems.B. his plays.C. his short stories.D. his novels注：O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910), He was famous for his short stories and a master of the surprise ending, O. Henry is remembered best for such enduring favorites as "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief." The combination of humor and sentiment found in his stories is the basis of their universal appeal.38. Syntax is the study ofA. language functions.B. sentence structures.C. textual organization.D. word formation.注：Definition of Syntax:a. The study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences.b. A publication, such as a book, that presents such rules.c. The pattern of formation of sentences or phrases in a language.d. Such a pattern in a particular sentence or discourse.39. Which of the following is NOT a distinctive feature of human language?A. Arbitrariness. 任意性B. Productivity. 丰富性C. Cultural transmission. 文化传播性D. Finiteness. 局限性？注：design feature: features that define our human languages,such as arbitrariness,duality,creativity,displacement,cultural transmission,etc.相关内容请点击查看：胡壮麟《语言学教程》课后答案40. The speech act theory was first put forward byA. John Searle.B. John Austin.C. Noam Chomsky.D. M.A.K. Halliday.注：John Langshaw Austin (March 28, 1911 - February 8, 1960) was a philosopher of language, who developed much of the current theory of speech acts. He was born in Lancaster and educated at Balliol College, Oxford. After serving in MI6 during World War II, Austin became White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. He occupies a place in the British philosophy of language alongside Wittgenstein in staunchly advocating the examination of the way words are used in order to elucidate meaning. 【改错】The University as BusinessA number of colleges and universities have announced steeptuition increases for next year much steeper than the current,very low, rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed becauseof a loss in value of university endowments' heavily investing in common ___1 stock. I am skeptical. A business firm chooses the price that maximizesits net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in income; and increasingly the ___2 outlook of universities in the United States is indistinguishable from those of ___3 business firms. The rise in tuitions mayreflect the fact economic uncertainty ___4 increases the demand for education. The biggest cost of beingin the school is foregoing income from a job (this isprimarily a factor in ___5 graduate and professional-school tuition); the poor one' s job prospects, ___6 the more sense it makes to reallocate time from the job market to education,in order to make oneself more marketable. The ways which universities make themselves attractive to students ___7include soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, giving studentsa governance role, and eliminate required courses. ___8Sky-high tuitions have caused universities to regard their students as customers. Just as business firms sometimes collude to shorten the ___9rigors of competition, universities collude to minimize the cost to them of the athletes whom they recruit in order to stimulate alumni donations, so the best athletes now often bypass higher education in order to obtain salaries earlier from professional teams. And until they were stopped by the antitrust authorities, the Ivy League schools colluded to limit competition for the best students, by agreeing not to award scholarships on the basis of merit rather than purelyof need-just like business firms agreeing not to give discounts on their best ___10 customer.PART V TRANSLATION （60 MIN）提示：今年专八翻译部分的选材均出自《散文佳作108篇(汉英•英汉对照)》作者：乔萍翟淑蓉宋洪玮，建议大家熟读此书。
专八真题听力原文及答案解析
专八真题听力原文及答案解析听力是英语考试中的重要组成部分，对于提高听力能力以及提高考试得分有着至关重要的作用。
准备专八考试的考生不可忽视掌握的重要性。
本文将为大家提供一些专八真题听力原文及答案的解析，希望能够给大家带来帮助。
1. 学术演讲：原文：The speaker discusses the development of modern science and how it has changed our lives. He mentionsdifferent areas of scientific research and technological advancements that have had significant impacts on society. He highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaborationin solving complex problems and encourages young scientiststo pursue their passion for discovery.答案解析：这篇学术演讲讨论的是现代科学的发展以及它对我们生活的影响。
演讲者提到了不同的科学研究领域和技术进步对社会产生的重大影响。
他强调了跨学科的合作在解决复杂问题中的重要性，并鼓励年轻科学家追求他们对探索的热情。
2. 新闻报道：原文：The news report covers the recent increase in carbon emissions and its impact on global climate change. It discusses the various sources of carbon emissions, includingindustrial activities, transportation, and deforestation. The report also mentions the efforts being made by governments and organizations to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable practices.答案解析：这则新闻报道涵盖了最近碳排放量的增加以及它对全球气候变化的影响。
英语8级试题及答案详解
英语8级试题及答案详解一、听力理解（共20分）1. 根据所听对话，选择正确答案。
A. He is going to the library.B. He is going to the bookstore.C. He is going to the cinema.D. He is going to the museum.【答案】B2. What is the woman's suggestion?A. To take a taxi.B. To take the bus.C. To walk.D. To wait for the next train.【答案】A3. What is the man's opinion about the restaurant?A. The food is delicious but expensive.B. The service is poor.C. The atmosphere is great.D. The location is convenient.【答案】A4. When does the next bus leave?A. At 9:00 a.m.B. At 9:30 a.m.C. At 10:00 a.m.D. At 10:30 a.m.【答案】C5. Why is the woman upset?A. She lost her keys.B. She missed her bus.C. She broke her phone.D. She forgot her appointment.【答案】B二、阅读理解（共30分）1. According to the passage, what is the main reason for the increase in obesity?A. Lack of exercise.B. Unhealthy diets.C. Genetic factors.D. Environmental changes.【答案】B2. What does the author suggest as a solution to the problem of obesity?A. Government intervention.B. Individual responsibility.C. Community programs.D. Medical treatments.【答案】A3. What is the purpose of the study mentioned in the passage?A. To identify the causes of obesity.B. To evaluate the effectiveness of a diet.C. To compare different weight loss methods.D. To examine the relationship between diet and health.【答案】D4. How does the author describe the current situationregarding obesity?A. Alarming.B. Encouraging.C. Stable.D. Controversial.【答案】A5. What is the author's attitude towards the issue of obesity?A. Optimistic.B. Pessimistic.C. Neutral.D. Critical.【答案】D三、完形填空（共20分）1. The word "spectacular" in the context of the passage most closely means:A. Extraordinary.B. Common.C. Boring.D. Disappointing.【答案】A2. The author uses the phrase "on the horizon" to indicate:A. Something that is about to happen.B. Something that is far away.C. Something that is uncertain.D. Something that is impossible.【答案】A3. The word "innovative" is used to describe something that is:A. Traditional.B. Conservative.C. New and original.D. Old-fashioned.【答案】C4. The phrase "a leap of faith" suggests that the decision to invest was:A. Well-researched.B. Risky and uncertain.C. Based on experience.D. Unnecessary.【答案】B5. The word "compromise" in this context implies:A. A conflict.B. A resolution.C. A disagreement.D. An agreement.【答案】D四、翻译（共20分）1. 将下列句子从中文翻译成英文：“随着科技的发展，我们的生活变得越来越便捷。
英语专八作文真题及答案
英语专八作文真题及答案English: With the increasing globalization of the world, it is becoming more and more important for individuals to have a good command of English. English has become the lingua franca of the business world, and proficiency in English can greatly enhance one's career prospects. Furthermore, English is also the dominant language of communication in various fields such as science, technology, and academia, making it essential for individuals to be proficient in English in order to stay relevant and competitive in today's globalized world. Therefore, mastering English not only opens up a vast array of opportunities but also allows individuals to connect with people from different cultural backgrounds and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them.中文翻译: 随着世界日益全球化，个人具备良好的英语掌握能力变得越来越重要。
英语专八完整试题及答案
英语专八完整试题及答案一、听力理解（Part I Listening Comprehension）Section A: Mini-Lecture1. The speaker mentioned several benefits of learning a second language. What are they?- A. Improved cognitive abilities- B. Enhanced job prospects- C. Increased cultural understanding- D. All of the above2. According to the lecture, what is the most challenging aspect of learning a new language?- A. Vocabulary acquisition- B. Grammar rules- C. Pronunciation- D. Cultural nuancesSection B: Interview3. What is the main topic of the interview?- A. The impact of technology on education- B. The role of arts in society- C. The importance of environmental conservation- D. The future of space exploration4. What does the interviewee suggest as a solution to thediscussed issue?- A. Government intervention- B. Public awareness campaigns- C. International collaboration- D. Technological innovation二、阅读理解（Part II Reading Comprehension）Passage 15. What is the main idea of the passage?- A. The history of the English language- B. The evolution of English literature- C. The influence of English on global communication- D. The development of English as a global lingua franca6. The author uses which of the following to support their argument?- A. Historical events- B. Personal anecdotes- C. Scientific studies- D. Survey resultsPassage 27. What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?- A. To persuade readers to adopt a healthier lifestyle- B. To inform readers about the latest health trends- C. To critique the current state of healthcare- D. To provide a comprehensive review of a health-related topic8. What is the author's stance on the topic discussed?- A. Skeptical- B. Supportive- C. Neutral- D. Critical三、语言知识（Part III Language Knowledge）9. Which of the following is the correct form of the verb "to be" in the past tense for the third person singular?- A. am- B. is- C. are- D. was10. The word "irrespective" is closest in meaning to:- A. regardless- B. respective- C. perspective- D. prospective四、翻译（Part IV Translation）Section A: English to Chinese11. Translate the following sentence into Chinese:- "The rapid development of technology has brought about significant changes in our daily lives."Section B: Chinese to English12. Translate the following sentence into English:- "随着全球化的不断深入，跨文化交流变得越来越重要。
