专八真题 2015 年
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2015)
GRADE EIGHT
TIME LIMIT：195 MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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, using no more than three
words in each gap ． Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are)both grammatically and semantically
acceptable ． You may refer to your notes while completing the task ． Use the blank sheet for note-
taking．Now, listen to the mini-lecture．
Understanding Academic Lectures
Listening to academic lectures is an important task for university students. Then, how can we comprehend a
lecture efficiently?
I.Understand all (1)
A.words
B. (2)
—stress
—intonation
(3)
II.Adding information
A.lectures:Sharing information with audience
B.listeners: (4)
C.sources of information
knowledge of (5)
(6) of the world
D.listening involving three steps:
hearing
(7)
adding
III. (8)
A.reasons
overcome noise
save time
B. (9)
content
organization
IV.Evaluating while listening
A.help tp decide the (10) of notes
B.help to remember information
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow．Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO．
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．
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1. Theresa thinks that the present government is ________.
[A] doing what they have promised to schools
[B] creating opportunities for leading universities
[C] considering removing barriers for state school pupils
[D] reducing opportunities for state school pupils
2. What does Theresa see as a problem in secondary schools now?
[A] Universities are not working hard to accept state school pupils.
[B] The number of state pupils applying to Oxford fails to increase.
[C] The government has lowered state pupils expectations.
[D] Leading universities are rejecting state school pupils.
3. In Theresa s view, school freedom means that schools should ____.
[A] be given more funding from education authorities
[B] be given all the money and decide how to spend it
[C] be granted greater power to run themselves
[D] be given more opportunities and choices
4. According to Theresa, who decides or decide money for schools at the present?
[A] Local education authorities and the central government.
[B] Local education authorities and secondary schools together.
[C] Local education authorities only.
[D] The central government only.
5. Throughout the talk, the interviewer does all the following EXCEPT ____.
[A] asking for clarification
[B] challenging the interviewee
[C] supporting the interviewee
[D] initiating topics
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY ． Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow．Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO．
Questions 6 and 7 are based on the following news, At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions．Now listen to the news．
News Item 1
6. What is the main idea of the news item?
[A] Fewer people watch TV once a week.
[B] Smartphones and tablets have replaced TV.
[C] New technology has led to more family time.
[D] Bigger TV sets have attracted more people.
News Item 2
7. How many lawmakers voted for the marijuana legalization bill?
[A] 50. [B] 12.
[C] 46. [D] 18.
8. The passing of the bill means that marijuana can be________.
[A] bought by people under 18
[B] made available to drug addicts
[C] provided by the government
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[D] bought in drug stores
News Item 3
9. What did the review of global data reveal?
[A]Diarrhea is a common disease.
[B]Good sanitation led to increase in height.
[C]There were many problems of poor sanitation.
[D] African children live in worse sanitary conditions.
10. The purpose of Dr. Alan Dangour s study was most likely to ________.
[A] examine links between sanitation and death from illness
[B] look into factors affecting the growth of children
[C] investigate how to tackle symptoms like diarrhea
[D] review and compare conditions in different countries
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO．
TEXT A
In 2011, many shoppers chose to avoid the frantic crowds and do their holiday shopping from the comfort
of their computer. Sales at online retailers gained by more than 15%, making it the biggest season ever. But
people are also returning those purchases at record rates, up 8% from last year.
What went wrong? Is the lingering shadow of the global financial crisis making it harder to accept
extravagant indulgences? Or that people shop more impulsively - and therefore make bad decisions - when
online? Both arguments are plausible. However, there is a third factor: a question of touch. We can love the look
but, in an online environment, we cannot feel the quality of a texture, the shape of the fit, the fall of a fold or,
for that matter, the weight of an earring. And physically interacting with an object makes you more committed .
When my most recent book Brandwashed was released, I teamed up with a local bookstore to conduct an
experiment about the differences between the online and offline shopping experience. I carefully instructed a
group of volunteers to promote my book in two different ways. The first was a fairly hands-off approach.
Whenever a customer would inquire about my book, the volunteer would take them over to the shelf and point
to it. Out of 20 such requests, six customers proceeded with the purchase.
The second option also involved going over to the shelf but, this time, removing the book and then subtly
holding onto it for just an extra moment before placing it in the customer's hands. Of the 20 people who were
handed the book. 13 ended up buying it. Just physically passing the book showed a big difference in sales.
Why? We feel something similar to a sense of ownership when we hold things in our hand. That's why we
establish or reestablish connection by greeting strangers and friends with a handshake. In this case, having to
then let go of the book after holding it might generate a subtle sense of loss, and motivate us to make the
purchase even more.
A recent study also revealed the power of touch, in this case when it came to conventional mail. A deeper and
longer-lasting impression of a message was formed when delivered in a letter, as opposed to receiving the same
message online. Brain imaging showed that, on touching the paper, the emotional center of the brain was
activated, thus forming a stronger bond. The study also indicated that once touch becomes part of the process, it
could translate into a sense of possession. This sense of ownership is simply not part of the equation in the
online shopping experience.
As the rituals of purchase in the lead-up to Christmas change, not only do we give less thought to the type of
gifts we buy for our loved ones but, through our own digital wish lists, we increasingly control what they buy
for us. The reality, however, is that no matter how convinced we all are that digital is the way to go, finding real
satisfaction will probably take more than a few simple clicks.
11. According to the author, shoppers are returning their purchases for all the following reasons EXCEPT that
____.
[A] they are unsatisfied with the quality of the purchase
[B]they eventually find the purchase too expensive
[C] they change their mind out of uncertainty
[D] they regret making the purchase without forethought
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12. What is the purpose of the experiment in the bookstore?
[A] To see which promotion method is preferred by customers.
[B]To find out the strengths and weaknesses of both methods.
[C] To try to set up a new retailer-customer relationship.
[D] To see the effect of an approach on customers' decisions.
13. Why does the author cite the study by Bangor University and the Royal Mail Service?
[A]To compare similar responses in different settings.
[B] To provide further evidence for his own observation.
[C] To offer a scientific account of the brain's functions.
[D] To describe emotional responses in online shopping.
14. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
[A]Real satisfaction depends on factors other than the computer.
[B] Despite online shopping we still attach importance to gift buying.
[C] Some people are still uncertain about the digital age.
[D] Online shopping offers real satisfaction to shoppers.
Text B
My professor brother and I have an argument about head and heart about whether he overvalues IQ while I
learn more toward EQ. We typically have this debate about people—can we be friends with a really smart
jerk（怪物）?—but there’s corollary to animals as well. I’d love it if our dog could fetch the morning paper
and then read it to me over coffee, but I actually care much more about her loyal and innocent heart. There’s
already enough thinking going on is our house, and we probably spend too much time in our heads, where we
need some role modeling is in instinct, and that’s where a dog is a roving revelation.
I did not grow up with dogs, which meant that my older daughter’s respectful but unyielding determination
to get one required some adjustment on my part. I often felt she was training me: from ages of 6 to 9, she gently
schooled me in various breeds and their personalities, whispered to the dogs we encountered so they would
charm and persuade me, demonstrated by her self-displine that she was ready for the responsibility. And thus
came our dog Twist, whom I sometimes mistake for a third daughter.
At first I thought the challenge would be to train her to sit, to heel, to walk calmly beside us and not go wildly
chasing the neighbourhood rabbits. But I soon discovered how much more we had to learn from her than she
from us.
If it is true, for example, that the secret to a child’s success is less rare genius than raw persistence, Twist’s
ability to stay on task is a model for us all, especially if the task is trying to capture the sunbeam that flicks
around the living room as the wind blows through the branches outside. She never succeeds, and she never
gives up. This includes when she runs square into walls.
Then there is her unfailing patience, which breaks down only when she senses that dinnertime was 15
minutes ago and we have somehow failed to notice. Even then she is more eager than indignant, and her refusal
to whine shows a restraint of which I’m not always capable when hungry.
But the lesson I value most is the one in forgiveness, and Twist first offered this when she was still very
young. When she was about 7 months old, we took her to the vet to be sprayed( 切除卵巢). We turned her over
to a stranger, who procceeded to perform a procedure that was probably not pleasant, But when the vet returned
her to us, limp and tender, there was no recrimination(反责)，no how could you do that to me? It was as though
she really knew that we could not intentionally cause her pain, and while she did not understand, she forgave
and curled up with her head on my daughter’s lap.
I suppose we could have concluded that she was just blindly loyal and docile. But eventually we knew
better. She is entirely capable of disobedience, as she has proved many times. She will ignore us when there are
more interesting things to look at, rebuke us when we are careless, bark into the twilight when she has urgent
messages to send. But her patience with our failings and frickleness and her willingness to give us a scond
chance are a daily lesson in gratitude.
My friends who grew up with dogs tell me how when they were teenagers and trusted no one in the world,
they could tell their dog all their secrets. It was the one friend who would not gossip or betray, could provide in
the middle of the night the soft, unbegrudging comfort and peace that adolescence conspires to disrupt. An age
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that is all about growth and risk needs some anchors and weigths, a model of steadfastness when all else is in
flux. Sometimes I think Twist’s devotion keeps my girls on a benevolent lash, one that hangs quietly at their
side as they trot along but occasionally yanks them back to safety and solid ground.
We’ve weighed so many decisions so carefully in raising our daughterswhat school to send them to and
what church to attend, when to give them cell phones and with what precautions. But when it comes to what
really shapes their character and binds our family, I never would have thought we would owe so much to its
smallest member.
15. In the first paragraph, the author suggests that____.
[A]a person can either have a high IQ or a low EQ
[B]her professor brother cares too much about IQ
[C]we need examples of how to follow one's heart
[D]she prefers dogs that are clever and loyal
16. According to the passage, all the following are Twist's characteristics EXCEPT____.
[A]resignation
[B]patience
[C]forgiveness
[D]tenacity
17. According to the context, the meaning of the word "square"is closest to____.
[A]fast
[B]blindly
[C]straight
[D]stubbornly
18.ThatTwist's devotion keeps my girls on a benevolent leash means that____.
[A]Twist is capable of looking after the girls
[B]Twist and the girls have become friends
[C]Twist knows how to follow the girls
[D]Twist's loyalty helps the girls grow up
19. What does the author try to express in the last paragraph?
[A]Difficulties in raising her children.
[B]Worries about what to buy for kids.
[C]Gratitude to Twist for her role.
[D]Concerns about schooling and religion.
Text C
Most West African lorries ate not in what one would call the first flush of youth, and I had
learnt by bitter experience not to expect anything very much of them. But the lorry that arrived to
take me up to the mountains was worse than anything I had seen before: it tottered on the borders
of senile decay. It stood there on buckled wheels, wheezing and gasping with exhaustion from
having to climb up the gentle slope to the camp, and I consigned myself and my loads to it with
some trepidation. The driver, who was a cheerful fellow, pointed out that he would require my
assistance in two very necessary operations: first, I had to keep the hand brake pressed down
when travelling downhill, for unless it was held thus almost level with the floor it sullenly
refused to function. Secondly, I had to keep a stern eye on the clutch, a wilful piece of
mechanism, that seized every chance to leap out of its socket with a noise like a strangling
leopard. As it was obvious that not even a West African lorry driver could be successful in
driving while crouched under the dashboard in a pre-natal position, I had to take over control of
these instruments if I valued my life. So, while I ducked at intervals to put on the brake, amid the
rich smell of burning rubber, our noble lorry jerked its way towards the mountains at a steady
twenty miles per hour; sometimes, when a downward slope favoured it, it threw caution to the
winds and careered along in a madcap fashion at twenty-five.
For the first thirty miles the red earth road wound its way through the lowland forest, the
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giant trees standing in solid ranks alongside and their branches entwined in an archway of leaves
above us. Flocks of hornbills flapped across the road, honking like the ghosts of ancient taxis,
and on the banks, draped decoratively in the patches of sunlight, the agama lizards lay, blushing
into sunset colouring with excitement and nodding their heads furiously. Slowly and almost
imperceptibly the road started to climb upwards, looping its way in languid curves round the
forested hills. In the back of the lorry the boys lifted up their voices in song:
Home again, home again, When shall I see ma home? When shall I see ma mammy? I'll
never forget ma home . . .
The driver hummed the refrain softly to himself, glancing at me to see if I would object. To
his surprise I joined in, and so while the lorry rolled onwards trailing a swirling tail of red dust
behind it, the boys in the back maintained the chorus while the driver and I harmonized and sang
complicated twiddly bits, and the driver played a staccato accompaniment on the horn.
Breaks in the forest became more frequent the higher we climbed, and presently a new type
of undergrowth began to appear: massive tree-ferns standing in conspiratorial groups at the
roadside on their thick, squat, and hairy trunks, the fronds of leaves sprouting from the tops like
delicate green fountains. These ferns were the guardians of a new world, for suddenly, as though
the hills had shrugged themselves free of cloak, the forest disappeared. It lay behind us in the
valley, a thick pelt of green undulating away into the heat-shimmered distance, while above us
the hillside rose majestically, covered in a coat of rippling, waist-high grass, bleached golden by
the sun. The lorry crept higher and higher, the engine gasping and shuddering with this
unaccustomed activity. I began to think that we should have to push the wretched thing up the
last two or three hundred feet, but to everyone's surprise we made it, and the lorry crept on to the
brow of the hill, trembling with fatigue, spouting steam from its radiator like a dying whale. We
crawled to a standstill and the driver switched off the engine.
“We must wait small-time, engine get hot, he explained, pointing to the forequarters of the
lorry, which were by now completely invisible under a cloud of steam. Thankfully I descended
from the red-hot inside of the cab and strolled down to where the road dipped into the next
valley. From this vantage point I could see the country we had travelled through and the country
we were about to enter.
20. That it tottered on the borders of senile decay means that the lorry was_________.
about to break down
a very old vehicle
unable to travel the distance
[D] a dangerous vehicle
Which of the following words in the first paragraph is used literally?
Flush.
Borders.
Operations.
Gasping.
We learn from the first paragraph that the author regards the inadequacies of the lorry as
_________.
[A] inevitable and amusing
[B]. dangerous and frightening
[C] novel and unexpected
[D] welcome and interesting
23. All the following words in the last but one paragraph describe the lorry as a human
EXCEPT .
trembling
spouting
shuddering
crept
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24. We can infer from the passage that the author was ________.
bored by the appearance of the grasslands ahead
reluctant to do any walking in so hot a climate
unfriendly towards the local driver and boys
a little surprised to have to help drive the lorry
25. A suitable title for the passage would be _______.
A journey that scared me
A journey to remember
The wild West African lorry
A comic journey in West Africa
Text D
Have you ever noticed a certain similarity in public parks and back gardens in the cities of the West? A
ubiquitous woodland mix of lawn grasses and trees has found its way throughout Europe and the United States,
and it s now spread to other cities around the world. As ecologist Peter Groffman has noted, it's increasingly
difficult to tell one suburb apart from another, even when they're located in vastly different climates such as
Phoenix, Arizona, or Boston in the much chillier north-east of the US. And why do parks in New Zealand often
feature the same species of trees that grow on the other side of the world in the UK?
Inspired by the English and New England countrysides, early landscape architects of the 19th Century such
as Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmstead created an aesthetic for urban public and private
open space that persists to this day. But in the 21st Century, urban green space is tasked with doing far more
than simply providing aesthetic appeal. From natural systems to deal with surface water run-off and pollution to
green corridors to increasing interest in urban food production, the urban parks of the future will be designed
and engineered for functionality as well as for beauty.
Imagine travelling among the cities of the mid-21st Century and finding a unique set of urban landscapes
that capture local beauty, natural and cultural history, and the environmental context. They are tuned to their
locality, and diverse within as well as across cities. There are patches that provide shade and cooling, places of
local food production, and corridors that connect both residents and wildlife to the surrounding native
environment. Their functions are measured and monitored to meet the unique needs of each city for food
production, water use, nutrient recycling, and habitat. No two green spaces are quite the same.
Planners are already starting to work towards this vision. And if this movement has a buzzword it is
hyperfunctionality designs which provide multiple uses in a confined space, and a term coined by Richard
Pouyat of the US Forest Service. At the moment, urban landscapes are highly managed and limited in their
spatial extent. Even the "green" cities of the future will contain extensive areas of buildings, roads, railways,
and other built structures. These future cities are likely to contain a higher proportion of green cover than the
cities of today, with an increasing focus on planting on roofs, vertical walls, and formerly impervious surfaces
like car parks. But built environments will still be ever-present in dense megacities. We can greatly enhance the
utility of green space through designs that provide a range of different uses in a confined space. A
hyperfunctional planting, for example, might be designed to provide food, shade, wildlife habitat, and pollution
removal all in the same garden with the right choice of plants, configurations, and management practices.
What this means is that we have to maximise the benefits and uses of urban parks, while minimising the
costs of building and maintaining them. Currently, green space and street plantings are relatively similar
throughout the Western world, regardless of differences in local climate, geography, and natural history. Even
desert cities feature the same sizable street trees and well-watered and well-fertilized lawns that you might see
in more temperate climes. The movement to reduce the resources and water requirements of such urban
landscapes in these arid areas is called "xeriscaping" a concept that has so-far received mixed responses in
terms of public acceptance. Scott Yabiku and colleagues at the Central Arizona Phoenix project showed that
newcomers to the desert embrace xeriscaping more than long-time residents, who are more likely to prefer the
well-watered aesthetic. In part, this may be because xeriscaping is justified more by reducing landscaping costs
in this case water costs than by providing desired benefits like recreation, pollution mitigation, and cultural
value. From this perspective, xeriscaping can seem more like a compromise than an asset.
But there are other ways to make our parks and natural spaces do more. Nan Ellin, of the Ecological
Planning Center in the US, advocates an asset-based approach to urbanism. Instead of envisioning cities in
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terms what they can't have, ecological planners are beginning to frame the discussion of future cities in terms of
what they do have - their natural and cultural assets. In Utah s Salt Lake City, instead of couching
environmental planning as an issue of resource scarcity, the future park is described as "mountain urbanism"
and the strong association of local residents with the natural environment of the mountain ranges near their
home. From this starting point, the local climate, vegetation, patterns of rain and snowfall, and mountain
topography are all deemed natural assets that create a new perspective when it comes to creating urban green
space. In Cairns, Australia, the local master plan embraces "tropical urbanism" that conveys a sense of place
through landscaping features, while also providing important functions such as shading and cooling in this
tropical climate.
The globally homogenised landscape aesthetic which sees parks from Boston to Brisbane looking
worryingly similar will diminish in importance as future urban green space will be attuned to local values and
cultural perceptions of beauty. This will lead to a far greater diversity of urban landscape designs than are
apparent today. Already, we are seeing new purposes for urban landscaping that are transforming the 20th
century woodland park into bioswales plantings designed to filter stormwater green roofs, wildlife corridors,
and urban food gardens. However, until recently we have been lacking the datasets and science-based
specifications for designs that work to serve all of these purposes at once.
In New York City, Thomas Whitlow of Cornell University sends students through tree-lined streets with
portable, backpack-mounted air quality monitors. At home in his laboratory, he places tree branches in wind
tunnels to measure pollution deposition onto leaves. It turns out that currently, many street tree plantings are
ineffective at removing air pollutants, and instead may trap pollutants near the ground. My students and I
equipped street trees with sensors in and around the trunk in Los Angeles to monitor growth and water use in
real time to help find which species provide the largest canopies for the lowest amount of water. Rather than
relying on assumptions about the role of urban vegetation in improving the environment and health, future
landscaping designs will be engineered based on empirical data and state of the art of simulations.
New datasets on the performance of urban landscapes are changing our view of what future urban parks
will look like and what it will do. With precise measurements of pollutant uptake, water use, plant growth rates,
and greenhouse gas emissions, we are better and better able to design landscapes that require less intensive
management and are less costly, while providing more social and environmental uses.
26. According to the passage, which of the following serves as the BEST reason for the
similarity in urban green space throughout the West?
[A] Climate.
[B] Geography.
[C] Functional purposes.
[D] Design principles.
27. The following are all features of future urban green space EXCEPT that .
[A] each city has its distinct style of urban green space
[B] urban landscape will focus more on cultural history
[C] urban green space will be designed to serve many uses
[D] more green cover will be seen on city roofs and walls
28. Why are some local residents opposed to "xeriscaping"?
[A] It cannot reduce water requirements.
[B] It has proved to be too costly.
[C] It is not suited for the local area.
[D] It does not have enough advantages.
29. According to the passage, if planners adopt an asset-based approach, they will probably .
[A] incorporate the area's natural and cultural heritage into their design
[B] make careful estimation of the area's natural resources before designing
[C] combine natural resources and practical functions in their design
[D] envision more purposes for urban landscaping in their design
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30. According to the passage, future landscaping designs will rely more on . .
[A] human assumptions
[B] field work
[C] scientific estimation
[D] laboratory work
Part GENERAL KNOWLEDGEⅢ
31. Which party is in power now in the UK?
［A］The Conservative Party.
［B］The Labour Party.
［C］The Liberal Democrats.
［D］The Scottish National Party.
32. Which of the following lakes does Canada share with the United States?
［A］Lake Winnipeg.
［B］The Great Slave Lake.
［C］The Great Bear Lake.
［D］The five Great Lakes.
33. U. S. senators serve for ____ years after they are elected.
［A］four
［B］six
［C］three
［D］two
34. Who were the natives of Australia before the arrival of the British settlers?
［A］The Eskimos.
［B］The Maori.
［C］The Indians.
［D］The Aborigines.
35. ____ is best known for the technique of dramatic monologue in his poems.
［A］Robert Browning
［B］W. B. Yeats
［C］William Blake
［D］William Wordsworth
36. Which of the following is a contemporary British poet?
［A］Ted Hughes.
［B］William Wordsworth.
［C］E. E. Cummings.
［D］Carl Sandburg.
37. Who was the author of Moby-Dick?
［A］Nathaniel Hawthorne.
［B］Ralph Waldo Emerson.
［C］Herman Melville.
［D］Washington Irving.
38. The words "tennis, badminton, golf, basketball and football" constitute a ____ field.
［A］semantic
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［B］connotative
［C］conceptual
［D］collocative
39. A: Do you like ice cream? B: Yes, I do.
This is an example of ____.
［A］reference
［B］substitution
［C］conjunction
［D］ellipsis
40. Which of the following is a voiceless consonant?
［A］[ j ]
［B］[ w ]
［C］[ p ]
［D］[ l ]
PART IV PRROFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION
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
provided 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．
EXAMPLE
When ^ art museum wants a new exhibit， (1) an
it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall．When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it． (3) exhibit
When I was in my early teens, I was taken to a spectacular show
on ice by the mother of a friend. Looked round at the luxury of the (1)
rink, my friend’s mother remarked on the “plush” seats we had been
given. I did not know what she meant, and being proud of my (2)
vocabulary, I tried to infer its meaning from the context. “Plush”
was clearly intended as a complimentary, a positive evaluation; that (3)
much I could tell it from the tone of voice and the context. So I (4)
started to use the word Yes, I replied, they certainly are plush, and
so are the ice rink and the costumes of the skaters, aren’t they? My
friend’s mother was very polite to correct me, but I could tell from her (5)
expression that I had not got the word auite right.
Often we can indeed infer from the context what a word roughly
Neans, and that is in fact the way which we usually acquire both (6)
new words and new meanings for familiar words, specially in our (7)
own first language. But sometimes we need to ask, as I should have
asked for plush, and this is particularly true in the (8)
aspect of a foreign language. If you are continually surrounded by (9)
speakers of the language you are learning, you can ask them directly,
but often this opportunity does not exist for the learner of English.
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So dictionaries have been developed to mend the gap. (10)
PART V TRANSLATION
SECTION A CHINESES TO ENGLISH
茶花（camellia）的自然花期在 12 月至翌年 4 月，以红色系为主，另有黄色系和白色系等，花色艳
丽。本届花展充分展示了茶花的品种资源和科研水平，是近三年来本市规模最大的一届茶花展。为了
使广大植物爱好者有更多与茶花亲密接触的机会，本届茶花展的布展范围延伸至整个园区，为赏花游
客带来便利。
此次茶花展历时 2 个月，展期内 200 多个茶花品种将陆续亮相。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
At its heart, psycholinguistic work consists of two questions. One is, What knowledge of language is
needed for us to use language? In a sense, we must know a language to use it, but we are not always fully aware
of this knowledge. A distinction may be drawn between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit
knowledge refers to the knowledge of how to perform various acts, whereas explicit knowledge refers to the
knowledge of the processes or mechanisms used in these acts. We sometimes know how to do something
without knowing how we do it. For instance, a baseball pitcher ( 投手) might know how to throw a baseball 90
miles an hour but might have little or no explicit knowledge of the muscle groups that are involved in this act.
Similarly, we may distinguish between knowing how to speak and knowing what processes are involved in
producing speech. Generally speaking, much of our linguistic knowledge is tacit rather than explicit.
PART VI WRITING
There has been a new trend in economic activitythe sharing economy. The biggest section of the sharing
economy is travel. You can find a potential host through a website. If you both get along and they are available
during your planned trip, you stand a chance of getting a place to stay for free. In addition, people also use
websites and apps to rent out their cars, houses, tools, clothes and services to one another. Time magazine has
included this trend in a list titled “10 ideas that will change the world”. It said: In an era when families are
scattered and we may not know thw people down the streets, sharing thingseven with strangers we’ve just met
on lineallows us to make meaningful connections.” What do you think of Time’s comment?
My Views on the Sharing Economy
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, language and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above
instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your essay on Answer Sheet Four.
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2015 年专八参考答案
Part Listening ComprehensionⅠ
Section A Mini-lecture
1. parts of language
2. other features
3. rhythm
4. having the ability
5. a particular subject
6. knowledge or experience
7. reinterpreting
8. predicting/making predictions
9. types of predictions
10. contents
Section B Interview
1-5 DCBAC
6-10 CADBB
Part Reading ComprehensionⅡ
11-15 CDBAC
16-20 ACDCB
21-25 BCABD
26-30 DADAC
Part ⅢGeneral Knowledge
31-35 ADBDA
36-40 ACABC
Part ⅣProofreading & Error Correction
1. Looked→Looking
2. and→but
3. complimentary→compliment
4.it→去掉 it
5. very→too
6. which→in∧
7. specially→especially 或 particularly
8. for→about
9. aspect→case
10. been→去掉 been
Part Ⅴ Translation
Section A Chinese to English
Camellia’s flowering period starts from December and ends in the next April，and the colors of the flowers are
bright and showy with red in majority, yellow, white and other colors in minority. It’s the city’s largest camellia
show in recent three years, which fully displays camellia’s various species as well as human s scientific
research level of it. In order to provide the majority of plant-lovers with more opportunities to closely
appreciate the beauty of camellia, the area of the Camellia Show is extended to the whole garden so that it can
bring more convenience for the visitors.
The Camellia Show takes over two months, in which more than 200 various camellias will be presented
successively.
Section B English to Chinese
心理语言学的研究包括两个核心问题。第一，我们使用语言需要什么语言知识？从某种意义上说，我
们必须拥有某种语言的知识才能使用该语言，但却并不总是能完全意识到这种知识。我们可能要对隐
性知识和显性知识加以区分。隐性知识是指如何执行各种动作所拥有的知识，而显性知识是指在这些
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动作中使用的过程或者机制所蕴含的知识。有时，我们知道如何做某事，却无法说出我们是怎么做的 。
比如，一名棒球投手可能知道如何以每小时 90 英里的速度把球抛出去，但对有关参与此活动的肌群的
显性知识却知之甚少，或一无所知。同样地，我们知道如何说话，但却不清楚言语产生包含哪些过程 。
总的来说，我们的大多数语言知识都是隐性知识而非显性知识。
Part Ⅵ Writing
参考范文
My Views on the Sharing Economy
The sharing economy refers to the economic pattern in which people share access to resources, such as
goods, services and data. This newly emerging trend would be impossible without the development of
technology. It is the Internet that makes the sharing cheaper and easier and helps to strike a balance between
supply and demand. Time magazine has listed the sharing economy as one of the 10 ideas that will change the
world . As far as the comment is concerned, I cannot agree with Time more.
As one of the greatest benefits of the digital age, the sharing economy arises from our oldest instinct as
human beings. There is always an urge for us to connect with others, especially in an era when families are
scattered and we do not really know the people who live nearby. It has been said that Joys shared with others
are more enjoyed. However, in my eyes, the resources shared with others are more beneficial to our society.
On the one hand, sharing economy leads to a more efficient use of resources. Some items are expensive to
buy but widely owned by people who do not make the best use of them. Occasional sharing may provide extra
income for the owners and can be less costly for the borrowers. If managed well, a win-win situation is
achieved for both parties in the process. Besides, sharing economy contributes to environmental protection.
Take accommodation for example. The more hotels are built, the more resources are required, which might in
turn result in a decrease in arable land and public green space. On the other hand, the transaction cost is
reduced due to the use of Internet and various apps. With a smart phone in your hand, it is not difficult to find a
potential host in the neighboring area. People are meeting increasingly on screens, discussing online and
purchasing goods domestic and overseas, paying through Internet payment system.
To summarize, although the sharing economy is not perfect at present because of concerns in insurance,
legal liability, safety and the like, I believe, quite firmly, that it represents the future trend and has the power to
change the world for the convenience and flexibility it brings to us. Just as the old Chinese saying goes, the
defects cannot obscure the virtues of a splendid jade, and I assume it also applies to the sharing economy.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2014)
GRADE EIGHT
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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, using no more than three words in each
gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to
your notes while completing the task Use the blank sheet for note-taking.
Now, listen to the mini-lecture.
How to Reduce Stress
Life is full of things that cause us sress. Though we may not like
stress, we have to live with it.
I. Definition of stress
A. (1) reaction
i.e.force exerted between two touching bodies
B. human reaction
i.e. response to (2) on someone
e.g. increase in breathing, heart rate, (3) ,
or muscle tension
II. (4) ,
A. positive stress
where it occurs: Christmas, wedding, (5)
B. negative stress
where it occurs: test-taking situations, friend’s death
III. Ways to cope with stress
A. recoginition of stress signals
monitor for (6) of stress
find ways to protect oneself
B. attention to body demand
effect of (7)
C. planning and acting appropriately
reason for planning
(8) of planning
D. learning to (9)
e.g. dlay caused by traffic
E. pacing activities
manageable task
(10)
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
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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. According to the interviewer, which of the following best indicates the relationship between choice and
mobility?
A. Better education→ greater mobility→more choices.
B. Better education→more choices→greater mobility.
C. Greater mobility→better education→more choices.
D. Greater mobility→more choices→better education.
2. According to the interview, which of the following details about the first poll is INCORRECT?
A. Shorter work hours was least chosen for being most important.
B. Chances for advancement might have been favoured by young people.
C. High income failed to come on top for being most important.
D. Job security came second according to the poll results.
3. According to the interviewee, which is the main difference between the first and the second poll?
A. The type of respondents who were invited.
B. The way in which the questions were designed.
C. The content area of the questions.
D. The number of poll questions.
4. What can we learn from the respondents' answers to items 2, 4 and 7 in the second poll?
A. Recognition from colleagues should be given less importance.
B. Workers are always willing and ready to learn more new skills.
C. Psychological reward is more important than material one.
D. Work will have to be made interesting to raise efficiency.
5. According to the interviewee, which of the following can offer both psychological and monetary benefits?
A. Contact with many people.
B. Chances for advancement.
C. Appreciation from coworkers.
D. Chances to learn new skills.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
Questions 6 and 7 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
6. According to the news item, "sleepboxes" are designed to solve the problems of
A. airports.
B. passengers.
C. architects.
D. companies.
7. Which of the following is NOT true with reference to the news?
A. Sleepboxes can be rented for different lengths of time.
B. Renters of normal height can stand up inside.
C. Bedding can be automatically changed.
D. Renters can take a shower inside the box.
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.
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8. What is the news item mainly about?
A. London's preparations for the Notting Hill Carnival.
B. Main features of the Notting Hill Carnival.
C. Police's preventive measures for the carnival.
D. Police participation in the carnival.
Questions 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 questions.
Now listen to the news.
9. The news item reports on a research finding about
A. the Dutch famine and the Dutch women.
B. early malnutrition and heart health.
C. the causes of death during the famine.
D. nutrition in childhood and adolescence.
10. When did the research team carry out the study?
A. At the end of World War II.
B. Between 1944 and 1945.
C. In the 1950s.
D. In 2007.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
TEXT A
My class at Harvard Business School helps students understand what good management theory is and how
it is built. In each session, we look at one company through the lenses of different theories, using them to
explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what action will yield the needed results. On the
last day of class, I asked my class to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves to find answers to two
questions: First, How can I be sure I ll be happy in my career? Second, How can I be sure my relationships
with my spouse and my family will become an enduring source of happiness? Here are some management tools
that can be used to help you lead a purposeful life.
1. Use Your Resources Wisely. Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent shape
your life s strategy. I have a bunch of businesses that compete for these resources: I m trying to have a
rewarding relationship with my wife, raise great kids, contribute to my community, succeed in my career, and
contribute to my church. And I have exactly the same problem that a corporation does. I have a limited amount
of time, energy and talent. How much do I devote to each of these pursuits?
Allocation choices can make your life turn out to very different from what you intended. Sometimes that s
good: opportunities that you have never planned for emerge. But if you don t invest your resources wisely, the
outcome can be bad. As I think about my former classmates who inadvertently invested in lives of hollow
unhappiness, I can t help believing that their troubles related right back to a short-term perspective.
When people with a high need for achievement have an extra half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy,
they ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. Our careers provide
the most concrete evidence that we re moving forward. You ship a product, finish a design, complete a
presentation, close a sale teach a class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and
energy in your relationships with your spouse and children typically doesn t offer the same immediate sense of
achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It s really not until 20 years down the road that you can say, I raised
a good son or a good daughter. You can neglect your relationship with your spouse and on a daily basis it
doesn t seem as if thing are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to
under invest in their families and overinvest in their careers, even though intimate and loving family
relationships are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.
If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you ll find this predisposition toward
endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you ll see that same
stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once
said mattered most.
2. Create A Family Culture. It s one thing to see into the foggy future with a acuity and chart the course
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corrections a company must make. But it s quite another to persuade employees to line up and work
cooperatively to take the company in that new direction.
When there is little agreement, you have to use power tools coercion, threats, punishments and so on,
to secure cooperation. But if employee s ways of working together succeed over and over, consensus begins to
form. Ultimately, people don t even think about whether their way yields success. They embrace priorities and
follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision, which means that they ve created
a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which member
s of a group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It
can be a powerful management tool.
I use this model to address the question, How can I be my family becomes an enduring source of
happiness? My students quickly see that the simplest way parents can elicit cooperation from children is to
wield power tools. But there comes a point during the teen years when power tools no longer work. At that
point, parents start wishing they had begun working with their children at a very young age to build a culture in
which children instinctively behave respectfully toward one another, obey their parents, and choose the right
thing to do. Families have cultures, just a companies do. Those cultures can be built consciously.
If you want your kids to have strong self-esteem and the confidence that they can solve hard problems,
those qualities won t magically materialize in high school. You have to design them into family s culture and
you have think about this very early on. Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are
hard and learning what works.
11. According to the author, the key to successful allocation of resources in your life depends on whether you
A. can manage your time well B. have long-term planning
C. are lucky enough to have new opportunities D. can solve both company and family problems
12. What is the role of the statement Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we re moving
forward with reference to the previous statement in the paragraph?
A. To offer further explanation B. To provide a definition
C. To present a contrast D. To illustrate career development
13. According to the author, a common cause of failure in business and family relationships is
A. lack of planning B. short-sightedness C. shortage of resources D. decision by instinct
14. According to the author, when does culture begin to emerge
A. When people decide what and how to do by instinct
B. When people realize the importance of consensus
C. When people as a group decide how to succeed
D. When people use power tools to reach agreement
15. One of the similarities between company culture and family culture is that
A. problem-solving ability is essential B. cooperation is the foundation
C. respect and obedience are key elements D. culture needs to be nurtured
Text B
It was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in sight. Dr. Macphail lit his pipe
and, leaning over the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound
that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down quietly at Apia ( 阿皮亚，西萨摩亚首
都) for twelve months at least, and he felt already better for the journey. Since some of the passengers were
leaving the ship next day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his ears hammered still
the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long
chair talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat down under the light and took off his
hat you saw that he had very red hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin which
accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, precise and rather pedantic; and he
spoke with a Scots accent in a very low, quiet voice.
Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there had arisen the intimacy of
shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the
disapproval they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the smoking-room playing poker or
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专八真题 2014 年
bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only
people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half
unconsciously acknowledged the compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in
their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp (唠叨).
‘Mrs. Davidson was saying she didn’t know how they’d have got through the journey if it hadn’t been for
us,’ said Mrs. Macphail, as she neatly brushed out her transformation (假发). ‘She said we were really the only
people on the ship they cared to know.’
‘I shouldn’t have thought a missionary was such a big bug (要人、名士) that he could afford to put on
frills (摆架子).’
‘It’s not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn’t have been very nice for the Davidsons to
have to mix with all that rough lot in the smoking-room.
The founder of their religion wasn t so exclusive, said Dr. Macphail with a chuckle.
I ve asked you over and over again not to joke about religion, answered his wife. I shouldn t like to
have a nature like yours, Alec. You never look for the best in people.
He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not reply. After many years of married life
he had learned that it was more conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He was undressed
before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled down to read himself to sleep.
When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at it with greedy eyes. There was
a thin strip of silver beach rising quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The coconut trees,
thick and green, came nearly to the water s edge, and among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoaris
(萨摩亚人); and here and there, gleaming white, a little church. Mrs. Davidson came and stood beside him. She
was dressed in black, and wore round her neck a gold chain, from which dangled a small cross. She was a little
woman, with brown, dull hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind invisible
pince-nez (夹鼻眼镜). Her face was long, like a sheep’s, but she gave no impression of foolishness, rather of
extreme alertness; she had the quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her voice,
high, metallic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the
pitiless clamour of the pneumatic drill.
This must seem like home to you, said Dr. Macphail, with his thin, difficult smile.
Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We ve got another ten days''
journey to reach them.
In these parts that s almost like being in the next street at home, said Dr. Macphail facetiously.
Well, that s rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does look at distances differently in the J
South Seas. So far you re right.
Dr. Macphail sighed faintly.
16. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that Dr. Macphail
A. preferred quietness to noise B. enjoyed the sound of the mechanical piano
C. was going back to his hometown D. wanted to befriend the Davidsons
17. The Macphails and the Davidsons were in each other e company because they
A. had similar experience B. liked each other
C. shared dislike for some passengers D. had similar religious belief
18. Which of the following statements best DESCRIBES Mrs. Macphail?
A. She was good at making friends B. She was prone to quarrelling with her husband
C. She was skillful in dealing with strangers D. She was easy to get along with.
19. All the following adjectives can be used to depict Mrs. Davidson EXCEPT
A. arrogant B. unapproachable C. unpleasant D. irritable
20. Which of the following statements about Dr. Macphail is INCORRECT?
A. He was sociable. B. He was intelligent.
C. He was afraid of his wife. D. He was fun of the Davidsons.
Text C
Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles. We're told that to be great is to
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be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extrovertswhich means that we've lost
sight of who we really are. One-third to one-half of Americans are introvertsin the other words, one out of every
two or three people you know. If you're not an introvert yourself, you are surely raising, managing, married to,
or coupled with one.
If these statistics surprise you, that's probably because so many people pretend to be extroverts. Closet
introverts pass undetected on playgrounds, in high school locker rooms, and in the corridors of corporate
America. Some fool even themselves, until some life event---a layoff, an empty nest, an inheritance that frees
them to spend time as they like---jolts them into taking stock of their true natures. You have only to raise this
subject with your friends and acquaintances to find that the most unlikely people consider themselves introverts.