专业英语八级(翻译)历年真题试卷汇编2(题后含答案及解析)
专业英语八级（翻译）历年真题试卷汇编2(题后含答案及解析) 题型有： 4. TRANSLATIONPART IV TRANSLATION1．“流逝”表现了南国人对时间最早的感觉。
“子在川上曰：逝者如斯夫。
”他们发现无论是潺潺小溪，还是浩荡大河，都一去不复返，流逝之际青年变成了老翁而绿草转眼就枯黄，很自然有惜阴的紧迫感。
流逝也许是缓慢的，但无论如何缓慢，对流逝的恐惧使人们必须用“流逝”这个词来时时警戒后人，必须急匆匆地行动，给这个词灌注一种紧张感。
正确答案：They realized either the flowing stream or mighty rivers are gone forever. They found that as time passed by, youngsters would become old and the green grass wither in almost a blink of an eye. A sense of urgency naturally arose over the elusiveness of time. Time might flow slowly, but no matter how slowly time flowed, the very fear of its transiency compelled people to use the word “passage” to warn the new generations of the necessity of taking prompt action; thus instilling the word with a sense of tension.解析：背景介绍文章选自当代著名作家韩少功1996年出版的《马桥词典》。
这是一部长篇小说，但以词条为引子，讲述了古往今来引人入胜的故事，更像是一部百科全书。
专业英语八级考试全真试卷参考答案
专业英语八级考试全真试卷参考答案听力原文PART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSIONSECTION A TALKThe World Bank is one of the major channels through which development aid i s passed from industrial west to the poor and developing nations of the world. I ts scale of operations is vast, which is why its lending program exceeds 7 billi on a year, and its work force numbers about 4500. In the last decade important c hanges have taken place in the size of the bank’s operations and in the emphasi s of its lending policies. What immediately strikes anyone looking at the lending figures over the last 10 years is the tremendous expansion in the bank’s loan p rogram. This has increased from 1 billion to nearly 7 billion. The figure includ es hard loans, which are made at the current rate of interest, and soft loans, w hich are allocated to poor countries at concessionary rates, and usually channel led through the bank’s affiliate—the International Development Association.In deciding the emphasis of its lending policy, the bank has had to take i nto account the population explosion which is occuring in many poor countries of the world. It is a fact that the fertility rate of the poor countries is often very high. This is one of the main reasons for these countries remaining poor. U nfortunately, wide-ranging country sectionprograms do not usually reduce this r ate because this was a strong and deeply rooted tradition among people in these countries to have big families. What the bank discovered was that there was a li nk between economic and social development on the one hand, and reduction of fer tility rate on the other. Thus by improving basic health services, by introducin g better nutrition, by increasing literacy, and by promoting more even income di stribution in a poor country, a lower and more acceptable fertility rate will be achieved. This advanced thinking persuaded the bank to change its overall lend ing strategy,(略,内容不完整，给你带来的困扰请见谅．)PAPER ONEPART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSIONSECTION A TALK答案：A【问句译文】世界银行运行系统变大系统的变化指的是什么？【试题分析】本题为细节题。
专业英语八级阅读理解专项强化真题试卷2(题后含答案及解析)
专业英语八级阅读理解专项强化真题试卷2(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.(1)You should treat skeptically the loud cries now coming from colleges and universities that the last bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is, higher education is not a bastion of excellence. It is shot through with waste, lax academic standards and mediocre teaching and scholarship. (2)True, the economic pressures—from the Ivy League to state systems—are intense. Last year, nearly two-thirds of schools had to make midyear spending cuts to stay within their budgets. It is also true(as university presidents and deans argue)that relieving those pressures merely by raising tuition and cutting courses will make matters worse. Students will pay more and get less. The university presidents and deans want to be spared from further government budget cuts. Their case is weak. (3)Higher education is a bloated enterprise. Too many professors do too little teaching to too many ill-prepared students. Costs can be cut and quality improved without reducing the number of graduates. Many colleges and universities should shrink. Some should go out of business. Consider: Except for elite schools, admission standards are low. About 70 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges and universities attend their first-choice schools. Roughly 20 percent go to their second choices. Most schools have eagerly boosted enrollments to maximize revenues(tuition and state subsidies). Dropout rates are high. Half or more of freshmen don’t get degrees. A recent study of PhD programs at 10 major universities also found high dropout rates for doctoral candidates. The attrition among undergraduates is particularly surprising because college standards have apparently fallen. One study of seven top schools found widespread grade inflation. In 1963 , half of the students in introductory philosophy courses got a B—or worse. By 1986, only 20 percent did. If elite schools have relaxed standards, the practice is almost surely widespread. Faculty teaching loads have fallen steadily since the 1960s. In major universities, senior faculty members often do less than two hours a day of teaching. Professors are “socialized to publish, teach graduate students and spend as little time teaching(undergraduates)as possible,”concludes James Fairweather of Penn State University in a new study. Faculty pay consistently rises as undergraduate teaching loads drop. Universities have encouraged an almost mindless explosion of graduate degrees. Since 1960, the number of masters’degrees awarded annually has risen more than fourfold to 337 ,000. Between 1965 and 1989, the annual number of MBAs(masters in business administration)jumped from 7,600 to 73,100. (4)Even so, our system has strengths. It boasts many top-notch schools and allows almost anyone to go to college. But mediocrity is pervasive. We push as many freshmen as possible through the door, regardless of qualifications. Because bachelors’degrees are so common, we create more graduate degrees of dubious worth. Does anyone believe the MBA explosionhas improved management? (5)You won’t hear much about this from college deans or university presidents. They created this mess and are its biggest beneficiaries. Large enrollments support large faculties. More graduate students liberate tenured faculty from undergraduate teaching to concentrate on writing and research: the source of status. Richard Huber, a former college dean, writes knowingly in a new book “How Professors Play the Cat Guarding the Cream: Why We’re Paying More and Getting Less in Higher Education” : Presidents, deans and trustees...call for more recognition of good teaching with prizes and salary incentives. (6)The reality is closer to the experience of Harvard University’s distinguished paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould: “To be perfectly honest, though lip service is given to teaching, I have never seriously heard teaching considered in any meeting for promotion. .. Writing is the currency of prestige and promotion. “(7)About four-fifths of all students attend state-subsidized systems, from community colleges to prestige universities. How governors and state legislatures deal with their budget pressures will be decisive. Private schools will, for better or worse, be influenced by state actions. The states need to do three things. (8)First, create genuine entrance requirements. Today’s low standards tell high school students: You don’t have to work hard to go to college. States should change the message by raising tuition sharply and coupling the increase with generous scholarships based on merit and income. To get scholarships, students would have to pass meaningful entrance exams. Ideally, the scholarships should be available for use at instate private schools. All schools would then compete for students on the basis of academic quality and costs. Today’s system of general tuition subsidies provides aid to well-to-do families that don’t need it or to unqualified students who don’t deserve it. (9)Next, states should raise faculty teaching loads, mainly at four-year schools.(Teaching loads at community colleges are already high.)This would cut costs and reemphasize the primacy of teaching at most schools. What we need are teachers who know their fields and can communicate enthusiasm to students. Not all professors can be path-breaking scholars. The excessive emphasis on scholarship generates many unread books and mediocre articles in academic journals. “You can’t do more of one(research)without less of the other(teaching),”says Fairweather. “People are working hard—it’s just where they’re working. “(10)Finally, states should reduce or eliminate the least useful graduate programs. Journalism(now dubbed “communications”), business and education are prime candidates. A lot of what they teach can—and should—be learned on the job. If colleges and universities did a better job of teaching undergraduates, there would be less need for graduate degrees. (11)Our colleges and universities need to provide a better education to deserving students. This may mean smaller enrollments, but given today’s attrition rates, the number of graduates need not drop. Higher education could become a bastion of excellence, if we would only try.1．It can be concluded from Para. 3 that the author was______towards higher education.A．indifferentB．neutralC．positiveD．negative正确答案：D解析：推理判断题。