It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themselves. We live with a value system that I call the
Extrovert Ideal the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight.
The archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He
favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups. We
like to think that we value individuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual the kind who's
comfortable "putting himself out there." Sure, we allow technologically gifted loners who launch companies in
garages to have any personality they please, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and our tolerance extends
mainly to those who get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so.
Introversion---along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness---is now a second-class
personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living under the Extrovert
Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are.
Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to
which most of us feel we must conform.
The Extrovert Ideal has been documented in many studies, though this research has never been grouped
under a single name. Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarter, better-looking, more interesting, and
more desirable as friends. Velocity of speech counts as well as volume: we rank fast talkers as more competent
and likable than slow ones. Even the word introvert is stigmatized---one informal study, by psychologist Laurie
Helgoe, found that introverts described their own physical appearance in vivid language, but when asked to
describe generic introverts they drew a bland and distasteful picture.
But we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Ideal so unthinkingly. Some of our greatest ideas,
art, and inventions---from the theory of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers to the personal computer---came
from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found
there.
21. According to the author, there exists, as far as personality styles are concerned, a discrepancy between
A. what people say they can do and what they actually can
B. what society values and what people pretend to be
C. what people profess and what statistics show
D. what people profess and what they hide from others
22. The ideal extrovert is described as being all the following EXCEPT
A. doubtful B. sociable C. determined D. bold
23. According to the author, our society only permits ___ to have whatever personality they like.
A. the young B. the ordinary C. the artistic D. the rich
24. According to the passage, which of the following statements BEST reflects the author s opinion?
A. Introversion is seen as an inferior trait because of its association with sensitivity.
B. Extroversion is arbitrary forced by society as a norm upon people.
C. Introverts are generally regarded as either unsuccessful or as deficient.
D. Extroversion and introversion have similar personality trait profiles.
25. The author winds up the passage with a____ note.
A. cautious B. warning C. positive D. humorous
Text D
Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized
world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more
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fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you
smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even
shielding against dementia in old age.
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of
the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an
interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child s academic and intellectual development.
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual s brain both
language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one
system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn t so much a handicap as a
blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens
its cognitive muscles.
The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the
brain s so-called executive function ? a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for
planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include
ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding
information in mind ? like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.
Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of
cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for
inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought,
would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly
appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at
tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered
randomly on a page.
The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to
monitor the environment. Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often ? you may talk to your father in one
language and to your mother in another language, says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu
Fabra in Spain. It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our
surroundings when driving. In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on
monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but
they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more
efficient at it.
The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to
believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).
26. According to the passage, the more recent and old views of bilingualism differ mainly in
A. its practical advantages B. its role in cognition
C. perceived language fluency D. its role in medicine
27. The fact that interference is now seen as a blessing in disguise means that
A. it has led to unexpectedly favourable results B. its potential benefits have remained undiscovered
C. its effects on cognitive development have been minimal
D. only a few researchers have realized its advantages
28. What is the role of Paragraph Four in relation to Paragraph Three?
A. It provides counter evidence to Paragraph Three.
B. It offers another example of the role of interference.
C. It serves as a transitional paragraph in the passage.
D. It further illustrates the point in Paragraph Three.
29. Which of the following can account for better performance of bilinguals in doing non-inhibition tasks?
A. An ability to monitor surroundings. B. An ability to ignore distractions.
C. An ability to perform with less effort. D. An ability to exercise suppression.
30. What is the main theme of the passage?
A. Features of bilinguals and monolinguals. B. Interference and suppression.
C. Bilinguals and monitoring tasks. D. Reasons why bilinguals are smarter.
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专八真题 2014 年
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
31. Which of the following is the French-speaking city in Canada?
A. Vancouver B. Ottawa C. Montreal D. Toronto
32. Which of the following are natives of New Zealand?
A. The Maoris B. The Aboriginals C. The Red Indians D. The Eskimos
33. The established or national church in England is
A. the Roman Catholic Church B. the United Reformed Church
C. the Anglican Church D. the Methodist Church
34. The 13 former British colonies in North America declared independence from Great Britain in
A. 1774 B. 1775 C. 1776 D. 1777
35. Grace under pressure is an outstanding virtue of ____ heroes.
A. Scott Fitzgerald s B. Ernest Hemingway s C. Eugene O Neill s D. William Faulkner s
36. Widowers House was written by
A. William Butler Yeats B. George Bernard Shaw C. John GalsworthyD. T. S. Eliot
37. Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?
A. William Shakespeare B. William Blake C. Geoffrey Chaucer D. John Donne
38. Which of the following pairs of words are homophones?
A. wind (v.) / wind (n.) B. suspect (v.) / suspect (n.)
C. convict (v.) / convict (n.) D. bare (adj.) / bear (v.)
39. Which of the following sentences has the S+V+O structure?
A. He died a hero. B. I went to London. C. Mary enjoyed parties.D. She became angry.
40. Which of the following CAN NOT be used as an adverbial?
A. The lion s share B. Heart and soul. C. Null and void. D. Hammer and tongs.
PART IV 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
provided 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．
EXAMPLE
When ^ art museum wants a new exhibit， (1) an
it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall．When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it． (3) exhibit
There is widespread consensus among scholars that second language acquisition (SLA) emerged as a distinct
field of research from the late 1950s to early 1960s.
There is a high level of agreement that the following questions (1) ______
have possessed the most attention of researchers in this area: (2) ______
Is it possible to acquire an additional language in the
same sense one acquires a first language? (3) ______
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专八真题 2014 年
What is the explanation for the fact adults have (4) ______
more difficulty in acquiring additional languages than children have?
What motivates people to acquire additional language?
What is the role of the language teaching in the (5) ______
acquisition of additional languages?
What social-cultural factors, if any, are relevant in studying the
learning of additional languages?
From a check of the literature of the field it is clear that all (6) ______
the approaches adopted to study the phenomena of SLA so far have
one thing in common: The perspective adopted to view the acquiring
of an additional language is that of an individual attempts to do (7) ______
so. Whether one labels it learning or acquiring an additional
language, it is an individual accomplishment or what is under (8) ______
focus is the cognitive, psychological, and institutional status of an
individual. That is, the spotlight is on what mental capabilities are
involving, what psychological factors play a role in the learning (9) ______
or acquisition, and whether the target language is learnt in the
classroom or acquired through social touch with native speakers. (10) ______
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
当我在小学毕了业的时候，亲友一致的愿意我去学手艺，好帮助母亲。我晓得我应当去找饭吃，
以减轻母亲的勤劳困苦。 可是，我也愿意升学。我偷偷地考入了师范学校 --- 制服，饭食，书籍，宿处 ，
都由学校供给。只有这样，我才敢对母亲提升学的话。入学，要交十元的保证金。这是一笔巨款！母
亲作了半个月的难，把这巨款筹到，而后含泪把我送出门去。她不辞劳苦，只要儿子有出息。当我有
师范毕业，而被派为小学校长，母亲与我都一夜不曾合眼。我只说了句：“以后，您可以歇一歇
了！”她的回答只有一串串的眼泪。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
The physical distance between speakers can indicate a number of things and can also be used to used to
consciously send messages about intent. Closeness, for example, indicates intimacy or threat to many speakers
whilst distance may denote formality or a lack of interest. Proximity is also both a matter of personal style and
is often culture-bound so that what may seem normal to a speaker from one culture may appear unnecessarily
close or distant to a speaker from another. And standing close to someone may be quite appropriate in some
situations such as an informal party, but completely out of place in others, such as meeting with a superior.
Posture can convey meaning too. Hunched shoulders and a hanging head give a powerful indication of
mood. A lowered head when speaking to a superior (with or without eye contact) can convey the appropriate
relationship in some cultures.
PART VI WRITING (45 MIN)
Nowadays some companies have work-from-home or remote working policies, which means that their
employees do not have to commute to work every day. Some people think that this can save a lot of time
travelling to and from work, thus raising employees productivity. However, others argue that in the workplace,
people can communicate face to face, which vastly increases the efficiency of coordination and cooperation.
What is your opinion?
Write an essay of about 400 words on the following topic: My Views on Working from Home
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专八真题 2014 年
2014 年专八参考答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1.physical
2.a demand
3.bllod pressure
4.Categories
5.a job
6.signals
7.a stress-free environment
8.results
9.accept situations
10.a reasonable speed
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 DDACC
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 CBDAC
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 ACBDA
16-20 BABAD
21-25 DADAD
26-30 CADBB
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 CADCC
36-40 BACDB
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN)
1.is →also∧
2.possessed→attracted
3.sense →as∧
4.fact →that∧
5.第二个 the→t／he
6.check→review
7.attempts→attempting
8.or→and
9.involving→involved
10.touch→interaction
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
After I graduated from primary school, relatives and friends all suggested that I should
drop out and learn a trade to help my mother. Although I knew that I ought to seek a
livelihood to relieve mother of hard work and distress, I still aspired to go on with
study. So I kept learning secretly. I had no courage to tell mother about the idea until
admitted to a normal school which provided free uniforms, books, room and board. To enter
the school, I had to pay ten Yuan as a deposit. This was a large sum of money for my
family. However, after two weeks tough effort, mother managed to raise the money and
sent me off to school in tears afterwards. She would spare no pains for her son to win a
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专八真题 2014 年
bright future. On the day when I was appointed the schoolmaster after graduation, mother
and I spent a sleepless night. I said to her, "you can have a rest in the future." but
she replied nothing, only with tears streaming down her face.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
演说者与听众之间的实际距离通常来是用来传送演说内容的最佳途径但是同时可以表明很多问题。就
拿距离的远近来说，近距离可以体现演说者和听众的一种亲密程度但同时对于演说者也是一种心灵上
的震慑，相反，远距离会是一种较正式的提现但也可说是一种缺乏兴趣的表现。大致距离不仅仅是一
种个人风格的提现同时也和个人的文化背景息息相关，因此在一种文化中所体现的演说者与听众之间
适宜的距离在另一种文化中可能会被界定成一种过分亲近亦或过分的疏远。再比如，如在非正规的宴
会中，双方之间紧贴的距离是一种适宜的表现但是如若是和高层领导洽谈，这样的距离就显得适得其
反了。不仅仅是距离，姿势也会透露很多细节。俯身前倾，头部前伸是一种正面情绪的提现。但当和
尊者沟通还伴随着时不时的眼神交流时，谦卑的低头在一些文化背景中却也是一种合适的氛围。
PART VI WRITING
Working from Home
Certain companies, especially some small-scale businesses, start to encourage their staff to work from
home or use home as a working base for at least part of the week nowadays. Some offer some form of remote
working support to their workforces, such as equipping them with laptops and installing broadband, and others
pay for the telephone bills for these workers.
This work pattem is popular because it s clear that there are a number of benefits for these companies.
First, it helps retain employees, especially highly- qualified working parents with childcare responsibilities.
Second, it brings higher productivity because the employees have fewer interruptions and less commuting time.
Last but not least, it offers savings on premises and other facilities.
However, there are some potential drawbacks. For one thing, there is difficulty of managing home workers
and monitoring their performance, and difficulty of maintaining staff development and upgrading skills. For
another, it may create a sense of isolation among home workers and it can be harder to maintain team spirit.
Therefore, enterprises should weigh the pros and cons before permitting their employees to work at home.
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专八真题 2013 年
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2013)
GRADE EIGHT
TIME LIMIT：195 MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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, using no more than three
words in each gap ． Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are)both grammatically and semantically
acceptable ． You may refer to your notes while completing the task ． Use the blank sheet for note-
taking．Now, listen to the mini-lecture．
What Do Active Learners Do?
There are difference between active learning and passive learning.
Characteristics of active learners:
I. reading with purposes
A. before reading: setting goals
B. while reading: (1) ________
II. (2) ______ and critical in thinking
i.e. information processing, e.g.
-- connections between the known and the new information
-- identification of (3) ______ concepts
-- judgment on the value of (4) _____.
III. active in listening
A. ways of note-taking: (5) _______.
B. before note-taking: listening and thinking
IV. being able to get assistance
A. reason 1: knowing comprehension problems because of (6) ______.
B. Reason 2: being able to predict study difficulties
V. being able to question information
A. question what they read or hear
B. evaluate and (7) ______.
VI. Last characteristic
A. attitude toward responsibility
-- active learners: accept
-- passive learners: (8) _______
B. attitude toward (9) ______
-- active learners: evaluate and change behaviour
-- passive learners: no change in approach
Relationship between skill and will: will is more important in (10) ______.
Lack of will leads to difficulty in college learning.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow．Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO．
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 ． According to the interviewer, which of the following best indicates the relationship between choice and
mobility?
A．Better education → greater mobility → more choices．
B．Better education → more choices → greater mobility．
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专八真题 2013 年
C．Greater mobility → better education → more choices．
D．Greater mobility → more choices → better education．
2．According to the interview，which of the following details about the first poll is INCORRECT?
A．Shorter work hours was least chosen for being most important．
B．Chances for advancement might have been favoured by young people．
C．High income failed to come on top for being most important．
D．Job security came second according to the poll results．
3．According to the interviewee，which is the main difference between the first and the second poll?
A．The type of respondents who were invited．
B．The way in which the questions were designed．
C．The content area of the questions．
D．The number of poll questions．
4．What can we learn from the respondents’answers to items 2，4 and 7 in the second poll?
A．Recognition from colleagues should be given less importance．
B．Workers are always willing and ready to learn more new skills．
C．Psychological reward is more important than material one．
D．Work will have to be made interesting to raise efficiency．
5．According to the interviewee，which of the following can offer both psychological and monetary benefits?
A．Contact with many people． B．Chances for advancement．
C．Appreciation from coworkers． D．Chances to learn new skills
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY ． Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow．Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO．
Questions 6 and 7 are based on the following news, At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions．Now listen to the news．
6．According to the news item，“sleep boxes”are designed to solve the problems of
A．airports． B．passengers． C．architects． D．companies．
7．Which of the following is NOT true with reference to the news?
A．Sleep boxes can be rented for different lengths of time．
B．Renters of normal height can stand up inside．
C．Bedding can be automatically changed．
D．Renters can take a shower inside the box．
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．What is the news item mainly about?
A．London’S preparations for the Notting Hill Carnival．
B．Main features of the Notting Hill Carnival．
C．Police's preventive measures for the carnival．
D．Police participation in the carnival．
Questions 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 questions．Now listen to the news．
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专八真题 2013 年
9．The news item reports on a research finding about
A．the Dutch famine and the Dutch women．
B．early malnutrition and heart health．
C．the causes of death during the famine．
D．nutrition in childhood and adolescence．
10．When did the research team carry out the study?
A．At the end of World War II．
B．Between 1944 and 1945．
C．In the 1950s．
D．In 2007．
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO．
TEXT A
Three hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or 1etter, and circulated in taverns and coffee
houses in the form of pamphlets and newsletters．“The coffee houses particularly are．very roomy for a free
conversation，and for reading at an easier rate all manner of printed news，”noted one observer．Everything
changed in 1833 when the first mass-audience newspaper, The New York Sun，pioneered the use of advertising
to reduce the cost of news，thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience．The penny press，followed by
radio and television，turned news from a two-way conversation into a one—way broadcast，with a relatively
small number of firms controlling the media．
Now, the news industry is returning to something closer to the coffee house．The internet is making news
more participatory ， social and diverse ， reviving the discursive characteristics of" the era before the mass
media．That will have profound effects on society and politics ．In much of the world ．the mass media are
flourishing ． Newspaper circulation rose globally by 6% between 2005 and 2009 ． But those global figures
mask a sharp decline in readership in rich countries．
Over the past decade，throughout the Western world，people have been giving up newspapers and TV
news and keeping up with events in profoundly different ways ． Most strikingly, ordinary people are
increasingly involved in compiling，sharing，filtering，discussing and distributing news．Twitter lets people
anywhere report what they are seeing ． Classified documents are published in their thousands
online．Mobile·phone footage of Arab uprisings and American tornadoes is posted on social-networking sites
and shown on television newscasts ． Social-networking sites help people find ， discuss and share news with
their friends．
And it is not just readers who are challenging the media elite ． Technology firms including
Google ， Facebook and Twitter have become important conduits of news ． Celebrities and world leaders
publish updates directly via social networks ； many countries now make raw data available through“open
government”initiatives．The internet lets people read newspapers or watch television channels from around the
world．The web has allowed new providers of news，from individual bloggers to sites，to rise to prominence
in a very short space of time．And it has made possible entirely new approaches to journalism ，such as that
practiced by WikiLeaks，which provides an anonymous way for whistleblowers to publish documents ．The
news agenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets．
In principle ， every liberal should celebrate this ． A more participatory and social news
environment，with a remarkable diversity and range of news sources，is a good thing．The transformation of
the news business is unstoppable ， and attempts to reverse it are doomed to failure ． As producers of new
journalism，individuals can be scrupulous with facts and transparent with their sources．As consumers，they
can be general in their tastes and demanding in their standards ．And although this transformation does raise
concerns ， there is much to celebrate in the noisy, diverse ， vociferous ， argumentative and stridently alive
environment of the news business
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专八真题 2013 年
in the ages of the internet．The coffee house is back．Enjoy it．
11．According to the passage，what initiated the transformation of coffee-house news to mass-media news?
A．The emergence of big mass media firms．
B．The popularity of radio and television．
C．The appearance of advertising in newspapers．
D．The increasing number of newspaper readers．
12．Which of the following statements best supports“Now, the Hews industry is returning to something closer
to the coffee house”?
A Newspaper circulation rose globally by 6％between 2005 and 2009．
B．People in the Western world are giving up newspapers and TV news．
C．Classified documents are published in their thousands online．
D．More people are involved in finding，discussing and distributing news．
13．According to the passage，which is NOT a role played by information technology?
A．Challenging the traditional media．
B．Planning the return to coffee-house news．
C．Providing people with access to classified files．
D．Giving ordinary people the chance to provide news．
14．The author’S tone in the last paragraph towards new journalism is
A．optimistic and cautious． B．supportive and skeptical．
C．doubtful and reserved． D．ambiguous and cautious．
15．In“The coffee house is back”，coffee house best symbolizes
A．the changing characteristics of news audience．
B．the more diversified means of news distribution．
C．the participatory nature of news．
D. the more varied sources of news．
TEXT B
Paris is like pornography．You respond even if you don’t want to．You turn a corner and see
a vista，and your imagination bolts away 。Suddenly you are thinking about what it would be like to live in
Paris，and then you think about all the lives you have not lived．Sometimes，though, when you are lucky, you
only think about how many pleasures the day ahead holds．Then, you feel privileged．
The lobby of the hotel is decorated in red and gold ． It gives off a whiff of 1 9m ． century
decadence．Probably as much as any hotel in Paris，this hotel is sexy．1 was standing facing the revolving
doors and the driveway beyond．A car with a woman in the back seat—a woman in a short skirt and black—
leather jacket—pulled up before the hotel door．She swung off and she was wearing high heels．Normally, my
mind would have leaped and imagined a story for this woman ． Now it didn't I stood there and told
myself．Cheer up．You’re in Paris．
In many ways，Paris is best visited in winter．The tourist crowds are at a minimum，and one is not being
jammed off the narrow sidewalks along the Rue Dauphine．More than this．Paris is like many other European
cities in that the season of blockbuster cultural events tends to begin in mid-to late fall and so ，by the time of
winter, most of the cultural treasures of the city are laid out to be admired．
The other great reason why Paris in winter is so much better than Paris in spring and fall is that after the
end of the August holidays and the return of chic Parisian women to their city, the restaurant-opening season
truly begins hopping ． By winter ， many of the new restaurants have worked out their kinks( 不 足 ； 困
难)and，once the hype has died down，it is possible to see which restaurants are actually good and which are
merely noisy and crowded．
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Most people are about as happy as they set their mind to being ，Lincoln said．In Paris it doesn’t take
much to be happy．Outside the hotel，the sky was pale and felt very high up．I walked the few blocks to the
Seine and began running along the blue-green river toward the Eiffel Tower ．The tower in the distance was
black，and felt strange and beautiful the way that many things built for the joy of building do．As I ran toward
it ， because of its lattice structure, the tower seemed obviously delicate ． Seeing it ， I felt a sense of
protectiveness．
I think it was this moment of protectiveness that marked the change in my mood and my slowly becoming
thrilled with being in Paris．
During winter evenings，Paris’s streetlamps have a halo and resemble dandelions．In winter, when one leaves
the Paris street and enters a caf6 or restaurant ，the light and temperature change suddenly and dramatically,
there is the sense of having discovered something secret ．In winter, because the days are short ，there is an
urgency to the choices one makes．There is the sense that life is short and so let us decide on what matters．
16. According to the passage，once in Paris one might experience all the following feelings EXCEPT
A．regret． B．condescension． C．expectation． D．impulse．
17．Winter is the best season to visit Paris．Which of the following does NOT support this statement?
A．Fashionable Parisian women return to Paris．
B．More entertainment activities are staged．
C．There are more good restaurants to choose from．
D．There are fewer tourists in Paris．
18．"Most people are about as happy as they set their mind to being．”This statement means that most people
A．expect to be happy．
B．hope to be as happy as others．
C．would be happier if they wanted．
D．can be happy if they want．
19．In the eyes of the author, winter in Paris is significant because of
A．the atmosphere of its evenings．
B．its implications for life．
C．the contrast it brings．
D．the discovery one makes．
20．At the end of the passage, the author found himself in a mood of
A．excitement． B．thoughtfulness．
C．loneliness． D．joyfulness．
TEXT C
If you want to know why Denmark is the world's leader in wind power, start with a three-hour car trip
from the capital Copenhagen --mind the bicyclists --to the small town of Lem on the far west coast of
Jutland．You'll feel it as you cross the 6.8 km-long Great Belt Bridge ：Denmark's bountiful wind，so fierce
even on a calm summer's day that it threatens to shove your car into the waves below ．But wind itself is only
part of the reason．In Lem，workers in factories the size of aircraft hangars build the wind turbines sold by
Vestas，the Danish company that has emerged as the industry's top manufacturer around the globe．The work
is both gross and fine；employees weld together massive curved sheets of steel to make central shafts as tall as
a 14-story building ，and assemble engine housings( 机器外罩 )that hold some 18,000 separate parts ．Most
impressive are the turbine's blades, which scoop the wind with each sweeping revolution ．As smooth as an
Olympic swimsuit and honed to aerodynamic perfection，each blade weighs in at 7,000 kg，and they’re what
help make Vestas’turbines the best in the world ． “ The blade is where the secret is ， ” says Erik
Therkelsen，a Vestas executive．“If we can make a turbine，it's sold．”
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But technology,like the wind itselK is just one more part of the reason for Denmark's dominance ．In the
end，it happened because Denmark had the political and public will to decide that it wanted to be a leader and
to follow through．Beginning in 1 979，the government began a determined programme of subsidies and loan
guarantees to build up its wind industry．Copenhagen covered 30% of investment costs，and guaranteed loans
for large turbine exporters such as Vestas．It also mandated that utilities purchase wind energy at a preferential
price—thus guaranteeing investors a customer base ． Energy taxes were channeled into research
centres ， where engineers crafted designs that would eventually produce cutting-edge giants like Vestas’ 3-
magawatt(MW)V90 turbine．
As a result．wind turbines now dot Denmark．The country gets more than 1 9％of its electricity from the
breeze(Spain and Portugal，the next highest countries，get about 1 0％)and Danish companies control one—
third of the global wind market ， earning billions in exports and creating a national champion from
scratch ． “ They were out early in driving renewables ， and that gave them the chance to be a technology
leader and a job—creation leader,”says Jake Schmidt ，international climate policy director for the New York
City—based Natural Resources Defense Council．“They have always been one or two steps ahead of others."
The challenge now for Denmark is to help the rest of the world catch up ． Beyond wind ， the
country(pop.5.5 million)is a world leader in energy efficiency ， getting more GDP per watt than any other
member of the E．U．Carbon emissions are down 13.3％from 1990 levels and total energy consumption has
barely moved，even as Denmark's economy continued to grow at a healthy clip ．With Copenhagen set to host
all-important U．N．climate change talks in December --where the world hopes for a successor to the expiring
Kyoto Protocol -- and the global recession beginning to hit environmental plans in capitals
everywhere，Denmark's example couldn't be more timely．“We'll try to make Denmark a showroom.”says
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ．“You can reduce energy use and carbon emissions ，and achieve
economic growth."
It's tempting to assume that Denmark is innately green ，with the kind of Scandinavian good conscience
that has made it such a pleasant global citizen since ，oh，the whole Viking thing．But the country’s policies
were actually born from a different emotion，one now in common currency： fear．When the 1973 oil crisis
hit，90％of Denmark's energy came from petroleum，almost all of it imported．Buffeted by the same supply
shocks that hit the rest of the developed world ，Denmark launched a rapid drive for energy conservation，to
the point of introducing car-free Sundays and asking businesses to switch off lights during closing
hours ． Eventually the Mideast oil started flowing again ， and the Danes themselves began enjoying the
benefits of the petroleum and natural gas in their slice of the North Sea．It was enough to make them more than
self-sufficient．But unlike most other countries，Denmark never forgot the lessons of l973，and kept driving
for greater energy efficiency and a more diversified energy supply ． The Danish parliament raised taxes on
energy to encourage conservation and established subsidies and standards to support more efficient
buildings ． “ It all started out without any regard for the climate or the environment ， ” says Svend
Auken ， the former head of Denmark’s opposition Social Democrat Party and the architect of the country's
environmental policies in the 1990s．“But today there’s a consensus that we need to build renewable power."
To the rest of the world ，Denmark has the power of its example ．showing that you can stay rich and grow
green at the same time．“Denmark has proven that acting on climate can be a positive experience ，not just
painful,”says NRDC's Schmidt．The real pain could come from failing to follow in their footsteps．
21．Which of the following is NOT cited as a main reason for Denmark's world leadership in wind power?
A．Technology． B．Wind． C．Government drive． D．Geographical location．
22．The author has detailed some of the efforts of the Danish Government in promoting the wind industry in
order to show
A．the government’S determination．
B．the country’S subsidy and loan policies．
C．the importance of export to the country．
D．the role of taxation to the economy．
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23．What does the author mean by“Denmark's example couldn’t be more timely”?
A．Denmark's energy-saving efforts cannot be followed by other countries．
B．Denmark can manufacture more wind turbines for other countries．
C．Denmark's energy-saving Success offers the world a useful model．
D．Denmark aims to show the world that it can develop even faster．
24．According to the passage，Denmark's energy-saving policies originated from
A．the country's long tradition of environmental awareness．
B．the country's previous experience of oil shortage．
C．the country's grave shortage of natural resources．
D．the country's abundant wind resources．
25．Which of the following is NOT implied in the passage?
A．Not to save energy could lead to serious consequences．
B．Energy saving cannot go together with economic growth．
C．Energy saving efforts can be painful but positive．
D．Denmark is a powerful leader in the global wind market．
TEXT D
The first clue came when I got my hair cut ． The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a
complimentary nail—polish change while 1 waited for my hair to dry ． Maybe she hoped this little amenity
would slow the growing inclination of women to stretch each haircut to last four months while nursing our hair
back to whatever natural colour we long ago forgot．
Then there was the appliance salesman who offered to carry my bags as we toured the microwave
aisle．When I called my husband to ask him to check some specs online，the salesman offered a pre-emptive
discount，lest the surfing turn up the same model cheaper in another store ．That night，for the first time，I
saw the Hyundai ad promising shoppers that if they buy a car and then lose their job in the next year ，they can
return it．
Suddenly everything’s on sale．The upside to the economic downturn is the immense incentive it gives
retailers to treat you like a queen for a day ． During the flush times ． Salespeople were surly ， waiters
snobby ． But now the customer rules ， just for showing up ． There’s more room to stretch out on the
flight，even in a coach．The malls have that serene aura of undisturbed wilderness，with scarcely a shopper
in sight．Every conversation with anyone selling anything is a pantomime of pain and bluff．Finger the scarf,
then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward．When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes
and a timing belt and other services will run close to $2,000 ，it's time to break out the newly perfected art of
the considered pause ． You really don't even have to say anything pitiful before he'll offer to knock a few
hundred dollars off．
Restaurants are also caught in a fit of ardent hospitality, especially around Wall Street ：Trinity Place
offers $3 drinks at happy hour any day the market goes down．with the slogan “Market tanked? Get tanked!”--
which ensures a lively crowd for the closing bell．The "21" Club has decided that men no longer need to wear
ties，so long as they bring their wallets ． Food itself is friendlier ： you notice more comfort food ，a truce
between chef and patron that is easier to enjoy now that you can get a table practically anywhere ．New York
Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni characterizes the new restaurant demeanor as "extreme solicitousness tinged
with outright desperation．"“You need to hug the customer,”one owner told him．
There's a chance that eventually we'll return a11 this kindness with the extravagant spending that was
once decried but now everyone is hoping will restart the economy ．But human nature is funny that way．In
dangerous times，we clench and squint at the deal that looks too good to miss，suspecting that it must be too
good to be true．Is the store with the super cheap flat screens going to go bust and thus not be there to honour
the "free" extended warranty? Is there something wrong with that free cheese? Store owners will tell you horror
stories about shoppers with attitude ，who walk in demanding discounts and flaunt their new power at every
turn．These store owners wince as they sense bad habit forming ：Will people expect discounts forever? Will
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their hard．won brand luster be forever cheapened，especially for items whose allure depends on their being
ridiculously priced?
There will surely come a day when things go back to“normal” ；retail sales even inched up in January after
sinking for the previous six months ． But 1 wonder what it will take for US to see those $545 Sigerson
Morrison studded toe-ring sandals as reasonable? Bargain-hunting can be addictive regardless of the state of
the markets，and haggling is a low-risk，high-value contact sport．Trauma digs deep into habit，like my 85-
year—old mother still calling her canned-goods cabinet “the bomb shelter." The children of the First Depression
were saving string and preaching sacrifice long after the skies cleared ．They came to be called the “greatest
generation." As we learn to be decent stewards of our resources，who knows what might come of it? We have
lived in an age of wanton waste，and there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own
bottom line．
26．According to the passage，what does“the first clue" suggest?
A．Shops try all kinds of means to please customers．
B．Shops，large or small，are offering big discounts．
C．Women tend to have their hair cut less frequently．
D．Customers refrain from buying things impulsively．
27．Which of the following best depicts the retailers now?
A．Bad-tempered． B．Highly motivated．
C．Over-friendly． D．Deeply frustrated．
28．What does the author mean by“the newly perfected art of the considered pause”?
A．Customers now rush to buy things on sale．
B．Customers have got a sense of superiority．
C．Customers have learned how to bargain．
D．Customers have higher demands for service．
29．According to the passage，“shoppers... flaunt their new power at every turn" means that shoppers would
A．keep asking for more discounts．
B．like to show that they are powerful．
C．like to show off their wealth．
D．have more doubts or suspicion．
30. What is the author's main message in the last two paragraphs?
A．Extravagant spending would boost economic growth．
B. One's life experience would turn into lifelong habits．
C. Customers should expect discounts for luxury goods．
D. The practice of frugality is of great importance．
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section．Mark the best answer to each question on
ANSWER SHEET TWO．
31．The full official name of Australia is
A．The Republic of Australia． B．The Commonwealth of Australia．
C．The Federation of Australia． D．The Union of Australia．
32. Canada is well known for all the following EXCEPT
A．its mineral resources． B．its forest resources．
C．its fertile and arable land． D．its heavy industries．
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33．In the United States community colleges offer
A．two-year programmes． B．four-year programmes．
C．postgraduate studies． D．B．A．or B．S．degrees．
34. In ______，referenda in Scotland and Wales set up a Scottish parliament a
nd a Wales assembly．
A．2000 B．1946 C．1997 D. 1990
35．Which of the following clusters of words is an example of alliteration?
A．A weak seat． B．Safe and sound．
C．Knock and kick． D．Coat and boat．
36．Who wrote Mrs．Warren's Profession?
A．John Galsworthy． B．William Butler Yeats．
C．T．S．Eliot． D．George Bernard Shaw．
37．Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser is a(n)
A．novel． B．short story．
C．poem． D．autobiography．
38．Which Of t11e following italicized parts is an inflectional morpheme?
A．Unlock． B．Government．
C．Goes． D．Off-stage．
39．_____ is a language phenomenon in which words sound like what they refer to.
A．Onomatopoeia B．Collocation
C．Denotation D．Assimilation
40．The sentence "CIose your book and listen to me carefully!" performs a(n) ____ function．
A．interrogative B．informative
C．performative D．directive
PART IV PROOF READING & 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
provided 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．
EXAMPLE
When ^ art museum wants a new exhibit， (1) an
it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall．When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it． (3) exhibit
Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET TWO as instructed．
Psycho-linguistics is the name given to the study of the psychological processes
involved in language. Psycholinguistics study understanding,
production and remembering language, and hence are concerned with (1) _____
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listening, reading, speaking, writing, and memory for language.
One reason why we take the language for granted is that it usually (2) ______
happens so effortlessly, and most of time, so accurately. (3) ______
Indeed, when you listen to someone to speaking, or looking at this page, (4) ______
you normally cannot help but understand it. It is only in exceptional
circumstances we might become aware of the complexity (5) ______
involved: if we are searching for a word but cannot remember it;
if a relative or colleague has had a stroke which has influenced (6) ______
their language; if we observe a child acquire language; if (7) ______
we try to learn a second language ourselves as an adult; or
if we are visually impaired or hearing-impaired or if we meet
anyone else who is. As we shall see, all these examples (8) ______
of what might be called “language in exceptional circumstances”
reveal a great deal about the processes evolved in speaking, (9) ______
listening, writing and reading. But given that language processes
were normally so automatic, we also need to carry out careful (10) ______
experiments to get at what is happening.
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following text into English．Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE．
生活就像一杯红酒，热爱生活的人会从其中品出无穷无尽的美妙。将它握在手中仔细观察，它的暗红
色中有血的感觉，那正是生命的痕迹。抿一口留在口中回味，它的甘甜中有一丝苦涩，如人生一般复
杂迷离。喝一口下肚，余香沁人心脾，让人终身受益。红酒越陈越美味，生活越丰富越美好。当人生
走向晚年，就如一瓶待开封的好酒，其色彩是沉静的，味道中充满慷慨与智慧。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese．Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE．
The UN General Assembly, the central political forum，is composed of 193 members，including virtually
all the world's nation-states ．Two-thirds of its members are developing countries ，which account for about
three-quarters of the world's population．
Reaching decisions is difficult ， especially since all agreements by custom must be reached by
consensus．As a result，important agreements are often held hostage by narrow special interests ，and most
agreements are reached only by reducing them to their lowest common denominators．But the real question is
whether the major countries of the world will allow democracy to function at the highest level．
The Security Council，which is responsible for peace and security，deals with issues of the greatest political
importance．The Council has only 15 members so it can meet frequently and deal with crises ．Once impotent
due to Cold War rivalries，it has regained much of the authority accorded by the UN charter．
PARTVI WRITING (45 MIN)
Is our society hostile to good people? According to a recent survey by China Youth Daily ，76.1 percent of
the respondents say that our current society provides a “bad environment" for good people doing good
things．On the other hand，the more optimistic would argue that each individual should try his or her best to
do good things and be nice to others, instead of waiting for the "social environment”to improve ．So，what do
you think? Is a sound social environment necessary for people to have high moral standards and be good to
others?
Write an essay of about 400 words on the following topic：
Is a sound social environment necessary for people to be good to others?
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you should
support your argument with appropriate details．In the last part you should bring what you have written to a
natural conclusion or make a summary．
Marks will be awarded for content, organization ，language and appropriateness．Failure to follow the above
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instructions may result in a loss of marks．
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR．
---The End.
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专八真题 2013 年
2013 年专业八级答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
Section A
1. checking their understanding
2. reflective on information
3. unfamiliar
4. the reading material
5. comprehensive and organized
6. constant monitoring
7. judge
8. blame others
9. poor performance
10. active learning
Section B
1-5 ADBCB
Section C
6-10 BDCBD
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 CDBAC
16-20 BADBB
21-25 DACBB
26-30 ACBAD
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
31-35 BDACB
36-40 DACAD
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1. production→producing
2. the→／
3. time→the∧
4. looking→look
5. cirsumatances →that∧
6. had→／
7. their→his
8. anyone→ someone
9. evolved→involved
10. were→are
PART V TRANSLATION
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Life is like a cup of wine; people who love it discover inexhaustible wonders from it.
Hold in the hand and gaze at it, the dark red color is reminiscent of the blood, which is the impress of life.
Take a sip of it and appreciate the taste, the bittersweet flavor is exactly the same with life, which is
complicated and blurred.
Once the sip is swallowed, the lingering fragrance pleases the heart and refreshes the mind, leaving a
person lifelong benefit.
There was a remarkable resemblance between life and wine: the taste becomes more delicious as the wine
mellows, just as life gets better as it becomes more abundant.
When life comes to twilight years, it looks calm and tastes full of wisdom and generosity, just like a bottle
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of wine to be savored.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
联合国代表大会，中心政治论坛，由 193 个成员国组成，几乎包括世界上所有国家，其中三分之二
的国家为发展中国家，占世界总人口的四分之三。通过决议非常困难，尤其是所有惯例决出的协议必
须达成一致才能通过。结果就是，重要的协议总是被狭隘的特殊利益所挟持，并且大部分协议都只是
用来使自己的利益最大化。但真正的问题是世界上主要国.是否愿意看到民主最大限度地开展。联合国
安理会，负责和平和安全，处理最重要的政治问题。安理会只有 15 个成员国，所以能经常性地应付危
机。它曾一度由于冷战对立而停摆，但已经重新获得了联合国宪章给予的权利。
PARTVI WRITING
Is a sound social environment necessary for people to be good to others
Helping others has always been a virtue in traditional Chinese culture, but nowadays many people dare not
offer help to those in need, for fear of getting into trouble. The issue has aroused public debate over the climate
of morality and credibility, and many people sigh over the moral degeneration. In my opinion, while social
environment is necessary for people to be good to others, each individual should try his or her best to do good
deeds and be sympathetic with others, instead of waiting for the environment to improve.
There is no denying that some tragic events turn out to be traps by people with evil intentions, so people
are becoming more risk-conscious and are more wary of traps and deceits. some people even wonder, Is our
society hostile to good people? The question may sound ridiculous but many people apparently think so. They
believe that our current society provides a bad environment for good people doing good things, and good people
pay a high price for being compassionate. In fact, such kind of things only accounts for a pretty small
percentage, but massive media coverage makes the situation seem serious. Actually, most people around me are
kind, warm-hearted and helpful, and I am quite delighted in their company. So I believe media should pay more
attention to publicizing good people and exemplary deeds to enhance our confidence, rather than exposing
disgusting behaviors.
At the same time, as John Donne puts it, No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main. Since everyone of us is a component of the society, it is each individual s
conducts that form social morality. Just imagine it is you who need help, what would you feel if everyone
watches indifferently or suspiciously? So, put yourself in other s position and be sympathetic. If we do nothing
but wait for the environment to improve, nothing will happen. Only by removing the fence around our kind
consciousness can we reverse the regress of social ethics, and make our world full of warmth and happiness.
Therefore, if help is needed, never hesitate to lend a helping hand. It will make you happy and feel better about
life.
In sum, I contend the idea that while social environment is necessary for people to be good to others, it is
each individual s responsibility to offer help to those in need, and together we build up a more harmonious
society.