专业英语八级听力-试卷195_真题(含答案与解析)-交互
专业英语八级（听力）-试卷195(总分120, 做题时间90分钟)1. LISTENING COMPREHENSIONPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSIONSECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to themini-lecture, **plete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE andwrite 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 secondsto preview the gap-filling task.What Are the Functions of Art?I. Context of functions— ArtistWhere and when His or her【T1】_____【T1】______— Viewer What makes sense to youII. Physical functions— to perform some【T2】_____【T2】______— Examples: 【T3】_____【T3】______ Japanese rakubowl 【T4】_____【T4】______ Crafts and industrial designIII. Social functions— Address aspects of collective life e.g. publicart in 1930s in Germany and allied countries—【T5】_____【T5】______ not merely to entertain to【T6】_____【T6】______ to improveour collective existence— Artistic forms that have social functions Political artA【T7】_____ Dada teacup: to protest World War I【T7】______ Art that depicts【T8】_____ conditions【T8】______Realistsand photographers SatireTo ridicule and to【T9】_____【T9】______To stop what is happening Fascination with grotesqueIV.【T10】_____【T10】______— To Artists To【T11】_____【T11】______ Tofeel gratified Provide a(n)【T12】_____【T12】______ Toentertain To be meaningless Exert control of time or season Exert control of acquisition of food Bring order Create chaos Therapeutic 【T13】_____ service【T13】______ Maintainingourselves as a(n)【T14】_____【T14】______— To Viewers What have been described【T15】_____viewers as well【T15】______SSS_FILL1.【T1】分值: 2答案:正确答案：thoughts解析：空格待填的内容对应的是讲座中出现的一个例子。
(完整版)英语专业八级阅读及参考答案
Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth's surface. But earthquakes can and d o occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their number decreases as the depth increases. At about 460 miles one earthquake occurs only every few years. Near the surface earthquakes may run as hi gh as 100 in a month, but the yearly average does not vary much. In comparison with the total nu mber of earthquakes each year, the number of disastrous earthquakes is very small.The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a t oy house with an erect set, it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthqua ke in Agadir, Morocco, was not strong enough to be recorded on distant instruments, but it comple tely destroyed the city. Many stronger earthquakes have done comparatively little damage. If a build ing is well constructed and built on solid ground, it will resist an earthquake. Most deaths in earth quakes have been due to faulty building construction or poor building sites. A third and very seriou s factor is panic. When people rush out into narrow streets, more deaths will result.The United Nations has played an important part in reducing the damage done by earthquakes. It has sent a team of experts to all countries known to be affected by earthquakes. Working with local geologists and engineers, the experts have studied the nature of the ground and the type of m ost practical building code for the local area. If followed, these suggestions will make disastrous ear thquakes almost a thing of the past.There is one type of earthquake disaster that little can be done about. This is the disaster caus ed by seismic sea waves, or tsunamis. (These are often called tidal waves, but the name is incorrec t. They have nothing to do with tides.) In certain areas, earthquakes take place beneath the sea. Th ese submarine earthquakes sometimes give rise to seismic sea waves. The waves are not noticeable out at sea because of their long wave length. But when they roll into harbors, they pile up into walls of water 6 to 60 feet high. The Japanese call them "tsunamis", meaning "harbor waves", becaus e they reach a sizable height only in harbors.Tsunamis travel fairly slowly, at speeds up to 500 miles an hour. An adequate warning system is in use to warn all shores likely to be reached by the waves. But this only enables people to le ave the threatened shores for higher ground. There is no way to stop the oncoming wave.1. Which of the following CANNOT be concluded from the passage?A. The number of earthquakes is closely related to depth.B. Roughly the same number of earthquakes occur each year.C. Earthquakes are impossible at depths over 460 miles.D. Earthquakes are most likely to occur near the surfaces.2. The destruction of Agadir is an example of ______.A. faulty building constructionB. an earthquake's strengthC. widespread panic in earthquakesD. ineffective instruments3. The United Nations' experts are supposed to______.A. construct strong buildingsB. put forward proposalsC. detect disastrous earthquakesD. monitor earthquakes4. The significance of the slow speed of tsunamis is that people may______.A. notice them out at seaB. find ways to stop themC. be warned early enoughD. develop warning systems参考答案：1~4 C A B C 1~5 ADBDC 6~10 ADBCA。
英语专业8级试题及答案
英语专业8级试题及答案一、听力理解（共20分）1. 根据所听内容，选择正确的答案。
A. 选项AB. 选项BC. 选项CD. 选项D[听力材料][问题][答案] B2. 根据对话内容，回答以下问题。
A. 问题1B. 问题2[听力材料][答案]A. 问题1的答案B. 问题2的答案二、阅读理解（共30分）1. 阅读以下文章，回答后面的问题。
[文章内容]A. 问题1B. 问题2A. 问题1的答案B. 问题2的答案2. 阅读第二篇文章，并完成以下任务。
[文章内容]A. 问题1B. 问题2[答案]A. 问题1的答案B. 问题2的答案三、词汇与语法（共20分）1. 选择适当的词汇填空。
[例句] The _______ of the building is impressive.A. scaleB. skillC. speedD. spirit[答案] A2. 根据语法规则，选择正确的选项。
[例句] _______ he is very young, he is very knowledgeable.A. ThoughB. SinceC. BecauseD. Unless四、翻译（共20分）1. 将以下句子从英语翻译成中文。
[英文句子][答案] [中文翻译]2. 将以下句子从中文翻译成英语。
[中文句子][答案] [英文翻译]五、写作（共10分）根据以下提示写一篇不少于200词的短文。
[写作提示][范文][评分标准]请注意：以上内容仅为试题及答案的排版格式示例，具体题目和答案需要根据实际考试内容进行填充。
2024年英语专八真题及参考答案
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS(2024)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT: 150MINLISTENING COMPREHENSION PART ISECTION A (25MIN)MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture.You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY.While listening to the mini-lecture,complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure what you fill in is 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 TWO interviews.At the end of each interview,five questions will be asked about what was said.Both the interviews and the questions will be read 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 ANSWER SHEET TWO.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the choices.Now,listen to the first interview.Questions1to5are based on the first interview1. A.It is more demanding.C.It is too theoretical.2. A.It is more memorable.C.It is limited to the time of writing.3. A.Readership. B.It is quite relaxing.D.It is more aesthetic.B.It focuses on aesthetic issues.D.It has different themes and subjects.B.Viewpoint.D.Theme.B.Minor novels.D.Novels of CentralC.Purpose.4. A.Gothic novels.Europe.C.Science fiction.5. A.There will still be a few options.B.Confusion will continue among readers.C.Novels will certainly become a rarity.D.People will go on buying literary books.Now,listen to the second interview.Questions6to10are based on the second interview.6. A.Three feet.C.Six inches.7. A.Number of satellites. B.Eight inches.D.Six feetB.Height of ice surface.D.Gravity in Antarctica.B.Changes in height. D.Increase inC.Amount of snowfall.8. A.Decrease in ice sheet.snowfall.C.Changes in gravitational pull.9. A.Eliminating carbon in the atmosphere.B.Reducing climate pollution emissions.C.Continuing height measurement.D.Producing more accurate predictions.10.A.Climate change and its consequences.B.Effects of climate change on coastal areas.C.New findings from satellite data.D.Proposals to slow down climate change.PART II READING COMPREHENSION(45MIN) SECTION A MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONSIn this section there are three passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions.For each multiple choice question,there are four suggested answers marked A,B,C and D.Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.PASSAGE ONE(1)If the properties of human language make it such a unique communication system,quite different from the communication systems of other creatures,then it would seem extremely unlikely that other creatures would be able to understand it.Some humans,however,do not behave as if this is the case.There is,after all,a lot of spoken language directed by humans to animals,apparently under the impression that the animal follows what is being said. Riders can say Whoa to horses and they stop.Should we treat these examples as evidence that non-humans can understand human language?Probably not.The standard explanation is that the animal produces a particular behavior in response to a particular sound-stimulus or noise,but does not actually“understand”what the words in the noise mean.