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专八真题 2012 年
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2012)
-GRADE EIGHT-
TIME LIMIT: 195 MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREttENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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, using no more than three words in each
gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to
your notes while completing the task. Use the blank sheet for note-taking. Now, listen to the mini-lecture.
Observation
People do observation in daily life context for safety or for proper behaviour. However, there are differences in
daily life observation and research observation.
A. Differences
---- daily life observation
--casual
--(1) ________
--defendence on memory
---- research observation
-- (2) _________
-- careful record keeping
B. Ways to select samples in research
---- time sampling
-- systematic: e.g. fixed intervals every hour
-- random: fixed intervals but (3) _______
Systematic sampling and random sampling are often used in combination.
---- (4) _______
-- definition: selection of different locations
-- reason: humans or animals behaviour (5) ______ across circumstances
-- (6) ______: more objective observations
C. Ways to record behaviour (7) _______
---- observation with intervention
-- participant observation: researcher as observer and participant
-- field experiment: research (8) ______ over conditions
---- observation without intervention
-- purpose: describing behaviour (9) ______
-- (10) ______ : no intervention
-- researcher: a passive recorder
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the
questions that follow. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
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 foliowing five questions. Now listen to the interview.
1. Which of the following statements about creativity is INCORRECT?
A. Creativity stems from human beings' novel thinking.
B. The duration of the creative process varies from person to person.
C. Creative people focus on novel thinking rather than on solutions.
D. The outcome of human creativity comes in varied forms.
2. The interviewee cites the Bach family to show that creativity
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专八真题 2012 年
A. appears to be the result of the environment.
B. seems to be attributable to genetic makeup.
C. appears to be more associated with great people.
D. comes from both environment and genetic makeup.
3. How many types of the creative process does the interviewee describe?
A. One. B. Two. C. Three. D. Four.
4. Which of the following features of a creative personality is NOT mentioned in the interview?
A. Unconventional. B. Original.
C. Resolute. D. Critical.
5. The interviewee's suggestion for a creativity workout supports the view that
A. brain exercising will not make people creative.
B. most people have diversified interests and hobbies.
C. the environment is significant in the creative process.
D. creativity can only be found in great people.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO. 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. What is the news item mainly about?
A. U.S. astronauts made three space walks.
B. An international space station was set up.
C. A problem in the cooling system was solved.
D. A 350-kilogram ammonia pump was removed.
Questions 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions. Now listen to the news.
7. In which country would parents often threaten to punish children by leaving them outside?
A. India. B. The Philippines.
C. Egypt. D. Not mentioned.
8. What is the main purpose of the study?
A. To reveal cultural differences and similarities.
B. To expose cases of child abuse and punishment.
C. To analyze child behaviour across countries.
D. To investigate ways of physical punishment.
Questions 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 questions. Now listen to the news.
9. According to the news item, Japan's economic growth in the second quarter was ____ less than the first
quarter.
A. 0.6 percent B. 3.4 percent
C. 4 percent D. 3 percent
10. How many reasons does the news item cite for Japan's slow economic growth?
A. 2. B. 3. C. 4. D. 5.
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专八真题 2012 年
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
TEXT A
I used to look at my closet and see clothes. These days, whenever I cast my eyes upon the stacks of shoes
and hangers of shirts, sweaters and jackets, I see water.
It takes 569 gallons to manufacture a T-shirt, from its start in the cotton fields to its appearance on store
shelves. A pair of running shoes? 1,247 gallons.
Until last fall, I'd been oblivious to my "water footprint", which is defined as the total volume of
freshwater that is used to produce goods and services, according to the Water Footprint Network. The Dutch
nonprofit has been working to raise awareness of freshwater scarcity since 2008, but it was through the "Green
Blue Book" by Thomas M. Kostigen that I was able to see how my own actions factored in.
I've installed gray-water systems to reuse the wastewater from my laundry, machine and bathtub and
reroute it to my landscape - systems that save, on average, 50 gallons of water per day. I've set up rain barrels
and infiltration pits to collect thousands of gallons of storm water cascading from my roof. I've even entered the
last bastion of greendom -installing a composting toilet.
Suffice to say, I've been feeling pretty satisfied with myself for all the drinking water I've saved with these
big-ticket projects.
Now I realize that my daily consumption choices could have an even larger effect not only on the local
water supply but also globally: 1.1 billion people have no access to freshwater, and, in the future, those who do
have access will have less of it.
To see how much virtual water 1 was using, I logged on to the "Green Blue Book" website and used its
water footprint calculator, entering my daily consumption habits. Tallying up the water footprint of my
breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, as well as my daily dose of over-the-counter uppers and downers - coffee,
wine and beer- I'm using 512 gallons of virtual water each day just to feed myself.
In a word: alarming.
Even more alarming was how much hidden water I was using to get dressed. I'm hardly a clotheshorse, but
the few new items I buy once again trumped the amount of water flowing from my faucets each day. If I'm
serious about saving water, I realized I could make some simple lifestyle shifts. Looking more closely at the
areas in my life that use the most virtual water, it was food and clothes, specifically meat, coffee and, oddly,
blue jeans and leather jackets.
Being a motorcyclist, I own an unusually large amount of leather - boots and jackets in particular. All of it
is enormously water intensive. It takes 7,996 gallons to make a leather.jacket, leather being a byproduct of beef.
It takes 2,866 gallons of water to make a single pair of blue jeans, because they're made from water-hogging
cotton.
Crunching the numbers for the amount of clothes I buy every year, it looks a lot like my friend's swimming
pool. My entire closet is borderline Olympic.
Gulp.
My late resolution is to buy some items used. Underwear and socks are, of course, exempt from this strategy,
but 1 have no problem shopping less and also shopping at Goodwill. In fact, I'd been doing that for the past year
to save money. My clothes' outrageous water footprint just reintbrced it for me.
More conscious living and substitution, rather than sacrifice, are the prevailing ideas with the water footprint.
It's one I'm trying, and that's had an unusual upside. I had a hamburger recently, and I enjoyed it a lot more since
it is now an occasional treat rather than a weekly habit.
(One gallon =3.8 litres)
11. According to the passage, the Water Footprint Network
A. made the author aware of freshwater shortage.
B. helped the author get to know the Green Blue Book.
C. worked for freshwater conservation for nonprofit purposes.
D. collaborated with the Green Blue Book in freshwater conservation.
12. Which of the following reasons can best explain the author's feeling of self-satisfaction?
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A. He made contribution to drinking water conservation in his own way.
B. Money spent on upgrading his household facilities was worthwhile.
C. His house was equipped with advanced water-saving facilities.
D. He could have made even greater contribution by changing his lifestyle.
13. According to the context, "...how mv own actions factored in" means
A. how I could contribute to water conservation.
B. what efforts I should make to save fresh water.
C. what behaviour could be counted as freshwater-saving.
D. how much of what I did contributed to freshwater shortage.
14. According to the passage, the author was more alarmed by the fact that
A. he was having more meat and coffee.
B. his clothes used even more virtual water.
C. globally there will be less fresh water.
D. his lifestyle was too extravagant.
15. "My entire closet is borderline Olympic" is an example of
A. exaggeration. B. analogy.
C. understatement. D. euphemism.
16. What is the tone of the author in the last paragraph'?
A. Sarcastic. B. Ironic. C. Critical. D. Humorous.
TEXT B
In her novel of "Reunion, American Style", Rona Jaffe suggests that a class reunion "is more than a
sentimental journey. It is also a way of answering the question that lies at the back of nearly all our minds. Did
they do better than I?"
Jaffe's observation may be misplaced but not completely lost. According to a study conducted by social
psychologist Jack Sparacino, the overwhelming majority who attend reunions aren't there invidiously to
compare their recent accomplishments with those of their former classmates. Instead, they hope, primarily, to
relive their earlier successes.
Certainly, a few return to show their former classmates how well they have done; others enjoy observing
the changes that have occurred in their classmates (not always in themselves, of course). But the majority who
attend their class reunions do so to relive the good times they remember having when they were younger. In his
study, Sparacino found that, as high school students, attendees had been more popular, more often regarded as
attractive, and more involved in extracurricular activities than those classmates who chose not to attend. For
those who turned up at their reunions, then, the old times were also the good times!
It would appear that Americans have a special fondness for reunions, judging by their prevalence. Major
league baseball players, fraternity members, veterans groups, high school and college graduates, and former
Boy Scouts all hold reunions on a regular basis. In addition, family reunions frequently attract blood relatives
from faraway places who spend considerable money and time to reunite.
Actually, in their affection for reuniting with friends, family or colleagues, Americans are probably no
different from any other people, except that Americans have created a mind-boggling number and variety of
institutionalized forms of gatherings to facilitate the satisfaction of this desire. Indeed, reunions have
increasingly become formal events that are organized on a regular basis and, in the process, they have also
become big business.
Shell Norris of Class Reunion, Inc., says that Chicago alone has 1,500 high school reunions each year. A
conservative estimate on the national level would be 10,000 annually. At one time, all high school reunions
were organized by volunteers, usually female homemakers. In the last few years, however, as more and more
women have entered the labour force, alumni reunions are increasingly being planned by specialized companies
rather than by part-time volunteers.
The first college reunion was held by the alumni of Yale University in 1792. Graduates of Pennsylvania,
Princeton, Stanford, and Brown followed suit. And by the end of the 19th century,
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most 4-year institutions were holding alumni reunions.
The variety of college reunions is impressive. At Princeton, alumni parade through the town wearing their
class uniforms and singing their alma mater. At Marietta College, they gather for a dinner-dance on a steamship
cruising the Ohio River.
Clearly, the thought of cruising on a steamship or marching through the streets is usually not, by itself,
sufficient reason for large numbers of alumni to return to campus. Alumni who decide to attend their reunions
share a common identity based on the years they spent together as undergraduates. For this reason, universities
that somehow establish a common bond for example, because they are relatively small or especially prestigious
- tend to draw substantial numbers of their alumni to reunions. In an effort to enhance this common identity,
larger colleges and universities frequently build their class reunions on participation in smaller units, such as
departments or schools. Or they encourage "affinity reunions" for groups of former cheerleaders, editors,
fraternity members, musicians, members of military organizations on campus, and the like.
Of course, not every alumnus is fond of his or her alma mater. Students who graduated during the late 1960s
may be especially reluctant to get involved in alumni events. They were part of the generation that conducted
sit-ins and teach-ins directed at university administrators, protested military recruitment on campus and
marched against "establishment politics." If this generation has a common identity, it may fall outside of their
university ties - or even be hostile to them. Even as they enter their middle years, alumni who continue to hold
unpleasant memories of college during this period may not wish to attend class reunions.
17. According to the passage, Sparacino's study
A. provided strong evidence for Jaffe's statement.
B. showed that attendees tended to excel in high school study.
C. found that interest in reunions was linked with school experience.
D. found evidence for attendees' intense desire for showing off success.
18. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a distinct feature of U.S. class reunions?
A. U.S. class reunions are usually occasions to show off one's recent success.
B. Reunions are regular and formal events organized by professional agencies.
C. Class reunions have become a profitable business.
D. Class reunions have brought about a variety of activities.
19. What mainly attracts many people to return to campus for reunion?
A. The variety of activities for class reunion.
B. The special status their university enjoys.
C. Shared experience beyond the campus.
D. Shared undergraduate experience on campus.
20. The rhetorical function of the first paragraph is to
A. introduce Rona Jeffe's novel.
B. present the author's counterargument.
C. serve as prelude to the author's argument.
D. bring into focus contrasting opinions.
21. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Reasons for popularity and (non)attendance for alumni reunions.
B. A historical perspective for alumni reunions in the United States.
C. Alumni reunions and American university traditions.
D. Alumni reunion and its social and economic implications.
TEXT C
One time while on his walk George met Mr. Cattanzara coming home very late from work. He wondered if
he was drunk but then could tell he wasn't. Mr. Cattanzara, a stocky, bald-headed man who worked in a change
booth on an IRT station, lived on the next block after George's, above a shoe repair store. Nights, during the hot
weather, he sat on his stoop in an undershirt, reading the New York Times in the light of the shoemaker's
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window. He read it from the first page to the last, then went up to sleep. And all the time he was reading the
paper, his wife, a fat woman with a white face, leaned out of the window, gazing into the street, her thick white
arms folded under her loose breast, on the window ledge.
Once in a while Mr. Cattanzara came home drunk, but it was a quiet drunk. He never made any trouble,
only walked stiffly up the street and slowly climbed the stairs into the hall. Though drunk he looked the same as
always, except for his tight walk, the quietness, and that his eyes were wet. George liked Mr. Cattanzara
because he remembered him giving him nickels to buy lemon ice with when he was a squirt. Mr. Cattanzara was
a different type than those in the neighbourhood. He asked different questions than the others when he met you,
and he seemed to know what went on in all the newspapers. He read them, as his fat sick wife watched from the
window.
"What are you doing with yourself this summer, George?" Mr. Cattanzara asked. "l see you walkin' around
at night."
George felt embarrassed. "I like to walk."
"What are you doin' in the day now?"
"Nothing much just now. I'm waiting for a job." Since it shamed him to admit that he wasn't working,
George said, "I'm reading a lot to pick up my education."
"What are you readin'?"
George hesitated, then said, "I got a list of books in the library once and now I'm gonna read them this
summer." He felt strange and a little unhappy saying this, but he wanted Mr. Cattanzara to respect him.
"How many books are there on it?"
"I never counted them. Maybe around a hundred."
Mr. Cattanzara whistled through his teeth.
"I figure if l did that," George went on earnestly, "it would help me in my education. 1 don't mean the kind
they give you in high school. I want to know different things than they learn there, if you know what I mean."
The change maker nodded. "Still and all, one hundred books is a pretty big load for one
summer."
"It might take longer."
"After you're finished with some, maybe you and I can shoot the breeze about them?" said Mr.
Cattanzara.
"When I'm finished," George answered.
Mr. Cattanzara went home and George continued on his walk. After that, though he had the urge to,
George did nothing different from usual. He still took his walks at night, ending up in the little park. But one
evening the shoemaker on the next block stopped George to say he was a good boy, and George figured that Mr.
Cattanzara had told him all about the books he was reading. From the shoemaker it must have gone down the
street, because George saw a couple of people smiling kindly at him, though nobody spoke to him personally.
He felt a little better around the neighbourhood and liked it more, though not so much he would want to live in
it forever. He had never exactly disliked the people in it, yet he had never liked them very much either. It was
the fault of the neighbourhood. To his surprise, George found out that his father and his sister Sophie knew
about his reading too. His father was too shy to say anything about it - he was never much of a talker in his
whole life -- but Sophie was softer to George, and she showed him in other ways she was proud of him.
22. In the excerpt, Mr. Cattanzara was described as a man who
A. was fond of drinking. B. showed a wide interest.
C. often worked overtime. D. liked to gossip after work.
23. It can be inferred from the passage that
A. Mr. Cattanzara was surprised at George's reading plan.
B. Mr. Cannazara was doubtful about George throughout.
C. George was forced to tell a lie and then regretted.
D. George lied at the beginning and then became serious.
24. After the street conversation with Mr. Cattanzara, George
A. remained the same as usual.
B. became more friendly with Mr. Cattanzara.
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C. began to like his neighbours more than ever.
D. continued to read the books from the list.
25. We can tell from the excerpt that George
A. had a neither close nor distant relationship with his father.
B. was dissatisfied with his life and surroundings.
C. found that his sister remained skeptical about him.
D. found his neighbours liked to poke their nose into him.
TEXT D
Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he's beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on
February 12, Congress will hold a special joint session in the Capitol's National Statuary Hall, a wreath will be
laid at the great memorial in Washington, and a webcast will link school classrooms for a "teach-in" honouring
his memory.
Admirable as they are, though, the events will strike many of us Lincoln fans as inadequate, even
halfhearted -- and another sign that our appreciation for the 16th president and his towering achievements is
slipping away. And you don't have to be a Lincoln enthusiast to believe that this is something we can't afford to
lose.
Compare this year's celebration with the Lincoln centennial, in 1909. That year, Lincoln's likeness made its
debut on the penny, thanks to approval from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Communities and civic
associations in every comer of the country erupted in parades, concerts, balls, lectures, and military displays.
We still feel the effects today: The momentum unloosed in 1909 led to the Lincoln Memorial, opened in 1922,
and the Lincoln Highway, the first paved transcontinental thoroughfare.
The celebrants in 1909 had a few inspirations we lack today. Lincoln's presidency was still a living
memory for countless Americans. In 2009 we are farther in time from the end of the Second World War than
they were from the Civil War; families still felt the loss of loved ones from that awful national trauma.
But Americans in 1909 had something more: an unembarrassed appreciation for heroes and an acute sense
of the way that even long-dead historical figures press in on the present and make us who we are.
One story will illustrate what l'm talking about.
In 2003 a group of local citizens arranged to place a statue of Lincoln in Richmond, Virginia, former
capital of the Confederacy. The idea touched off a firestorm of controversy. The Sons of Confederate Veterans
held a public conference of carefully selected scholars to "reassess" the legacy of Lincoln. The verdict - no
surprise - was negative: Lincoln was labeled everything from a racist totalitarian to a teller of dirty jokes.
I covered the conference as a reporter, but what really unnerved me was a counter-conference of scholars
to refute the earlier one. These scholars drew a picture of Lincoln that only our touchy-feely age could conjure
up. The man who oversaw the most savage war in our history was described - by his admirers, remember - as
"nonjudgmental," "unmoralistic," "comfortable with ambiguity."
I felt the way a friend of mine felt as we later watched the unveiling of the Richmond statue in a subdued
ceremony: "But he's so small!"
The statue in Richmond was indeed small; like nearly every Lincoln statue put up in the past half century,
it was life-size and was placed at ground level, a conscious rejection of the heroic - approachable and human,
yes, but not something to look up to.
The Richmond episode taught me that Americans have lost the language to explain Lincoln's greatness even to
ourselves. Earlier generations said they wanted their children to be like Lincoln: principled, kind,
compassionate, resolute. Today we want Lincoln to be like us.
This helps to explain the long string of recent books in which writers have presented a Lincoln made after their
own image. We've had Lincoln as humorist and Lincoln as manic-depressive, Lincoln the business sage, the
conservative Lincoln and the liberal Lincoln, the emancipator and the racist, the stoic philosopher, the Christian,
the atheist - Lincoln over easy and Lincoln scrambled.
What's often missing, though, is the timeless Lincoln, the Lincoln whom all generations, our own no less than
that of 1909, can lay claim to. Lucky for us, those memorializers from a century ago - and, through them,
Lincoln himself- have left us a hint of where to find him. The Lincoln Memorial is the most visited of our
presidential monuments. Here is where we find the Lincoln who endures: in the words he left us, defining the
country we've inherited. Here is the Lincoln who can be endlessly renewed and who, 200 years after his birth,
retains the power to renew us.
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26. The author thinks that this year's celebration is inadequate and even halfhearted because
A. no Lincoln statue will be unveiled.
B. no memorial coins will be issued.
C. no similar appreciation of Lincoln will be seen.
D. no activities can be compared to those in 1909.
27. According to the passage, what really makes the 1909 celebrations different from this year's?
A. Respect for great people and their influence.
B. Variety and magnitude of celebration activities.
C. Structures constructed in memory of Lincoln.
D. Temporal proximity to Lincoln's presidency.
28. In the author's opinion, the counter-conference
A. rectified the judgment by those carefully selected scholars.
B. offered a brand new reassessment perspective.
C. came up with somewhat favourable conclusions.
D. resulted in similar disparaging remarks on Lincoln.
29. According to the author, the image of Lincoln conceived by contemporary people
A. conforms to traditional images.
B. reflects the present-day tendency of worship.
C. shows the present-day desire to emulate Lincoln.
D. reveals the variety of current opinions on heroes.
30. Which of the following best explains the implication of the last paragraph?
A. Lincoln's greatness remains despite the passage of time.
B. The memorial is symbolic of the great man's achievements.
C. Each generation has it own interpretation of Lincoln.
D. People get to know Lincoln through memorializers.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER
SHEET TWO.
31. The Maori people are natives of
A. Australia. B. Canada. C. Ireland. D. New Zealand.
32. The British monarch is the Head of
A. Parliament. B. State. C. Government. D. Cabinet.
33. Americans celebrate Independence Day on
A. July 4th. B. October 11th. C. May 31st. D. September 6th.
34. Canada is bounded on the north by
A. the Pacific Ocean. B. the Atlantic Ocean.
C. the Arctic Ocean. D. the Great Lakes.
35. Who is the author of The Waste Lana?
A. George Bernard Shaw. B. W.B. Yeats.
C. Dylan Thomas. D. T.S. Eliot.
36. Which of the following novelists wrote The Sound and the Fury?
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专八真题 2012 年
A. William Faulkner. B. Ernest Hemingway.
C. Scott Fitzgerald. D. John Steinbeck.
37. "The lettuce was lonely without tomatoes and cucumbers for company" is an example of
A. exaggeration. B. understatement.
C. personification. D. synecdoche.
38. In English ifa word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel. This is a (n)
A. assimilation rule. B. sequential rule. C.deletion rule. D. grammar rule.
39. Which of the following is an example of clipping?
A.APEC. B.Motel. C.Xerox. D.Disco.
40. The type of language which is selected as appropriate to a particular type of" situation is called
A. register. B. dialect. C. slang. D. variety.
PART IV 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
provided 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.
EXAMPLE
When A art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) an
it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET TWO as instructed.
The central problem of translating has always been whether to translate literally or freely. The argument has
been going since at least the first (1) ______
century B.C. Up to the beginning of the 19
th
century, many writers
favoured certain kind of free translation: the spirit, not the letter; the (2) _______
sense not the word; the message rather the form; the matter not (3) _______
the manner. This is the often revolutionary slogan of writers who (4) _______
wanted the truth to be read and understood. Then in the turn of 19
th
(5) _______
century, when the study of cultural anthropology suggested that
the linguistic barriers were insuperable and that the language (6) _______
was entirely the product of culture, the view translation was impossible (7) _______
gained some currency, and with it that, if was attempted at all, it must be as (8) _______
literal as possible. This view culminated the statement of the (9) _______
extreme literalists Walter Benjamin and Vladimir Nobokov.
The argument was theoretical: the purpose of the translation, the
nature of the readership, the type of the text, was not discussed. Too
often, writer, translator and reader were implicitly identified with
each other. Now, the context has changed, and the basic problem remains. (10) _____
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
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专八真题 2012 年
泊珍到偏远小镇的育幼院把生在那里养到 1 岁的孩子接回来。但泊珍看他第一眼，仿似一声雷劈头
而来。令她晕头胀脑，这 l 岁的孩子脸型长得如此熟悉，她心里的第一道声音是，不能带回去!
痛苦纠聚心中，眉心发烫发热，胸口郁闷难展，胃里一股气冲喉而上。院长说这孩子发育迟缓时
她更是心头无绪。她在孩子所待的房里来回踱步，这房里还有其他小孩。整个房间只有一扇窗，窗外
树影婆娑。就让孩子留下来吧，这里有善心的神父和修女，这里将来会扩充为有医疗作用的看护中心 ，
这是留住孩子最好的地方。这孩子是她的秘密，她将秘密留在这树林掩映的建筑罩。
她将秘密留在心头。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the underlined part of the following text into Chines~ Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
In some cases, intelligent people implementing intelligent policies are responsible for
producing a "boomerang effect"; they actually create more of whatever it is they seek to reduce
in the first place.
The boomerang effect has been achieved many times in recent years by men and women of
goodwill. State legislatures around the nation have recently raised the drinking age back to 21 in
an effort to reduce the prevalence of violent deaths among our young people. But such policies
seem instead to have created the conditions for even more campus violence. Some college
students who previously drank in bars and lounges under the watchful supervision of bouncers
( 夜总会 , 酒吧等保安人员 ) (not to mention owners ea~er to keep their liquor licenses) now
retreat to the sanctuary of their fraternity houses and apartments, where they no longer control
their behaviour - or their drinking.
The boomerang effect has also played a role in attempts to reduce the availability of illicit
drugs. During recent years, the federal government has been quite successful in reducing the
supply of street drugs. As fields are burned and contraband ( 违禁品） confiscated, the price of
street drugs has skyrocketed to a point where cheap altematives have begun to compete in the
marketplace. Unfortunately, the cheap alternatives are even more harmful than the illicit drugs
they replace.
boomerang: a curved flat piece of wood that can be thrown so as to retum to the thrower 回飞镖
PART VI WRITING (45 MIN)
A recent survey of 2,000 college students asked about their attitudes towards phone calls and text-
messaging (also known as Short Message Service) and found the students' main goal was to pass along
information in as little time, with as little small talk, as possible. "What they like most about their mobile
devices is that they can reach other people," says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American
University in Washington, D.C., who conducted the survey. "What they like least is that other people can reach
them." How far do you agree with Professor Baron?
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main,argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
You should supply an appropriate title for your essay.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, language and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above
instrl~ctions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
- –THE END
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专八真题 2012 年
2012 年专八答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1. unaware ofbias
2. systematic and objective
3. distributed randomly
4. situation sampling
5.is different/differs/varies
6. advantage
7. as it occurs
8. have more control
9. normally occurring/in natural stings
10. feature
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 CBBDC
6-10 CBDCA
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 CAABB
16-20 DCADC
21-25 BBAAB
26-30 CADDA
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 DBACD
36-40 ACBDA
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.going →on∧
2.certain→some
3.rather →than/not∧
4.is→was
5.in→at
6.第一个 the→／
7.view →that∧
8.was→／
9.culminated →in∧
10.and→but
PART V TRANSLATION
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Tortured by the pains gathering in her heart, she felt something was burning between her eyebrows. Her chest
was brimmed with depression which was likely to run out of her throat at any moment. She could not think
clearly any longer when the headmaster told her that the child suffered from developmental retardation. She
strode up and down in the room where her child stayed with other pals. There was only one window in the
room, out of which some shady trees were whispering. Just leave it here , she told herself, This is the best
choice by far, for there are kind priests and nuns in this place which may also be renovated into a Medicare
center”. The child was her secret which would be kept in the buildings behind the woods
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
然而上述政策反而引发了更多的校园暴力。一些大学生先前在夜总会的酒吧买醉，处于保安人员严密
的监控之下(酒吧老板们为了保住自己卖酒的牌照也不会允许过激的事情发生)。现在，大学生们躲到他
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专八真题 2012 年
们互助会会所和公寓中酗酒,对自己饮酒的数量或行为都不再控制。政府在打击非法毒品方面采取的措
施同样适得其反。近年来,联邦政府已经有效地抑制了街头毒品买卖。警方捣毁了很多毒品种植地，没
收了违禁品，导致毒品的价格暴涨，那些便宜的替代品因此也有了竞争力。糟糕的是，那些便宜的替
换品带来的危害甚至比他们所替代的毒品更大。
PART VI WRITING
A Mixed Blessing
“We have in our mortal hand a power to destroy poverty and all forms of human life. John F. Kennedy
said in his Inaugural Address some 50 years ago. Indeed, science and technology has always been a mixed
blessing. The same is true of cell phones, one of spectacular gadgets ever invented by humans in the past
perhaps 100 years or so. Cell phones have two ambivalent faces, mostly benevolent, lovely and grim, even
macabre sometimes. That is exactly what Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in
Washington, D.C. described, when he said, What people like most about their mobile devices is that they can
reach other people. What they like least is that other people can reach them.” Professor Baron‟s conclusion
cannot be too true.
While mobile devices today are facilitating our life in ways unimagined, they pose problems, too. One of
these is that our private life can be encroached at any time and place. For example, suppose one is taking hard-
earned holidays at a seaside resort when he receives a call from his boss, who told him that something goes
wrong with his work or his client runs into trouble. All of a sudden, his pleasure is totally spoiled. At this
moment, modern devices of communications show their gloomy and ghastly face. Blockage to such calls can be
hardly possible unless you have decided to leave your present job for good.
The second quandary brought about by the mobiles and the Internet is that people are cut off from contract
with one another. This is a paradox. This happens most often in the world of business. With the help of these
gadgets, many people stay home on workdays. At the click of their fingers, they can receive and send their work
on the Net or cell phones. With a mobile, even their salaries can be automatically credited to their accounts. Few
people nowadays stand in line receiving their paychecks. They don‟t have to see people in person to do all these
and other things. Economical and convenient as it is, people are more isolated from each other.
Regrettably, the gloomy paradoxical aspect of mobiles goes beyond the field of our work. It also happens
in our almost every facet of life. Music used to be a very good social event. But nowmost people build a wall of
music around them by listening to on-line music or songs downloaded and saved in their cell phones. Watching
a film also becomes a detached process. Modern phones are almost almighty, with which they can enjoy the
latest box hits in the isolation of the living room. They don‟t have to go out, let alone joining with friends.
Communications in person are saved when, with omnipotent „i-phone‟, students can learn a lot of subjects
alone instead of discussing problems with their classmates, friends and brothers and sisters and parents. They
even don‟t have to go classes to acquire all these things where rich human communication can occur.
“Every coin has two sides is an old cliché. But it applies ideally to the case of cell phone today. Cell
phones, on the one hand, render our life more convenient and enrich our treasure trove of existence. At the same
time, however, they stymie our life. They encroach our privacy and meanwhile, make us reluctant to partake the
rich real social life.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2011)
GRADE EIGHT
TIME LIMIT: 195 MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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. Some of the gaps may require a
maximum of THREE words. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically
acceptable. You may refer to your notes while completing the task. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.
Now, listen to the mini-lecture.
Classifications of Cultures
According to Edward Hall, different cultures result in different ideas about the world. Hall is an anthropologist.
He is interested in relations between cultures.
I. High-context culture
A. feature
- context: more important than the message
- meaning: (1)__________
i.e. more attention paid to (2) ___________ than to the message itself
B. examples
- personal space
- preference for (3)__________
- less respect for privacy / personal space
- attention to (4)___________
- concept of time
- belief in (5)____________ interpretation of time
- no concern for punctuality
- no control over time
II. Low-context culture
A. feature
- message: separate from context
- meaning: (6)___________
B. examples
- personal space
- desire / respect for individuality / privacy
- less attention to body language
- more concern for (7)___________
- attitude toward time
- concept of time: (8)____________
- dislike of (9)_____________
- time seen as commodity
III. Conclusion
Awareness of different cultural assumptions
- relevance in work and life
e.g. business, negotiation, etc.
- (10)_____________ in successful communication
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SECTION B INTERVIEW/CONVERSATIONI
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
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. According to Dr. Harley, what makes language learning more difficult after a certain age?
A. Differences between two languages.
B. Declining capacity to learn syntax.
C. Lack of time available.
D. Absence of motivation.
2. What does the example of Czech speakers show?
A. It's natural for language learners to make errors.
B. Differences between languages cause difficulty.
C. There exist differences between English and Czech.
D. Difficulty stems from either difference or similarity.
3. Which of the following methods does NOT advocate speaking?
A. The traditional method.
B. The audiolingual method.
C. The immersion method.
D. The direct method.
4. Which hypothesis deals with the role of language knowledge in the learning process?
A. The acquisition and learning distinction hypothesis.
B. The comprehensible input hypothesis.
C. The monitor hypothesis.
D. The active filter hypothesis.
5. Which of the following topics is NOT discussed during the interview?
A. Causes of language learning difficulties.
B. Differences between mother tongue and a second language.
C. Theoretical conceptualization of second language learning.
D. Pedagogical implementation of second language teaching.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
follow. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
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. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. Greyhound is Britain's largest bus and train operator.
B. Currently Greyhound routes in Britain are limited.
C. The coach starts from London every hour.
D. Passengers are offered a variety of services.
Questions 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the news.
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7. What does the news item say about the fires in Greece?
A. Fires only occurred near the Greek capital.
B. Fires near the capital caused casualties.
C. Fires near the capital were the biggest.
D. Fires near the capital were soon under control.
8. According to the news, what measure did authorities take to fight the fires?
A. Residents were asked to vacate their homes.
B. Troops were brought in to help the firefighters.
C. Air operations and water drops continued overnight.
D. Another six fire engines joined the firefighting operation.
Questions 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 questions.
Now, listen to the news.
9. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the current decline in the Mexican economy?
A. Fewer job opportunities in Mexico.
B. Strong ties with the U.S. economy.
C. Decline in tourism.
D. Decline in tax revenues.
10. Drop in remittances from abroad is mainly due to _________.
A. declining oil production
B. the outbreak of the H1N1 flu
C. the declining GDP in Mexico
D. the economic downturn in the U.S.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
TEXT A
Whenever we could, Joan and I took refuge in the streets of Gibraltar. The Englishman's home is his castle
because he has not much choice. There is nowhere to sit in the streets of England, not even, after twilight, in the
public gardens. The climate, very often, does not even permit him to walk outside. Naturally, he stays indoors
and creates a cocoon of comfort. That was the way we lived in Leeds.
These southern people, on the other hand, look outwards. The Gibraltarian home is, typically, a small and
crowded apartment up several flights of dark and dirty stairs. In it, one, two or even three old people share a few
ill-lit rooms with the young family. Once he has eaten, changed his clothes, embraced his wife, kissed his
children and his parents, there is nothing to keep the southern man at home. He hurries out, taking even his
breakfast coffee at his local bar. He comes home late for his afternoon meal after an appetitive hour at his café.
He sleeps for an hour, dresses, goes out again and stays out until late at night. His wife does not miss him, for
she is out, too at the market in the morning and in the afternoon sitting with other mothers, baby-minding in the
sun.
The usual Gibraltarian home has no sitting-room, living-room or lounge. The parlour of our working-class
houses would be an intolerable waste of space. Easy-chairs, sofas and such-like furniture are unknown. There
are no bookshelves, because there are no books. Talking and drinking, as well as eating, are done on hard chairs
round the dining-table, between a sideboard decorated with the best glasses and an inevitable display cabinet
full of family treasures, photographs and souvenirs. The elaborate chandelier over this table proclaims it as the
hub of the household and of the family. "Hearth and home" makes very little sense in Gibraltar. One's home is
one's town or village, and one's hearth is the sunshine.
Our northern towns are dormitories with cubicles, by comparison. When we congregate in the churches it
used to be, now in the cinema, say, impersonally, or at public meetings, formally we are scarcely ever man to
man. Only in our pubs can you find the truly gregarious and communal spirit surviving, and in England even the
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pubs are divided along class lines.
Along this Mediterranean coast, home is only a refuge and a retreat. The people live together in the open
air in the street, market-place. Down here, there is a far stronger feeling of community than we had ever
known. In crowded and circumscribed Gibraltar, with its complicated inter-marriages, its identity of interests, its
surviving sense of siege, one can see and feel an integrated society.
To live in a tiny town with all the organization of a state, with Viceroy ( 总督), Premier, Parliament, Press
and Pentagon, all in miniature, all within arm's reach, is an intensive course in civics. In such an environment,
nothing can be hidden, for better or for worse. One's successes are seen and recognized; one's failures are
immediately exposed. Social consciousness is at its strongest, with the result that there is a constant and firm
pressure towards good social behaviour, towards courtesy and kindness. Gibraltar, with all its faults, is the
friendliest and most tolerant of places. Straight from the cynical anonymity of a big city, we luxuriated in its
happy personalism. We look back on it, like all its exiled sons and daughters, with true affection.
11. Which of the following best explains the differences in ways of living between the English and the
Gibraltarians?
A. The family structure.
B. Religious belief.
C. The climate.
D. Eating habit.
12. The italicized part in the third paragraph implies that ____________.
A. English working-class homes are similar to Gibraltarian ones
B. English working-class homes have spacious sitting-rooms
C. English working-class homes waste a lot of space
D. the English working-class parlour is intolerable in Gibraltar
13. We learn from the description of the Gibraltarian home that it is _________.
A. modern
B. luxurious
C. stark
D. simple
14. There is a much stronger sense of _______ among the Gibraltarians.
A. togetherness
B. survival
C. identity
D. leisure
15. According to the passage people in Gibraltar tend to be well-behaved because of the following EXCEPT
_______.
A. the entirety of the state structure
B. constant pressure from the state
C. the small size of the town
D. transparency of occurrences
TEXT B
For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the "paperless" office is a classic example of high-tech
hubris (傲慢). Today's office drone is drowning in more paper than ever before.
But after decades of hype, American offices may finally be losing their paper obsession. The demand for
paper used to outstrip the growth of the US economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked
slowdown in sales despite a healthy economic scene.
Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and communication systems.
Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair.
"Old habits are hard to break," says Merilyn Dunn, a communications supplies director. "There are some
functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn't work. Those functions are both its strength and its
weakness."
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In the early to mid-1990s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boost paper sales by
6 to 7 percent each year. The convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge in printing
anything and everything at very little effort or cost.
But now, the growth rate of paper sales in the United States is flattening by about half a percent each year.
Between 2004 and 2005, Ms. Dunn says, plain white office paper will see less than a 4 percent growth rate,
despite the strong overall economy. A primary reason for the change, says Dunn, is that for the first time ever,
some 47 percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.
"We're finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace," says
John Maine, vice president of a pulp and paper economic consulting firm. "More information is being
transmitted electronically, and more and more people are comfortable with the information residing only in
electronic form without printing multiple backups."
In addition, Mr. Maine points to the lackluster employment market for white-collar workers the primary
driver of office paper consumption for the shift in paper usage.
The real paradigm shift may be in the way paper is used. Since the advent of advanced and reliable office-
network systems, data storage has moved away from paper archives. The secretarial art of "filing" is
disappearing from job descriptions. Much of today's data may never leave its original digital format.
The changing attitudes toward paper have finally caught the attention of paper companies, says Richard
Harper, a researcher at Microsoft. "All of a sudden, the paper industry has started thinking, 'We need to learn
more about the behavioural aspects of paper use,'" he says. "They had never asked, they'd just assumed that 70
million sheets would be bought per year as a literal function of economic growth."
To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilities. For example,
Xerox Corp. is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper.
Notations can be erased or saved digitally.
Another idea, intelligent paper, comes from Anoto Group. It would allow notations made with a stylus on a
page printed with a special magnetic ink to simultaneously appear on a computer screen.
Even with such technological advances, the improved capabilities of digital storage continue to act against
"paperlessness," argues Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster. In his prophetic and metaphorical 1989 essay, "The
Electronic Piñata (彩罐)," he suggests that the increasing amounts of electronic data necessarily require more
paper.
The information industry today is like a huge electronic piñata, composed of a thin paper crust surrounding
an electronic core," Mr. Saffo wrote. The growing paper crust "is most noticeable, but the hidden electronic core
that produces the crust is far larger and growing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but
we hardly notice at all."
In the same way that digital innovations have increased paper consumption, Saffo says, so has video
conferencing with its promise of fewer in-person meetings boosting business travel.
"That's one of the great ironies of the information age," Saffo says. "It's just common sense that the more
you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a face-to-face meeting. The best thing for the
aviation industry was the Internet."
16. What function does the second sentence in the first paragraph serve?
A. It further explains high-tech hubris.
B. It confirms the effect of high-tech hubris.
C. It offers a cause for high-tech hubris.
D. It offers a contrast to high-tech hubris.
17. Which of the following is NOT a reason for the slowdown in paper sales?
A. Workforce with better computer skills.
B. Slow growth of the US economy.
C. Changing patterns in paper use.
D. Changing employment trends.
18. The two innovations by Xerox Corp. and Anoto Group feature ________.
A. integrated use of paper and digital form
B. a shift from paper to digital form
C. the use of computer screen
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D. a new style of writing
19. What does the author mean by ''irony of the information age"?
A. The dream of the "paperless" office will be realized.
B. People usually prefer to have face-to-face meetings.
C. More digital data use leads to greater paper use.
D. Some people are opposed to video-conferencing.
20. What is the author's attitude towards "paperlessness"?
A. He reviews the situation from different perspectives.
B. He agrees with some of the people quoted in the passage.
C. He has a preference for digital innovations.
D. He thinks airlines benefit most from the digital age.
TEXT C
When George Orwell wrote in 1941 that England was "the most class-ridden country under the sun", he
was only partly right. Societies have always had their hierarchies, with some group perched at the top. In the
Indian state of Bihar the Ranveer Sena, an upper-caste private army, even killed to stay there.
By that measure class in Britain hardly seems entrenched (根深蒂固的). But in another way Orwell was
right, and continues to be. As a new YouGov poll shows, Britons are surprisingly alert to class — both their own
and that of others. And they still think class is sticky. According to the poll, 48% of people aged 30 or over say
they expect to end up better off than their parents. But only 28% expect to end up in a different class. More than
two-thirds think neither they nor their children will leave the class they were born into.
What does this thing that people cannot escape consist of these days? And what do people look at when
decoding which class someone belongs to? The most useful identifying markers, according to the poll, are
occupation, address, accent and income, in that order. The fact that income comes fourth is revealing: though
some of the habits and attitudes that class used to define are more widely spread than they were, class still
indicates something less blunt than mere wealth.
Occupation is the most trusted guide to class, but changes in the labour market have made that harder to
read than when Orwell was writing. Manual workers have shrunk along with farming and heavy industry as a
proportion of the workforce, while the number of people in white-collar jobs has surged. Despite this striking
change, when they were asked to place themselves in a class, Brits in 2006 huddled in much the same categories
as they did when they were asked in 1949. So, jobs, which were once a fairly reliable guide to class, have
become misleading.
A survey conducted earlier this year by Expertian shows how this convergence on similar types of work
has blurred class boundaries. Expertian asked people in a number of different jobs to place themselves in the
working class or the middle class. Secretaries, waiters and journalists were significantly more likely to think
themselves middle-class than accountants, computer programmers or civil servants. Many new white-collar jobs
offer no more autonomy or better prospects than old blue-collar ones. Yet despite the muddle over what the
markers of class are these days, 71% of those polled by YouGov still said they found it very or fairly easy to
figure out which class others belong to.
In addition to changes in the labour market, two other things have smudged the borders on the class map.
First, since 1945 Britain has received large numbers of immigrants who do not fit easily into existing notions of
class and may have their own pyramids to scramble up. The flow of new arrivals has increased since the late
1990s, multiplying this effect.
Second, barriers to fame have been lowered. Britain's fast-growing ranks of celebrities like David
Beckham and his wife Victoria form a kind of parallel aristocracy open to talent, or at least to those who are
uninhibited enough to meet the requests of television producers. This too has made definitions more
complicated.
But many Brits, given the choice, still prefer to identify with the class they were born into rather than that
which their jobs or income would suggest. This often entails pretending to be more humble than is actually the
case: 22% of white-collar workers told YouGov that they consider themselves working class. Likewise, the
Expertian survey found that one in ten adults who call themselves working class are among the richest asset-
owners, and that over half a million households which earn more than $191,000 a year say they are working
class. Pretending to be grander than income and occupation suggest is rarer, though it happens too.
If class no longer describes a clear social, economic or even political status, is it worth paying any
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attention to? Possibly, yes. It is still in most cases closely correlated with educational attainment and career
expectations.
21. Why does the author say "...Orwell was right, and continues to be" (Paragraph Two)?
A. Because there was stronger class consciousness in India.
B. Because more people hope to end up in a higher class.
C. Because people expect to gain more wealth than their parents.
D. Because Britons are still conscious of their class status.
22. ''...class still indicates something less blunt than mere wealth" (Paragraph Three) means that ________.
A. class is still defined by its own habits and attitudes
B. class would refer to something more subtle than money
C. people from different classes may have the same habits or attitudes
D. income is unimportant in determining which class one belongs to
23. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. White-collar workers would place themselves in a different class.
B. People with different jobs may place themselves in the same class.
C. Occupation and class are no longer related with each other.
D. Changes in the workforce have made it difficult to define class.
24. Which of the following is NOT a cause to blur class distinction?
A. Notions of class by immigrants.
B. Changing trends of employment.
C. Easy access to fame.
D. Fewer types of work.
25. When some successful white-collar workers choose to stay in the working class, it implies that they are
_________.
A. showing modesty
B. showing self-respect
C. expressing boastfulness
D. making an understatement
TEXT D
The train was whirling onward with such dignity of motion that a glance from the window seemed simply
to prove that plains of Texas were pouring eastward. Vast flats of green grass, dull-hued spaces of mesquite and
cactus, little groups of frame houses, woods of light and tender trees, all were sweeping into the east, sweeping
over the horizon, a precipice.
A newly married pair had boarded this coach at San Antonio. The man's face was reddened from many
days in the wind and sun, and a direct result of his new black clothes was that his brick-coloured hands were
constantly performing in a most conscious fashion. From time to time he looked down respectfully at his attire.
He sat with a hand on each knee, like a man waiting in a barber's shop. The glances he devoted to other
passengers were furtive and shy.
The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, with small
reservations of velvet here and there, and with steel buttons abounding. She continually twisted her head to
regard her puff sleeves, very stiff, and high. They embarrassed her. It was quite apparent that she had cooked,
and that she expected to cook, dutifully. The blushes caused by the careless scrutiny of some passengers as she
had entered the car were strange to see upon this plain, under-class countenance, which was drawn in placid,
almost emotionless lines.
They were evidently very happy. "Ever been in a parlor-car before?" he asked, smiling with delight.
"No," she answered; "I never was. It's fine, ain't it?"
"Great! And then after a while we'll go forward to the dinner, and get a big lay-out. Fresh meal in the
world. Charge a dollar."
"Oh, do they?" cried the bride. "Charge a dollar? Why, that's too much for us ain't it, Jack?" "Nor this
trip, anyhow," he answered bravely. "We're going to go the whole thing."
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Later he explained to her about the trains. "You see, it's a thousand miles from one end of Texas to the
other; and this runs right across it, and never stops but four times. He had the pride of an owner. He pointed
out to her the dazzling fittings of the coach; and in truth her eyes opened wider and she contemplated the sea-
green figured velvet, the shining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface
of a pool of oil. At one end a bronze figure sturdily held a support for a separated chamber, and at convenient
places on the ceiling were frescos in olive and silver.
To the minds of the pair, their surroundings reflected the glory of their marriage that morning in San
Antonio; this was the environment of their new estate; and the man's face in particular beamed with an elation
that made him appear ridiculous to the Negro porter. This individual at times surveyed them from afar with an
amused and superior grin. On other occasions he bullied them with skill in ways that did not make it exactly
plain to them that they were being bullied. He subtly used all the manners of the most unconquerable kind of
snobbery. He oppressed them. But of this oppression they had small knowledge, and they speedily forgot that
infrequently a number of travelers covered them with stares of derisive enjoyment. Historically there was
supposed to be something infinitely humorous in their situation.
"We are due in Yellow Sky at 3:42," he said, looking tenderly into her eyes.
"Oh, are we?" she said, as if she had not been aware of it. To evince ( 表现出) surprise at her husband's
statement was part of her wifely amiability. She took from a pocket a little silver watch; and as she held it
before her, and stared at it with a frown of attention, the new husband's face shone.
"I bought it in San Anton' from a friend of mine," he told her gleefully.
"It's seventeen minutes past twelve," she said, looking up at him with a kind of shy and clumsy coquetry
(调情；卖俏). A passenger, noting this play, grew excessively sardonic, and winked at himself in one of the
numerous mirrors.
At last they went to the dining-car. Two rows of Negro waiters, in glowing white suits, surveyed their
entrance with the interest, and also the equanimity (平静), of men who had been forewarned. The pair fell to the
lot of a waiter who happened to feel pleasure in steering them through their meal. He viewed them with the
manner of a fatherly pilot, his countenance radiant with benevolence. The patronage, entwined with the ordinary
deference, was not plain to them. And yet, as they returned to their coach, they showed in their faces a sense of
escape.
26. The description of the couple's clothes and behaviour at the beginning of the passage seems to indicate that
they had a sense of __________.
A. secrecy
B. elation
C. superiority
D. awkwardness
27. Which of the following adjectives best depicts the interior of the coach?
A. Modern.
B. Luxurious.
C. Practical.
D. Complex.
28. Which of the following best describes the attitude of other people on the train towards the couple?
A. They regarded the couple as an object of fun.
B. They expressed indifference towards the couple.
C. They were very curious about the couple.
D. They showed friendliness towards the couple.
29. Which of the following contains a metaphor?
A. ... like a man waiting in a barber's shop.
B. ... his countenance radiant with benevolence.
C. ... sweeping over the horizon, a precipice.
D. ... as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil.
30. We can infer from the last paragraph that in the dining-car ________.
A. the waiters were snobbish
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B. the couple felt ill at ease
C. the service was satisfactory
D. the couple enjoyed their dinner
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER
SHEET TWO.
31. The northernmost part of Great Britain is _______.
A. Northern Ireland
B. Wales
C. England
D. Scotland
32. It is generally agreed that _______ were the first Europeans to reach Australia's shores.
A. the French
B. the Germans
C. the British
D. the Dutch
33. Which country is known as the Land of Maple Leaf?
A. Canada.
B. New Zealand.
C. Great Britain.
D. The United States of America.
34. Who wrote the famous pamphlet, The Common Sense, before the American Revolution?
A. Thomas Jefferson.
B. Thomas Paine.
C. John Adams.
D. Benjamin Franklin.
35. Virginia Woolf was an important female ________ in the 20th-century England.
A. poet
B. biographer
C. playwright
D. novelist
36. ______ refers to a long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero in a nation's history.
A. Ballad
B. Romance
C. Epic
D. Elegy
37. Which of the following best explores American myth in the 20th century?
A. The Great Gatsby.
B. The Sun Also Rises.
C. The Sound and the Fury.
D. Beyond the Horizon.
38. _______ is defined as the study of the relationship between language and mind.
A. Semantics
B. Pragmatics
C. Cognitive linguistics
D. Sociolinguistics
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39. A vowel is different from a consonant in English because of ________.
A. absence of obstruction
B. presence of obstruction
C. manner of articulation
D. place of articulation
40. The definition "the act of using or promoting the use of several languages, either by an individual speaker or
by a community of speakers" refers to _________.
A. Pidgin
B. Creole
C. Multilingualism
D. Bilingualism
PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION
The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only
ONE word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way:
To correct these mistakes, you may need to change, delete or add a word. If you need to change a word, click
the left mouse button to select the word, choose "change" on the menu and write the correct word in the blank.
If you need to delete a word, click the left mouse button to select the word and choose "delete" on the menu. If
you need to add a word, click the left mouse button to select the space in between the two words where you
think there is a word missing, choose "add" on the menu and write the missing word in the blank. And you may
use "cancel" on the menu to cancel the choice of the correction way you've just made.
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew
that when I grew I should be a writer. Between the ages of about 1__________
seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so
with the conscience that I was outraging my true nature and that 2___________
soon or later I should have to settle down and write books. 3___________
I was the child of three, but there was a gap of five years 4__________
on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For
this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed
disagreeing mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my 5_____________
schooldays. I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and
holding conversations with imaginative persons, and I think from 6_________
the very start my literal ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of 7________
being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words
and a power of facing in unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created 8________
a sort of private world which I could get my own back for my failure 9________
in everyday life. Therefore, the volume of serious i.e. seriously 10________
intended writing which I produced all through my childhood and
boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first
poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation.
PART V TRANSLATIONSECTION
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
现代社会无论价值观的持有还是生活方式的选择都充满了矛盾。而最让现代人感到尴尬的是，面
对重重矛盾，许多时候你却别无选择。匆忙与休闲是截然不同的两种生活方式。但在现实生活中，人
们却在这两种生活方式间频繁穿梭，有时也说不清自己到底是“休闲着”还是“匆忙着”。譬如说，
当我们正在旅游胜地享受假期，却忽然接到老板的电话，告诉我们客户或工作方面出了麻烦——现代
便捷先进工具在此刻显示出了它狰狞、阴郁的面容——搞得人一下子兴趣全无，接下来的休闲只是徒
有其表，因为心里已是火烧火燎了。
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SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
When flying over Nepal, it's easy to soar in your imagination and pretend you're tiny a butterfly and
drifting above one of those three-dimensional topographical maps architects use, the circling contour lines
replaced by the terraced rice paddies that surround each high ridge.
Nepal is a small country, and from the windows of our plane floating eastward at 12,000 feet, one can see
clearly the brilliant white mirage of the high Himalayas thirty miles off the left window.
Out the right window, the view is of three or four high terraced ridges giving sudden way to the plains of
India beyond.
There were few roads visible below, most transportation in Nepal being by foot along ancient trails that
connect and bind the country together. There is also a network of dirt airstrips, which was fortunate for me, as I
had no time for the two-and-a-half week trek to my destination. I was on a flight to the local airport.
PART VI WRITING
According to a recent newspaper report, many famous sites of historical interest in China have begun or
are considering charging tourists higher entry fees during peak travel seasons. This has aroused a lot of public
attention and also public debate. What is your opinion? Should famous Chinese sites of historical interest charge
higher fees during peak travel seasons? Write an essay of about 400 words.
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
You should supply an appropriate title for your essay.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization language and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above
instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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2011 年专八答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
(1) beyond the message
(2) the context
(3) involvement/closeness to people
(4) body language
(5) multiple
(6) in the message
(7) what you say/what you do
(8) monochronic
(9) lateness
(10) importance
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 BDACB
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 ACBAD
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 CBDAB
16-20 BBACA
21-25 DBCCA
26-30 DBACB
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 BDABD
36-40 CACAC
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
(1) grew∧→up
(2) conscience→consciousness
(3) soon→sooner。
(4) ∧child→middle
(5) disagreeing→disagreeable。
(6) imaginative→imaginary。
(7) literal→literary。
(8) in→／
(9) which→where/∧which →in。
(10) Therefore→Nevertheless。
PART V TRANSLATION
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Being in haste and at leisure are two distinct lifestyles. But in real life, people have to shuttle between these two
lifestyles frequently, without knowing whether they are "at leisure" or "in haste". For instance, when we are
enjoying our holidays in a tourist attraction, a phone call from the boss tells us contingencies have happened
with our clients or work. The hideous and gloomy side of the convenient modern high-tech device drives away
all the interest. The following leisure time can only be reduced to the pure form, because we are already in a
restless and anxious state of mind.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
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在尼泊尔上空飞行，你的想象力很容易开始翱翔，仿佛你很渺小——就像一只小蝴蝶——飞在一
幅三维的建筑地形图上，那些环绕着每个高脊的梯田就像图中环形的等高线。
尼泊尔是一个小国。我们的飞机在一万两千英尺的高空向东平稳飞行，透过左侧的窗户，可以清楚
看见下方三十英里处雄伟的喜马拉雅山呈现出的白色蜃景。
转向右侧的窗口，看到的是三、四座高高的布有梯田的山脊，很快它们就被印度境内的广阔平原所
代替了。
飞机下方只能看见极少的几条路。在尼泊尔，最主要的出行方式是沿着古老的小路步行，这些小路
联系着全国各地。除此以外，这个国家还有一个空中网络，虽然机场尘土飞扬，但对我来说，也算是
幸运，因为我没时间进行两个半星期的徒步旅行到达目的地。我当时是在去当地机场的航班上
PART VI WRITING
Higher Entry Fees During Peak Travel Season
In recent years, people in China have more time and money to visit famous sites of historical interest,
owing to longer holidays and higher incomes. These visits, on the one hand, can enrich their own life and bring
the sites substantial incomes. On the other hand, too many visits, especially during travel peaks when there are
more visitors, have caused huge problems in several aspects. In my opinion, one effective solution to this
problem is to charge higher fees during peak travel seasons.
For one reason, those who oppose higher fees have ignored the unique features of famous sites of
historical interest. Different from the common parks, the historical spots normally imply ample historical and
cultural values. The relics in these spots are so precious and fragile that they usually need special and
professional preservation and administration, which obviously costs large amounts of money. During peak
travel seasons, even more tourists pay visits to the historical spots. Such huge amount of people arriving at one
historical spot may probably lead to some unexpected damages. Facing this situation, there is no better measure
than raising the entry fees to reduce the number of tourists in peak seasons. The only purpose of charging higher
entry fees is to stop some people's visits during special seasons so as to achieve a better protection of the
valuable relics. With higher entry fees, some people may change their plans and give up their visits. Here
economic means are applied to conserve precious things at the sites of historical interest in an appropriate and
sustainable way.
For another reason, higher fees charged may effectively reduce the number of tourists visiting historical
spots in peak seasons, which is also good to the safety of the tourists. Reports on the accidents happening to
tourists are not new to us. Especially during peak seasons, heavy traffic of passengers poses potential threats to
the life of tourists. Furthermore, relaxation is always an ultimate goal for tourists. It is almost impossible for
anyone to appreciate anything in an overcrowded spot with a sea of people around. An ideal holiday may even
be ruined by the hustle and bustle and endless waiting.
In short, we need to control the number of visitors especially during the peak travel seasons, to
guarantee a sound protection of historical spots as well as the safety of tourists. Among others, higher entry fees
may be a simple and effective economic means of regulation, which should be taken into account by the
authorities. As for the tourists, this may not be so bad as it sounds.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2010)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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.
Paralinguistic Features of Language
In face-to-face communication speakers often alter their tomes of voice or change their
physical postures in order to convey messages. These means are called paralinguistic features of
language, which fall into two categories.
I. First category: vocal paralinguistic features
(1)__________: to express attitude or intention (1)__________
Examples
1. whispering: need for secrecy
2. breathiness: deep emotion
3. (2)_________: unimportance (2)__________
4. nasality: anxiety
5. extra lip-rounding: greater intimacy
II.Second category: physical paralinguistic features
A.facial expressions
(3)_______ (3)__________
----- smiling: signal of pleasure or welcome
less common expressions
----- eye brow raising: surprise or interest
----- lip biting: (4)________ (4)_________
B.gesture
gestures are related to culture.
British culture
----- shrugging shoulders: (5) ________ (5)__________
----- scratching head: puzzlement
other cultures
----- placing hand upon heart:(6)_______ (6)__________
----- pointing at nose: secret
C.proximity, posture and echoing
1.proximity: physical distance between speakers
----- closeness: intimacy or threat
----- (7)_______: formality or absence of interest (7)_________
Proximity is person-, culture- and (8)________ -specific. (8)_________
2.posture
----- hunched shoulders or a hanging head: to indicate(9)_____ (9)________
----- direct level eye contact: to express an open or challenging attitude
3.echoing
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----- definition: imitation of similar posture
----- (10)______: aid in communication (10)___________
----- conscious imitation: mockery
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In 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 ANSWER SHEET TWO.
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. According to Dr Johnson, diversity means
A. merging of different cultural identities.
B. more emphasis on homogeneity.
C. embracing of more ethnic differences.
D. acceptance of more branches of Christianity.
2. According to the interview, which of the following statements in CORRECT?
A. Some places are more diverse than others.
B. Towns are less diverse than large cities.
C. Diversity can be seen everywhere.
D. American is a truly diverse country.
3. According to Dr Johnson, which place will witness a radical change in its racial makeup by 2025?
A. Maine
B. Selinsgrove
C. Philadelphia
D. California
4. During the interview Dr Johnson indicates that
A. greater racial diversity exists among younger populations.
B. both older and younger populations are racially diverse.
C. age diversity could lead to pension problems.
D. older populations are more racially diverse.
5. According to the interview, religious diversity
A. was most evident between 1990 and 2000.
B. exists among Muslim immigrants.
C. is restricted to certain places in the US.
D. is spreading to more parts of the country.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In 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. What is the main idea of the news item?
A. Sony developed a computer chip for cell phones.
B. Japan will market its wallet phone abroad.
C. The wallet phone is one of the wireless innovations.
D. Reader devices are available at stores and stations.
Question 7 and 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given
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20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
7. Which of the following is mentioned as the government s measure to control inflation?
A. Foreign investment.
B. Donor support.
C. Price control.
D. Bank prediction.
8. According to Kingdom Bank, what is the current inflation rate in Zimbabwe?
A. 20 million percent.
B. 2.2 million percent.
C. 11.2 million percent.
D. Over 11.2 million percent.
Question 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. Which of the following is CORRECT?
A. A big fire erupted on the Nile River.
B. Helicopters were used to evacuate people.
C. Five people were taken to hospital for burns.
D. A big fire took place on two floors.
10. The likely cause of the big fire is
A. electrical short-cut.
B. lack of fire-satefy measures.
C. terrorism.
D. not known.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
Still, the image of any city has a half-life of many years. (So does its name, officially changed in 2001
from Calcutta to Kolkata, which is closer to what the word sounds like in Bengali. Conversing in English, I
never heard anyone call the city anything but Calcutta.) To Westerners, the conveyance most identified with
Kolkata is not its modern subwaya facility whose spacious stations have art on the walls and cricket matches on
television monitorsbut the hand-pulled rickshaw. Stories and films celebrate a primitive-looking cart with high
wooden wheels, pulled by someone who looks close to needing the succor of Mother Teresa. For years the
government has been talking about eliminating hand-pulled rickshaws on what it calls humanitarian
groundsprincipally on the ground that, as the mayor of Kolkata has often said, it is offensive to see one man
sweating and straining to pull another man. But these days politicians also lament the impact of 6,000 hand-
pulled rickshaws on a modern city s traffic and, particularly, on its image. Westerners try to associate beggars
and these rickshaws with the Calcutta landscape, but this is not what Calcutta stands for, the chief minister of
West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said in a press conference in 2006. Our city stands for prosperity and
development. The chief minister the equivalent of a state governor went on to announce that hand-pulled
rickshaws soon would be banned from the streets of Kolkata.
Rickshaws are not there to haul around tourists. (Actually, I saw almost no tourists in Kolkata, apart from
the young backpackers on Sudder Street, in what used to be a red-light district and is now said to be the single
place in the city where the services a rickshaw puller offers may include providing female company to a
gentleman for the evening.) It s the people in the lanes who most regularly use rickshaws not the poor but
people who are just a notch above the poor. They are people who tend to travel short distances, through lanes
that are sometimes inaccessible to even the most daring taxi driver. An older woman with marketing to do, for
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instance, can arrive in a rickshaw, have the rickshaw puller wait until she comes back from various stalls to load
her purchases, and then be taken home. People in the lanes use rickshaws as a 24-hour ambulance service.
Proprietors of cafés or corner stores send rickshaws to collect their supplies. (One morning I saw a rickshaw
puller take on a load of live chickenstied in pairs by the feet so they could be draped over the shafts and the
folded back canopy and even the axle. By the time he trotted off, he was carrying about a hundred upside-down
chickens.) The rickshaw pullers told me their steadiest customers are schoolchildren. Middle-class families
contract with a puller to take a child to school and pick him up; the puller essentially becomes a family retainer.
From June to September Kolkata can get torrential rains, and its drainage system doesn t need torrential rain to
begin backing up. Residents who favor a touch of hyperbole say that in Kolkata if a stray cat pees, there s a
flood. During my stay it once rained for about 48 hours. Entire neighborhoods couldn t be reached by
motorized vehicles, and the newspapers showed pictures of rickshaws being pulled through water that was up to
the pullers waists. When it s raining, the normal customer base for rickshaw pullers expands greatly, as does
the price of a journey. A writer in Kolkata told me, When it rains, even the governor takes rickshaws.
While I was in Kolkata, a magazine called India Today published its annual ranking of Indian states,
according to such measurements as prosperity and infrastructure. Among India s 20 largest states, Bihar
finished dead last, as it has for four of the past five years. Bihar, a couple hundred miles north of Kolkata, is
where the vast majority of rickshaw pullers come from. Once in Kolkata, they sleep on the street or in their
rickshaws or in a deraa combination garage and repair shop and dormitory managed by someone called a sardar.
For sleeping privileges in a dera, pullers pay 100 rupees (about $2.50) a month, which sounds like a pretty good
deal until you ve visited a dera. They gross between 100 and 150 rupees a day, out of which they have to pay
20 rupees for the use of the rickshaw and an occasional 75 or more for a payoff if a policeman stops them for,
say, crossing a street where rickshaws are prohibited. A 2003 study found that rickshaw pullers are near the
bottom of Kolkata occupations in income, doing better than only the ragpickers and the beggars. For someone
without land or education, that still beats trying to make a living in Bihar.
There are people in Kolkata, particularly educated and politically aware people, who will not ride in a
rickshaw, because they are offended by the idea of being pulled by another human being or because they
consider it not the sort of thing people of their station do or because they regard the hand-pulled rickshaw as a
relic of colonialism. Ironically, some of those people are not enthusiastic about banning rickshaws. The editor of
the editorial pages of Kolkata s Telegraph Rudrangshu Mukherjee, a former academic who still writes history
bookstold me, for instance, that he sees humanitarian considerations as coming down on the side of keeping
hand-pulled rickshaws on the road. I refuse to be carried by another human being myself, he said, but I
question whether we have the right to take away their livelihood. Rickshaw supporters point out that when it
comes to demeaning occupations, rickshaw pullers are hardly unique in Kolkata.
When I asked one rickshaw puller if he thought the government s plan to rid the city of rickshaws was
based on a genuine interest in his welfare, he smiled, with a quick shake of his heada gesture I interpreted to
mean, If you are so naive as to ask such a question, I will answer it, but it is not worth wasting words on.
Some rickshaw pullers I met were resigned to the imminent end of their livelihood and pin their hopes on being
offered something in its place. As migrant workers, they don t have the political clout enjoyed by, say,
Kolkata s sidewalk hawkers, who, after supposedly being scaled back at the beginning of the modernization
drive, still clog the sidewalks, selling absolutely everythingor, as I found during the 48 hours of rain, absolutely
everything but umbrellas. The government was the government of the poor people, one sardar told me. Now
they shake hands with the capitalists and try to get rid of poor people.
But others in Kolkata believe that rickshaws will simply be confined more strictly to certain
neighborhoods, out of the view of World Bank traffic consultants and California investment delegationsor that
they will be allowed to die out naturally as they re supplanted by more modern conveyances. Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee, after all, is not the first high West Bengal official to say that rickshaws would be off the streets of
Kolkata in a matter of months. Similar statements have been made as far back as 1976. The ban decreed by
Bhattacharjee has been delayed by a court case and by a widely held belief that some retraining or social
security settlement ought to be offered to rickshaw drivers. It may also have been delayed by a quiet reluctance
to give up something that has been part of the fabric of the city for more than a century. Kolkata, a resident told
me, has difficulty letting go. One day a city official handed me a report from the municipal government
laying out options for how rickshaw pullers might be rehabilitated.
“Which option has been chosen? I asked, noting that the report was dated almost exactly a year before
my visit.
“That hasn t been decided, he said.
“When will it be decided?
“That hasn t been decided, he said.
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11. According to the passage, rickshaws are used in Kolkata mainly for the following EXCEPT
A. taking foreign tourists around the city.
B. providing transport to school children.
C. carrying store supplies and purchases
D. carrying people over short distances.
12. Which of the following statements best describes the rickshaw pullers from Bihar?
A. They come from a relatively poor area.
B. They are provided with decent accommodation.
C. Their living standards are very low in Kolkata.
D. They are often caught by policemen in the streets.
13. That For someone without land or education, that still beats trying to make a living in Bihar (4
paragraph) means that even so,
A. the poor prefer to work and live in Bihar.
B. the poor from Bihar fare better than back home.
C. the poor never try to make a living in Bihar.
D. the poor never seem to resent their life in Kolkata.
14. We can infer from the passage that some educated and politically aware people
A. hold mixed feelings towards rickshaws.
B. strongly support the ban on rickshaws.
C. call for humanitarian actions fro rickshaw pullers.
D. keep quiet on the issue of banning rickshaws.
15. Which of the following statements conveys the author s sense of humor?
A. not the poor but people who are just a notch above the poor. (2 paragraph)
B. ,.which sounds like a pretty good deal until you ve visited a dera. (4 paragraph)
C. Kolkata, a resident told me, has difficulty letting go. (7 paragraph).
D. or, as I found during the 48 hours of rain, absolutely everything but umbrellas. (6 paragraph)
16. The dialogue between the author and the city official at the end of the passage seems to suggest
A. the uncertainty of the court s decision.
B. the inefficiency of the municipal government.
C. the difficulty of finding a good solution.
D. the slowness in processing options.
TEXT B
Depending on whom you believe, the average American will, over a lifetime, wait in lines for two years
(says National Public Radio) or five years (according to customer-loyalty experts).
The crucial word is average, as wealthy Americans routinely avoid lines altogether. Once the most democratic
of institutions, lines are rapidly becoming the exclusive province of suckers(people who still believe in and
practice waiting in lines). Poor suckers, mostly.
Airports resemble France before the Revolution: first-class passengers enjoy "élite" security lines and
priority boarding, and disembark before the unwashed in coach, held at bay by a flight attendant, are allowed to
foul the Jetway.
At amusement parks, too, you can now buy your way out of line. This summer I haplessly watched kids
use a $52 Gold Flash Pass to jump the lines at Six Flags New England, and similar systems are in use in most
major American theme parks, from Universal Orlando to Walt Disney World, where the haves get to watch the
have-mores breeze past on their way to their seats.
Flash Pass teaches children a valuable lesson in real-world economics: that the rich are more important
than you, especially when it comes to waiting. An NBA player once said to me, with a bemused chuckle of
disbelief, that when playing in Canada--get this--"we have to wait in the same customs line as everybody else."
Almost every line can be breached for a price. In several U.S. cities this summer, early arrivers among the
early adopters waiting to buy iPhones offered to sell their spots in the lines. On Craigslist, prospective iPhone
purchasers offered to pay "waiters" or "placeholders" to wait in line for them outside Apple stores.
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Inevitably, some semi-populist politicians have seen the value of sort-of waiting in lines with the ordinary
people. This summer Philadelphia mayor John Street waited outside an AT&T store from 3:30 a.m. to 11:30
a.m. before a stand-in from his office literally stood in for the mayor while he conducted official business. And
billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg often waits for the subway with his fellow citizens, though he's
first driven by motorcade past the stop nearest his house to a station 22 blocks away, where the wait, or at least
the ride, is shorter.
As early as elementary school, we're told that jumping the line is an unethical act, which is why so many
U.S. lawmakers have framed the immigration debate as a kind of fundamental sin of the school lunch line.
Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, to cite just one legislator, said amnesty would allow illegal immigrants "to cut
in line ahead of millions of people."
Nothing annoys a national lawmaker more than a person who will not wait in line, unless that line is in
front of an elevator at the U.S. Capitol, where Senators and Representatives use private elevators, lest they have
to queue with their constituents.
But compromising the integrity of the line is not just antidemocratic, it's out-of-date. There was something
about the orderly boarding of Noah's Ark, two by two, that seemed to restore not just civilization but civility
during the Great Flood.
How civil was your last flight? Southwest Airlines has first-come, first-served festival seating. But for $5
per flight, an unaffiliated company called BoardFirst.com will secure you a coveted "A" boarding pass when
that airline opens for online check-in 24 hours before departure. Thus, the savvy traveler doesn't even wait in
line when he or she is online.
Some cultures are not renowned for lining up. Then again, some cultures are too adept at lining up: a
citizen of the former Soviet Union would join a queue just so he could get to the head of that queue and see
what everyone was queuing for.
And then there is the U.S., where society seems to be cleaving into two groups: Very Important Persons,
who don't wait, and Very Impatient Persons, who do--unhappily.
For those of us in the latter group-- consigned to coach, bereft of Flash Pass, too poor or proper to pay a
placeholder --what do we do? We do what Vladimir and Estragon did in Waiting for Godot: "We wait. We are
bored."
17. What does the following sentence mean? Once the most democratic of institutions, lines are rapidly
becoming the exclusive province of suckers Poor suckers, mostly. (2 paragraph)
A. Lines are symbolic of America s democracy.
B. Lines still give Americans equal opportunities.
C. Lines are now for ordinary Americans only.
D. Lines are for people with democratic spirit only.
18. Which of the following is NOT cited as an example of breaching the line?
A. Going through the customs at a Canadian airport.
B. Using Gold Flash Passes in amusement parks.
C. First-class passenger status at airports.
D. Purchase of a place in a line from a placeholder.
19. We can infer from the passage that politicians (including mayors and Congressmen)
A. prefer to stand in lines with ordinary people.
B. advocate the value of waiting in lines.
C. believe in and practice waiting in lines.
D. exploit waiting in lines for their own good.
20. What is the tone of the passage?
A. Instructive.
B. Humorous.
C. Serious.
D. Teasing.
TEXT C
A bus took him to the West End, where, among the crazy coloured fountains of illumination, shattering the
blue dusk with green and crimson fire, he found the café of his choice, a tea-shop that had gone mad and turned.
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Bbylonian, a while palace with ten thousand lights. It towered above the other building like a citadel, which
indeed it was, the outpost of a new age, perhaps a new civilization, perhaps a new barbarism; and behind the
thin marble front were concrete and steel, just as behind the careless profusion of luxury were millions of pence,
balanced to the last halfpenny. Somewhere in the background, hidden away, behind the ten thousand llights and
acres of white napery and bewildering glittering rows of teapots, behind the thousand waitresses and cash-box
girls and black-coated floor managers and temperamental long-haired violinists, behind the mounds of
cauldrons of stewed steak, the vanloads of ices, were a few men who went to work juggling with fractions of a
farming, who knew how many units of electricity it took to finish a steak-and-kidney pudding and how many
minutes and seconds a waitress( five feet four in height and in average health) would need to carry a tray of
given weight from the kitchen life to the table in the far corner. In short, there was a warm, sensuous, vulgar life
flowering in the upper storeys, and a cold science working in the basement. Such as the gigantic tea-shop into
which Turgis marched, in search not of mere refreshment but of all the enchantment of unfamiliar luxury.
Perhaps he knew in his heart that men have conquered half the known world, looted whole kingdoms, and never
arrived in such luxury. The place was built for him.
It was built for a great many other people too, and, as usual, they were al there. It seemed with humanity.
The marble entrance hall, piled dizzily with bonbons and cakes, was as crowded and bustling as a railway
station. The gloom and grime of the streets, the raw air, all November, were at once left behind, forgotten: the
atmosphere inside was golden, tropical, belonging to some high mid-summer of confectionery. Disdaining the
lifts, Turgis, once more excited by the sight, sound, and smell of it all, climbed the wide staircase until he
reached his favourite floor, whre an orchestra, led by a young Jewish violinist with wandering lustrous eyes and
a passion for tremolo effects, acted as a magnet to a thousand girls, scented air, the sensuous clamour of the
strings; and, as he stood hesitating a moment, half dazed, there came, bowing, s sleek grave man, older than he
was and far more distinguished than he could ever hope to be, who murmured deferentially: For one, sir? This
way, please, Shyly, yet proudly, Turgis followed him.
21. That behind the thin marble front were concrete and steel suggests that
A. modern realistic commercialism existed behind the luxurious appearance.
B. there was a fundamental falseness in the style and the appeal of the café..
C. the architect had made a sensible blend of old and new building materials.
D. the café was based on physical foundations and real economic strength.
22. The following words or phrases are somewhat critical of the tea-shop EXCEPT
A. turned Babylonian .
B. perhaps a new barbarism .
C. acres of white napery .
D. balanced to the last halfpenny .
23. In its context the statement that the place was built for him means that the café was intended to
A. please simple people in a simple way.
B. exploit gullible people like him.
C. satisfy a demand that already existed.
D. provide relaxation for tired young men.
24. Which of the following statements about the second paragraph is NOT true?
A. The café appealed to most senses simultaneously.
B. The café was both full of people and full of warmth.
C. The inside of the café was contrasted with the weather outside.
D. It stressed the commercial determination of the café owners.
25. The following are comparisons made by the author in the second paragraph EXCEPT that
A. the entrance hall is compared to a railway station.
B. the orchestra is compared to a magnet.
C. Turgis welcomed the lift like a conquering soldier.
D. the interior of the café is compared to warm countries.
26. The author s attitude to the café is
A. fundamentally critical.
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B. slightly admiring.
C. quite undecided.
D. completely neutral.
TEXT D
I Now elsewhere in the world, Iceland may be spoken of, somewhat breathlessly, as western Europe s
last pristine wilderness. But the environmental awareness that is sweeping the world had bypassed the majority
of Icelanders. Certainly they were connected to their land, the way one is complicatedly connected to, or
encumbered by, family one can t do anything about. But the truth is, once you re off the beat-en paths of the
low-lying coastal areas where everyone lives, the roads are few, and they re all bad, so Iceland s natural
wonders have been out of reach and unknown even to its own inhab-itants. For them the land has always just
been there, something that had to be dealt with and, if possible, exploitedthe mind-set being one of land as
commodity rather than land as, well, priceless art on the scale of the Mona Lisa.
When the opportunity arose in 2003 for the national power company to enter into a 40-year contract with
the American aluminum company Alcoa to supply hydroelectric power for a new smelter, those who had been
dreaming of some-thing like this for decades jumped at it and never looked back. Iceland may at the moment be
one of the world s richest countries, with a 99 percent literacy rate and long life expectancy. But the proj-ect s
advocates, some of them getting on in years, were more emotionally attuned to the country s century upon
century of want, hardship, and colonial servitude to Denmark, which officially had ended only in 1944 and
whose psychological imprint remained relatively fresh. For the longest time, life here had meant little more than
a sod hut, dark all winter, cold, no hope, children dying left and right, earthquakes, plagues, starvation,
volcanoes erupting and destroying all vegeta-tion and livestock, all spirita world revolving almost entirely
around the welfare of one s sheep and, later, on how good the cod catch was. In the outlying regions, it still
largely does.
Ostensibly, the Alcoa project was intended to save one of these dying regionsthe remote and sparsely
populated eastwhere the way of life had steadily declined to a point of desperation and gloom. After fishing
quotas were imposed in the early 1980s to protect fish stocks, many indi-vidual boat owners sold their
allotments or gave them away, fishing rights ended up mostly in the hands of a few companies, and small
fishermen were virtually wiped out. Technological advances drained away even more jobs previously done by
human hands, and the people were seeing every-thing they had worked for all their lives turn up worthless and
their children move away. With the old way of life doomed, aluminum projects like this one had come to be
perceived, wisely or not, as a last chance. Smelter or death.
The contract with Alcoa would infuse the re-gion with foreign capital, an estimated 400 jobs, and spin-off
service industries. It also was a way for Iceland to develop expertise that potentially could be sold to the rest of
the world; diversify an economy historically dependent on fish; and, in an appealing display of Icelandic can-do
verve, perhaps even protect all of Iceland, once and for all, from the unpredictability of life itself.
“We have to live, Halldór Ásgrímsson said in his sad, sonorous voice. Halldór, a former prime
minister and longtime member of parliament from the region, was a driving force behind the project. We have
a right to live.