(2)In an early attempt to teach a chimpanzee to use human language,in the1930s,two scientists(Luella and Winthrop Kellogg)raised an infant chimpanzee together with their baby son.The chimpanzee,called Gua,was reported to be able to understand about a hundred words,but did not“say”any of them.In the1940s,a chimpanzee named Viki was reared by another scientist couple(Catherine and Keith Hayes)in their own home,exactly as if she were a human child.These foster parents spent five years attempting to get Viki to“say”English words by trying to shape her mouth as she produced sounds.Viki eventually managed to produce some words,rather poorly articulated versions of“mama”,“papa”and“cup”.In retrospect,this was a remarkable achievement since it has become clear that non-human primates do not actually have a physically structured vocal tract which is suitable for articulating the sounds used in speech.(3)Recognizing that a chimpanzee was a poor candidate for spoken language learning,another scientist couple (Beatrix and Allen Gardner)set out to teach a female chimpanzee called Washoe to use a version of American Sign Language.This sign language has all the essential properties of human language and is learned by many congenitally deaf children as their natural first language.From the beginning,the Gardner’s and their research assistants raised Washoe like a human child in a comfortable domestic environment.Sign language was always used when Washoe was around and she was encouraged to use signs.In a period of three and a half years,Washoe came to use signs for more than a hundred words.Even more impressive was Washoe’s ability to take these forms and combine them to produce“sentences”of the type“gimme tickle”,“more fruit”and“open food drink”.Some of the forms appear to have been inventions by Washoe,as in her novel sign for“bib”and in the combination“water bird”(referring to a swan),which would seem to indicate that her communication system had the potential for productivity.(4)At the same time as Washoe was learning sign language,another chimpanzee named Sarah was being taught (by Ann and David Premack)to use a set of plastic shapes for the purpose of communicating with humans.These plastic shapes represented“words”that could be arranged in sequence to build“sentences”.The basic approach was quite different from that of the Gardner’s.Sarah was systematically trained to associate these shapes with objects or actions.She remained an animal in a cage,being trained with food rewards to manipulate a set of symbols.Once she had learned to use a large number of these plastic shapes,Sarah was capable of getting an apple by selecting the correct plastic shape(a blue triangle)from a large array.Sarah was also capable of producing“sentences”such as “Mary give chocolate Sarah”and had the impressive capacity to understand complex structures such as“If Sarah put red on green,Mary give Sarah chocolate”.(5)A psychologist Herbert Terrace argued that chimpanzees simply produce signs in response to the demands of people and tend to repeat signs those people use,yet they are treated as if they are taking part in a“conversation”.As in many critical studies of animal learning,the chimpanzees’behavior is viewed as a type of conditioned response to cues provided by human trainers.(6)Important lessons have been learned from attempts to teach chimpanzees how to use forms of language.We have answered some questions.Were Washoe and Sarah capable of taking part in interaction with humans by using asymbol system chosen by humans and not chimpanzees?The answer is clearly“Yes.”Could Washoe and Sarah go on to perform linguistically on a level comparable to a two-year-old child?The answer is just as clearly“No.”In arriving at these answers,we have also had to face the fact that,even with our list of key properties,we still don’t seem to have a non-controversial definition of what counts as“using language”.It has to be fair to say that,in both cases,we observe the participants“using language”.However,there is a difference.Underlying the two-year-old’s communicative activity is the capacity to develop a highly complex system of sounds and structures,plus a set of computational procedures,which will allow the child to produce extended discourse containing a potentially infinite number of novel utterances.No other creature has been observed“using language”in this sense.It is in this more fundamental or abstract sense that we say that language is uniquely human.11.What can we learn from the two attempts in Para.2?A.Being raised with a human child is essential.B.Mouth shaping is crucial in language learning.C.Time length is an important factor in experiments.D.Non-human creatures are different in vocal tracts.12.Which of the following statements about Washoe and Sarah is INCORRECT?A.They were taught in different approaches.B.They were raised in similar environments.C.They were somewhat innovative in expression.D.They were non-human primates for experiments.13.Which of the following is a conditioned response to human cues?A.“Mama”and“cup”(Viki).C.“Water bird”(Washoe).14.What is the topic of the B.“Open food drink”(Washoe).D.“Mary give chocolate Sarah”(Sarah).passage?A.Animal behavior and language.C.Animals and human language.B.Animal communication system.D.Animals and human behavior. PASSAGE TWO(1)It was well past midnight this past July and the round-the-clock Arctic sun was shining on Mercy Bay. Exhausted Parks Canada archaeologist Ryan Harris was experiencing a rare moment of rest on the rocky beach, looking out over the bay’s dark,ice-studded water.Around him,a dozen red-and-yellow tents lined the shoreline—the only signs of life.Every day for the previous two weeks,work had started by mid-morning and continued nonstop for16hours.Night and day had little relevance in the murky,near-freezing waters.Along with Parks Canada’s chief of underwater archaeology,Marc-Andre Bernier,Harris has overseen more than100dives at this remote inlet of Banks Island in Aulavik National Park,exploring the wreck of HMS Investigator,a British vessel that has sat on the bottom of the bay for more than160years.(2)Harris and a small team of archaeologists had discovered Investigator in2010and returned in2011with a larger team to dive,study,and document the wreck,which holds a critical place in the history of Arctic exploration. Twenty-five feet below the surface,Investigator sits upright,intact,and remarkably well preserved.Silt covers everything below the main deck,entombing the officers’cabins,the ship’s galley,and a full library.The archaeologists had intended to leave the wreck and its artifacts where they had lain since the polar ship was abandoned, trapped in ice,on June3,1853.Artifact recovery was not part of their original plan,but that plan changed after their first few dives.(3)The team was instantly surprised by the number of artifacts they saw—muskets(火枪),shoes,and hunks of copper sheathing rested on Investigator’s upper deck,dangled off the hull,or lay haphazardly on the sediment. Leaving these artifacts behind in Mercy Bay would have made them vulnerable to the icebergs that regularly scour the bay’s floor,including the ones the six-man dive team had been dodging since their arrival.(4)Each piece fished from the water was a clue to life at sea aboard a ship during a period of British fervor for Arctic exploration.The captain of Investigator,Robert McClure,was originally sent to find and rescue two ships, HIMS Erebus and HMS Terror,that Sir John Franklin had led into the Arctic in1845to discover the long-sought Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.Investigator’s voyage ended,without sight or word of Franklin’s ships or crew,when it was set upon by ice in Mercy Bay.After39months at sea,the listing ship sat,slowly being crushed on all sides,for three frigid years—with no Inuit encounters,no British search parties,and no relief. For much of that time,McClure and his crew of60were desperate and under constant threat of starvation,until a surprising rescue in the spring of1853.Fifty-five men survived the ordeal.(5)In July2010,after months of study to pinpoint Investigator’s resting place,the actual discovery of the wreck took just a few minutes.Harris was in the bay in an inflatable boat testing sonar equipment when the wreck came into range.The four hours of video gathered on that trip showed that the ship was,in essence,frozen in time,protected by the cold water and opaque,light-blocking ice cover.It would be a year before they could return with cold-water diving equipment to have a closer,more detailed look.Over that year,the Parks Canada team pored over photographs and examined glowing gold ultrasound images that showed timber from the wreck scattered across the upper deck like matchsticks.They sought and received the blessing for a more intensive exploration of the wreck site from the136 residents of Sachs Harbour,an Inuvialuit(Inuit from the western Arctic)community on the southwestern tip of Banks Island,the closest permanent community,some125miles away.In addition to the underwater work to document the wreck,archaeologist Henry Cary led a land-based survey and excavation team of Inuvialuit archaeologists, conservation officers,and park staff.It fell upon Cary to shuttle the8,820pounds of equipment up to the74th parallel, including tents,a three-week supply of food,two boats,diving gear,compressors,recording equipment,surveying tools,and20barrels for collecting fresh drinking water.