27. According to the passage, most Icelanders view land as something of
A. environmental value.
B. commercial value.
C. potential value for tourism.
D. great value for livelihood.
28. What is Iceland s old-aged advocates feeling towards the Alcoa project?
A. Iceland is wealthy enough to reject the project.
B. The project would lower life expectancy.
C. The project would cause environmental problems.
D. The project symbolizes and end to the colonial legacies.
29. The disappearance of the old way of life was due to all the following EXCEPT
A. fewer fishing companies.
B. fewer jobs available.
C. migration of young people.
D. impostion of fishing quotas.
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30. The 4 paragraph in the passage
A. sums up the main points of the passage.
B. starts to discuss an entirely new point.
C. elaborates on the last part of the 3 paragraph.
D. continues to depict the bleak economic situation.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answer to each question. Mark your
answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
31. Which of the following statements in INCORRECT?
A. The British constitution includes the Magna Carta of 1215.
B. The British constitution includes Parliamentary acts.
C. The British constitution includes decisions made by courts of law.
D. The British constitution includes one single written constitution.
32. The first city ever founded in Canada is
A. Quebec.
B. Vancouver.
C. Toronto.
D. Montreal.
33. When did the Australian Federation officially come into being?
A. 1770.
B. 1788.
C. 1900.
D. 1901.
34. The Emancipation Proclamation to end the slavery plantation system in the South of the U.S. was issued
by
A. Abraham Lincoln.
B. Thomas Paine.
C. George Washington.
D. Thomas Jefferson.
35. ________ is best known for the technique of dramatic monologue in his poems..
A. Will Blake
B. W.B. Yeats
C. Robert Browning
D. William Wordsworth
36. The Financier is written by
A. Mark Twain.
B. Henry James.
C. William Faulkner.
D. Theodore Dreiser.
37. In literature a story in verse or prose with a double meaning is defined as
A. allegory.
B. sonnet.
C. blank verse.
D. rhyme.
38. ________ refers to the learning and development of a language.
A. Language acquisition
B. Language comprehension
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C. Language production
D. Language instruction
39. The word Motel comes from motor + hotel . This is an example of ________ in morphology.
A. backformation
B. conversion
C. blending
D. acronym
40. Language is t tool of communication. The symbol Highway Closed on a highway serves
A. an expressive function.
B. an informative function.
C. a performative function.
D. a persuasive function.
Part IV 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 proofread 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 provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the blank
provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When ∧ art museum wants a new exhibit,
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally complete and perfect as instruments
of communication: that is, every language appears to be well equipped as any other to say
the things their speakers want to say.
There may or may not be appropriate to talk about primitive peoples or cultures, but that
is another matter. Certainly, not all groups of people are equally competent in nuclear
physics or psychology or the cultivation of rice or the engraving of Benares brass.
Whereas this is not the fault of their language. The Eskimos can speak about snow with a
great deal more precision and subtlety than we can in English, but this is not because the
Eskimo language (one of those sometimes miscalled 'primitive') is inherently more precise
and subtle than English. This example does not come to light a defect in English, a show
of unexpected 'primitiveness'. The position is simply and obviously that the Eskimos and
the English live in similar environments. The English language will be just as rich in
terms for similar kinds of snow, presumably, if the environments in which English was
habitually used made such distinction as important.
Similarly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo language could be as precise and
subtle on the subject of motor manufacture or cricket if these topics formed the part of the
Eskimos' life. For obvious historical reasons, Englishmen in the nineteenth century could
not talk about motorcars with the minute discrimination which is possible today: cars were
not a part of their culture. But they had a host of terms for horse-drawn vehicles which
send us, puzzled, to a historical dictionary when we are reading Scott or Dickens. How
many of us could distinguish between a chaise, a landau, a victoria, a brougham, a coupe,
a gig, a diligence, a whisky, a calash, a tilbury, a carriole, a phaeton, and a clarence ?
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
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Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
朋友关系的存续是以相互尊重为前提的, 容不得半点强求、干涉和控制。朋友之间,
情趣相投、脾气对味则合、则交; 反之, 则离、则绝。朋友之间再熟悉 , 再亲密 , 也不能随便过
头，不恭不敬。不然，默契和平衡将被打破 , 友好关系将不复存在。每个人都希望拥有自己的私密空
间，朋友之间过于随便，就容易侵入这片禁区，从而引起冲突，造成隔阂。待友不敬，或许只是一件
小事，却可能已埋下了破坏性的种子。维持朋友亲密关系的最好办法是往来有节，互不干涉。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
I thought that it was a Sunday morning in May; that it was Easter Sunday, and as yet very early in the
morning. I was standing at the door of my own cottage. Right before me lay the very scene which could really
be commanded from that situation, but exalted, as was usual, and solemnized by the power of dreams. There
were the same mountains, and the same lovely valley at their feet; but the mountains were raised to more than
Alpine height, and there was interspace far larger between them of meadows and forest lawns; the hedges were
rich with white roses; and no living creature was to be seen except that in the green churchyard there were cattle
tranquilly reposing upon the graves, and particularly round about the grave of a child whom I had once tenderly
loved, just as I had really seen them, a little before sunrise in the same summer, when that child died.
PART VI WRITING (45 MIN)
Recently newspapers have reported that officials in a little-known mountainous area near Guiyang,
Guizhou Province wanted to turn the area into a central business district for Guiyang and invited a foreign
design company to give it a n entirely new look. The design company came up with a blueprint for
unconventional, super-futuristic buildings. Tis triggered off different responses. Some appreciated the bold
innovation of the design, but others held that it failed to reflect regional characteristics or local cultural heritage.
What is your view on this? Write an essay of about 400 words. You should supply an appropriate title for your
essay.
In the first part of your writing you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the
above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
—THE END –
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2010 年专八答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1 tones of voice
2 huskiness
3 universal expression/signal
4 thinking or uncertainty
5 lack of interest/indifference
6 truth-telling/honesty
7 distance
8 situation
9 mood
10 unconscious echoing/unconscious similar posture
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 CADAC
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 BCADA
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 ACBAD
16-20 CCADD
21-25 ACCDC
26-30 ABDAC
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
31-35 DADAC
36-40 DAACB
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.be →as∧
2.their→its
3.There→It
4.Whereas→But
5.further→much
6.come→bring
7.similar→different
8. will→would
9.as→／
10.第一个 the→／或改为 a
PART V TRANSLATION
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Friends tend to become more intimated if they have the same interests and temper, they can get along well
and keep contacting; otherwise they will separate and end the relationship. Friends who are more familiar and
closer can not be too casual and show no respect. Otherwise the harmony and balance will be broken, and the
friendship will also be nonexistent any more. Everyone hopes to have his own private space, and if too casual
among friends, it is easy to invade this piece of restricted areas, which will lead to the conflict, resulting in
alienation. It may be a small matter to be rude to friends; however, it is likely to plant the devastating seeds. The
best way to keep the close relationship between friends is to keep contacts with restraint, and do not bother
each other.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
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我想那是五月的一个周日的早晨；那天是复活节，一个大清早上。我站在自家小屋的门口。就在我
的面前展现出了那么一番景色，从我那个位置其实能够尽收眼底，可是梦里的感觉往往如此，由于梦
幻的力量，这番景象显得超凡出尘，一派肃穆气象。群山形状相同，其山脚下都有着同样可爱的山谷 ；
不过群山挺然参天，高于阿尔卑斯峰，诸山相距空旷，丰草如茵，林地开阔，错落其间； 树篱上的白
玫瑰娟娟弥望；远近看不见任何生物，唯有苍翠的教堂庭院里，牛群静静地卧躺在那片郁郁葱葱的墓
地歇息，好几头围绕着一个小孩的坟墓。我曾对她一腔柔情，那年夏天是在旭日东升的前一刻，那孩
子死去
了，我如同当年那样望着牛群。
PART VI WRITING
The important role of a city’s local conditions in the urban design
Recently there is a hot debate on a report that a foreign design company invited by a little-known mountainous area in Guiyang
provided a design without paying too much attention to the city s unique characteristics. Some people appreciate the bold
innovation of the design but others do not like it. In my opinion, any urban design should take the city s original cultural heritage
into account. The designers should suit their design to local conditions and try to take advantage of the local resources.
First, a city s regional characteristics or local cultural heritage are its symbol, its identity. In a mountainous area, too many
unconventional, super-futuristic buildings will not be compatible with the city s landscapes. Without these landscapes, it is just
another so called modern city composed of concrete and steel. Take Beijing for example. In the past few years, Beijing has been
removing a large number of such alleys traditionally called hutong, in order to make it become a real international city. But
without these hutongs can this city still be called Beijing, an ancient capital? The disappearance of hutongs means the
disappearance of a period of history, a cordial lifestyle, and even the disappearance of Beijing itself. Then Beijing will lose its
uniqueness.
Second, it can help a city save a lot of money by suiting the design to local conditions and try to take advantage of the local
resources. This is especially important to small cities, like this one in a mountainous area near Guiyang. We all know Guiyang is a
developing city, not very rich. Unconventional, super-futuristic buildings mean large need of money input. Then more burdens
may be added to this city, which will run counter to the city s original purpose of developing itself. Instead, if connections
between a city s culture and the various urban sectors, including housing, infrastructure and governance, are well made, the
maximum economic benefits will be achieved.
Besides, the modernization should be a gradual process. More haste, less speed. Nonetheless, it should not be overlooked that
the shortcomings of futuristic-style constructing outweigh its advantages brought.
In conclusion, any urban design should take the city s original cultural heritage into account. The designers should suit their
design to local conditions and try to take advantage of the local resources. A scientific city design should be dependent on the
city s regional characteristics, on a case-by-case basi
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2009)
-GRADE EIGHT-
TIME LIMIT: 195 MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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 Experimental Reports
I.Content of an experimental report, e.g.
--- study subject/ area
--- study purpose
--- ____1____
II.Presentation of an experimental report
--- providing details
--- regarding readers as _____2_____
III.Structure of an experimental report
--- feature: highly structured and ____3____
--- sections and their content:
INTRODUCTION ____4____; why you did it
METHOD how you did it
RESULT what you found out
____5____ what you think it shows
IV. Sense of readership
--- ____6____: reader is the marker
--- ____7____: reader is an idealized, hypothetical, intelligent person with little knowledge of your study
--- tasks to fulfill in an experimental report:
introduction to relevant area
necessary background information
development of clear arguments
definition of technical terms
precise description of data ____8____
V. Demands and expectations in report writing
--- early stage:
understanding of study subject/area and its implications
basic grasp of the report’s format
--- later stage:
____9____ on research significance
--- things to avoid in writing INTRODUCTION:
inadequate material
____10____ of research justification for the study
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In 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. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
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专八真题 2009 年
A. Toastmasters was originally set up to train speaking skills.
B. Toastmasters only accepts prospective professional speakers.
C. Toastmasters accepts members from the general public.
D. Toastmasters is an exclusive club for professional speakers.
2. The following are job benefits by joining Toastmasters EXCEPT
A. becoming familiar with various means of communication.
B. learning how to deliver messages in an organized way.
C. becoming aware of audience expectations.
D. learning how to get along with friends.
3. Toastmasters' general approach to training can be summarized as
A. practice plus overall training.
B. practice plus lectures.
C. practice plus voice training.
D. practice plus speech writing.
4. Toastmasters aims to train people to be all the following EXCEPT
A. public speakers.
B. grammar teachers.
C. masters of ceremonies.
D. evaluators.
5. The interview mainly focuses on
A. the background information.
B. the description of training courses.
C. the requirements of public speaking.
D. the overall personal growth.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In 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 6 and 7 are'based on the foUowing news. At the end of the news item, you will be
given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
6. Which of the following is the main cause of global warming?
A. Fossil fuel.
B. Greenhouse gases.
C. Increased dryness.
D. Violent storm patterns.
7. The news item implies that ______ in the last report.
A. there were fewer studies done
B. there were fewer policy proposals
C. there was less agreement
D. there were fewer objectives
Questions 8 and 9 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be
given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
8. The cause of the Indian train accident was
A. terrorist sabotage.
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专八真题 2009 年
B. yet to be determined.
C. lack of communications.
D. bad weather.
9. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
A. The accident occurred on a bridge.
B. The accident occurred in New Delhi.
C. There were about 600 casualties.
D. Victims were rescued immediately.
Question 10 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.
10. What is the main message of the news item?
A. Young people should seek careers advice.
B. Careers service needs to be improved.
C. Businesses are not getting talented people.
D. Careers advice is not offered on the Intemet.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions.
Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
We had been wanting to expand our children's horizons by taking them to a place that was
unlike anything we'd been exposed to during our travels in Europe and the United States. In
thinking about what was possible from Geneva, where we are based, we decided on a trip to
Istanbul, a two-hour plane ride from Zurich.
We envisioned the trip as a prelude to more exotic ones, perhaps to New Delhi or Bangkok
later this year, but thought our 11- and 13-year-olds needed a first step away from manicured
boulevards and pristine monuments.
What we didn't foresee was the reaction of friends, who warned that we were putting our
children "in danger," referring vaguely, and most incorrectly, to disease, terrorism or just the
unknown. To help us get acquainted with the peculiarities of Istanbul and to give our children a
chance to choose what they were particularly interested in seeing, we bought an excellent
guidebook and read it thoroughly before leaving.
Friendly warnings didn't change our planning, although we might have more prudently
checked with the U.S. State Department's list of troublespots. We didn't see a lot of children
among the foreign visitors during our six-day stay in Istanbul, but we found the tourist areas
quite safe, very interesting and varied enough even to suit our son, whose oft-repeated request is
that we not see "every single" church and museum in a given city.
Vaccinations weren't needed for the city, but we were concemed about adapting to the
water for a short stay. So we used bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth, a precaution
that may seem excessive, but we all stayed healthy.
Taking the advice of a friend, we booked a hotel a 20-minute walk from most of Istanbul's
major tourist sites. This not only got us some morning exercise, strolling over the Karakoy
Bridge, but took us past a colorful assortment of fishermen, vendors and shoe shiners.
From a teenager and pre-teen's view, Istanbul street life is fascinating since almost
everything can be bought outdoors. They were at a good age to spend time wandering the
labyrinth of the Spice Bazaar, where shops display mounds of pungent herbs in sacks. Doing this
with younger children would be harder simply because the streets are so packed with people; it
would be easy to get lost.
For our two, whose buying experience consisted of department stores and shopping mall
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专八真题 2009 年
boutiques, it was amazing to discover that you could bargain over price and perhaps end up with
two of something for the price of one. They also learned to figure out the relative value of the
Turkish lira, not a small matter with its many zeros.
Being exposed to Islam was an important part of our trip. Visiting the mosques, especially
the enormous Blue Mosque, was our first glimpse into how this major religion is practiced. Our
children's curiosity already had been piqued by the five daily calls to prayer over loudspeakers
in every corner of the city, and the scarves covering the heads of many women.
Navigating meals can be troublesome with children, but a kebab, bought on the street or in
restaurants, was unfailingly popular. Since we had decided this trip was not for gourmets, kebabs
spared us the agony of trying to find a restaurant each day that would suit the adults' desire to try
something new amid children's insistence that the food be served immediately. Gradually, we
branched out to try some other Turkish specialties.
Although our son had studied Islam briefly, it is impossible to be prepared for every
awkward question that might come up, such as during our visits to the Topkapi Sarayi, the
Ottoman Sultans' palace. No guides were available so it was do-it-yourself, using our guidebook,
which cheated us of a lot of interesting history and anecdotes that a professional guide could
provide. Next time, we resolved to make such arrangements in advance.
On this trip, we wandered through the magnificent complex, with its imperial treasures, its
courtyards and its harem. The last required a bit of explanation that we would have happily lef~
to a learned third party.
11. The couple chose Istanbul as their holiday destination mainly because
A. the city is not too far away from where they lived.
B. the city is not on the list of the U.S. State Department.
C. the city is between the familiar and the exotic.
D. the city is more familiar than exotic.
12. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. The family found the city was exactly what they had expected.
B. Their friends were opposed to their holiday plan.
C. They could have been more cautious about bringing kids along.
D. They were a bit cautious about the quality of water in the city.
13. We learn from the couple's shopping experience back home that
A. they were used to bargaining over price.
B. they preferred to buy things outdoors.
C. street markets were their favourite.
D. they preferred fashion and brand names.
14. The last two paragraphs suggest that to visit places of interest in Istanbul
A. guidebooks are very useful.
B. a professional guide is a must.
C. one has to be prepared for questions.
D. one has to make arrangements in advance.
15. The family have seen or visited all the following in Istanbul EXCEPT
A. religious prayers.
B. historical buildings.
C. local-style markets.
D. shopping mall boutiques.
TEXT B
Last month the first baby-boomers turned 60. The bulky generation born between 1946 and
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1964 is heading towards retirement. The looming "demographic cliff" will see vast numbers of
skilled workers dispatched from the labour force.
The workforce is ageing across the rich world. Within the EU the number of workers aged
between 50 and 64 will increase by 25% over the next two decades, while those aged 20-29 will
decrease by 20%. In Japan almost 20% of the population is already over 65, the highest share in
the world. And in the United States the number of workers aged 55-64 will have increased by
more than half in this decade, at the same time as the 35- to 44-year-olds decline by 10%.
Given that most societies are geared to retirement at around 65, companies have a looming
problem of knowledge management, of making sure that the boomers do not leave before they
have handed over their expertise along with the office keys and their e-mail address. A survey of
human-resources directors by IBM last year concluded: "When the baby-boomer generation
retires, many companies will find out too late that a career's worth of experience has walked out
the door, leaving insufficient talent to fill in the void."
Some also face a shortage of expertise. In aerospace and defence, for example, as much as
40% of the workforce in some companies will be eligible to retire within the next five years. At
the same time, the number of engineering graduates in developed countries is in steep decline.
A few companies are so squeezed that they are already taking exceptional measures. Earlier
this year the Los Angeles Times interviewed an enterprising Australian who was staying in
Beverly Hills while he tried to persuade locals to emigrate to Toowoomba, Queensland, to work
for his engineering company there. Toowoomba today; the rest of the developed world
tomorrow?
If you look hard enough, you can find companies that have begun to adapt the workplace to
older workers. The AARP, an American association for the over-50s, produces an annual list of
the best employers of its members. Health-care firms invariably come near the top because they
are one of the industries most in need of skilled labour. Other sectors similarly affected, says the
Conference Board, include oil, gas, energy and government.
Near the top of the AARP's latest list comes Deere & Company, a no-nonsense
industrial-equipment manufacturer based in Illinois; about 35% of Deere's 46,000 employees are
over 50 and a number of them are in their 70s. The tools it uses to achieve that - flexible
working, telecommuting, and so forth - also coincidentaUy help older workers to extend their
working lives. The company spends "a lot of time" on the ergonomics of its factories, making
jobs there less tiring, which enables older workers to stay at them for longer.
Likewise, for more than a decade, Toyota, arguably the world's most advanced
manufacturer, has adapted its workstations to older workers. The shortage of skilled labour
available to the automotive industry has made it unusually keen to recruit older workers. BMW
recently set up a factory in Leipzig that expressly set out to employ people over the age of 45.
Needs must when the devil drives.
Other firms are polishing their alumni networks. IBM uses its network to recruit retired
people for particular projects. Ernst & Young, a professional-services firm, has about 30,000
registered alumni, and about 25% of its "experienced" new recruits are former employees who
return after an absence.
But such examples are unusual. A survey in America last month by Ernst & Young found
that "although corporate America foresees a significant workforce shortage as boomers retire, it
is not dealing with the issue." Almost three-quarters of the 1,400 global companies questioned
by Deloitte last year said they expected a shortage of salaried staff over the next three to five
years. Yet few of them are looking to older workers to fill that shortage; and even fewer are
looking to them to fill another gap that has already appeared. Many firms in Europe and America
complain that they struggle to find qualified directors for their boards - this when the pool of
retired talent from those very same firms is growing by leaps and bounds.
Why are firms not working harder to keep old employees? Part of the reason is that the
crunch has been beyond the horizon of most managers. Nor is hanging on to older workers the
only way to cope with a falling supply of labour. The participation of developing countries in the
world economy has increased the overall supply - whatever the local effect of demographics in
the rich countries. A vast amount of work is being sent offshore to such places as China and
India and more will go in future. Some countries, such as Australia, are relaxing their
immigration policies to allow much needed skills to come in from abroad. Others will avoid the
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need for workers by spending money on machinery and automation.
16. According to the passage, the most serious consequence of baby-boomers approaching
retirement would be
A. a loss of knowledge and experience to many companies.
B. a decrease in the number of 35- to 44- year-olds.
C. a continuous increase in the number of 50-to 64-year-olds.
D. its impact on the developed world whose workforce is ageing.
17. The following are all the measures that companies have adopted to cope with the ageing
workforce EXCEPT
A. making places of work accommodate the needs of older workers.
B. using alumni networks to hire retired former employees.
C. encouraging former employees to work overseas.
D. granting more convenience in working hours to older workers.
18. "The company spends 'a lot of time' on the ergonomics of its factories" (Paragraph Seven)
means that
A. the company attaches great importance to the layout of its factories.
B. the company improves the working conditions in its factories.
C. the company attempts to reduce production costs of its factories.
D. the company intends to renovate its factories and update equipment.
19. In the author's opinion American firms are not doing anything to deal with the issue of the
ageing workforce mainly because
A. they have not been aware of the problem.
B. they are reluctant to hire older workers.
C. they are not sure of what they should do.
D. they have other options to consider.
20. Which of the following best describes the author's development of argument?
A. introducing the issue---citing ways to deal with the issue---~describing the actual
status---offering reasons.
B. describing the actual status--- introducing the issue---citing ways to deal with the
issue---offering reasons.
C. citing ways to deal with the issue---introducing the issue----describing the actual
status---offering reasons.
D. describing the actual status--offering reasons---introducing the issue---citing ways to
deal with the issue.
TEXT C
(1) The other problem that arises from the employment of women is that of the working wife.
It has two aspects: that of the wife who is more of a success than her husband and that of the wife
who must rely heavily on her husband for help with domestic tasks. There are various ways in which the impact
of the first difficulty can be reduced. Provided that husband and wife are not in the same or directly comparable
lines of work, the harsh fact of her greater success can be obscured by a genial conspiracy to reject a purely
monetary measure of achievement as intolerably crude. Where there are ranks, it is best if the couple work in
different fields so that the husband can find some special reason for the superiority of the lowest figure in his to
the most elevated in his wife's.
(2) A problem that affects a much larger number of working wives is the need to re-allocate
domestic tasks if there are children. In The Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell wrote of the
unemployed of the Lancashire coalfields: "Practically never ... in a working-class home, will you
see the man doing a stroke of the housework. Unemployment has not changed this convention,
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which on the face of it seems a little unfair. The man is idle from morning to night but the woman is as busy as
ever - more so, indeed, because she has to manage with less money. Yet so far as my
experience goes the women do not protest. They feel that a man would lose his manhood if, merely because he
was out of work, he developed in a 'Mary Ann'."
(3) It is over the care of young children that this re-allocation of duties becomes really
significant. For this, unlike the cooking of fish fingers or the making of beds, is an inescapably
time-consuming occupation, and time is what the fully employed wife has no more to spare of than her
husband.
(4) The male initiative in courtship is a pretty indiscriminate affair, something that is tried on with any
remotely plausible woman who comes within range and, of course, with all degrees of
tentativeness. What decides the issue of whether a genuine courtship is going to get under way is the woman's
response. If she shows interest the engines of persuasion are set in movement. The truth is that in courtship
society gives women the real power while pretending to give it to men.
(5) What does seem clear is that the more men and women are together, at work and away
from it, the more the comprehensive amorousness of men towards women will have to go, despite
all its past evolutionary services. For it is this that makes inferiority at work abrasive and, more
indirectly, makes domestic work seem unmanly, if there is to be an equalizing redistribution of
economic and domestic tasks between men and women there must be a compensating redistribution of the
erotic initiative. If women will no longer let us beat them they must allow us to join them as the blushing
recipients of flowers and chocolates.
21. Paragraph One advises the working wife who is more successful than her husband to
A. work in the same sort of job as her husband.
B. play down her success, making it sound unimportant.
C. stress how much the family gains from her high salary.
D. introduce more labour-saving machinery into the home.
22. Orwell's picture of relations between man and wife in Wigan Pier (Paragraph Two) describes a
relationship which the author of the passage
A. thinks is the natural one.
B. wishes to see preserved.
C. believes is fair.
D. is sure must change.
23. Which of the following words is used literally, NOT metaphorically?
A. Abrasive (Paragraph Five).
B. Engines (Paragraph Four).
C. Convention (Paragraph Two).
D. Heavily (Paragraph One).
24. The last paragraph stresses that if women are to hold important jobs, then they must
A. sometimes make the first advances in love.
B. allow men to flirt with many women.
C. stop accepting presents of flowers and chocolates.
D. avoid making their husbands look like "Mary Anns".
25. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT about the present form of courtship?
A. Men are equally serious about courtship.
B. Each man "makes passes" at many women.
C. The woman's reaction decides the fate of courtship.
D. The man leaves himself the opportunity to give up the chase quickly.
TEXT D
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From Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa capital at 12,000 feet, the long line threaded south,
dropping 2,000 feet to the valley floor, then trudged down the huge Sola-Khumbu canyon until it
opened out to the lush but still daunting foothills of Central Nepal.
It was here at Namche that one man broke rank and leaned north, slowly and arduously
climbing the steep walls of the natural amphitheater behind the scatter of stone huts, then past
Kunde and Khumjong.
Despite wearing a balaclava on his head, he had been frequently recognized by the Tibetans,
and treated with the gravest deference and respect. Even among those who knew nothing about
him, expressions of surprise lit up their dark, liquid eyes. He was a man not expected to be there.
Not only was his stature substantially greater than that of the diminutive Tibetans, but it
was also obvious from his bearing - and his new broadcloak, which covered a much-too-tight
army uniform - that he came from a markedly loftier station in life than did the average Tibetan.
Among a people virtually bereft of possessions, he had fewer still, consisting solely of a rounded
bundle about a foot in diameter slung securely by a cord over his shoulder. The material the
bundle was wrapped in was of a rough Tibetan weave, which did not augur that the content was
of any greater value - except for the importance he seemed to ascribe to it, never for a moment
releasing his grip.
His objective was a tiny huddle of buildings perched halfway up an enormous valley wall
across from him, atop a great wooded spur jutting out from the lower lap of the 22,493-foot Ama
Dablum, one of the most majestic mountains on earth. There was situated Tengboche, the most
famous Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, its setting unsurpassed for magnificence
anywhere on the planet.
From the top of the spur, one's eyes sweep 12 miles up the stupendous Dudh Kosi canyon
to the six-mile-long granite wall of cliff of Nuptse at its head. If Ama Dablum is the Gatekeeper,
then the sheer cliff of Nuptse, never less than four miles high, is the Final Protector of the
highest and mightiest of them all: Chomolongma, the Mother Goddess of the World, to the
Tibetans; Sagarmatha, the Head of the Seas, to the Nepalese; and Everest to the rest of us. And
over the great barrier of Nuptse She demurely peaks.
It was late in the afternoon - when the great shadows cast by the colossal mountains were
descending into the deep valley floors - before he reached the crest of the spur and shuffled to a
stop just past Tengboche's entrance gompa. His chest heaving in the rarefied air, he removed his
hand from the bundle--the first time he had done so - and wiped grimy rivulets of sweat from
around his eyes with the fingers of his mitted hand.
His narrowed eyes took in the open sweep of the quiet grounds, the pagoda-like monastery
itself, and the stone buildings that tumbled down around it like a protective skirt. In the distance
the magic light of the magic hour lit up the plume flying off Chomolongma's 29,029-foot-high
crest like a bright, welcoming banner.
His breathing calmed, he slowly, stiffly struggled forward and up the rough stone steps to
the monastery entrance. There he was greeted with a respectful nameste -"I recognize the divine
in you" - from a tall, slim monk of about 35 years, who hastily set aside a twig broom he had
been using to sweep the flagstones of the inner courtyard. While he did so, the visitor noticed
that the monk was missing the small finger on his left hand. The stranger spoke a few formal
words in Tibetan, and then the two disappeared inside.
Early the next morning the emissary - lightened of his load - appeared at the monastery
entrance, accompanied by the same monk and the elderly abbot. After a bow of his head, which
was returned much more deeply by the two ocher-robed residents, he took his leave. The two
solemn monks watched, motionless, until he dipped over the ridge on which the monastery sat,
and out of sight.
Then, without a word, they turned and went back inside the monastery.
26. Which of the following words in Paragraph One implies difficulty in walking?
A. "threaded".
B. "dropping".
C. "trudged".
D. "daunting".
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27. In the passage the contrast between the Tibetans and the man is indicated in all the following
aspects EXCEPT
A. clothing.
B. height.
C. social status.
D. personal belongings.
28. It can be inferred from the passage that one can get ______ of the region from the
monastery.
A. a narrow view
B. a hazy view
C. a distant view
D. a panoramic view
29. Which of the following details shows that the man became relaxed after he reached the
monastery?
A. "...he reached the crest of the spur and shuffled to a stop..."
B. "...he removed his hand from the bundle..."
C. "His narrowed eyes took in the open sweep of the quiet grounds..."
D. "...he slowly, stiffly struggled forward and up the rough stone steps..."
30. From how it is described in the passage the monastery seems to evoke
A. a sense of awe.
B. a sense of piety.
C. a sense of fear.
D. a sense of mystery.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answer to each question.
Mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
31. The Head of State of New Zealand is
A. the governor-general.
B. the Prime Minister.
C. the high commissioner.
D. the monarch of the United Kingdom.
32. The capital of Scotland is
A. Glasgow.
B. Edinburgh.
C. Manchester.
D. London.
33. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence and later became the U.S. President?
A. Thomas Jefferson.
B. George Washington.
C. Thomas Paine.
D. John Adams.
34. Which of the following cities is located on the eastern coast of Australia?
A. Perth.
B. Adelaide.
C. Sydney.
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D. Melbourne.
35. Ode to the West Windwas written by
A. William Blake.
B. William Wordsworth.
C. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
D. Percy B. Shelley.
36. Who among the following is a poet of free verse?
A. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
B. Walt Whitman.
C. Herman Melville
D. Theodore Dreiser.
37. The novel Sons andLovers was written by
A. Thomas Hardy.
B. John Galsworthy.
C. D.H. Lawrence.
D. James Joyce.
38. The study of the mental processes of language comprehension and production is
A. corpus linguistics.
B. sociolinguistics.
C. theoretical linguistics.
D. psycholinguistics.
39. A special language variety that mixes languages and is used by speakers of different languages
for purposes of trading is called
A. dialect.
B. idiolect.
C. pidgin.
D. register.
40. When a speaker expresses his intention of speaking, such as asking someone to open the
window, he is performing
A. an illocutionary act.
B. a perlocutionary act.
C. a locutionary act.
D. none of the above.
PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN)
Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET TWO as instructed.
When ∧ art museum wants a new exhibit, (1)_______
it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2)_______
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build i. (3)_______
The previous section has shown how quickly a rhyme passes
from one schoolchild to the next and illustrates the further difference ____1____
between school lore and nursery lore. In nursery lore a verse, learnt
in early childhood, is not usually passed on again when the little listener ____2____
has grown up, and has children of their own, or even grandchildren. ____3_____
The period between learning a nursery rhyme and transmitting
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it may be something from 20 to 70 years. With the playground ____4____
lore, therefore, a rhyme may be excitedly passed on within the very hour ____5____
it is learnt; and, in the general, it passes between children of the ____6____
same age, or nearly so, since it is uncommon for the differnce in age
between playmates to be more than five years. If, therefore, a playground
rhyme can be shown to have been currently for a hundred years, or ____7____
even just for fifty, it follows that it has been retransmitted over
and over, very possibly it has passed along a chain of two or three ____8____
hundred young hearers and tellers, and the wonder is that it remains live ____9____
after so much handling, to let alone that it bears resemblance to the ____10____
original wording.
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
我想不起来哪一个熟人没有手机。今天没有手机的人是奇怪的，这种人才需要解释。我
们的所有社会关系都储存在手机的电话本里，可以随时调出使用。古代只有巫师才能拥有这
种法宝。
手机刷新了人与人的关系。会议室门口通常贴着一条通告：请与会者关闭手机。可是会
议室里的手机铃声仍然响成一片。我们都是普通人，并没有多少重要的事情。尽管如此，我
们也不会轻易关掉手机。打开手机象征我们与这个世界的联系。手机反映出我们的“社交饥
渴症”。最为常见的是，一个人走着走着突然停下来，眼睛盯着手机屏幕发短信。他不在乎停在马路
中央还是厕所旁边。
为什么对于手机来电和短信这么在乎?因为我们迫切渴望与社会保持联系。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency - a threat to the survival of our civilization
that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well:
we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst - though not all - of its consequences, if we act
boldly, decisively and quickly. However, too many of the world's leaders are still best described in the words of
Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler's threat: "They go on in strange paradox, decided
only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, all powerful to be impotent." So today, we dumped another 70
million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were
an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now
trapping more and more heat from the sun.
PART Vl WRITING (45 MIN)
Mandarin, or putonghua, is the standard service sector language in our country. But recently, employees at
a big city's subway station have been busy learning dialects of other parts of the country. Proponents say that
using dialects in the subway is a way to provide better service. But opponents think that encouraging the use of
dialects in public counters the national policy to promote putonghua. What is your opinion? Write an essay of
about 400 words on the following topic:
Are Dialects Just as Acceptable in Public Places?
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow
the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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2009 年专八答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1. studt results/findings
2.unknowlegeable audiences
3.discplined
4.What you did
5.DISCUSSION
6.a common mistake
7.in reality
8.collection and analysis
9.(greater) attention/focus/emphasis
10.lack
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 CDABB
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 BCBAB
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 CADBD
16-20 DCBDB
21-25 BDCAA
26-30 CDDBD
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 DBACD
36-40 BCDCA
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.第二个 the→a
2.when→until
3.their→his
4.something→anything
5.therefore→however/nevertheless
6.in the general→去掉 the
7.currently→current
8.has →been∧
9.libe→alive
10.to let alone→去掉 to
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Cell phone has altered human relations. There is usually a note on the door of conference room, which
reads "close your handset|." However, the rings are still resounding in the room. We are all common people and
has few urgencies to do. Still, we are reluctant to turn off the phone. Cell phone symbolizes our connection with
the world and reflects our "thirst for socialization." We are familiar with the scene when a person stops his steps
to edit short messages with eyes glued at his phone, disregard of his location, whether in road center or beside
restroom.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
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我们人类，正面临全球性的危机，我们的生存和文明受到威胁。尽管我们聚在一起共商对策，而
灾难却在扩大，形式不容乐观。但也有令人欣喜的消息：如果行动大胆果断，反应迅速，我们有能力
解决这场危机，避免其向最坏的方向发展。
但是，时下世界上的许多国家领导人可以用当年温斯顿•丘吉尔批评欧洲诸政要忽视阿道夫•希特
勒的名言来形容，“它们在奇怪的悖论中前行，仅仅为一个决定而犹豫不决，有了决心却拖泥带水，
信心犹疑不定，见解随波逐流，掌权者虚弱无力。”
而如今我们向这个星球脆弱的大气层倾倒超过七千万吨温室气体，把其当作天然排污口。明天我
们还会变本加厉，堆积的温室气体吸纳了越来越多的太阳热度。
PART VI WRITING
Are Dialects Just as Acceptable in Public Places
China's State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) recently issued a notice banning
domestic radio and TV stations from translating foreign radio and TV programmes into any local dialect. The
notice said that such dialect translation contradicts the national initiative to promote Putonghua, or Mandarin,
around the country. Foreign programmes that have been translated into dialects must be removed from
television and radio immediately. The notice evoked a mixed response from experts and audio and video
producers, as well as the general public. Many voiced their concerns that local dialects would be forbidden in
public places. Mandarin, which means "common language", is the country's predominant language and is
widely used by more than 70 percent of the population. However, local dialects still enjoy popularity for
relatively less-educated people in some occasions. The dialects do make unique role and should be tolerated for
existence in public places.
Though promoted widely in public places, dialects are acceptable in public places. First, it is more than a
mere tool for communication. It is, most importantly, the messenger of its respective culture. If the dialect was
eliminated from daily use, the culture will be broken. Second, Mandarin can absorb the elit part of local dialect
to enrich its vocabulary and usage. This is the perfection of Mandarin from thousands of years blend and
contact. The dialects can also be popular in the public. Along with the famous short play by comic actors in NE
China, the local dialect came into the spotlight, and enjoyed more popularity throughout China. Such a cultural
phenomenon represents the audience an attitude to local dialects which cater to the taste of the majority. Third,
dialect is the only mean of communication to some undereducated local people. If local dialects are forbidden in
the public places, they can not communicate.
To sum up, local dialects should be tolerated in public places for its unique role which Mandarin can not
substitute. We should guarantee its survival because dialects stand for our spiritual land. From a long-term
perspective, dialects should not and would not be wiped out. There is no need for any purposeful and deliberate
attempt to protect dialects. Just let dialects take their natural course. The best way to protect a dialect is to use it
in daily life and pass it down from generation to generation.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2008)
-GRADE EIGHT-
TIME LIMIT: 195 MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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.
The Popularity of English
I. Present status of English
A. English as a native/first language
B. English as a lingua franca: a language for communication among people
whose (1)______ are different (1)_______
C. Number of people speaking English as a first or a second language:
320-380 million native speakers
250- (2) _____ million speakers of English as a second language (2)_______
II. Reasons for the popular use of English
A. (3) ____ reasons (3)_______
the Pilgrim Fathers brought the language to America;
British settlers brought the language to Australia;
English was used as a means of control in (4)_____ (4)_______
B. Economic reasons
spread of (5) _____ (5)_______
language of communication iii the international business community
C. (6)______ in international travel (6)_______
use of English in travel and tourism
signs in airports
language of announcement
language of (7) ______ (7)_______
D. Information exchange
use of English in the academic world
language of (8) _____ or journal articles (8)_______
E. Popular culture
pop music on (9)______ (9)_______
films from the USA
III. Questions to think about
A. status of English in the future
B. (10) ______ of distinct varieties of English (10)_______
SECTION B CONVERSATION
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that
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follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet.
Questions 1 to 5 are based on a conversation. At the end of the conversation you will be given 10 seconds to
answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the conversation.
1. Mary doesn't seem to favour the idea of a new airport because ________.
A. the existing airports are to be wasted
B. more people will be encouraged to travel
C. more oil will be consumed
D. more airplanes will be purchased
2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by Mary as a potential disadvantage?
A. More people in the area.
B. Noise and motorways.
C. Waste of land.
D. Unnecessary travel.
3. Freddy has cited the following advantages for a new airport EXCEPT
A. more job opportunities
B. vitality to the local economy
C. road construction,
D. presence of aircrew in the area
4. Mary thinks that people don't need to do much travel nowadays as a result of ________.
A. less emphasis on personal contact
B. advances in modern telecommunications
C. recent changes in people's concepts
D. more potential damage to the area
5. We learn from the conversation that Freddy is Mary's ideas,
A. strongly in favour of
B. mildly in favour of
C. strongly against
D. mildly against
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In 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. What is the main idea of the news item?
A. A new government was formed after Sunday's elections.
B. The new government intends to change the welfare system.
C. The Social Democratic Party founded the welfare system.
D. The Social Democratic Party was responsible for high unemployment.
Questions 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
7. The tapes of the Apollo-11 mission were first stored in ________.
A. a U.S. government archives warehouse
B. a NASA ground tracking station
C. the Goddard Space Flight Centre
D. none of the above places
8. What does the news item say about Richard Nafzger?
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A. He is assigned the task to look for the tapes.
B. He believes that the tapes are probably lost.
C. He works in a NASA ground receiving site.
D. He had asked for the tapes in the 1970s.
Questions 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 questions.
Now listen to the news.
9. The example in the news item is cited mainly to show ________.
A. that doctors are sometimes professionally incompetent
B. that in cases like that hospitals have to pay huge compensations
C. that language barriers might lower the quality of treatment
D. that language barriers can result in fatal consequences
10. According to Dr. Flores, hospitals and clinics ________.
A. have seen the need for hiring trained interpreters
B. have realized the problems of language barriers
C. have begun training their staff to be bilinguals
D. have taken steps to provide accurate diagnosis
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice
questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
At the age of 16, Lee Hyuk Joon's life is a living hell. The South Korean 10th grader gets up at 6 in the
morning to go to school, and studies most of the day until returning home at 6 p. m. After dinner, it's time to hit
the books again at one of Seoul's many so-called cram schools. Lee gets back home at 1 in the morning, sleeps
less than five hours, then repeats the routine five days a week. It's a grueling schedule, but Lee worries that it
may not be good enough to get him into a top university. Some of his classmates study even harder.
South Korea's education system has long been highly competitive. But for Lee and the other 700,000 high-
school sophomores in the country, high-school studies have gotten even more intense. That's because South
Korea has conceived a new college-entrance system, which will be implemented in 2008. This year's 10th
graders will be the first group evaluated by the new admissions standard, which places more emphasis on
grades in the three years of high school and less on nationwide SAT-style and other selection tests, which have
traditionally determined which students go to the elite colleges.
The change was made mostly to reduce what the government says is a growing education gap in the
country: wealthy students go to the best colleges and get the best jobs, keeping the children of poorer families
on the social margins. The aim is to reduce the importance of costly tutors and cram schools, partly to help
students enjoy a more normal high-school life. But the new system has had the opposite effect. Before, students
didn't worry too much about their grade-point averages; the big challenge was beating the standardized tests as
high-school seniors. Now students are competing against one another over a three-year period, and every
midterm and final test is crucial. Fretful parents are relying even more heavily on tutors and cram schools to
help their children succeed.
Parents and kids have sent thousands of angry online letters to the Education Ministry complaining that the
new admissions standard is setting students against each other. "One can succeed only when others fail," as one
parent said.
Education experts say that South Korea's public secondary-school system is foundering, while private
education is thriving. According to critics, the country's high schools are almost uniformly mediocre the result
of an egalitarian government education policy. With the number of elite schools strictly controlled by the
government, even the brightest students typically have to settle for ordinary schools in their neighbourhoods,
where the curriculum is centred on average students. To make up for the mediocrity, zealous parents send their
kids to the expensive cram schools.
Students in affluent southern Seoul neighbourhoods complain that the new system will hurt them the
most. Nearly all Korean high schools will be weighted equally in the college-entrance process, and relatively
weak students in provincial schools, who may not score well on standardized tests, often compile good grade-
point averages.
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Some universities, particularly prestigious ones, openly complain that they cannot select the best students
under the new system because it eliminates differences among high schools. They've asked for more discretion
in picking students by giving more weight to such screening tools as essay writing or interviews.
President Roh Moo Hyun doesn't like how some colleges are trying to circumvent the new system. He recently
criticized "greedy" universities that focus more on finding the best students than faying to "nurture good
students". But amid the crossfire between the government and universities, the country's 10th graders are
feeling the stress. On online protest sites, some are calling themselves a "cursed generation" and "mice in a lab
experiment". It all seems a touch melodramatic, but that's the South Korean school system.
11. According to the passage, the new college-entrance system is designed to ________.
A. require students to sit for more college-entrance tests
B. reduce the weight of college-entrance tests
C. select students on their high school grades only
D. reduce the number of prospective college applicants
12. What seems to be the effect of introducing the new system?
A. The system has given equal opportunities to students.
B. The system has reduced the number of cram schools.
C. The system has intensified competition among schools.
D. The system has increased students' study load.
13. According to critics, the popularity of private education is mainly the result of ________.
A. the government's egalitarian policy
B. insufficient number of schools:
C. curriculums of average quality
D. low cost of private education
14. According to the passage, there seems to be disagreement over the adoption of the new system between the
following groups EXCEPT
A. between universities and the government
B. between school experts and the government
C. between parents and schools
D. between parents and the government
15. Which of the following adjectives best describes the author's treatment of the topic?
A. Objective.
B. Positive.
C. Negative.
D. Biased.
TEXT B
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was a teenager before he saw his first cow in his first field. Born in Jamaica, the
47-year-old grew up in inner-city Birmingham before making a career as a television producer and launching
his own marketing agency. But deep down he always nurtured every true Englishman's dream of a rustic life, a
dream that his entrepreneurial wealth has allowed him to satisfy. These days he's the owner of a thriving 12-
hectare farm in deepest Devon with cattle, sheep and pigs. His latest business venture: pushing his brand of
Black Fanner gourmet sausages and barbecue sauces. "My background may be very urban," says Emmanuel-
Jones. "But it has given me a good idea of what other urbanites want."
And of how to sell it. Emmanuel-Jones joins a herd of wealthy fugitives from city life who are bringing a
new commercial know-how to British farming. Britain's burgeoning farmers' markets-numbers have doubled to
at least 500 in the last five years swarm with specialty cheesemakers, beekeepers or organic smallholders who
are redeploying the business skills they learned in the city. "Everyone in the rural community has to come to
terms with the fact that things have changed," says Emmanuel-Jones. "You can produce the best food in the
world, but if you don't know how to market it, you are wasting your time. We are helping the traditionalists to
move on."
The emergence of the new class of superpeasants reflects some old yearnings. If the British were the first
nation to industrialize, they were also the first to head back to the land. "There is this romantic image of the
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countryside that is particularly English," says Alun Howkins of the University of Sussex, who reckons the
population of rural England has been rising since 1911. Migration into rural areas is now running at about
100,000 a year, and the hunger for a taste of the rural life has kept land prices buoyant even as agricultural
incomes tumble. About 40 percent of all farmland is now sold to "lifestyle buyers" rather than the dwindling
number of traditional farmers, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
What's new about the latest returnees is their affluence and zeal for the business of producing quality
foods, if only at a micro-level. A healthy economy and surging London house prices have helped to ease the
escape of the would-be rustics. The media recognize and feed the fantasy. One of the big TV hits of recent
years, the "River Cottage" series, chronicled the attempts of a London chef to run his own Dorset farm.
Naturally, the newcomers can't hope to match their City salaries, but many are happy to trade any loss of
income for the extra job satisfaction. Who cares if there's no six-figure annual bonus when the land offers other
incalculable compensations?
Besides, the specialist producers can at least depend on a burgeoning market for their products. Today's
eco-aware generation loves to seek out authentic ingredients. "People like me may be making a difference in a
small way," Jan McCourt, a onetime investment banker now running his own 40-hectare spread in the English
Midlands stocked with rare breeds.
Optimists see signs of far-reaching change: Britain isn't catching up with mainland Europe; it's leading the
way. "Unlike most other countries, where artisanal food production is being eroded, here it is being recovered,"
says food writer Matthew Fort. "It may be the mark of the next stage of civilization that we rediscover the
desirability of being a peasant." And not an investment banker.
16. Which of the following details of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is INCORRECT?
A. He was born and brought up in Birmingham.
B. He used to work in the television industry.
C. He is wealthy, adventurous and aspiring.
D. He is now selling his own quality foods.
17. Most importantly, people like Wilfred have brought to traditional British farming ________.
A. knowledge of farming
B. knowledge of brand names
C. knowledge of lifestyle
D. knowledge of marketing,
18. Which of the following does NOT contribute to the emergence of a new class of farmers?
A. Strong desire for country life.
B. Longing for greater wealth.
C. Influence of TV productions.
D. Enthusiasm for quality food business.
19. What is seen as their additional source of new income?
A. Modern tendency to buy natural foods.
B. Increase in the value of land property.
C. Raising and selling rare live stock.
D. Publicity as a result of media coverage.
20. The sentence in the last paragraph "... Britain isn't catching up with mainland Europe; it's leading the way"
implies that ________.
A. Britain has taken a different path to boost economy.
B. more authentic foods are being produced in Britain
C. the British are heading back to the countryside
D. the Europeans are showing great interest in country life
TEXT C
In Barcelona the Catalonians call them castells, but these aren't stereotypical castles in Spain. These
castles are made up of human beings, not stone. The people who perform this agile feat of acrobatics are called
castellers, and to see their towers take shape is to observe a marvel of human cooperation.
First the castellers form what looks like a gigantic rugby scrummage. They are the foundation blocks of the
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castle. Behind them, other people press together, forming outward-radiating ramparts of inward-pushing
muscle: flying buttresses for the castle. Then sturdy but lighter castellers scramble over the backs of those at the
bottom and stand, barefoot, on their shoulders then still others, each time adding a higher "story".
These human towers can rise higher than small apartment buildings: nine "stories", 35 feet into the air.
Then, just When it seems this tower of humanity can't defy gravity any longer, a little kid emerges from the
crowd and climbs straight up to the top. Arms extended, the child grins while waving to the cheering crowd far
below.
Dressed in their traditional costumes, the castellers seem to epitomize an easier time, before Barcelona
became a world metropolis arid the Mediterranean's most dynamic city. But when you observe-them tip close,
in their street clothes, at practice, you see there's nothing easy about what the castellers do-and that they are not
merely reenacting an ancient ritual.
None of the castellers can-give a logical answer as to why they love doing this. But Victor Luna, 16,
touches me on the shoulder and says in English: "We do it because it's beautiful. We do it because we are
Catalan."
Barcelona's mother tongue is Catalan, and to understand Barcelona, you must understand two words of
Catalan: seny and rauxa. Seny pretty much translates as common sense, or the ability to make money, arrange
things, and get things done. Rauxa is reminiscent of our words "raucous" and "ruckus".
What makes the castellers revealing of the city is that they embody rauxa and seny. The idea of a human
castle is rauxa it defies common sense but to watch one going up is to see seny in action. Success is based on
everyone working together to achieve a shared goal.
The success of Carlos Tusquets' bank, Fibanc, shows seny at work in everyday life. The bank started as a
family concern and now employs hundreds. Tusquets said it exemplifies how the economy in Barcelona is
different.
Entrepreneurial seny demonstrates why Barcelona and Catalonia the ancient region of which Barcelona is
the capital are distinct from the rest of Spain yet essential to Spain's emergence, after centuries of repression, as
a prosperous, democratic European country. Catalonia, with Barcelona as its dynamo, has turned into an
economic powerhouse. Making up 6 percent of Spain's territory, with a sixth of its people, it accounts for nearly
a quarter of Spain's production everything from textiles to computers even though the rest of Spain has been
enjoying its own economic miracle.
Hand in hand with seny goes rauxa, and there's no better place to see rauxa in action than on the Ramblas,
the venerable, tree-shaded boulevard that, in gentle stages, leads you from the centre of Barcelona down to the
port. There are two narrow lanes each way for cars and motorbikes, but it's the wide centre walkway that makes
the Ramblas a front-row seat for Barcelona's longest running theatrical event. Plastic armchairs are set out on
the sidewalk. Sit in one of them, and an attendant will come and charge you a small fee. Performance artists
throng the Ramblas stilt walkers, witches caked in charcoal dust, Elvis impersonators. But the real stars are the
old women and happily playing children, millionaires on motorbikes, and pimps and women who, upon closer
inspection, prove not to be.
Aficionados (Fans) of Barcelona love to compare notes: "Last night there was a man standing on the
balcony of his hotel room," Mariana Bertagnolli, an Italian photographer, told me. "The balcony was on the
second floor. He was naked, and he was talking into a cell phone."
There you have it, Barcelona's essence. The man is naked (rauxa), but he is talking into a cell phone (seny).
21. From the description in the passage, we learn that ________.
A. all Catalonians can perform castells
B. castells require performers to stand on each other
C. people perform castells in different formations
D. in castells people have to push and pull each other
22. According to the passage, the4mplication of the performance is that ________.
A. the Catalonians are insensible and noisy people
B. the Catalonians show more sense than is expected
C. the Catalonians display paradoxical characteristics
D. the Catalonians think highly of team work
23. The passage cites the following examples EXCEPT ________ to show seny at work.
A. development of a bank
B. dynamic role in economy
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C. contribution to national economy
D. comparison with other regions
24. In the last but two paragraph, the Ramblas is described as "a front-row seat for Barcelona's longest running
theatrical event". What does it mean?
A. On the Ramblas people can see a greater variety of performances.
B. The Ramblas provides many front seats for the performances.
C. The Ramblas is preferred as an important venue for the events.
D. Theatrical performers like to perform on the Ramblas.
25. What is the main impression of the scenes on the Ramblas?
A. It is bizarre and outlandish.
B. It is of average quality.
C. It is conventional and quiet.
D. It is of professional standard.
TEXT D
The law firm Patrick worked for before he died filed for bankruptcy protection a year after his funeral.
After his death, the firm's letterhead properly included him: Patrick S. Lanigan, 1954-1992. He was listed up in
the right-hand corner, just above the paralegals. Then the rumors got started and wouldn't stop. Before long,
everyone believed he had taken the money and disappeared. After three months, no one on the Gulf Coast
believed that he was dead. His name came off the letterhead as the debts piled up.
The remaining partners in the law firm were still together, attached unwillingly at the hip by the bondage
of mortgages and the bank notes, back when they were rolling and on the verge of serious wealth. They had
been joint defendants in several unwinnable lawsuits; thus the bankruptcy. Since Patrick's departure, they had
tried every possible way to divorce one another, but nothing would work. Two were raging alcoholics who
drank at the office behind locked doors, but nevertogether. The other two were in recovery, still teetering on the
brink of sobriety.
He took their money. Their millions. Money they had already spent long before it arrived, as only lawyers
can do. Money for their richly renovated office building in downtown Biloxi. Money for new homes, yachts,
condos in the Caribbean. The money was on the way, approved, the papers signed, orders entered; they could
see it, almost touch it when their dead partner Patrick snatched it at the last possible second.
He was dead. They buried him on February 11, 1992. They had consoled the widow and put his rotten
name on their handsome letterhead. Yet six weeks later, he somehow stole their money.
They had brawled over who was to blame. Charles Bogan, the firm's senior partner and its iron hand, had
insisted the money be wired from its source into a new account offshore, and this made sense after some
discussion. It was ninety million bucks, a third of which the firm would keep, and it would be impossible to
hide that kind of money in Biloxi, population fifty thousand. Someone at the bank would talk. Soon everyone
would know. All four vowed secrecy, even as they made plans to display as much of their new wealth as
possible. There had even been talk of a firm jet, a six-seater.
So Bogan took his share of the blame. At forty-nine, he was the oldest of the four, and, at the moment, the
most stable. He was also responsible for hiring Patrick nine years earlier, and for this he had received no small
amount of grief.
Doug Vitrano, the litigator, had made the fateful decision to recommend Patrick as the fifth partner. The
other three had agreed, and when Patrick Lanigan was added to the firm name, he had access to virtually every
file in the office. Bogan, Rapley, Vitrano, Havarac, and Lanigan, Attorneys and Counselors-at-Law. A large ad
in the yellow pages claimed "Specialists in Offshore Injuries." Specialists or not, like most firms they would
take almost anything if the fees were lucrative. Lots of secretaries and paralegals. Big overhead, and the
strongest political connections on the Coast.
They were all in their mid-to late forties. Havarac had been raised by his father on a shrimp boat. His
hands were still proudly calloused, and he dreamed of choking Patrick until his neck snapped. Rapley was
severely depressed and seldom left his home, where he wrote briefs in a dark office in the attic.
26. What happened to the four remaining lawyers after Patrick's disappearance?
A. They all wanted to divorce their wives.
B. They were all heavily involved in debts.
C. They were all recovering from drinking.
D. They had bought new homes, yachts, etc.
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27. Which of the following statements contains a metaphor?
A. His name came off the letterhead as the debts piled up.
B.…they could see it, almost touch it when their dead partner...
C.…, attached unwillingly at the hip by the bondage of mortgages...
D.…, and for this he had received no small amount of grief.
28. According to the passage, what is the main cause of Patrick stealing the money?
A. Patrick was made a partner of the firm.
B. The partners agreed to have the money transferred.
C. Patrick had access to all the files in the firm.
D. Bogan decided to hire Patrick nine years earlier.
29. The lawyers were described as being all the following EXCEPT
A. greedy
B. extravagant
C. quarrelsome
D. bad-tempered
30. Which of the following implies a contrast?
A.…, and it would be impossible to hide that kind of money in Biloxi, population fifty thousand.
B. They had been joint defendants in several unwinnable lawsuits; thus the bankruptcy.
C. There had even been talk of a firm jet, a six-seater.
D. His name came off the letterhead as the debts piled up.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answer to each question.
Mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet
31. The largest city in Canada is ________.
A. Vancouver.
B. Montreal.
C. Toronto.
D. Ottawa.
32. According to the United States Constitution, the legislative power is invested in ________.
A. the Federal Government
B. the Supreme Court
C. the Cabinet
D. the Congress
33. Which of the following is the oldest sport in the United States?
A. Baseball.
B. Tennis.
C. Basketball.
D. American football.
34. The head of the executive branch in New Zealand is ________.
A. the President
B. the Governor-General
C. the British monarch,
D. the Prime Minister
35. The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, is an
important poetic work by ________.
A. William Langland.
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B. Geoffrey Chaucer.
C. William Shakespeare.
D. Alfred Tennyson.
36. Who wrote The American?
A. Herman Melville.
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne.
C. Henry James.
D. Theodore Dreiser.
37. All of the following are well-known female writers in 20th-century Britain EXCEPT
A. George Eliot.
B. Iris Jean Murdoch.
C. Doris Lessing.
D. Muriel Spark.
38. Which of the following is NOT a design feature of human language?
A. Arbitrariness.
B. Displacement.
C. Duality.
D. Diachronicity.
39. What type of sentence is "Mark likes fiction, but Tim is interested in poetry."?
A. A simple sentence.
B. A coordinate sentence.
C. A complex sentence.
D. None of the above.
40. The phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form is called ________.
A. hyponymy
B. synonymy
C. polysemy
D. homonymy
PART IV 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 provided 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.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) ∧ an
It never
╱
buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
The desire to use language as a sign of national identity is a
very natural one, and in result language has played a prominent 1
part in national moves. Men have often felt the need to cultivate 2
a given language to show that they are distinctive from another 3
race whose hegemony they resent. At the time the United States 4
split off from Britain, for example, there were proposals that
independence should be linguistically accepted by the use of a 5
different language from those of Britain. There was even one 6
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proposal that Americans should adopt Hebrew. Others favoured
the adoption of Greek, though, as one man put it, things would
certainly be simpler for Americans if they stuck on to English 7
and made the British learn Greek. At the end, as everyone 8
knows, the two countries adopted the practical and satisfactory
solution of carrying with the same language as before. 9
Since nearly two hundred years now, they have shown the world 10
that political independence and national identity can be complete
without sacrificing the enormous mutual advantages of a common
language.
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
都市寸土千金, 地价炒得越来越高, 今后将更高。拥有一个小小花园的希望, 对寻常之辈不啻是
一种奢望, 一种梦想。
我想 , 其实谁都有一个小小花园 , 这便是我们的内心世界。人的智力需要开发 , 人的内心世界也
是需要开发的。人和动物的区别 , 除了众所周知的诸多方面 , 恐怕还在于人有内心世界。心不过是人
的一个重要脏器 , 而内心世界是一种景观 , 它是由外部世界不断地作用于内心渐渐形成的。每个人都
无比关注自己及至亲至爱之人心脏的渐损 , 以至于稍有微疾便惶惶不可终日。但并非每个人都关注自
己及至亲至爱之人的内心世界的阴晴。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
But, as has been true in many other cases, when they were at last married, the most ideal of situations was
found to have been changed to the most practical. Instead of having shared their original duties, and as school-
boys would say, going halves, they discovered that the cares of life had been doubled. This led to some
distressing moments for both our friends; they understood suddenly that instead of dwelling in heaven they
were still upon earth, and had made themselves slaves to new laws and limitations. Instead of being freer and
happier than ever before, they had assumed new responsibilities; they had established a new household, and
must fulfill in some way or another the obligations of it. They looked back with affection to their engagement;
they had been longing to have each other to themselves, apart from the world, but it seemed they never felt so
keenly that they were still units in modern society.
PART VI WRITING (45 MIN)
In a few months' time you are going to graduate from university. How do you think your college years
have prepared you for your future life? Write an essay of about 400 words on the following topic:
What I have learned from my years at university
In the first part of your essay you should state dearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
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2008 年专八答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1.native/first languages
2.350
3.Historical
4.former British Empire
5.international commerce
6.Boom
7.air traffic control
8.conferences
9.many radios
10.possibilities/possibility/emergence/appearance/development
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 CADBD
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 BCADB
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 BDACA
16-20 ADBAC
21-25 BCDCA
26-30 BCCDD
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 CDADB
36-40 CADBD
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.result→consequence
2.moves→movements
3.distinctive→distinct/different
4.time →when∧
5.accpeted→presented/realized
6.those→that
7.on→去掉
8.At→in
9.carrying →on∧
10.now→ago
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Spiritual Garden
I think everyone, in effect, has a small garden or a flower bed of his own, namely, our inner world. There is
a need for human beings to tap into their own intelligence, as is the case with their inner world. What
distinguishes between human beings and animals, apart from the various aspects which are universally known,
may probably be in that human beings have an inner world. Heart is no more than an important organ whereas
the inner world constitutes a landscape, which gradually takes its shape under the continuous influence from the
outside world. So great is the importance that everyone attaches to the physical condition of his own heart or
those of his closest and dearest ones, that merely a minor disease would enduringly weign on his mind.
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SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
但是正如其他许多已经发生过的事情一样，当他们最终结婚后，发现最憧憬的生活变得再实际不
过了。他们非但没有分担各自原先的责任---正如那些学生们所说“一半一半”，相反却发现生活的重
担加倍了。这使得我们那两个结婚的朋友时常觉得沮丧;他们突然发现自己并没有过着天堂般的生活而
是仍实实在在地生活在地球上，而且成为了新规则和新约束的奴隶。生活并没有比以前更自由、更幸
福，因为他们要去承担新的责任。既然成立了一个新的家庭，那就无论如何也要尽一点家庭的义务。
他们深情地回想起订婚的那段时光，曾经如此地渴望拥有彼此而忘掉这个世界，然而现在最深切的感
受却是自己仍是这个世界的一份子。
PART VI WRITING
What I have learned from my years at university
When it comes to the topic “What I have learned from my years at university”, I contend to say that I have
a colorful but busy university life, actually, which is different from others. I learned something special which
means a lot to me, those are knowledge, interpersonal skills, and problem solving skills.
First and foremost, what enrich my study life most attribute to the knowledge that I have learned during
daily life. Having classes are seem to be the most effective way to gain knowledge. Every day, there are two or
three lessons, of course, the situations between grades are different. In this process, I listen to the teachers
carefully, and take notes, which making me feel everything is new and just like being injected fresh blood. In
addition, I love reading in library, there are a great quantity of books seem to wait for me to read. From the
book, I know how to toward to life positively, something about science, which broad my horizon as well.
Moreover, international skills are playing an increasingly important role at my university that could not be
replaced. University is similar to a small society , therefore, international skills should be paid more attention
during my university life. Talking with others and communicating with others are becoming more and more
frequently. Especially, when taking part in some afterschool activities, for instance, singing contest, dance
competition, and some meaningful parties. I make many friends, find life easier, learning how to communicate
with different people easily as well, which add my life infinite glory.
Last but not least, I learned problem solving skills from my Students Union. When holding an activity,
what I should concern is the whole process, including every detail. Problems coming, I prefer to think carefully
and cope with it rather than get anxious and feel helpless.
In conclusion, without college experiences, I wouldn t learned knowledge, interpersonal skills, and problem
solving skills. And I couldn t have had such a strong desire and such an inspiring heart to seize the
opportunities, face challenges and solve problems. With taste of sweet and sweat at university, I m confidently
prepared for my future career and life.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2007)
-GRADE EIGHT-
Time limit: 195MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A Mini-lecture
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture once only. While listening, take notes on
the important points. You notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task for
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-tanking.
What Can We Learn from Art?
I. Introduction
A. Differences between general history and art history
Focus:
general history: (1)_____
art history: political values, emotions, everyday life, etc.
B. Significance of study
More information and better understanding of human society and civilization
II. Types of information
A. Information in history books is (2)_____
facts, but no opinions
B. Information in art history is subjective
(3)_____ and opinions
e.g. Spanish painter's works: misuse of governmental power
Mexican artists' works: attitudes towards social problems
III. Art as a reflection of religious beliefs
A. Europe: (4)_____ in pictures in churches
B. Middle East: pictures of flowers and patterns in mosques, palaces
Reason: human and (5)_____ are not seen as holy
C. Africa and the Pacific Islands: masks, headdresses and costumes in special ceremonies
Purpose: to seek the help of (6)_____ to protect crops, animals and people.
IV. Perceptions of Art
How people see art is related to their cultural background.
A. Europeans and Americans
(7)_____
expression of ideas
B. People in other places
part of everyday life
(8)_____ use
V. Art as a reflection of social changes
A. Cause of changes: (9)_____ of different cultures.
B. Changes
tribal people: effects of (10)_____ on art forms
European artists: influence of African traditional art in their works
American and Canadian artists: study of Japanese painting
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In 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 colored 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.
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Now listen to the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview
1. According to Nigel, most problems of air travel are caused by ________.
A. Unfavorable weather conditions.
B. Airports handling capacity.
C. Inadequate ticketing service.
D. Overbooking.
2. Which of the following is not mentioned as compensation for volunteers for the next fight out?
A. Free ticket.
B. Free phone call.
C. Cash reward.
D. Seat reservation.
3. Why does Niget suggest that business travelers avoid big airports?
A. Because all flights in and out of there are full.
B. Because the volume of traffic is heavy.
C. Because there are more popular flights.
D. Because there are more delays and cancellations.
4. According to Nigel, inexperience travelers are likely to make the following mistakes EXCEPT
A. Booking on less popular flights.
B. buying tickets at full price
C. carrying excessive luggage
D. planning long business trips
5. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. The possibility of discounts depends on a travel agent's volume of business.
B. Longer flights to the same destination maybe cheaper.
C. It is advisable to plan every detail of a trip in advance.
D. Arranging for stopovers can avoid overnight travel.
SECTION C NEWS BROACAST
In 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 questions.
Now listen to the news.
6. What happened on Monday?
A. A train crash occurred causing minor injuries.
B. Investigator found out the cause of the accident.
C. Crews rescued more passengers from the site.
D. A commuter train crashed into a building.
Question 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds
to answer the questions.
6. Which of the following was not on the agenda of the G20 meeting?
A. Iraq debts.
B. WTO talks.
C. Financial disasters.
D. Possible sanctions.
8. The G20 is a (n) ________ organization.
A. International.
B. European.
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C. Regional.
D. Asian.
Question 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 questions
9. The UN Charter went into effect after ________.
A. It was signed by the 50 original member countries.
B. It was approved by the founders and other member countries.
C. It was approved by the founding members.
D. It was signed by the founding members.
10. Which of the following best describe the role of the charter?
A. The Charter only describes powers of the UN bodies.
B. The Charter mainly aims to promote world economy.
C. The charter is a treaty above all other treaties.
D. The charter authorizes reforms in UN bodies.
Part II Reading Comprehension (30 min)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
The Welsh language has always been the ultimate marker of Welsh identity, but a generation ago it looked
as if Welsh would go the way of Manx. Once widely spoken on the isle of Man but now extinct. Government
financing and central planning, however, have helped reverse the decline of Welsh. Road signs and official
public documents are written in both Welsh and English, and schoolchildren are required to learn both
languages. Welsh is now one of the most successful of Europe's regional languages, spoken by more than a half-
million of the country's three million people.
The revival of the language, particularly among young people, is part of a resurgence of national identity
sweeping through this small, proud nation. Last month Wales marked the second anniversary of the opening of
the National Assembly, the first parliament to be convened here since 1404. The idea behind devolution was to
restore the balance within the union of nations making up the United Kingdom. With most of the people and
wealth, England has always had bragging rights. The partial transfer of legislative powers from Westminster,
implemented by Tony Blair, was designed to give the other members of the club-Scotland, Northern Ireland,
and Wales-a bigger say and to counter centrifugal forces that seemed to threaten the very idea of the union.
The Welsh showed little enthusiasm for devolution. Whereas the Scots voted overwhelmingly for a
parliament, the vote for a Welsh assembly scraped through by less than one percent on a turnout of less than 25
percent. Its powers were proportionately limited. The Assembly can decide how money from Westminster or the
European Union is spent. It cannot, unlike its counterpart in Edinburgh, enact laws. But now that it is here, the
Welsh are growing to like their Assembly. Many people would like it to have more powers. Its importance as
figurehead will grow with the opening in 2003, of a new debating chamber, one of many new buildings that are
transforming Cardiff from a decaying seaport into a Baltimore-style waterfront city. Meanwhile a grant of
nearly two million dollars from the European Union will tackle poverty. Wales is one of the poorest regions in
Western Europe-only Spain, Portugal, and Greece have a lower standard of living.
Newspapers and magazines are filled with stories about great Welsh men and women, boosting self-
esteem. To familiar faces such as Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton have been added new icons such as
Catherine Zeta-Jones, the movie star, and Bryn Terfel, the opera singer. Indigenous foods like salt marsh lamb
are in vogue. And Wales now boasts a national airline. Awyr Cymru. Cymru, which means "land of
compatriots," is the Welsh name for Wales. The red dragon, the nation's symbol since the time of King Arthur, is
everywhere-on T-shirts, rugby jerseys and even cell phone covers.
"Until very recent times most Welsh people had this feeling of being second-class citizens," said Dyfan
Jones, an 18-year-old student. It was a warm summer night, and I was sitting on the grass with a group of young
people in Llanelli, an industrial town in the south, outside the rock music venue of the National Eisteddfod,
Wales's annual cultural festival. The disused factory in front of us echoed to the sounds of new Welsh bands.
"There was almost a genetic tendency for lack of confidence," Dyfan continued. Equally comfortable in his
Welshness as in his membership in the English-speaking, global youth culture and the new federal Europe,
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Dyfan, like the rest of his generation, is growing up with a sense of possibility unimaginable ten years ago. "We
used to think. We can't do anything, we're only Welsh. Now I think that's changing."
11. According to the passage, devolution was mainly meant to ________.
A. maintain the present status among the nations
B. reduce legislative powers of England
C. create a better state of equality among the nations
D. grant more say to all the nations in the union
12. The word "centrifugal" in the second paragraph means ________.
A. separatist
B. conventional
C. feudal
D. political
13. Wales is different from Scotland in all the following aspects EXCEPT
A. people's desire for devolution
B. locals' turnout for the voting
C. powers of the legislative body
D. status of the national language
14. Which of the following is NOT cited as an example of the resurgence of Welsh national identity ________.
A. Welsh has witnessed a revival as a national language.
B. Poverty-relief funds have come from the European Union.
C. A Welsh national airline is currently in operation.
D. The national symbol has become a familiar sight.
15. According to Dyfan Jones what has changed is ________.
A. people's mentality
B. pop culture
C. town's appearance
D. possibilities for the people
TEXT B
Getting to the heart of Kuwaiti democracy seems hilariously easy. Armed only with a dog-eared
NEWSWEEK ID, I ambled through the gates of the National Assembly last week. Unscanned, unsearched, my
satchel could easily have held the odd grenade or an anthrax-stuffed lunchbox. The only person who stopped me
was a guard who grinned and invited me to take a swig of orange juice from his plastic bottle.
Were I a Kuwaiti woman wielding a ballot, I would have been a clearer and more present danger. That very
day Parliament blocked a bill giving women the vote; 29 M. P. s voted in favour and 29 against, with two
abstentions. Unable to decide whether the bill had passed or not, the government scheduled another vote in two
weeks-too late for women to register for June's municipal elections. The next such elections aren't until 2009.
Inside the elegant, marbled Parliament itself, a sea of mustachioed men in white robes sat in green seats,
debating furiously. The ruling emir has pushed for women's political rights for years. Ironically, the
democratically elected legislature has thwarted him. Traditionalists and tribal leaders are opposed. Liberals fret,
too, that Islamists will let their multiple wives vote, swelling conservative ranks. "When I came to Parliament
today, people who voted yes didn't even shake hands with me," said one Shia clerc. "Why can't we respect each
other and work together?"
Why not indeed? By Gulf standards, Kuwait is a democratic superstar. Its citizens enjoy free speech (as
long as they don't insult their emir, naturally) and boast a Parliament that can actually pass laws. Unlike their
Saudi sisters, Kuwaiti women drive, work and travel freely. They run multibillion-dollar businesses and serve as
ambassadors. Their academic success is such that colleges have actually lowered the grades required for make
students to get into medical and engineering courses. Even then, 70 percent of university students are females.
In Kuwait, the Western obsession with the higab finds its equivalent. At a fancy party for NEWSWEEK's
Arabic edition, some Kuwaiti women wore them. Others opted for tight, spangled, sheer little numbers in
peacock blue or parrot orange. For the party's entertainment, Nancy Ajram, the Arab world's answer to Britney
Spears, sang passionate songs of love in a white mini-dress. She couldn't dance for us, alas, since shaking one's
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body onstage is illegal in Kuwait. That didn't stop whole tables of men from raising their camera-enabled
mobile phones and clicking her picture. You'd think not being able to vote or dance in public would anger
Kuwait's younger generation of women. To find out, I headed to the malls-Kuwait's archipelago of civic
freedom. Eager to duck
Strict parents and the social taboos of dating in public. young Kuwaitis have taken to cafes, beaming
flirtatious infrared e-mails to one another on their cell photos. At Starbucks in the glittering Al Sharq Mall, I
found only tables of men, puffing cigarettes and grumbling about the service. At Pizza Hut, I thought I'd got an
answer after encountering a young woman who looked every inch the modern suffragette drainpipe jeans,
strappy sliver high-heeled sandals and a higab studded with purple rhinestones. But, no, Miriam Al-Enizi, 20,
studying business administration at Kuwait University, doesn't think women need the vote." Men are better at
politics than women," she explained, adding that women in Kuwait already have everything they need.
Welcome to democracy, Kuwait style.
16. According to the passage, which of the following groups of people might be viewed as being dangerous by
the guards?
A. Foreign tourists.
B. Women protestors.
C. Foreign journalists.
D. Members of the National Assembly.
17. The bill giving women the vote did not manage to pass because ________.
A. Different interest groups held different concerns.
B. Liberals did not reach consensus among themselves.
C. Parliament was controlled by traditionalists.
D. Parliament members were all conservatives.
18. What is the role of the 4th and 5th paragraphs in the development of the topic?
A. To show how Kuwaiti women enjoy themselves.
B. To describe how women work and study in Kuwait.
C. To provide a contrast to the preceding paragraphs.
D. To provide a contrast to the preceding paragraphs.
19. Which of the following is NOT true about young Kuwaiti women?
A. They seem to be quite contented.
B. They go in for Western fashions.
C. They desire more than modern necessities.
D. They favour the use of hi-tech products.
TEXT C
Richard, King of England from 1189 to 1199, with all his characteristic virtues and faults cast in a heroic
mould, is one of the most fascinating medieval figures. He has been described as the creature and embodiment
of the age of chivalry, In those days the lion was much admired in heraldry, and more than one king sought to
link himself with its repute. When Richard's contemporaries called him" Coeur de Lion" (The Lion heart), they
paid a lasting compliment to the king of beasts. Little did the English people owe him for his services, and
heavily did they pay for his adventures. He was in England only twice for a few short months in his ten years'
reign; yet his memory has always English hearts, and seems to present throughout the centuries the pattern of
the fighting man. In all deeds of prowess as well as in large schemes of war Richard shone. He was tall and
delicately shaped strong in nerve and sinew, and most dexterous in arms. He rejoiced in personal combat, and
regarded his opponents without malice as necessary agents in his fame He loved war, not so much for the sake
of glory or political ends, but as other men love science or poetry, for the excitement of the struggle and the
glow of victory. By this his whole temperament was toned; and united with the highest qualities of the military
commander, love of war called forth all the powers of his mind and body.
Although a man of blood and violence, Richard was too impetuous to be either treacherous on habitually
cruel. He was as ready to forgive as he was hasty to offend; he was open-handed and munificent to profusion; in
war circumspect in design and skilful in execution; in political a child, lacking in subtlety and experience. His
political alliances were formed upon his likes and dislikes; his political schemes had neither unity nor clearness
of purpose. The advantages gained for him by military geoids were flung away through diplomatic ineptitude.
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When, on the journey to the East, Messina in Sicily was won by his arms he was easily persuaded to share with
his polished, faithless ally, Philip Augustus, fruits of a victory which more wisely used might have foiled the
French King's artful schemes. The rich and tenable acquisition of Cyprus was cast away even more easily than it
was won. His life was one magnificent parade, which, when ended, left only an empty plain.
In 1199, when the difficulties of raising revenue for the endless war were at their height, good news was
brought to King Richard. It was said there had been dug up near the castle of Chaluz, on the lands of one of his
French vassals, a treasure of wonderful quality; a group of golden images of an emperor, his wife, sons and
daughters, seated round a table, also of gold, had been unearthed. The King claimed this treasure as lord
paramount. The lord of Chaluz resisted the demand, and the King laid siege to his small, weak castle. On the
third day, as he rode daringly, near the wall. confident in his hard-tried luck, a bolt from a crossbow struck him
in the left shoulder by the neck. The wound, already deep, was aggravated by the necessary cutting out of the
arrow-head. Gangrene set in, and Coeur de Lion knew that he must pay a soldier's debt. He prepared for death
with fortitude and calm, and in accordance with the principles he had followed. He arranged his affairs, he
divided his personal belongings among his friends or bequeathed them to charity. He declared John to be his
heir, and made all present swear fealty to him. He ordered the archer who had shot the fatal bolt, and who was
now a prisoner, to be brought before him. He pardoned him, and made him a gift of money. For seven years he
had not confessed for fear of being compelled to be reconciled to Philip, but now he received the offices of the
Church with sincere and exemplary piety, and died in the forty-second year of his age on April 6, 1199, worthy,
by the consent of all men, to sit with King Arthur and Roland and other heroes of martial romance at some
Eternal round Table, which we trust the Creator of the Universe in His comprehension will not have forgotten to
provide.
The archer was flayed alive.
20. "little did the English people own him for his service" (paragraph one) means that the English ________.
A. paid few taxes to him
B. gave him little respect
C. received little protection from him
D. had no real cause to feel grateful to him
21. To say that his wife was a "magnificent parade" (paragraph Two) implies that it was to some extent.
A. spent chiefly at war
B. impressive and admirable
C. lived too pompously
D. an empty show
22. Richard's behaviour as death approached showed.\
A. bravery and self-control
B. Wisdom and correctness.
C. Devotion and romance.
D. Chivalry and charity.
23. The point of the last short paragraph is that Richard was ________.
A. cheated by his own successors
B. determined to take revenge on his enemies
C. more generous to his enemies than his successors
D. unable to influence the behavior of his successors
24. Which of the following phrase best describes Richard as seen by the author?
A. An aggressive king, too fond of war.
B. A brave king with minor faults.
C. A competent but cunning soldier.
D. A kind with great political skills.
25. The relationship between the first and second paragraphs is that ________.
A. each presents one side of the picture
B. the first generalizes the second gives examples
C. the second is the logical result of the first
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D. both present Richard's virtues and faults
TEXT D
The miserable fate of Enron's employees will be a landmark in business history, one of those awful events
that everyone agrees must never be allowed to happen again. This urge is understandable and noble: thousands
have lost virtually all their retirement savings with the demise of Enron stock. But making sure it never happens
again may not be possible, because the sudden impoverishment of those Enron workers represents something
even larger than it seems. It's the latest turn in the unwinding of one of the most audacious promise of the 20th
century.
The promise was assured economic security-even comfort-for essentially everyone in the developed world.