(6)The archaeologists came prepared for delays,nasty weather,and polar bears—but they weren’t prepared for the number of artifacts that needed recovery.Harris,Bernier,Cary,and their crews had packed cameras,lasers,and measuring tapes to document the sites but fewer items to help them retrieve,excavate,or transfer artifacts.Recovering the wreck’s finds quickly used up their small toolkit for stabilizing artifacts:foam padding,tongue depressors,and gauze bandages.(7)“We had not really envisioned the number of artifacts that were visible and exposed on the deck.So,basically, we had to improvise,”says Bernier.(8)Someone ripped the lid of a large black storage case off its hinges to use as a cradle to lift a bent and corroded musket from the frigid waters.A large food cooler was loaded with a shredded,twisted,oxidized sample of the copper sheathing used by the British navy to reinforce their Arctic fleet for contact with icebergs.To protect a fragile rectangle of encrusted felt—a novel addition to Investigator that was intended to keep the ship watertight—Harris fashioned a cover out of absorbent chamois(鹿皮),ripped up an old black T-shirt to place underneath it,and sandwiched the artifact between floorboards taken from the boat that had shuttled them between land and the wreck. The artifacts then made a more than4,000-mile journey,by helicopter and commercial airliner,to the Parks Canada conservation lab in Ottawa,where they are being conserved and studied today.15.Which of the following details about the underwater exploration is CORRECT?A.Work started on the ship wreck during the team’s second trip.B.The original plan was to explore the ship and retrieve the artifacts.C.The team spent their nights near a local residents’community.D.The team began exploring the ship wreck soon after its discovery.16.What can we learn about Investigator?A.It was sent to discover a new sea passage.B.Its actual discovery was time-consuming.C.It got in touch with Erebus and Terror.D.It got stuck in ice and was later abandoned.17.Why did Bernier say that they had to improvise(Para.7)?A.They had to fight against the treacherous weather.B.They had little time to pack and stabilize those artifacts.C.They did not have proper tools to excavate so many artifacts.D.They had no idea what those artifacts were used for on board.18.Which of the following words best describes the archaeologists’way of protecting the retrieved artifacts?A.Incredible.B.Innovative.C.Imaginable.D.Inefficient.19.The last paragraph mentions all the following EXCEPT______A.who made the artifacts.C.what artifacts were recovered.B.where the artifacts were sent.D.how the artifacts were protected. PASSAGE THREE(1)My father was,I am sure,intended by nature to be a cheerful,kindly man.Until he was thirty-four years oldhe worked as a farmhand for a man named Thomas Butterworth whose place lay near the town of Bidwell.He had then a horse of his own and on Saturday evenings drove into town to spend a few hours in social intercourse with other farmhands.In town he drank several glasses of beer and stood about in Ben Head’s saloon—crowded on Saturday evenings with visiting farmhands.Songs were sung and glasses thumped on the bar.At ten o’clock father drove home along a lonely country road,made his horse comfortable for the night and himself went to bed,quite happy in his position in life.He had at that time no notion of trying to rise in the world.(2)It was in the spring of his thirty-fifth year that father married my mother,then a country school teacher,and inthe following spring I came wriggling and crying into the world.Something happened to the two people.They became ambitious.The passion for getting up in the world took possession of them.(3)It may have been that mother was responsible.Being a school teacher she had no doubt read books andmagazines.She had,I presume,read of how some people rose from poverty to fame and greatness and as I lay beside her—in the days of her lying-in—she may have dreamed that I would someday rule men and cities.At any rate she induced father to give up his place as a farmhand,sell his horse and embark on an independent enterprise of his own.She was a tall silent woman with a long nose and troubled grey eyes.For herself she wanted nothing.For father and myself she was incurably ambitious.(4)The first venture into which the two people went turned out badly.They rented ten acres of poor stony landon Griggs’s Road,eight miles from Bidwell,and launched into chicken raising.I grew into boyhood on the place and got my first impressions of life there.From the beginning they were impressions of disaster and if,in my turn,I am a gloomy man inclined to see the darker side of life,I attribute it to the fact that what should have been for me the happy joyous days of childhood were spent on a chicken farm.(5)One unversed in such matters can have no notion of the many and tragic things that can happen to a chicken.It is born out of an egg,lives for a few weeks as a tiny fluffy thing such as you will see pictured on Easter cards,then becomes hideously naked,eats quantities of corn and meal bought by the sweat of your father’s brow,gets diseases called pip,cholera,and other names,stands looking with stupid eyes at the sun,becomes sick and dies.A few hens and now and then a rooster,intended to serve God’s mysterious ends,struggle through to maturity.The hens lay eggs out of which come other chickens and the dreadful cycle is thus made complete.It is all unbelievably complex.Most philosophers must have been raised on chicken farms.One hopes for so much from a chicken and is so dreadfully disillusioned.Small chickens,just setting out on the journey of life,look so bright and alert and they are in fact so dreadfully stupid.They are so much like people they mix one up in one’s judgments of life.If disease does not kill them they wait until your expectations are thoroughly aroused and then walk under the wheels of a wagon—to go squashed and dead back to their maker.Vermin infest their youth,and fortunes must be spent for curative powders.(6)For ten years my father and mother struggled to make our chicken farm pay and then they gave up thatstruggle and began another.They decided to move into the town of Bidwell,and embarked in the restaurant business. 5After ten years of worry with incubators that did not hatch,and with tiny—and in their own way lovely—balls of fluff that passed on into semi-naked pullethood and from that into dead henhood,we threw all aside,packed our belongings on a wagon and drove down Griggs’s Road toward Bidwell,a tiny caravan of hope looking for a new place from which to start on our upward journey through life.(7)We must have been a sad looking lot,not,I fancy,unlike refugees fleeing from a battlefield.Mother and I walked in the road.The wagon that contained our goods had been borrowed for the day from Mr.Albert Griggs,a neighbor.Out of its sides stuck the legs of cheap chairs and at the back of the pile of beds,tables,and boxes filled with kitchen utensils was a crate of live chickens,and on top of that the baby carriage in which I had been wheeled about in my infancy.Why we stuck to the baby carriage I don’t know.It was unlikely other children would be born and the wheels were broken.People who have few possessions cling tightly to those they have.That is one of the facts that make life so discouraging.(8)Father rode on top of the wagon.He was then a bald-headed man of forty-five,a little fat and from long association with mother and the chickens he had become habitually silent and discouraged.All during our ten years on the chicken farm he had worked as a laborer on neighboring farms and most of the money he had earned had been spent for remedies to cure chicken diseases.There were two little patches of hair on father’s head just above his ears.I remember that as a child I used to sit looking at him when he had gone to sleep in a chair before the stove on Sunday afternoons in the winter.I had at that time already begun to read books and have notions of my own and the bald path that led over the top of his head was,I fancied,something like a broad road,such a road as Caesar might have made on which to lead his legions out of Rome and into the wonders of an unknown world.(9)One might write a book concerning our flight from the chicken farm into town.Mother and I walked the entire eight miles—she to be sure that nothing fell from the wagon and I to see the wonders of the world.20.The author describes his mother as______A.knowledgeable.B.responsible.C.imaginative.D.aspiring.21.What is Para.5intended to show?A.The specific steps of chicken raising.B.The difficulties of chicken raising.C.The excitement of the family.D.The expectations of the family.22.What does“our upward journey”in Para.6indicate?A.Their worries.B.Their struggle.C.Their ambition.D.Their resourcefulness.23.What is the relation between the two italicized sentences in Para.7?A.Temporal.B.Causal.C.Illustrative.D.Additive.24.Which of the following sentences in Paras.8and9indicates the author’s sense of hope?A.“...I to see the wonders of the world”.B.“I had at that time already begun to read books...”.C.“I walked the entire eight miles...”.D.