With the explosion of wealth, that began in the 19th century it became possible to think about a possibility no
one had dared to dream before. The fear at the center of daily living since caveman days-lack of food warmth,
shelter-would at last lose its power to terrify. That remarkable promise became reality in many ways.
Governments created welfare systems for anyone in need and separate programmes for the elderly (Social
Security in the U.S.). Labour unions promised not only better pay for workers but also pensions for retirees.
Giant corporations came into being and offered the possibility-in some cases the promise-of lifetime
employment plus guaranteed pensions.? The cumulative effect was a fundamental change in how millions of
people approached life itself, a reversal of attitude that most rank as one of the largest in human history. For
millennia the average person's stance toward providing for himself had been. Ultimately I'm on my own. Now it
became, Ultimately I'll be taken care of.
The early hints that this promise might be broken on a large scale came in the 1980s. U.S. business had
become uncompetitive globally and began restructuring massively, with huge Layoffs. The trend accelerated in
the 1990s as the bastions of corporate welfare faced reality. IBM ended it's no-layoff policy. AT&T fired
thousands, many of whom found such a thing simply incomprehensible, and a few of whom killed themselves.
The other supposed guarantors of our economic security were also in decline. Labour-union membership and
power fell to their lowest levels in decades. President Clinton signed a historic bill scaling back welfare.
Americans realized that Social Security won't provide social security for any of us.
A less visible but equally significant trend a affected pensions. To make costs easier to control, companies
moved away from defined benefit pension plans, which obligate them to pay out specified amounts years in the
future, to defined contribution plans, which specify only how much goes into the play today. The most common
type of defined-contribution plan is the 401 (k). the significance of the 401 (k) is that it puts most of the
responsibility for a person's economic fate back on the employee. Within limits the employee must decide how
much goes into the plan each year and how it gets invested-the two factors that will determine how much it's
worth when the employee retires.
Which brings us back to Enron? Those billions of dollars in vaporized retirement savings went in
employees' 401 (k) accounts. That is, the employees chose how much money to put into those accounts and then
chose how to invest it. Enron matched a certain proportion of each employee's 401 (k) contribution with
company stock, so everyone was going to end up with some Enron in his or her portfolio; but that could be
regarded as a freebie, since nothing compels a company to match employee contributions at all. At least two
special features complicate the Enron case. First, some shareholders charge top management with illegally
covering up the company's problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second,
Enron's 401 (k) accounts were locked while the company changed plan administrators in October, when the
stock was falling, so employees could not have closed their accounts if they wanted to.
But by far the largest cause of this human tragedy is that thousands of employees were heavily
overweighed in Enron stock. Many had placed 100% of their 401 (k) assets in the stock rather than in the 18
other investment options they were offered. Of course that wasn't prudent, but it's what some of them did.
The Enron employees'' retirement disaster is part of the larger trend away from guaranteed economic
security. That's why preventing such a thing from ever happening again may be impossible. The huge attitudinal
shift to I'll-be-taken-care-of took at least a generation. The shift back may take just as long. It won't be complete
until a new generation of employees see assured economic comfort as a 20th-century quirk, and understand not
just intellectually but in their bones that, like most people in most times and places, they're on their own
26. Why does the author say at the beginning "The miserable fate of Enron's employees will be a landmark in
business history "?
A. Because the company has gone bankrupt.
B. Because such events would never happen again.
C. Because many Enron workers lost their retirement savings.
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D. Because it signifies a turning point in economic security.
27. According to the passage, the combined efforts by governments, layout unions and big corporations to
guarantee economic comfort have led to a significant change in ________.
A. people's outlook on life
B. people's life styles
C. people's living standard
D. people's social values
28. Changes in pension schemes were also part of ________.
A. the corporate lay-offs
B. the government cuts in welfare spending
C. the economic restructuring
D. the warning power of labors unions
29. Thousands of employees chose Enron as their sole investment option mainly because ________.
A. the 401 (k) made them responsible for their own future
B. Enron offered to add company stock to their investment.
C. their employers intended to cut back on pension spending
D. Enron's offer was similar to a defined-benefit plan.
30. Which is NOT seen as a lesson drawn from the Enron disaster?
A. 401 (k) assets should be placed in more than one investment option.
B. Employees have to take up responsibilities for themselves.
C. Such events could happen again as it is not easy to change people's mind.
D. Economic security won't be taken for granted by future young workers.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
31. The majority of the current population in the UK are decedents of all the following tribes respectively
EXCEPT
A. the Anglos
B. the Celts
C. the Jutes
D. the Saxons
32. The Head of State of Canada is represented by ________.
A. the Monarch
B. the President
C. the Prime Minister
D. the Governor-general
33. The Declaration of Independence was written by ________.
A. Thomas Jefferson.
B. George Washington.
C. Alexander Hamilton.
D. James Madison.
34. The original inhabitants of Australia were ________.
A. the Red Indians
B. the Eskimos
C. the Aborigines
D. the Maoris
35. Which of the following novels was written by Emily Bronte?
A. Oliver Twist.
B. Middlemarch.
C. Jane Eyre.
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D. Wuthering Heights.
36. William Butler Yeats was a (n) ________ poet and playwright.
A. American.
B. Canadian.
C. Irish.
D. Australian.
37. Death of a Salesman was written by ________.
A. Arthur Miller.
B. Ernest Hemingway.
C. Ralph Ellison.
D. James Baldwin.
38. ________ refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules of word formation.
A. Phonology.
B. Morphology.
C. Semantics.
D. Sociolinguistics.
39. The distinctive features of a speech variety may be all the following EXCEPT
A. lexical
B. syntactic
C. phonological
D. psycholinguistic
40. The word tail once referred to "the tail of a horse", but now it is used to mean "the tail of any animal." This
is an example of ________.
A. widening of meaning
B. narrowing of meaning
C. meaning shift
D. loss of meaning
PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN)
The following 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 provided 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.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) ∧ an
It never
╱
buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can
make very positive statements about how language originated.
There is no material in any language today and in the earliest records 1
of ancient languages show us language in a new and emerging 2
state. It is often said, of course, that the language the originated in 3
cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the necessary evidence 4
is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient records,
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providing evidence of a language with a large proportion of such 5
cries than we find in English. It is true that the absence of such evidence
does not disprove the theory, but in other grounds too the 6
theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages
make rather similar noises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact 7
that such noises are similar on the lips of Frenchmen and Malaysians
whose languages are utterly different, serves to emphasize on 8
the fundamental difference on between these noises and language
proper. We may say that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement
are largely reflex actions, instinctive to large extent, whereas language 9
proper does not consist of signs but of these that have to be 10
learnt and that are wholly conventional?
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
暮色中, 河湾里落满云霞, 与天际的颜色混合一起, 分不清哪是流云哪是水湾。
也就在这一幅绚烂的图画旁边 , 在河湾之畔 , 一群羊正在低头觅食。它们几乎没有一个顾得上抬
起头来 , 看一眼这美丽的黄昏。也许它们要抓紧时间 , 在即将回家的最后一刻再次咀嚼。这是黄河滩
上的一幕。牧羊人不见了 , 他不知在何处歇息。只有这些美生灵自由自在地享受着这个黄昏。这儿水
草肥美 , 让它们长得肥滚滚的 , 像些胖娃娃。如果走近了 , 会发现它们那可爱的神情 , 洁白的牙齿 ,
那丰富而单纯的表情。如果稍稍长久一点端详这张张面庞, 还会生出无限的怜悯。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Scientific and technological advances are enabling us to comprehend the furthest reaches of the cosmos,
the most basic constituents of matter, and the miracle of life.
At the same time, today, the actions, and inaction, of human beings imperil not only life on the planet, but
the very life of the planet.
Globalization is making the world smaller, faster and richer. Still, 9/11, avian flu, and Iran remind us that a
smaller, faster world is not necessarily a safer world.
Our world is bursting with knowledge-but desperately in need of wisdom. Now, when sound bites are
getting shorter, when instant messages crowd out essays, and when individual lives grow more frenzied, college
graduates capable of deep reflection are what our world needs.
For all these reasons I believed-and I believe even more strongly today-in the unique and irreplaceable
mission of universities.
PART VI WRITING (45MIN)
Some people think that financial disparity affects friendship. What do you think? Write an essay of about
400 words.
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written
to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
You should supply an appropriate title for your essays.
Marks will be awarder for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the
above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
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2007 年 专 八 答 案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1.politics,economics and war
2.objective
3.personal emotions
4.the Bible
5.animal images
6.gods
7.decoration
8.practical
9.influence/interaction
10.urbanization
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 BDBAC
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 DCABC
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 CADBA
16-20 BADCD
21-25 DDCBA
26-30 DACBB
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 CDACD
36-40 CABDA
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.and→or
2.shows→showing
3.the language→去掉 the
4.第二个 and→but
5.large→larger
6.in→on
7.return→response
8.emphsize on→去掉 on
9. large→a∧
10.these→those
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Just beside this splendid picture, a flock of sheep are grazing with bent heads by the riverside. Hardly any
of them cares to look up and throws a glance at the beautiful twilight. Perhaps they are using the last moment
for another chew before going home. This is a scene taking place on the shore of the Yellow River. The
shepherd, who is nowhere to be seen, is having a rest in an unknown place, leaving these living things to enjoy
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this moment of dusk with full ease and freedom. Here the water grass is so luxuriant and tender that the sheep
have battened on them. If you approach them, you will see their snow-white teeth as well as their rich innocent
expressions.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
科技进步正在使我们能够探索宇宙的边陲、物质最基本的成分及生命的奇迹。
与此同时，今天，人类所做的及没能做到的事情，不仅危害到这个星球上的生命，也危害到星球本身
的寿命。
全球化正在使地球变得愈来愈小、愈来愈快和愈来愈富有。尽管如此，9.11、禽流感提醒我们，更
小更快的世界绝不意味着其更安全。
我们正处于一个知识爆炸的世界之中，不过，迫切需要智慧。现在，在(新闻采访的)
原声摘要播出变得愈来愈短，即时信息淘汰了杂记文，个人生活变得如痴如狂之际，这个世界还是需
要能够深思的大学生。
考虑到这些理由，我过去信仰，而今天甚至更加强烈地信仰大学独特的、无可取代的使命。
PART VI WRITING
Financial Disparity and Friendship
People have long been dominated by a fixed notion that friendship rests more largely on economic status
shared by friends than anything else. They believe that financial disparity will definitely affect friendship.
Indeed, Birds of a feather flock together. Unfortunately, this notion of friendship cannot always apply. The
possible truth is that, in a harmonious universe, birds of different feathers can and should be flying together.
Therefore, one is sure to have friends from different economic backgrounds, and true friendship transcends
financial differences. It embraces the quality of being genuine, lasting and productive.
To begin with, true friendship should be genuine. Genuine friendship does not assume the commonly held
view that financial equality can nurture a harmonious relationship between friends. Karl Marx and Engels,
two great German thinkers, have provided an undisputable example in this regard. They came from totally
different families, the former being financially disadvantaged while the latter being a son of wealthy
capitalist. However, unlike table friends who might value various material comforts, they developed
genuine friendship that helped refuel the two great minds. Together, they contributed to the treasure of
human thoughts that has exerted the greatest impact on the course of history. Their example is educational
in that their life-long friendship shows unmistakably that money counts least in true friendship.
Additionally, true friendship should be lasting. People say nothing lasts in the world. But as far as I am
concerned, true friendship does last forever. With lasting friendship, friends can go far both in life and
career. A notable Chinese ancient novel Three Kingdoms renders a typical case in point. LiuBei, GuanYu
and ZhangFei, the three protagonists of the book, who were sworn brothers, notwithstanding they were
from totally different socio-economic backgrounds. Liu was penniless despite the fact that he believed he
had descended from aristocracy; Guan, a tramp from modern standard of judgment; Zhang, a wealthy
landlord. Their friendship was formed long before they were successful. They clung to their friendship no
matter what befell them. With permanent friendship the three lived a meaningful life. With abiding
friendship they built a prosperous kingdom called Shu. Ever since then, their friendship has become a
legend.
Last but not least, true friendship should be productive. Of course, no one could deny the fact that in
seeking friendship, one has some personal concerns like enjoying the company of friends, wining and
dining, etc. But the best way to perpetuate good friendship is certainly to make it productive. During the
Chinese Cultural Revolution, my uncle met some intellectuals, who suffered from political persecution and
lived in sheer poverty. Rather than look down upon or shun them, my uncle treated them as equal and
made them his life-long friends. Together they started their own business when China implemented the
opening-up policy some 10 years ago. Through fair and foul, and above all their joined efforts, they finally
turned their concern into one of China 500. And today their relationship is more solid than ever before.
As Bacon wrote, We die as often as we lose a friend. Few could live a rich, abundant and eager life without
friends. Making friends and maintaining lasting friendship are an indispensable part of a successful and
happy existence. If we consider what makes a good friend, money is the least concern. While we live, let
us make
friends.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2006)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In this section you sill 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.
Meaning in literatine
In reading literary works, we are concerned with the "meaning" of one literary piece or another. However, finding out
what something really means is a difficult issue. There are three ways to tackle meaning in literature.
I. Meaning is what is intended by (1) ____________________________________( 1 )________
Apart from reading an author's work in question, readers need to
1 )read (2) _____________ by the same author; (2)_________
2) get familiar with (3) __________ at the time; (3)_________
3) get to know cultural values and symbols of the time.
II. Meaning exists "in" the text itself.
1) some people's view
:
meaning is produced by the formal properties of the
text like (4)_____________, etc. (4)_________
2) speaker's view
:
meaning is created by both conventions of meaning and
(5)' __________________________________________________________________(5)_________
Therefore, agreement on meaning could be created by common traditions and
conventions of usage. But different time periods and different (6) ________________ ( 6 )________
perspectives could lead to different interpretations of meaning in a text.
IQ. Meaning is created by (7) ______________________________________________(7)_________
1) meaning is (8) ___________________________________________________(8)_________
2) meaning is contextual;
3) meaning requires (9) _________________________________________________(9)_________
practicing competency in reading
practicing other competencies
background research. in (10) , etc. (10)
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In 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. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Miss Green's university days?
A. She felt bored.
B. She felt lonely.
C. She cherished them.
D. The subject was easy.
2. Which of the following is NOT part of her job with the Department of Employment?
A. Doing surveys at workplace.
B. Analyzing survey results.
C. Designing questionnaires.
D. Taking a psychology course.
3. According to Miss Green, the main difference between the Department of Employment and the advertising
agency lies in ________.
A. the nature of work
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B. office decoration
C. office location
D. work procedures
4. Why did Miss green want to leave the advertising agency?
A. She felt unhappy inside the company.
B. She felt work there too demanding.
C. She was denied promotion in the company.
D. She longed for new opportunities.
5. How did Miss Green react to a heavier workload in the new job?
A. She was willing and ready.
B. She sounded mildly eager.
C. She a bit surprised.
D. She sounded very reluctant.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In 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 6 and 7 based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to
answer each of the two questions.
Now listen to the news.
6. The man stole the aircraft mainly because he wanted to ________.
A. destroy the European Central Bank
B. have an interview with a TV station
C. circle skyscrapers in downtown Frankfurt
D. remember the death of a US astronaut
7. Which of the following statements about the man is TRUE?
A. He was a 31-year-old student from Frankfurt.
B. He was piloting a two-seat helicopter he had stolen.
C. He had talked to air traffic controllers by radio.
D. He threatened to land on the European Central Bank.
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. The news is mainly about the city government's plan to ________.
A. expand and improve the existing subway system
B. build underground malls and parking lots
C. prevent further land subsidence
D. promote advanced technology
Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10
seconds to answer each of the two questions.
Now listen to the news.
9. According to the news, what makes this credit card different from conventional ones is ________.
A. that it can hear the owner's voice
B. that it can remember a password
C. that it can identify the owner's voice
D. that it can remember the owner's PIN
10. The newly developed credit card is said to said to have all the following EXCEPT
A. switch
B. battery
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C. speaker
D. built-in chip
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
The University in transformation, edited by Australian futurists Sohail Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley,
presents some 20 highly varied outlooks on tomorrow's universities by writers representing both Western and
non-Western perspectives. Their essays raise a broad range of issues, questioning nearly every key assumption
we have about higher education today.
The most widely discussed alternative to the traditional campus is the Internet University a voluntary
community to scholars/teachers physically scattered throughout a country or around the world but all linked in
cyberspace. A computerized university could have many advantages, such as easy scheduling, efficient delivery
of lectures to thousands or even millions of students at once, and ready access for students everywhere to the
resources of all the world's great libraries.
Yet the Internet University poses dangers, too. For example, a line of franchised courseware, produced by a
few superstar teachers, marketed under the brand name of a famous institution, and heavily advertised, might
eventually come to dominate the global education market, warns sociology professor Peter Manicas of the
University of Hawaii at Manoa. Besides enforcing a rigidly standardized curriculum, such a "college education
in a box" could undersell the offerings of many traditional brick and mortar institutions, effectively driving then
out of business and throwing thousands of career academics out of work, note Australian communications
professors David Rooney and Greg Hearn.
On the other hand, while global connectivity seems highly likely to play some significant role in future
higher education, that does not mean greater uniformity in course content-or other dangers-will necessarily
follow. Counter-movements are also at work.
Many in academia, including scholars contributing to this volume, are questioning the fundamental
mission of university education. What if, for instance, instead of receiving primarily technical training and
building their individual careers, university students and professors could focus their learning and research
efforts on existing problems in their local communities and the world? Feminist scholar Ivana Milojevic dares
to dream what a university might become "if we believed that child-care workers and teachers in early
childhood education should be one of the highest (rather than lowest) paid professionals?"
Co-editor Jennifer Gidley shows how tomorrow's university faculty, instead of giving lectures and
conducting independent research, may take on three new roles. Some would act as brokers, assembling
customized degree-credit programmes for individual students by mixing and matching the best course offerings
available from institutions all around the world. A second group, mentors, would function much like today's
faculty advisers, but are likely to be working with many more students outside their own academic specialty.
This would require them to constantly be learning from their students as well as instructing them.
A third new role for faculty, and in Gidley's view the most challenging and rewarding of all, would be as
meaning-makers: charismatic sages and practitioners leading groups of students/colleagues in collaborative
efforts to find spiritual as well as rational and technological solutions to specific real-world problems.
Moreover, there seems little reason to suppose that any one form of university must necessarily drive out all
other options. Students may be "enrolled" in courses offered at virtual campuses on the Internet, between-or
even during-sessions at a real-world problem-focused institution.
As co-editor Sohail Inayatullah points out in his introduction, no future is inevitable, and the very act of
imagining and thinking through alternative possibilities can directly affect how thoughtfully, creatively and
urgently even a dominant technology is adapted and applied. Even in academia, the future belongs to those who
care enough to work their visions into practical, sustainable realities.
11. When the book reviewer discusses the Internet University,
A. he is in favour of it
B. his view is balanced
C. he is slightly critical of it
D. he is strongly critical of it
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12. Which of the following is NOT seen as a potential danger of the Internet University?
A. Internet-based courses may be less costly than traditional ones.
B. Teachers in traditional institutions may lose their jobs.
C. internet-based courseware may lack variety in course content
D. The Internet University may produce teachers with a lot of publicity.
13. According to the review, what is the fundamental mission of traditional university education?
A. Knowledge learning and career building.
B. Learning how to solve existing social problems.
C. Researching into solutions to current world problems.
D. Combining research efforts of teachers and students in learning.
14. Judging from the Three new roles envisioned for tomorrow's university faculty, university teachers
________.
A. are required to conduct more independent research
B. are required to offer more course to their students
C. are supposed to assume more demanding duties
D. are supposed to supervise more students in their specialty
15. Which category of writing does the review belong to?
A. Narration.
B. Description.
C. persuasion
D. Exposition.
TEXT B
Every street had a story, every building a memory, Those blessed with wonderful childhoods can drive the
streets of their hometowns and happily roll back the years. The rest are pulled home by duty and leave as soon
as possible. After Ray Atlee had been in Clanton (his hometown) for fifteen minutes he was anxious to get out.
The town had changed, but then it hadn't. On the highways leading in, the cheap metal buildings and mobile
homes were gathering as tightly as possible next to the roads for maximum visibility. This town had no zoning
whatsoever. A landowner could build anything with no permit, no inspection, no notice to adjoining landowners.
nothing. Only hog farms and nuclear reactors required approvals and paperwork. The result was a slash-and-
build clutter that got uglier by the year.
But in the older sections, nearer the square, the town had not changed at all The long shaded streets were as
clean and neat as when Kay roamed them on his bike. Most of the houses were still owned by people he knew,
or if those folks had passed on the new owners kept the lawns clipped and the shutters painted. Only a few were
being neglected. A handful had been abandoned.
This deep in Bible country, it was still an unwritten rule in the town that little was done on Sundays except
go to church, sit on porches, visit neighbours, rest and relax the way God intended.
It was cloudy, quite cool for May, and as he toured his old turf, killing time until the appointed hour for the
family meeting, he tried to dwell on the good memories from Clanton. There was Dizzy Dean Park where he
had played little League for the Pirates, and (here was the public pool he'd swum in every summer except 1969
when the city closed it rather than admit black children. There were the churches-Baptist, Methodist, and
Presbyterian-facing each other at the intersection of Second and Elm like wary sentries, their steeples competing
for height. They were empty now, hut in an hour or so the more faithful would gather for evening services.
The square was as lifeless as the streets leading to it. With eight thousand people, Clanton was just large
enough to have attracted the discount stores that had wiped out so many small towns. But here the people had
been faithful to their downtown merchants, and there wasn't's single empty or boarded-up building around the
square-no small miracle. The retail shops were mixed in with the banks and law offices and cafes, all closed for
the Sabbath.
He inched through the cemetery and surveyed the Atlee section in the old part, where the tombstones were
grander. Some of his ancestors had built monuments for their dead. Ray had always assumed that the family
money he'd never seen must have been buried in those graves. He parked and walked to his mother's grave,
something he hadn't done in years. She was buried among the Atlees, at the far edge of the family plot because
she had barely belonged.
Soon, in less than an hour, he would be sitting in his father's study, sipping bad instant tea and receiving
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instructions on exactly how his father would be laid to rest. Many orders were about to be give, many decrees
and directions, because his father (who used to be a judge) was a great man and cared deeply about how he was
to be remembered.
Moving again, Ray passed the water tower he'd climbed twice, the second time with the police waiting
below. He grimaced at his old high school, a place he'd never visited since he'd left it. Behind it was the football
field where his brother Forrest had romped over opponents and almost became famous before getting bounced
off the team.
It was twenty minutes before five, Sunday, May 7. Time for the family meeting.
16. From the first paragraph, we get the impression that ________.
A. Ray cherished his childhood memories.
B. Ray had something urgent to take care of.
C. Ray may not have a happy childhood.
D. Ray cannot remember his childhood days.
17. Which of the following adjectives does NOT describe Ray's hometown?
A. Lifeless.
B. Religious.
C. Traditional.
D. Quiet.
18. Form the passage we can infer that the relationship between Ray and his parents was ________.
A. close
B. remote
C. tense
D. impossible to tell
19. It can be inferred from the passage that Ray's father was all EXCEPT
A. considerate
B. punctual
C. thrifty
D. dominant
TEXT C
Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find
their counterparts in any other portion of the globe. Valley walls rise steeply five or six thousand feet on every
side. The columns crawl through a maze of giant corridors down which fierce snow-fed torrents foam under
skies of brass. Amid these scenes of savage brilliancy there dwells a race whose qualities seem to harmonize
with their environment. Except at harvest-time, when self-preservation requires a temporary truce, the Pathan
tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every
large house is a real feudal fortress made, it is true, only of sun-baked clay, but with battlements, turrets,
loopholes, drawbridges, etc. complete. Every village has its defence. Every family cultivates its vendetta; every
clan, its feud. The numerous tribes and combinations of tribes all have their accounts to settle with one another.
Nothing is ever forgotten, and very few debts are left unpaid. For the purposes of social life, in addition to the
convention about harvest-time, a most elaborate code of honour has been established and is on the whole
faithfully observed. A man who knew it and observed it faultlessly might pass unarmed from one end of the
frontier to another. The slightest technical slip would, however, be fatal. The life of the Pathan is thus full of
interest; and his valleys, nourished alike by endless sunshine and abundant water, are fertile enough to yield
with little labour the modest material requirements of a sparse population.
Into this happy world the nineteenth century brought two new facts: the rifle and the British Government.
The first was an enormous luxury and blessing; the second, an unmitigated nuisance. The convenience of the
rifle was nowhere more appreciated than in the Indian highlands. A weapon which would kill with accuracy at
fifteen hundred yards opened a whole new vista of delights to every family or clan which could acquire it. One
could actually remain in one's own house and fire at one's neighbour nearly a mile away. One could lie in wait
on some high crag, and at hitherto unheard-of ranges hit a horseman far below. Even villages could fire at each
other without the trouble of going far from home. Fabulous prices were therefore offered for these glorious
products of science. Rifle-thieves scoured all India to reinforce the efforts of the honest smuggler. A steady flow
of the coveted weapons spread its genial influence throughout the frontier, and the respect which the Pathan
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tribesmen entertained for Christian civilization was vastly enhanced.
The action of the British Government on the other hand was entirely unsatisfactory. The great organizing,
advancing, absorbing power to the southward seemed to be little better than a monstrous spoil-sport. If the
Pathan made forays into the plains, not only were they driven back (which after all was no more than fair), but a
whole series of subsequent interferences took place, followed at intervals by expeditions which toiled
laboriously through the valleys, scolding the tribesmen and exacting fines for any damage which they had done.
No one would have minded these expeditions if they had simply come, had a fight and then gone away again. In
many cases this was their practice under what was called the "butcher and bolt policy" to which the Government
of India long adhered. But towards the end of the nineteenth century these intruders began to make roads
through many of the valleys, and in particular the great road to Chitral. They sought to ensure the safety of these
roads by threats, by forts and by subsidies. There was no objection to the last method so far as it went. But the
whole of this tendency to road-making was regarded by the Pathans with profound distaste. All along the road
people were expected to keep quiet, not to shoot one another, and above all not to shoot at travellers along the
road. It was too much to ask, and a whole series of quarrels took their origin from this source.
20. The word debts in "very few debts are left unpaid" in the first paragraph means ________.
A. loans
B. accounts
C. killings
D. bargains
21. Which of the following is NOT one of the geographical facts about the Indian frontier?
A. Melting snows.
B. Large population.
C. Steep hillsides.
D. Fertile valleys.
22. According to the passage, the Pathans welcomed ________.
A. the introduction of the rifle
B. the spread of British rule
C. the extension of luxuries
D. the spread of trade
23. Building roads by the British ________.
A. put an end to a whole series of quarrels
B. prevented the Pathans from earning on feuds
C. lessened the subsidies paid to the Pathans
D. gave the Pathans a much quieter life
24. A suitable title for the passage would be ________.
A. Campaigning on the Indian frontier.
B. Why the Pathans resented the British rule.
C. The popularity of rifles among the Pathans.
D. The Pathans at war.
TEXT D
"Museum" is a slippery word. It first meant (in Greek) anything consecrated to the Muses: a hill, a shrine, a
garden, a festival or even a textbook. Both Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum had a mouseion, a muses'
shrine. Although the Greeks already collected detached works of art, many temples notably that of Hera at
Olympia (before which the Olympic flame is still lit)-had collections of objects, some of which were works of
art by well-known masters, while paintings and sculptures in the Alexandrian Museum were incidental to its
main purpose.
The Romans also collected and exhibited art from disbanded temples, as well as mineral specimens, exotic
plants, animals; and they plundered sculptures and paintings (mostly Greek) for exhibition. Meanwhile, the
Greek word had slipped into Latin by transliteration (though not to signify picture galleries, which were called
pinacothecae) and museum still more or less meant "Muses' shrine".
The inspirational collections of precious and semi-precious objects were kept in larger churches and
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monasteries-which focused on the gold-enshrined, bejewelled relics of saints and martyrs. Princes, and later
merchants, had similar collections, which became the deposits of natural curiosities: large lumps of amber or
coral, irregular pearls, unicorn horns, ostrich eggs, fossil bones and so on. They also included coins and gems-
often antique engraved ones-as well as, increasingly, paintings and sculptures. As they multiplied and expanded,
to supplement them, the skill of the fakers grew increasingly refined.
At the same time, visitors could admire the very grandest paintings and sculptures in the churches, palaces
and castles; they were not "collected" either, but "site-specific", and were considered an integral part both of the
fabric of the buildings and of the way of life which went on inside them-and most of the buildings were public
ones. However, during the revival of antiquity in the fifteenth century, fragments of antique sculpture were
given higher status than the work of any contemporary, so that displays of antiquities would inspire artists to
imitation, or even better, to emulation; and so could be considered Muses' shrines in the former sense. The
Medici garden near San Marco in Florence, the Belvedere and the Capitol in Rome were the most famous of
such early "inspirational" collections. Soon they multiplied, and, gradually, exemplary "modern" works were
In the seventeenth century, scientific and prestige collecting became so widespread that three or four
collectors independently published directories to museums all over the known world. But it was the age of
revolutions and industry which produced the next sharp shift in the way the institution was perceived: the fury
against royal and church monuments prompted antiquarians to shelter them in asylum-galleries, of which the
Musee des Monuments Francais was the most famous. Then, in the first half of the nineteenth century, museum
funding took off, allied to the rise of new wealth: London acquired the National Gallery and the British
Museum, the Louvre was organized, the Museum-Insel was begun in Berlin, and the Munich galleries were
built. In Vienna, the huge Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museums took over much of the imperial
treasure. Meanwhile, the decline of craftsmanship (and of public taste with it) inspired the creation of
"improving" collections. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London was the most famous, as well as perhaps
the largest of them.
25. The sentence "Museum is a slippery word" in the first paragraph means that ________.
A. the meaning of the word didn't change until after the 15th century
B. the meaning of the word had changed over the years
C. the Greeks held different concepts from the Romans
D. princes and merchants added paintings to their collections
26. The idea that museum could mean a mountain or an object originates from ________.
A. the Romans
B. Florence.
C. Olympia.
D. Greek.
27. " the skill of the fakers grew increasingly refined" in the third paragraph means that ________.
A. there was a great demand for fakers
B. fakers grew rapidly in number
C. fakers became more skillful
D. fakers became more polite
28. Painting and sculptures on display in churches in the 15th century were ________.
A. collected from elsewhere
B. made part of the buildings
C. donated by people
D. bought by churches
29. Modern museums came into existence in order to ________.
A. protect royal and church treasures
B. improve existing collections
C. stimulate public interest
D. raise more funds
30. Which is the main idea of the passage?
A. Collection and collectors.
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B. The evolution of museums.
C. Modern museums and their functions.
D. The birth of museums.
PART III General Knowledge (10 min)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answers to each question. Mark your
answers on your coloured answer sheet.
31. The Presidents during the American Civil War was ________.
A. Andrew Jackson.
B. Abraham Lincoln.
C. Thomas Jefferson.
D. George Washington.
32. The capital of New Zealand is ________.
A. Christchurch.
B. Auckland.
C. Wellington.
D. Hamilton.
33. Who were the natives of Australia before the arrival of the British settlers?
A. The Aborigines.
B. The Maori.
C. The Indians.
D. The Eskimos.
34. The Prime Minister in Britain is head of ________.
A. the Shadow Cabinet
B. the Parliament
C. the Opposition
D. the Cabinet
35. Which of the following writers is a poet of the 20th century?
A. T. S. Eliot.
B. D. H. Lawrence.
C. Theodore Dreiser.
D. James Joyce.
36. The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is written by ________.
A. Scott Fitzgerald.
B. William Faulkner.
C. Eugene O'Neil.
D. Ernest Hemingway.
37. ________ is defined as an expression of human emotion which is condensed into fourteen lines.
A. Free verse.
B. Sonnet.
C. Ode.
D. Epigram.
38. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is the notion of ________.
A. reference
B. meaning
C. antonym
D. context
39. The words "kid, child, offspring" are examples of ________.
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A. dialectal synonyms
B. stylistic synonyms
C. emotive synonyms
D. collocational synonyms
40. The distinction between parole and langue was made by ________.
A. Halliday.
B. Chomsky.
C. Bloomfield.
D. Saussure.
Part IV 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 proofread 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 provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the blank
provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit, ∧ 1
it buys things in finished form and hangs 2
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it. 3
We use language primarily as a means of communication with
other human beings. Each of us shares with the community in which
We live a store of words and meanings as well as agreeing conventions
as to the way in which words should be arranged to convey
a particular message: the English speaker has in his disposal a
vocabulary and a set of grammatical rules which enables him to
communicate his thoughts and feelings, ill a variety of styles, to the
other English speakers. His vocabulary, in particular, both that
which he uses actively and that which he recognises, increases in
size as he grows old as a result of education and experience.
But, whether the language store is relatively small or large, the
system remains no more, than a psychological reality for the individual,
unless he has a means of expressing it in terms able to be seen
by another member of his linguistic community; he bas to give the
system a concrete transmission form. We take it for granted rice' two
most common forms of transmission-by means of sounds produced
by our vocal organs (speech) or by visual signs (writing). And these
are among most striking of human achievements.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Part V Translation (60 min)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
中国民族自古以来从不把人看作高于一切 , 在哲学文艺方面的表现都反映出人在自然界中与万物占
着一个比例较为恰当的地位 , 而非绝对统治万物的主宰。因此我们的苦闷 , 基本上比西方人为少为小 ；
因为苦闷的强弱原是随欲望与野心的大小而转移的。农业社会的人比工业社会的人享受差得多；因此
欲望也小得多。况中国古代素来以不滞于物 , 不为物役为最主要的人生哲学。并非我们没有守财奴,
但比起莫利哀与巴尔扎克笔下的守财奴与野心家来, 就小巫见大巫了。中国民族多数是性情中正和平、
淡泊、朴实、比西方人容易满足。
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SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the underlined part of the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
On May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill, the newly appointed British Prime Minister, gave his first speech to
Parliament. He was preparing the people for a long battle against Nazi aggression, at a time when England's
survival was still in doubt.
"… I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous
kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.
You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the
strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and
lamentable catalogue of human crime.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs victory in spite of all
terrors for without victory there is no survival.
Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood
for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.
I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I
feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, 'Come then, let us go forward
together with our united strength'."
PART VI WRITING (45 MIN)
Joseph Epstein, a famous American writer, once said, "We decide what is important and what is trivial in
life we decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do but no matter how
indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We
decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny
is what ambition is about do you agree or disagree with him? Write an essay of about 400 words entitled:
Ambition
In the first part of your writing you should state your main argument, and in the second part you should
support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a
natural conclusion or make a summary. You should supply an appropriate title for your essay.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the
above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
—THE – END
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2006 年专八答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1.the author
2.other works
3.the literary trends
4.grammar/diction/image
5.cultural codes
6.cultural
7.the reader
8.social
9.reader competency
10.social structure/traditions of writing/influences
SECTION B INTERVIEW
1-5 CDBDA
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
6-10 DCBCA
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
11-15 BAACD
16-20 CDBAC
21-25 BABDB
26-30 DCBAB
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31-35 BCADA
36-40 DBDBD
PART IV PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.agreeing→agreed
2. words→these∧
3.in→at
4.enables→enable
5.the other English speakers→去掉 the
6.old→older
7.seen→understood
8.take it for granted→去掉 it
9.or→and
10. most→the∧
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Chinese since ancient time have never seen humans as above all others, and this is reflected both in
Philosophy and literature as humans only occupy a proper position in nature, not one that dominates
all beings. Therefore, basically, we suffer less than the westerners, because the suffering is proportional
to desire and ambition. People in agricultural societies enjoy a lot less than those in industrial societies, hence a
much smaller desire. Besides, the Chinese ancient people always consider " Not to be enslaved to materials" as
their most important philosophy in life.
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
我所能奉献的唯有热血、辛劳、眼泪和汗水我们所面临的将是一场极其严酷的考验，将是旷日持
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久的斗争和苦难。若问我们的政策是什么？我的回答是：在陆上、海上、空中作战。尽我们的全力，
尽上帝赋予我们的全部力量去作战，对人类黑暗、可悲的罪恶史上空前凶残的暴政作战。若问我们的
目标是什么？我可以用一个词来回答，那就是胜利。不惜一切代价，去夺取胜利——不惧一切恐怖，
去夺取胜利——不论前路如何漫长、如何艰苦，去夺取胜利。因为没有胜利就不能生存。我们务必认
识到，没有胜利就不复有大英帝国，没有胜利就不复有大英帝国所象征的一切，没有胜利就不复有多
少世纪以来的强烈要求和冲动：人类应当向自己的目标迈进
PART VI WRITING
Ambition
Ambition is a strong desire to achieve something and a firm determination to carry out one’s decisions. It
works as a motivation for one s advancement with which one can almost accomplish any success he desires.
The famous American writer Joseph Epstein once said,“And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed.
Indeed, once we make our determinations and choices to do something, our lives acquire significance and
orientation. As far as I am concerned, this cannot be truer and does apply to almost every aspect of our life.
To begin with, ambition provides us with a sense of mission. Once you have made your decision, you ll
have to make efforts towards it. In other words, be responsible to your choice. Your choice procures you a sense
of orientation or more a sense of mission. Only with strong ambition can we assume more responsibilities,
quicken our steps and go ahead to make progress. A typical example is Caesar of the ancient Roman Empire,
who was urged by his ambition“I came, I saw, I conquered. and finally became an unrivaled empire builder in
the history of Rome. John Milton, always encouraged by his ambition to write some“mighty lines which
England would unwillingly forget, had eventually got his honor as the second Shakespeare in the history of
English literature.
In the second place, ambition can bring one s potential to the full. It is hard to imagine what a man can
accomplish without ambition. Without ambition, one s potentials may remain slumbering like a dormant
volcano, since ambition serves as a catalyst activating one s dormant potentials. A case in point is Ms Zhang
Haidi, who is called a Chinese Helen Keller. Her achievements almost dwarf those of some normal people.
Unquestionably, it is her ambition to be someone that leads her to her success.
Although crucial and influential ambition is, it must be channeled in the right direction; otherwise, it may
work an opposite role and bring havoc to people. The tyrant ruler Hitler serves as a good example. It was his
wild ambition to conquer the Europe in whatever crucial ways that finally turned him into a demon and Europe
an unfathomable abyss of anguish and suffering. Another case is Japan during the second world war who aimed
at the conquest of the whole Asia and directly resulted in the numerous deaths in other Asian countries.
In short, on the one hand, ambition is beneficial and important to us if correctly channeled; on the other
hand, it can bring harms or even disasters if wrongly aimed. In my points of view, ambition is indispensable to
our life and only be motivated by a well-directed ambition can we make our life beautiful, meaningful and
rewarding.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2005)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In 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 Paper
I. Research Papers and Ordinary Essay
A. Similarity in (1) ____________:e. g.
— choosing a topic
— asking questions
— identifying the audience
B. Difference mainly in terms of (2) ____________
1. research papers
:
printed sources
2. ordinary essay
:
ideas in one's (3) ___________
IL Types and Characteristics of Research Papers
A. Number of basic types
:
two
B. 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.
ito recommend an action, etc.
ILL How to Choose a Topic for a Research Paper
In choosing a topic , it is important to (8) _____________________________(8 )__
Question No. 1 Your familiarity with the topic
Question No. 2: Availability of relevant information on the
chosen topic
Question No. 3 Narrowing the topic down to (9) _______________________(9 )__
Question No. 4 Asking questions about (10) __________________________(10 )
The questions help us to work out way into the topic and
discover its possibilities.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In 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 age.