“...a book concerning our flight from the chicken farm into town”.SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONSIn this section there are eight short answer questions based on the passages in Section A.Answer each question in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO.PASSAGE ONE25.What does“this”in Para.1refer to?26.How did Washoe demonstrate the potential of productivity(Para.3)?PASSAGE TWO27.What does the word “ones”in Para.3refer to?28.What was Sir John Franklin’s mission?29.List two preparations the team made for their trip (Para.5). PASSAGE THREE30.Describe in your own words the personality of the author’s father before marriage (Para.1).31.Describe in your own words the author’s childhood on a chicken farm (Para.4).32.What does the chickens’fate imply about the author’s family?PART IIILANGUAGE USAGE (15MIN) The passage contains TEN errors.Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error.In each cas e,onlyONE word is involved.You shouldproofread the passage and correct it in thefollowing way:For a wrong word,underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line. mark the position of the missing word with a “/\”sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end ofthe For a missingword,line.For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash “/”and put the wordin the blank provided at the end of the line.EXAMPLE When /\art museum wants a new exhibit, (1)it never an buys things in finished form and hangs (2)neverthem on the wall.When a natural history museum wants an exhibition,it must often build it. (3)exhibitProofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET THREE as instructed.PART IV TRANSLATION(20MIN) Translate the underlined part of the following text from Chinese into English.Write your translation onANSWER SHEET THREE.中国科幻小说在国际上越来越受欢迎，已成为一种新的国际交流方式。
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专业英语八级真题附答案详解TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1999)—GRADE EIGHTPAPER ONEPART ⅠLISTENING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN. )In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.SECTION A TALKQuestions 1 to 5 refer to the talk in this section. At the end of the talk you will be given 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the talk.1. The technology to make machines quieterA. has been in use since the 1930's.B. has accelerated industrial production.C. has just been in commercial use.D. has been invented to remove all noises.2. The modern electronic anti-noise devicesA. are an update version of the traditional methods.B. share similarities with the traditional methods.C. are as inefficient as the traditional methods.D. are based on an entirely new working principle.3. The French company is working on anti-noise techniques to be used in all EXCEPTA. streets.B. factories.C. aircraft.D. cars.4. According to the talk, workers in "zones of quiet" canA. be more affected by noise.B. hear talk from outside the zone.C. work more efficiently.D. be heard outside the zone.5. The main theme of the talk is aboutA. noise-control technology.B. noise in factories.C. noise-control regulations.D. noise-related effects.SECTION B INTERVIEWQuestions 6 to 10 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the interview.6. Employees in the US are paid for their time. This means that they are supposed toA. work hard while their boss is around.B. come to work when there is work to be done.C. work with initiative and willingness.D. work through their lunch break.7. One of the advantages of flexible working hours is thatA. pressure from work can be reduced.B. working women can have more time at home.C. traffic and commuting problems can be solved.D. personal relationships in offices can be improved.8. On the issue of working contracts in the US, which statement is NOT correct?A. Performance at work matters more than anything else.B. There are laws protecting employees' working rights.C. Good reasons must be provided in order to fire workers.D. Working contracts in the US are mostly short-term ones.9. It can be assumed from the interview that an informalatmosphere might be found inA. small firms.B. major banks.C. big corporations.D. law offices.10. The interview is mainly about __________ in the USA.A. office hierarchiesB. office conditionsC. office rules.D. office life.SECTION C NEWS BROADCASTQuestion 11 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given15 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.11. Senator Bob Dole's attitude towards Clinton's anti-crime policy is that ofA. opposition.B. support.C. ambiguity.D. indifference.Questions 12 and 13 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 30 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news.12. Japan and the United States are nowA. negotiating about photographic material.B. negotiating an automobile agreement.C. facing serious problems in trade.D. on the verge of a large-scale trade war.13. The news item seems to indicate that the agreementA. will end all other related trade conflicts.B. is unlikely to solve the dispute once and for all.C. is linked to other trade agreements.D. is the last of its kind to be reached.Question 14 and 15 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 30 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news.14. According to the news, the ice from Greenland provides information aboutA. oxygen.B. ancient weather.C. carbon dioxide.D. temperature.15. Which of the following statement is CORRECT?A. Drastic changes in the weather have been common since ancient times.B. The change in weather from very cold to very hot lasted over a century.C. The scientists have been studying ice to forecast weather in the future.D. The past 10,000 years have seen minor changes in the weather.SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLINGIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture once only. While listening to the lecture, take notes on the important points. Y our notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a 15-minute gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET after the mini-lecture. Use the blank sheet for note-taking ANSWER SHEETAt present companies and industries like to sponsor sports events. Two reasons are put forward to explain this phenomenon.The first reason is that they get (1) throughout the world.The second reason is that companies and industries (2) money as they get reductions in the tax they owe if they sponsor sports or arts activities.As sponsorship is (3) careful thinking is required in deciding which events to sponsor.It is important that the event to be sponsored (4) the product(s) to be promoted. That is, the right (5) and maximum product coverage must be guaranteed in the event.Points to be considered in sports sponsorship.Popularity of the eventInternational sports events are big (6) events, which get extensive coverage on TV and in press.Smaller events attract fewer people.Identification of the potential audienceAiming at the right audience is most important for smaller events.The right audience would attract manufacturers of related products like (7) , etc.Advantages of sponsorshipAdvantages are longer-term.People are expected to respond 8 to the products promoted and be more likely to buy them.Advertising is 9 the mind.Sponsorship is better than straight advertising:a) less 10b) tax-freePART ⅡPROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN. )Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET asinstructed.The hunter-gatherer tribes that today live as our prehistoric (1) __________human ancestors consume primarily a vegetable diet supplementing (2) __________with animal foods. An analysis of 58 societies of modern hunter-gatherers, including the Kung of southern Africa, revealed thatone-half emphasize gathering plant foods, one-third concentrate onfishing, and only one-sixth are primarily hunters. Overall, two-thirds and (3) __________more of the hunter-gatherer's calories come from plants. Detailed studiesof the Kung by the food scientists at the University of London, showedthat gathering is a more productive source of food than is hunting. Anhour of hunting yields in average about 100 edible calories, (4) __________as an hour of gathering produces 240. (5) __________ Plant foods provide for 60 percent to 80 percent of the Kung diet, (6) __________and no one goes hungry when the hunt fails, interestingly, if they escapefatal infections or accidents, these contemporary aborigines live to oldages despite of the absence of medical care. They experience no obesity, (7) __________and no middle-aged spread, little dental decay, no high blood pressure, noheart disease, and their blood cholesterol level are very low (about half of (8) __________the average American adult. ) If no one is suggesting that we return to (9) __________an aboriginal life, we certainly could use their eating habits as a model for healthier diet. (10) __________ PART ⅢREADING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN. )SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN. )In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple- choice questions. Read the passages carefully and then answer the questions.TEXT ARicci's "Operation Columbus"1 Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plans to market an English-language edition of his elegant monthly art magazine, FMR, in the United States. Once again the skeptics are murmuring that the successful Ricci has headed for a big fall. And once again Ricci intends to prove them wrong.2 Ricci is so confident that he has christen quest "Operation Columbus" and has set his sights on discovering an American readership of 300,000. That goal may not be too far- fetched. The Italian edition of FMR —the initials, of course, stand for Franco Maria Ricci— is only 18 months old. But it is already the second largest artmagazine in the world, with a circulation of 65,000 and a profit margin of US $ 500,000. The American edition will be patterned after the Italian version, with each 160-page issuecarrying only 40 pages of ads and no more than five articles. But the contents will often differ. The English-language edition will include more American works, Ricci says, to help Americans get over "an inferiority complex about their art". He also hopes that the magazine will become a vehicle for a two-way cultural exchange —what he likes to think of as a marriage of brains, culture and taste from both sides of the Atlantic.3 To realize this version, Ricci is mounting one of the most lavish, enterprising — and expensive promotional campaigns in magazine-publishing history. Between November and January, eight jumbo jets will fly 8 million copies of a sample 16-page edition of FMR across the Atlantic. From a warehouse in Michigan, 6.5 million copies will be mailed to American subscribers of various cultural, art and business magazines. Some of the remaining copies will circulate as a special Sunday supplement in the New York Times. The cost of launching Operation Columbus is a staggering US $ 5 million, but Ricci is hoping that 600% of the price tag will be financed by Italian corporations. "To land in America Columbus had to use Spanish sponsors," reads one sentence in his promotional pamphlet. "We would like Italians."4 Like Columbus, Ricci cannot know what his reception, will be on foreign shores. In Italy he gambled —and won —on a simple concept: it is more important to show art than to write about it. Hence, one issue of FMR might feature 32 full-colour pages of 17th-century tapestries, followed by 14 pages of outrageous eyeglasses. He is gambling that the concept is exportable. "I don't expect that more than 30% of my readers.., will actually read FMR," he says. "The magazine is such a visual delight that they don't have to. "Still, he is lining up an impressive stable of writers and professors for the American edition,including Noam Chomsky, Anthony Burgess, Eric Jong and Norman Mailer. In addition, he seems to be pursuing his own eclectic vision without giving a moment's thought to such established competitors as Connosisseur and Horizon. "The Americans can do almost everything better than we can, "says Ricci," But we (the Italians) have a 2,000 year edge on them in art."16. Ricci intends his American edition of FMR to carry more American art works in order toA. boost Americans' confidence in their art.B. follow the pattern set by his Italian edition.C. help Italians understand American art better.D. expand the readership of his magazine.17. Ricci is compared to Columbus in the passage mainly becauseA. they both benefited from Italian sponsors.B. they were explorers in their own ways.C. they obtained overseas sponsorship.D. they got a warm reception in America.18. We get the impression that the American edition of FMR will probablyA. carry many academic articles of high standard.B. follow the style of some famous existing magazines.C. be read by one third of American magazine readers.D. pursue a distinctive editorial style of its own.TEXT BUncle Geoff1 My mother's relations were very different form the Mitfords. Her brother, Uncle Geoff, who often came to stay at Swinbrook, was a small, spare man with thoughtful blue eyes and a rathersilent manner. Compared to Uncle T ommy, he was an intellectual of the highest order, and indeed his satirical pen belied his mild demeanor. He spent most of his waking hours composing letters to The Times and other publications in which he outlined his own particular theory of the development of English history. In Uncle Geoff's view, the greatness of England had risen and waned over the centuries in direct proportion to the use of natural manure in fertilizing the soil. TheBlack Death of 1348 was caused by gradual loss of the humus fertility found under forest trees. The rise of the Elizabethans two centuries later was attributable to the widespread use of sheep manure.2 Many of Uncle Geoff's letters-to-the-editor have fortunately been preserved in a privately printed volume called Writings of A Rebel. Of the collection, one letter best sums up his views on the relationship between manure and freedom. He wrote:3 Collating old records shows that our greatness rises and falls with the living fertility of our soil. And now, many years of exhausted and chemically murdered soil, and of devitalized food from it, has softened our bodies and still worse, softened our national character. It is an actual fact that character is largely a product of the soil. Many years of murdered food from deadened soil has made us too tame. Chemicals have had their poisonous day. It is now the worm's turn to reform the manhood of England. The only way to regain our punch, our character, our lost virtues, and with them the freedom natural to islanders, is to compost our land so as to allow moulds, bacteria and earthworms to remake living soil to nourish Englishmen's bodies and spirits.4 The law requiring pasteurization of milk in England was aparticular target of Uncle Geoff's. Fond of alliteration, he dubbed it "Murdered Milk Measure," and established the Liberty Restoration League, with headquarters at his house in London, for the specific purpose of organizing a counteroffensive. "Freedom not Doctordom" was the League's proud slogan. A subsidiary, but nevertheless important, activity of the League was advocacy of a return to the " unsplit, slowly smoked fish" and bread made with "English stone-ground flour, yeast, milk, sea salt and raw cane-sugar."19. According to Uncle Geoff, national strength could only be regained byA. reforming the manhood of England.B. using natural manure as fertilizer.C. eating more bacteria-free food.D. granting more freedom to Englishmen.20. The tone of the passage can most probably be described asA. facetious.B. serious.C. nostalgic.D. factual.TEXT CInterview1 So what have they taught you at college about interviews? Some courses go to town on it, others do very little. You may get conflicting advice. Only one thing is certain: the key to success is preparation.2 There follow some useful suggestions from a teacher training course co-ordinator, a head of department anda headteacher. As they appear to be in complete harmonywith one another despite never having met, we may take their advice seriously.3 Oxford Brookes University's approach to the business of application and interview focuses on research and rehearsal. Training course co-ordinator Brenda Stevens speaks of the value of getting students "to deconstruct the advertisement, see what they can offer to that school, and that situation, and then write the letter, do their CVs and criticize each other's ". Finally, they role play interviewer and interviewee.4 This is sterling stuff, and Brookes students spend a couple of weeks on it. "The better prepared students won't be thrown by nerves on the day," says Ms. Stevens. "They'll have their strategies and questions worked out. "She also says, a trifle disconcertingly, "the better the student, the worse the interviewee. ' She believes the most capable students are less able to put themselves forward. Even if this were true, says Ms. Stevens, you must still make your own case.5 "Beware of informality," she advises. One aspirant teacher, now a head of department at a smart secondary school, failed his first job interview because he took his jacket off while waiting for his appointment. It was hot and everyone in the staffroom was in shirtsleeves but at the end of the day they criticized his casual attitude, which they had deduced from the fact that he took his jacket off in the staffroom, even though he put it back on for the interview.6 Incidentally, men really do have to wear a suit to the interview and women really cannot wear jeans, even if men never wear the suit again and women teach most days in jeans. Panels respond instantly to these indicators. But beware: it will not please them any better if you are too smart.7 Find out about the peope who will talk to you. In the early meetings they are likely to be heads of departments or heads of year. Often they may be concerned with pastoral matters. It makes sense to know their priorities and let them hear the things about you that they want to hear.8 During preliminary meetings you may be seen in groups with two or three other applicants and you must demonstrate that you know your stuff without putting your companions down. The interviewers will be watching how you work with a team.9 But remember the warning about informality: however friendly and co-operative the other participants are, do not give way to the idea that you are there just to be friends.10 Routine questions can be rehearsed, but "don't go on too long", advises the department head. They may well ask: "what have been your worst/best moments when teaching?" , or want you to "talk about some good teaching you have done". The experts agree you should recognize your weaknesses and offer a strategy for overcoming them. "I know I've got to work on classroom management. I would hope for some help," perhaps. No one expects a new teacher to know it all, but they hope for an objective appraisal of capabilities.11 Be warned against inexpert questioning. You may be asked questions in such a way that it seems impossible to present your best features. Some questions may be plain silly, asked perhaps by people on the panel who are from outside the situation. Do not be thrown, have ways of circumnavigating it, and never, ever let them see that you think they have said something foolish.12 You will almost certainly be asked how you see the future and it is important to have a good answer prepared. Some peopleare put off by being asked what they expect to be doing in five or ten year's time. On your preliminary visit, says the department head, be sure to give them a bit of an interview of your own, to see the direction the department is going and what you could contribute to it.13 The headteacher offers his thoughts in a eight-point plan.1. Iron the application form! Then it stands out from everyone else's, which have been folded and battered in the post. It gives an initial impression which may get your application to the top of the pile.2. Ensure that your application is tailored to the particular school. Make the head feel you are writing directly to him or her.3. Put yourself at ease before you meet the interviewing panel, if you are nervous, you will talk too quickly. Before you enter the room remember that the people are human beings too; take away the mystique of their roles.4. Listen. There is danger of not hearing accurately what is being said. Make eye contact with the speakers, and with everyone in the room.5. Allow your warmth and humanity to be seen. A sense of humour is very important.6. Have a portfolio of your work that can link theory to practice. Many schools want you to show work. Fora primary appointment, give examples from the range of the curriculum, not just art. (For this reason, taking pictures on your teaching practice is important. )7. Prepare yourself in case you are asked to give a talk. Have prompt cards ready, and don't waffle.8. Your speech must be clear and articulate, with correct grammar. This is important: they want to hear you and they wantto hear how well you can communicate with children. Believe in yourself and have confidence. Some of the people asking the questions don't know much about what you do. Be ready to help them.14 Thus armed, you should have no difficulty at all. Good luck, and keep your jacket on!21. Ms Brenda Stevens suggests that before applying job applicants shouldA. go through each other's CVs.B. rehearse their answers to questions.C. understand thoroughly the situations.D. go to town to attend training courses.22. Is it wise to admit some of your weaknesses relating to work?A. Yes, but you should have ideas for improvement in the future.B. Yes, because it is natural to be weak in certain aspects.C. No, admitting weaknesses may put you at a disadvantage.D. No, it will only prompt the interviewers to reject you.23. The best way to deal with odd questions from the interviewers is toA. remain smiling and kindly point out the inaccuracies.B. keep calm and try to be tactful in your answers.C. say frankly what you think about the issues raised.D. suggest something else to get over your nervousness.24. The suggestions offered by the head teacher areA. original.B. ambiguous.C. practical.D. controversial.TEXT DFamily Matters1 This month Singapore passed a bill that would give legal teeth to the moral obligation to support one's parents. Called the Maintenance of Parents Bill, it received the backing of the Singapore Government.2 That does not mean it hasn't generated discussion. Several members of the Parliament opposed the measure as un-Asian. Others who acknowledged the problem of the elderly poor believed it a disproportionate response. Still others believe it will subvert relations within the family: cynics dubbed it the "Sue Your Son" law.3 Those who say that the bill does not promote filial responsibility, of course, are right. It has nothing to do with filial responsibility. It kicks in where filial responsibility fails. The law cannot legislate filial responsibility any more than it can legislate love. All the law can do is to provide a safety net where this morality provide insufficient. Singapore needs this bill not to replace morality, but to provide incentives to shore it up.4 Like many other developed nations, Singapore faces the problems of an increasing proportion of people over 60 years of age. Demography is inexorable. In 1980, 7.2% of the population was in this bracket. By the turn of the century, that figure will grow to 11%. By 2030, the proportion is projected to be 260%. The problem is not old age per se. It is that the ratio of economically active people to economically inactive people will decline.5 But no amount of government exhortation or paternalism will completely eliminate the problem of old people who have insufficient means to make ends meet. Some people will fallthrough the holes in any safety net.6 Traditionally, a person's insurance against poverty in his old age was his family. This is not a revolutionary concept. Nor is it uniquely Asian. Care and support for one's parents is a universal value shared by all civilized societies.7 The problem in Singapore is that the moral obligation to look after one's parents is unenforceable. A father can be compelled by law to maintain his children. A husband can be forced to support his wife. But, until now, a son or daughter had no legal obligation to support his or her parents.8 In 1989, an Advisory Council was set up to look into the problems of the aged. Its report stated with a tinge of complacency that 95% of those who did not have their own income were receiving cash contributions from relations. But what about the 5% who aren't getting relatives' support? They have several options: (a) get a job and work until they die; (b) apply for public assistance (you have to be destitute to apply); or (c) starve quietly.None of these options is socially acceptable. And what if this 5% figure grows, as it is likely to do, as society ages?9 The Maintenance of Parents Bill was put forth to encourage the traditional virtues that have so far kept Asian nations from some of the breakdowns encountered in other affluent societies. This legislation will allow a person to apply to the court for maintenance from any or all of his children. The court would have the discretion to refuse to make an order if it is unjust.10 Those who deride the proposal for opening up the courts to family lawsuits miss the point. Only in extreme cases would any parent take his child to court. If it does indeed become law, the bill's effect would be far more subtle.11 First, it will reaffirm the notion that it is each individual's —not society's —responsibility to look after his parents. Singapore is still conservative enough that most people will not object to this idea. It reinforces the traditional values and it doesn't hurt a society now and then to remind itself of its core values.12 Second, and more important, it will make those who are inclined to shirk their responsibilities think twice. Until now, if a person asked family elders, clergymen or the Ministry of Community Development to help get financial support from his children, the most they could do was to mediate. But mediators have no teeth, and a child could simply ignore their pleas.13 But to be sued by one's parents would be a massive loss of face. It would be a public disgrace. Few people would be so thick-skinned as to say." Sue and be damned. "The hand of the conciliator would be immeasurably strengthened. It is far more likely that some sort of amicable settlement would be reached if the recalcitrant Son or daughter knows that the alternative is a public trial.14 It would be nice to think that Singapore doesn't need this kind of law. But that belief ignores the clear demographic trends and the effect of affluence itself on traditional bonds. Those of us who pushed for the bill will consider ourselves most successful if it acts as an incentive not to have it invoked in the first place.25. The Maintenance of Parents BillA. received unanimous support in the Singapore Parliament.B. was believed to solve all the problems of the elderly poor.C. was intended to substitute for traditional values in Singapore.D. was passed to make the young more responsible to theold.26. By quoting the growing percentage points of the aged in the population, the author seems to imply thatA. the country will face mounting problems of the old in future.B. the social welfare system would be under great pressure.C. young people should be given more moral education.D. the old should be provided with means of livelihood.27. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?A. Filial responsibility in Singapore is enforced by law.B. Fathers have legal obligations to look after their children.C. It is an acceptable practice for the old to continue working.D. The Advisory Council was dissatisfied with the problems of the old.28. The author seems to suggest that traditional valuesA. play an insignificant role in solving social problems.B. are helpful to the elderly when they sue their children.C. are very important in preserving Asian uniqueness.D. are significant in helping the Bill get approved.29. The author thinks that if the Bill becomes law, its effect would beA. indirect.B. unnoticed.C. apparent.D. straightforward.30. At the end of the passage, the author seems to imply that success of the Bill depends uponA. strict enforcement.B. public support.C. government assurance.。