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2. 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. negative
B. positive
C. ambiguous
D. neutral
5. The only popular belief that Professor McKay is unable to provide evidence against is ________.
A. old-age sickness
B. loose family ties
C. poor mental abilities
D. difficulties in math
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In 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 to ________.
A. 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 million
B. 8.9 million
C. 10 million
D. 1.5 million
Question 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.
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9. According to the WTO, Chinese exports rose ________ last year.
A. 21%
B. 10%
C. 22%
D. 4.73
10. 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)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the
passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
I 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 sky darkened 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 to ________.
A. sent out
B. released
C. dispatched
D. removed
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12. Which of the following in the first paragraph does NOT indicated crowds of people?
A. Thousands of.
B. Flowed.
C. Pouring.
D. Unyoked.
13. 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. Compassionate.
B. Responsible.
C. Shy.
D. Determined.
15. 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. Indifferent.
B. Sympathetic.
C. Appreciative.
D. Difficult to tell.
TEXT B
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 injuries are not to be taken lightly. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons,
only 25% of those who suffer hip fractures ever fully recover; as many as 20% will die within 12 months. Even
when patients do recover, nearly half will need a cane or a walker to get around.
When it comes to hip fractures, the most dangerous place for elderly Americans, it turns out, is their
homes; nearly 60% of these dangerous spills will occur in ore around the patient's domicile. This isn't all bad
news, however, because a few modifications could prevent a lot of accidents.
The first thing to do is to get rid of those throw rugs that line hallways and entrances. They often fold over
or bunch up, turning them into booby traps for anyone shuffling down the hall.
Entering and leaving the house is a particularly high-risk activity, which is why some experts suggest
removing any doorsills higher than 1/2 in. if the steps are bare wood, you can increase traction by applying non-
slip treads.
Because many seniors suffer from poor balance (whether from neurological deficits or from the inner-ear
problems that increase naturally with aging), it also helps to install grab bars and handrails in bathrooms and
along hallways.
The bedroom is another major hazard area that can be made much safer with a few adjustments. Avoid
stain sheets and comforters, and opt for non-slip material like wool or cotton. Easy access to devices is
important, so place a lamp, telephone and flashlight near the bed within arm's reach. Make sure the pathway
between the bedroom and bathroom is completely clear, and install a night-light along the route for those
emergency late-night trips.
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It's a good idea to rearrange the furniture throughout the house, so that the paths between rooms are free of
obstructions. Also, make sure telephone and appliance cords aren't strung across common walkways, where they
can be tripped over.
In addition to these physical precautions, there are the health precautions every aging body should take.
Physical and eye examinations, with special attention to cardiac and blood-pressure problems, should be
performed annually to rule out serious medical conditions. Blood pressure that's too low or an irregular
heartbeat can put you at risk for fainting and falling. Don't forget to take calcium and vitamin D, two critical
factors in developing strong bones. Finally, enrolling in an exercise programme at your local gym can improve
agility, strength, balance and coordination - all important skills that can keep you on your feet and off the floor.
17. The following are all specific measures to guard against injuries with the EXCEPTION of ________.
A. removal of throw rugs
B. easy access to devices
C. installation of grab bars
D. re-arrangement of furniture
18. In which paragraph does the author state his purpose of writing?
A. The third paragraph.
B. The first paragraph.
C. The last paragraph.
D. The last but one paragraph.
19. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. offer advice on how to prevent hip fractures
B. emphasize the importance of health precautions
C. discuss the seriousness of hip fractures
D. identify the causes of hip fractures
TEXT C
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 built them 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."
In 2012, America will still be the place where the future happens first, for that is the nation's oldest tradition.
The early Puritans lived in almost Stone Age conditions, but they were inspired by vision of future glories,
God's kingdom on earth. The early pioneers would sometimes travel past perfectly good farmland, because they
were convinced that even more amazing land could be found over the next ridge. The Founding Fathers took 13
scraggly Colonies and believed they were creating a new nation on earth. The railroad speculators envisioned
magnificent fortunes built on bands of iron. It's now fashionable to ridicule the visions of dot – com
entrepreneurs of the 1990s, but they had inherited the urge to leap for the horizon. "The Future is endowed with
such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation," Herman Melville wrote. "The Future is the Bible of the
Free."
This future – mindedness explains many modern features of American life. It explains workaholism: the
average American works 350 hours a year more than the average European. Americans move more, in search of
that brighter tomorrow, than people in other lands. They also, sadly, divorce more, for the same reason.
Americans adopt new technologies such as online shopping and credit cards much more quickly than people in
other countries. Forty-five percent of world Internet use takes place in the United States. Even today, after the
bursting on the stock-market bubble, American venture-capital firms which are in the business of betting on the
future – dwarf the firms from all other nations.
Future-mindedness contributes to the disorder in American life, the obliviousness to history, the high rates of
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family breakdown, the frenzied waste of natural recourses. It also leads to incredible innovations. According to
the Yale historian Paul Kennedy, 75 percent of the Nobel laureates in economics and the sciences over recent
decades have lived or worked in the United States. The country remains a magnet for the future-minded from
other nations. One in 12 Americans has enjoyed the thrill and challenge of starting his own business. A study
published in the Journal of International Business Studies in 2000 showed that innovative people are spread
pretty evenly throughout the globe, but Americans are most comfortable with risk. Entrepreneurs in the US are
more likely to believe that they possess the ability to shape their own future than people in, say, Britain,
Australia or Singapore.
If the 1990s were a great decade of future-mindedness, we are now in the midst of a season of experience. It
seems cooler to be skeptical, to pooh – pooh all those IPO suckers who lost their money betting on the telecom
future. But the world is not becoming more French. By 2012, this period of chastisement will likely have run its
course, and future-mindedness will be back in vogue, for better or worse.
We don't know exactly what the next future-minded frenzy will look like. We do know where it will take place:
the American suburb. In 1979, three quarters of American office space were located in central cities. The new
companies, research centers and entrepreneurs are flocking to these low buildings near airports, highways and
the Wal-Mart malls, and they are creating a new kind of suburban life. There are entirely new metropolises
rising – boom suburbs like Mesa, Arizona, that already have more people than Minneapolis or St. Louis. We are
now approaching a moment in which the majority of American office space, and the hub of American
entrepreneurship, will be found in quiet office parks in places like Rockville, Maryland, and in the sprawling
suburbosphere around Atlanta.
We also know that future-mindedness itself will become the object of greater study. We are discovering that
there are many things that human beings do easily that computers can do only with great difficulty, if at all.
Cognitive scientists are now trying to decode the human imagination, to understand how the brain visualizes,
dreams and creates. And we know, too, that where there is future-mindedness there is hope.
20. The third paragraph examines America's future-mindedness from the ________ perspective.
A. future
B. realistic
C. historical
D. present
21. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT brought about by future-mindedness?
A. Economic stagnation.
B. Environmental destruction.
C. High divorce rates.
D. Neglect of history.
22. The word "pooh-pooh" in the sixth paragraph means ________.
A. appreciate
B. praise
C. shun
D. ridicule
23. According to the passage, people at present can forecast ________ of a new round of future-mindedness.
A. the nature
B. the location
C. the variety
D. the features
24. The author predicts in the last paragraph that the study of future-mindedness will focus on ________.
A. how it comes into being
B. how it functions
C. what it brings about
D. what it is related to
TEXT D
"In every known human society the male's needs for achievement can be recognized... In a great number of
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human societies men's sureness of their sex role is tied up with their right, or ability, to practice some activity
that women are not allowed to practice. Their maleness in fact has to be underwritten by preventing women
from entering some field or performing some feat."
This is the conclusion of the anthropologist Margaret Mead about the way in which the roles of men and
women in society should be distinguished.
If talk and print are considered it would seem that the formal emancipation of women is far from complete.
There is a flow of publications about the continuing domestic bondage of women and about the complicated
system of defences which men have thrown up around their hitherto accepted advantages, taking sometimes the
obvious form of exclusion from types of occupation and sociable groupings, and sometimes the more subtle
form of automatic doubt of the seriousness of women's pretensions to the level of intellect and resolution that
men, it is supposed, bring to the business of running the world.
There are a good many objective pieces of evidence for the erosion of men's status. In the first place, there
is the widespread postwar phenomenon of the woman Prime Minister, in India, Sri Lanka and Israel.
Secondly, there is the very large increase in the number of women who work, especially married women
and mothers of children. More diffusely there are the increasingly numerous convergences between male and
female behaviour: the approximation to identical styles in dress and coiffure, the sharing of domestic tasks, and
the admission of women to all sorts of hitherto exclusively male leisure-time activities.
Everyone carries round with him a fairly definite idea of the primitive or natural conditions of human life.
It is acquired more by the study of humorous cartoons than of archaelology, but that does not matter since it is
not significant as theory but only as an expression of inwardly felt expectations of people's sense of what is
fundamentally proper in the differentiation between the roles of the two sexes. In this rudimentary natural
society men go out to hunt and fish and to fight off the tribe next door while women keep the fire going.
Amorous initiative is firmly reserved to the man, who sets about courtship with a club.
25. The phrase "men's sureness of their sex role" in the first paragraph suggests that they ________.
A. 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 men ________.
A. 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 paragraph ________.
A. generally agrees with the first paragraph
B. has no connection with the first paragraph
C. repeats the argument of the second paragraph
D. contradicts the last paragraph
28. At the end of the last paragraph the author uses humorous exaggeration in order to ________.
A. show that men are stronger than women
B. carry further the ideas of the earliest paragraphs
C. support the first sentence of the same paragraph
D. disown the ideas he is expressing
29. The usual idea of the cave man in the last paragraph ________.
A. is based on the study of archaeology
B. illustrates how people expect men to behave
C. is dismissed by the author as an irrelevant joke
D. proves that the man, not woman, should be the wooer
30. The opening quotation from Margaret Mead sums up a relationship between man and woman which the
author ________.
A. approves of
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B. argues is natural
C. completely rejects
D. expects to go on changing
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answer to each question. Mark your
answers on your coloured answer sheet.
31. ________ is the capital city of Canada.
A. Vancouver.
B. Ottawa.
C. Montreal.
D. York.
32. U.S. presidents normally serves a (an) ________ term.
A. two-year
B. four-year
C. six-year
D. eight-year
33. 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 Church.
C. The Protestant Church.
D. The Church of England.
35. The novel Emma is written by ________.
A. Mary Shelley.
B. Charlotte Bronte.
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 for ________.
A. his poems
B. his plays
C. his short stories
D. his novels
38. Syntax is the study of ________.
A. language functions
B. sentence structures
C. textual organization
D. word formation
39. Which of the following is NOT a distinctive feature of human language?
A. Arbitrariness.
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B. Productivity.
C. Cultural transmission.
D. Finiteness.
40. The speech act theory was first put forward by ________.
A. John Searle.
B. John Austin.
C. Noam Chomsky.
D. M. A. K. Halliday.
Part IV 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 proofread 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 provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the blank
provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When ∧ art museum wants a new exhibit,
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
The University as Business
A number of colleges and universities have announced steep tuition increases
for next year—much steeper than the current, very low, rate of inflation.
They say the increases are needed because of a loss in value of university
endowments' heavily investing in common stock. I am skeptical. A
business firm chooses the price that maximizes its net revenues, irrespective
fluctuations in income; and increasingly the outlook of universities in the
United States is indistinguishable from those of business firms. The rise in
tuitions may reflect the fact economic uncertainty increases the demand for
education. The biggest cost of being in the school is foregoing income from
a job (this is primarily a factor in graduate and professional-school tuition);
the poor one's job prospects, 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 include
soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, giving students a governance
role, and eliminate required courses. Sky-high tuitions have caused
universities to regard their students as customers. Just as business firms
sometimes collude to shorten the rigors 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 purely of need-just like business
firms agreeing not to give discounts on their best customer.
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
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Translate the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
一个人的生命究竟有多大意义, 这有什么标准可以衡量吗？提出一个绝对的标准当然
很困难；但是, 大体上看一个人对待生命的态度是否严肃认真, 看他对待劳动、工作等等
的态度如何, 也就不难对这个人的存在意义做出适当的估计了。
古来一切有成就的人, 都很严肃地对待自己的生命, 当他活着一天, 总要尽量多劳动、
多工作、多学习, 不肯虚度年华, 不让时间白白地浪费掉。我国历代的劳动人民及大政治
家、大思想家等等都莫不如此。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
It is simple enough to say that since books have – classes fiction, biography, poetry – we should separate
them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books
can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be
true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our
own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconception when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.
Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and
reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you
read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness,
from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any
other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you,
or attempting to give you, something far more definite.
PART VI WRITING (45 MIN)
Interview is frequently used by employers as a means to recruit prospective employees. As a result, there
have been many arguments for or against the interview as a selection procedure. What is your opinion? Write an
essay of about 400 words to state your view.
In the first part of your writing you should state your main argument, and in the second part you should
support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a
natural conclusion or make a summary.
You should supply an appropriate title for your essay.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the
above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
—THE END –
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2004)
-GRADE EIGHT-
（试卷一）（85 MIN）
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 sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 1 to 5 refer to the talk in this section. At the end of the talk you will be given 75 seconds to answer the
questions.
Now listen to the talk.
1. The parallel between waltzing and language use lies in ________.
A. the coordination based on individual actions
B. the number of individual participants
C. the necessity of individual actions
D. the requirements for participants
2. In the talk the speaker thinks that language use is a (n) ________ process.
A. individual
B. combined
C. distinct
D. social
3. The main difference between personal and nonpersonal settings is in ________.
A. the manner of language use
B. the topic and content of speech
C. the interactions between speaker and audience
D. the relationship between speaker and audience
4. In fictional settings, speakers ________.
A. hide their real intentions
B. voice others' intentions
C. play double roles on and off stage
D. only imitate other people in life
5. Compared with other types of settings, the main feature of private setting is ________.
A. the absence of spontaneity
B. the presence of individual actions
C. the lack of real intentions
D. the absence of audience
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 6 to 10 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 75 seconds to answer
the questions.
Now listen to the interview.
6. What was education like in Professor Wang's days?
A. Students worked very hard.
B. Students felt they needed a second degree.
C. Education was not career oriented.
D. There were many specialized subjects.
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7. According to Professor Wang, what is the purpose of the present day education?
A. To turn out an adequate number of elite for the society.
B. To prepare students for their future career.
C. To offer practical and utilitarian courses in each programme.
D. To set up as many technical institutions as possible.
8. In Professor Wang's opinion, technical skills ________.
A. require good education
B. are secondary to education
C. don't call for good education
D. don't conflict with education
9. What does Professor Wang suggest to cope with the situation caused by increasing numbers of fee paying
students?
A. Shifting from one programme to another.
B. Working out ways to reduce student number.
C. Emphasizing better quality of education.
D. Setting up stricter examination standards.
10. Future education needs to produce graduates of all the following categories EXCEPT ________.
A. those who can adapt to different professions
B. those who have a high flexibility of mind
C. those who are thinkers, historians and philosophers
D. those who possess only highly specialized skills
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 45 seconds to
answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
11. Which of the following regions in the world will witness the sharpest drop in life expectancy?
A. Latin America.
B. Sub Saharan Africa.
C. Asia.
D. The Caribbean.
12. According to the news, which country will experience small life expectancy drop?
A. Burma.
B. Botswana.
C. Cambodia.
D. Thailand.
13. The countries that are predicted to experience negative population growth are mainly in ________.
A. Asia.
B. Africa.
C. Latin America.
D. The Caribbean.
Questions 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. The trade dispute between the European Union and the US was caused by ________.
A. US refusal to accept arbitration by WTO
B. US imposing tariffs on European steel.
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C. US refusal to pay compensation to EU
D. US refusal to lower import duties on EU products.
15. Who will be consulted first before the EU list is submitted to WTO?
A. EU member states.
B. The United States.
C. WTO.
D. The steel corporations.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While listening to the
lecture, 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.
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.
Conversation Skills
People who usually make us feel comfortable in conversations are good talkers. And they
have something in common, i.e. skills to put people at ease.
1. Skill to ask question
1) be aware of the human nature: readiness to answer other's questions regardless of
2) start a conversation with some personal but unharmful questions about one's job
questions about one's activities in the
3) be able to spot signals for further talk
2. Skill to for answers
1) don't shift from subject to subject
—sticking to the same subject: signs of in conversation
2) listen to of voice
—If people sound unenthusiastic, then change subject.
3) use eyes and ears
—steady your gaze while listening
3. Skill to laugh
Effects of laughter:
—ease people's
—help start
4. Skill to part
1) importance: open up possibilities for future friendship or contact
2) ways:
—men: a smile, a
—women: same as now
—how to express pleasure in meeting someone.
PART II Proofreading and 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 proofread 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 provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the blank
provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
it buys things in finished form and hangs
(1)
(2)
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them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
(3)
One of the most important non-legislative functions of the
U. S Congress is the power to investigate. This power is usually
delegated to committees either standing committees, special
committees set for a specific purpose, or joint committees
consisted of members of both houses. Investigations are held
to gather information on the need for future legislation, to test
the effectiveness of laws already passed, to inquire into the
qualifications and performance of members and officials of the
other branches, and in rare occasions, to lay the groundwork for
impeachment proceedings. Frequently, committees rely outside
experts to assist in conducting investigative hearings and to make
out detailed studies of issues.
There are important corollaries to the investigative power.
One is the power to publicize investigations and its results. Most
committee hearings are open to public and are reported widely
in the mass media. Congressional investigations nevertheless
represent one important tool available to lawmakers to inform
the citizenry and to arouse public interests in national issues.
Congressional committees also have the power to compel
testimony from unwilling witnesses, and to cite for contempt of
Congress witnesses who refuse to testify and for perjury these who
give false testimony.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PART III 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 A
Farmers in the developing world hate price fluctuations. It makes it hard to plan ahead. But most of them
have little choice: they sell at the price the market sets. Farmers in Europe, the U.S. and Japan are luckier: they
receive massive government subsidies in the form of guaranteed prices or direct handouts. Last month U.S.
President Bush signed a new farm bill that gives American farmers $190 billion over the next 10 years, or $83
billion more than they had been scheduled to get, and pushes U.S. agricultural support close to crazy European
levels. Bush said the step was necessary to "promote farmer independence and preserve the farm way of life for
generations". It is also designed to help the Republican Party win control of the Senate in November's mid term
elections.
Agricultural production in most poor countries accounts for up to 50% of GDP, compared to only 3% in
rich countries. But most farmers in poor countries grow just enough for themselves and their families. Those
who try exporting to the West find their goods whacked with huge tariffs or competing against cheaper
subsidized goods. In 1999 the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development concluded that for each
dollar developing countries receive in aid they lose up to $14 just because of trade barriers imposed on the
export of their manufactured goods. It's not as if the developing world wants any favours, says Gerald
Ssendwula, Uganda's Minister of Finance. "What we want is for the rich countries to let us compete."
Agriculture is one of the few areas in which the Third World can compete. Land and labour are cheap, and
as farming methods develop, new technologies should improve output. This is no pie in the sky speculation.
The biggest success in Kenya's economy over the past decade has been the boom in exports of cut flowers and
vegetables to Europe. But that may all change in 2008, when Kenya will be slightly too rich to qualify for the
"least developed country" status that allows African producers to avoid paying stiff European import duties on
selected agricultural products. With trade barriers in place, the horticulture industry in Kenya will shrivel as
quickly as a discarded rose. And while agriculture exports remain the great hope for poor countries, reducing
trade barriers in other sectors also works: Americas African Growth and Opportunity Act, which cuts duties on
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exports of everything from handicrafts to shoes, has proved a boon to Africa's manufacturers. The lesson: the
Third World can prosper if the rich world gives it a fair go.
This is what makes Bush's decision to increase farm subsidies last month all the more depressing. Poor
countries have long suspected that the rich world urges trade liberalization only so it can wangle its way into
new markets. Such suspicions caused the Seattle trade talks to break down three years ago. But last November
members of the World Trade Organization, meeting in Doha, Qatar, finally agreed to a new round of talks
designed to open up global trade in agriculture and textiles. Rich countries assured poor countries, that their
concerns were finally being addressed. Bush's handout last month makes a lie of America's commitment to
those talks and his personal devotion to free trade.
16. By comparison, farmers ________ receive more government subsidies than others.
A. in the developing world
B. in Japan
C. in Europe
D. in America
17. In addition to the economic considerations, there is a ________ motive behind Bush's signing of the new
farm bill.
A. partisan
B. social
C. financial
D. cultural
18. The message the writer attempts to convey throughout the passage is that ________.
A. poor countries should be given equal opportunities in trade
B. "the least developed country" status benefits agricultural countries
C. poor countries should remove their suspicions about trade liberalization
D. farmers in poor countries should also receive the benefit of subsidies
19. The writer's attitude towards new farm subsidies in the U.S. is ________.
A. favourable
B. ambiguous
C. critical
D. reserved
TEXT B
Oscar Wilde said that work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do. If so, Americans are now
among the world's saddest refugees. Factory workers in the United States are working longer hours than at any
time in the past half century. America once led the rich world in cutting the average working week from 70
hours in 1850 to less than 40 hours by the 1950s. It seemed natural that as people grew richer they would trade
extra earnings for more leisure. Since the 1970s, however, the hours clocked up by American workers have
risen, to an average of 42 this year in manufacturing.
Several studies suggest that something similar is happening outside manufacturing: Americans are
spending more time at work than they did 20 years ago. Executives and lawyers boast of 80 hour weeks. On
holiday, they seek out fax machines and phones as eagerly as Germans bag the best sun loungers. Yet working
time in Europe and Japan continues to fall. In Germany's engineering industry the working week is to be
trimmed from 36 to 35 hours next year. Most Germans get six weeks' paid annual holiday; even the Japanese
now take three weeks. Americans still make do with just two.
Germany responds to this contrast with its usual concern about whether people's aversion to work is
damaging its competitiveness. Yet German workers, like the Japanese, seem to be acting sensibly: as their
incomes rise, they can achieve a better standard of living with fewer hours of work. The puzzle is why America,
the world's richest country, sees things differently. It is a puzzle with sinister social implications. Parents spend
less time with their children, who may be left alone at home for longer. Is it just a coincidence that juvenile
crime is on the rise? Some explanations for America's time at work fail to stand up to scrutiny. One blames
weak trade unions that leave workers open to exploitation. Are workers being forced by cost cutting firms to
toil harder just to keep their jobs? A recent study by two American economists, Richard Freeman and Linda
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Bell, suggests not: when asked, Americans actually want to work longer hours. Most German workers, in
contrast, would rather work less.
Then, why do Americans want to work harder? One reason may be that the real earnings of many
Americans have been stagnant or falling during the past two decades. People work longer merely to maintain
their living standards. Yet many higher-skilled workers, who have enjoyed big increases in their real pay, have
been working harder too. Also, one reason for the slow growth of wages has been the rapid growth in
employment which is more or less where the argument began.
Taxes may have something to do with it. People who work an extra hour in America are allowed to keep
more of their money than those who do the same in Germany. Falls in marginal tax rates in America since the
1970s have made it all the more profitable to work longer.
None of these answers really explains why the century long decline in working hours has gone into
reverse in America but not elsewhere (though Britain shows signs of following America's lead). Perhaps cultural
differences the last refuge of the defeated economist are at play. Economists used to believe that once workers
earned enough to provide for their basic needs and allow for a few luxuries, their incentive to work would be
eroded, like lions relaxing after a kill. But humans are more susceptible to advertising than lions. Perhaps clever
marketing has ensured that "basic needs" for a shower with built in TV, for a rocket propelled car expand
continuously. Shopping is already one of America's most popular pastimes. But it requires money hence more
work and less leisure.
Or try this: the television is not very good, and baseball and hockey keep being wiped out by strikes.
Perhaps Wilde was right. Maybe Americans have nothing better to do.
20. In the United States, working longer hours is ________.
A. confined to the manufacturing industry
B. a traditional practice in some sectors
C. prevalent in all sectors of society
D. favoured by the economists
21. According to the third paragraph, which might be one of the consequences of working longer hours?
A. Rise in employees' working efficiency.
B. Rise in the number of young offenders.
C. Rise in people's living standards.
D. Rise in competitiveness.
22. Which of the following is the cause of working longer hours stated by the writer?
A. Expansion of basic needs.
B. Cultural differences.
C. Increase in real earnings.
D. Advertising.
TEXT C
The fox really exasperated them both. As soon as they had let the fowls out, in the early summer mornings,
they had to take their guns and keep guard; and then again as soon as evening began to mellow, they must go
once more. And he was so sly. He slid along in the deep grass; he was difficult as a serpent to see. And he
seemed to circumvent the girls deliberately. Once or twice March had caught sight of the white tip of his brush,
or the ruddy shadow of him in the deep grass, and she had let fire at him. But he made no account of this.
The trees on the wood edge were a darkish, brownish green in the full light for it was the end of August.
Beyond, the naked, copper like shafts and limbs of the pine trees shone in the air. Nearer the rough grass, with
its long, brownish stalks all agleam, was full of light. The fowls were round about the ducks were still
swimming on the pond under the pine trees. March looked at it all, saw it all, and did not see it. She heard
Banford speaking to the fowls in the distance and she did not hear. What was she thinking about? Heaven
knows. Her consciousness was, as it were, held back.
She lowered her eyes, and suddenly saw the fox. He was looking up at her. His chin was pressed down,
and his eyes were looking up. They met her eyes. And he knew her. She was spellbound she knew he knew her.
So he looked into her eyes, and her soul failed her. He knew her, he has not daunted.
She struggled, confusedly she came to herself, and saw him making off, with slow leaps over some fallen
boughs, slow, impudent jumps. Then he glanced over his shoulder, and ran smoothly away. She saw his brush
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held smooth like a feather; she saw his white buttocks twinkle. And he was gone, softly, soft as the wind.
She put her gun to her shoulder, but even then pursed her mouth, knowing it was nonsense to pretend to
fire. So she began to walk slowly after him, in the direction he had gone, slowly, pertinaciously. She expected to
find him. In her heart she was determined to find him. What she would do when she saw him again she did not
consider. But she was determined to find him. So she walked abstractedly about on the edge of the wood, with
wide, vivid dark eyes, and a faint flush in her cheeks. She did not think. In strange mindlessness she walked
hither and thither...
As soon as supper was over, she rose again to go out, without saying why.
She took her gun again and went to look for the fox. For he had lifted his eyes upon her, and his knowing
look seemed to have entered her brain. She did not so much think of him: she was possessed by him. She saw
his dark, shrewd, unabashed eye looking into her, knowing her. She felt him invisibly master her spirit. She
knew the way he lowered his chin as he looked up, she knew his muzzle, the golden brown, and the greyish
white. And again she saw him glance over his shoulder at her, half inviting, half contemptuous and cunning. So
she went, with her great startled eyes glowing, her gun under her arm, along the wood edge. Meanwhile the
night fell, and a great moon rose above the pine trees.
23. At the beginning of the story, the fox seems to the all EXCEPT ________.
A. cunning
B. fierce
C. defiant
D. annoying
24. As the story proceeds, March begins to feel under the spell of ________.
A. the light
B. the trees
C. the night
D. the fox
25. Gradually March seems to be in a state of ________.
A. blankness
B. imagination
C. sadness
D. excitement
26. At the end of the story, there seems to be a sense of ________ between March and the fox.
A. detachment
B. anger
C. intimacy
D. conflict
27. The passage creates an overall impression of ________.
A. mystery
B. horror
C. liveliness
D. contempt
TEXT D
The banners are packed, the tickets booked. The glitter and white overalls have been bought, the gas masks
just fit and the mobile phones are ready. All that remains is to get to the parties.
This week will see a feast of pan European protests. It started on Bastille Day, last Saturday, with the
French unions and immigrants on the streets and the first demonstrations in Britain and Germany about climate
change. It will continue tomorrow and Thursday with environmental and peace rallies against President Bush.
But the big one is in Genoa, on Friday and Saturday, where the G8 leaders will meet behind the lines of 18,000
heavily armed police.
Unlike Prague, Gothenburg, Cologne or Nice, Genoa is expected to be Europe's Seattle, the coming
together of the disparate strands of resistance to corporate globalisation.
Neither the protesters nor the authorities know what will happen, but some things are predictable. Yes,
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there will be violence and yes, the mass media will focus on it. What should seriously concern the G8 is not so
much the violence, the numbers in the streets or even that they themselves look like idiots hiding behind the
barricades, but that the deep roots of a genuine new version of internationalism are growing.
For the first time in a generation, the international political and economic condition is in the dock.
Moreover, the protesters are unlikely to go away, their confidence is growing rather than waning, their agendas
are merging, the protests are spreading and drawing in all ages and concerns.
No single analysis has drawn all the strands of the debate together. In the mean time, the global protest
"movement" is developing its own language, texts, agendas, myths, heroes and villains. Just as the G8 leaders,
world bodies and businesses talk increasingly from the same script, so the protesters' once disparate political
and social analyses are converging. The long term project of governments and world bodies to globalise capital
and development is being mirrored by the globalisation of protest.
But what happens next? Governments and world bodies are unsure which way to turn. However well they
are policed, major protests reinforce the impression of indifferent elites, repression of debate, overreaction to
dissent, injustice and unaccountable power.
Their options apart from actually embracing the broad agenda being put to them are to retreat behind even
higher barricades, repress dissent further, abandon global meetings altogether or, more likely, meet only in
places able to physically resist the masses.
Brussels is considering building a super fortress for international meetings. Genoa may be the last of the
European super protests.
28. According to the context, the word "parties" at the end of the first paragraph refers to ________.
A. the meeting of the G8 leaders
B. the protests on Bastille Day
C. the coming pan European protests
D. the big protest to be held in Genoa
29. According to the passage, economic globalisation is paralleled by ________.
A. the emerging differences in the global protest movement
B. the disappearing differences in the global protest movement
C. the growing European concern about globalisation
D. the increase in the number of protesters
30. According to the last paragraph, what is Brussels considering doing?
A. Meeting in places difficult to reach.
B. Further repressing dissent.
C. Accepting the protesters' agenda.
D. Abandoning global meetings.
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple
choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and
then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT E
First read the question.
31. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. demonstrate how to prevent crime
B. show the seriousness of crime
C. look into the causes of crime
D. call for more government efforts
Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.
For three weeks, every night at 11 p. m., correspondents, officers and judges from justice courts, police
departments and prisons, psychiatrists, criminologists, victims and even criminals in prisons made their
appearance on TV to debate on a topic "Crime in the United States".
Indeed, crime has been disturbing the American people and has become a serious social problem just next
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to the unemployment problem. Some figures are terrifying: 1 of 4 Americans has been a victim of some kind of
crimes; nearly 22 million crime cases occurred last year throughout the country. A simple arithmetic calculation
indicates that on average, a crime is being committed in every 2 seconds. Now the Americans are living in a
horrible environment. Their safety and property are threatened by various crimes: robbery, theft, rape,
kidnapping, murder, arson, vandalism and violence.
The most worrisome problem comes from the fact that about one third of crime cases were committed by
the juvenile and 53% of criminals in jails are youngsters below 25. A poll indicates that about 73% of citizens
said they avoided teenagers in streets, especially at night.
To protect themselves from crime, according to a released figure, 52% of Americans keep guns at home.
But some gun owners turn out to be potential criminals. Some people demand that strict law for gun control be
enforced; but others oppose the ban of gun. No decision is in sight.
Some experts said poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination are the cause of crime. They cited
figures to show that 47% of crime cases were committed by the black, though they account for only about 12%
of the population of the nation. Others argued that about 54% of convicted criminals came from families
associated with these evils.
The American state government and federal government spend billions of dollars each year in
maintaining the police departments and jails. But police authorities complain that they have not sufficient well
trained hands and advanced equipment to detect and stop crimes. Several cases of criminal insurgence were
reported as a result of resentment at overcrowded prisons. Taxpayers complain that they pay more and more tax
but receive less and less protection from crime for their lives and property.
Though the host of the live TV programme made great efforts to search for a solution, so far no participant
could put forward a measure that was approved by most of the attendants.
TEXT F
First read the question.
32. What is the main topic of the following passage?
A. Differences between modes of learning.
B. Deficiencies of formal learning.
C. Advantages of informal learning.
D. Social context and learning systems.
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.
The term "formal learning" is used in this paper to refer to all learning that takes place in the classroom,
irrespective of whether such learning is informed by conservative or progressive ideologies. "Informal
learning", on the other hand, is used to refer to learning which takes place outside the classroom.
These definitions provide the essential, though by no means sole, difference between formal and informal
learning. Formal learning is decontextualised from daily life and, indeed, as Scribner and Cole (1973:553) have
observed, may actually "promote ways of learning and thinking which often run counter to those nurtured in
practical daily life". A characteristic feature of formal learning is the centrality of activities that are not closely
paralleled by activities outside the classroom. The classroom can prepare for, draw on, and imitate the
challenges of adult life outside the classroom, but it cannot, by its nature, consist of these challenges.
In doing this, language plays a critical role as the major channel for information exchange. "Success" in the
classroom requires a student to master this abstract code. As Bernstein (1969:152) noted, the language of the
classroom is more similar to the language used by middle class families than that used by working class
families. Middle class children thus find it easier to acquire the language of the classroom than their working
class peers.
Informal learning, in contrast, occurs in the setting to which it relates, making learning immediately
relevant. In this context, language does not occupy such an important role: the child's experience of learning is
more holistic, involving sight, touch, taste, and smell senses that are under utilised in the classroom.
While formal learning is transmitted by teachers selected to perform this role, informal learning is acquired
as a natural part of a child's development. Adults or older children who are proficient in the skill or activity
provide-sometimes unintentionally-target models of behaviour in the course of everyday activity. Informal
learning, therefore, can take place at any time and is not subject to the limitations imposed by institutional
timetabling.
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The motivation of the learner provides another critical difference between the two modes of learning. The
formal learner is generally motivated by some kind of external goal such as parental approval, social status, and
potential financial reward. The informal learner, however, tends to be motivated by successful completion of the
task itself and the partial acquisition of adult status.
TEXT G
First read the question.
33. The three approaches mentioned in the passage aim at ________.
A. restructuring economy
B. improving the tax system
C. improving the living conditions
D. reducing poverty
Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 33.
As a rule, it is essential that the poor's productive capabilities be mobilized and the conditions for
developing these human resources be improved. In this connection, German development policy has developed
the following three approaches:
— Structural reform: Structural reform is the preferred approach for reducing poverty because it
eliminates the causes of poverty rather than just its symptoms. It is vital that economic, political and social
conditions which can alleviate poverty be established at national and international levels. Efforts at international
level focus on fair conditions for international trade and competition.
At national level, the poor must be helped through structural reform such as the introduction of democratic
government, options for independent private enterprise, decentralization and agricultural reform. Development
policy tools for realizing such reforms include political dialogue, political advisory services, structural
adjustment measures and personnel and material support for reform efforts in the government, business and
administrative sectors.
—Direct measures: Projects of this category are aimed at directly helping the poor and improving their
living conditions or increasing their job options and earning potential. Of special importance are those projects
which provide help for self help in reducing poverty. The material support and advisory services offered by
these projects reinforce the poor's will to help themselves and help eable them to lead self sufficient lives.
Typical direct aid projects include the construction of simple housing by self help groups, the creation of a
savings and loan system for the poorer segments of society and support for women's self help organizations.
— Indirect measures: A project's beneficiaries-its target group-are not only often difficult to identify
clearly, they are also not necessarily all poor people. In these cases, the project in question must be integrated
into one of the partner nation's overall or sector specific policies that aim at reducing poverty. A good
illustration of this type of project is the use of advisory services to improve the tax system. Advising and
upgrading the qualifications of personnel working in the fiscal system can lead to increased tax revenues which
could be allocated for anti poverty measures. In keeping with this focus, German development assistance
concentrates on the poorest nations and on projects to reduce poverty. In 1993, some 10 percent of the
commitments Germany made for bilateral financial and technical assistance went to self help projects aimed at
reducing poverty. Basic needs projects comprised 48 percent of all projects and almost 30 percent of the
commitments made for financial and technical assistance were allocated for the world's least developed
countries (LDCs).
TEXT H
First read the question.
34. What is the following passage mainly concerned with?
A. Educational facilities in Africa.
B. Founding a university for women.
C. Agricultural production in Zimbabwe.
D. Women's role in agricultural production.
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Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.
Access to education facilities is inadequate in sub Saharan Africa. And women and girls there face greater
disadvantages. They are often denied education as customs dictate they marry early and have children.
Two Zimbabwean academics plan to open a university to help African women whose education was
interrupted by either family commitments or financial constraints. The university will initially be in Harare, but
will be relocated to Marondera, 80kilometres east. The academics, Hope Sadza, former deputy commissioner of
Zimbabwe's Public Service Commission and Fay Chung, former Minister of Education, are to open the
university this month. It will initially have 400 students.
Students will be split into groups of 100 and placed in one of four faculties: social science, agriculture,
environmental studies or science and technology. The university is for women aged 25 or older.
The need for a university for women is more acute in Africa, where women are the poorest and most
disadvantaged. When they do have access to education they often must endure sexual harassment. Most women
drop out because they lack educational materials or the schools are inaccessible.
"In Africa, women till the land and produce the bulk of the food, yet they have no understanding about
marketing," Sadza said. "Agriculture is another area where we can empower women."
The university will have a 285 hectare farm and courses will include agricultural production and
marketing.
Women account for 80 per cent of Africa's agricultural production, but have no control over either the
resources or policies.
The university since August has raised about Z$32.5 million (US$591,000) in donations and pledges. The
university will be open to students from across Africa. It will be the second women's university-after Sudan's
Ahfad University-in Africa.
TEXT I
First read the questions.
35. Which president advocated the lifting of the ban on women teachers?
A. Xu Yangqiu.
B. Wu Yifang.
C. Tao Xingzhi.
D. Chen Heqin.
36. What is Guo Juefu?
A. A painter.
B. A poet.
C. A biologist.
D. A psychologist.
Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer questions 35 and 36.
Many presidents of the century old Nanjing Normal University (NJNU) have put forward insightful and
inspiring education theories and practices, which have had a far reaching impact on China's education history.
Jiang Qian and Guo Bingwen proposed a school running principle that advocated the balance between
versatility and specialization, liberal arts and sciences.
Tao Xingzhi, a well known educator, carried out many important reforms in the university. For the first
time in China, he advocated the lifting of the ban on women teachers and opened adult training classes in
summer vacations.
Wu Yifang, China's first woman university president, emphasized normal education, regarding it as the
parent engine and heavy industry of education.
Chen Heqin established a Chinese style and scientific theory for modern education for children.
There have also been many noted scholars and artists.
Educator Xu Yangqiu was one of China's earliest scholars to study American education theory.
Professor Luo Bingwen devoted himself to normal education theory and Chinese and foreign education
history, advocating that teachers should be models of virtue for the students so that their behaviour guides the
students.
Psychologist Guo Juefu is an important figure in China's psychological history. China Psychological
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History, a book he authored, has made its mark in international psychological circles.
Zhang Daqian, a well known master of traditional Chinese painting, advised his students to read books
systematically and selectively to rid themselves of worldliness, fickleness and pedantry. Zhang also pointed out
that success comes largely from one's own endeavours, but partly from circumstance.
Sun Wang, a poet versed in the poems popular in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 907), told students to map
out a long term schedule for their studies and to work to wards fulfillment of their goal phase by phase.
Biologist Chen Bangjie overcame formidable difficulties to collect plant specimen and became China's
father of bryology.
Generations of talented educators have given Nanjing Normal University a fine reputation.
TEXT J
First read the questions.
37. The Chicago GSB M.
B. A. Programme for Executives is scheduled to be completed within.
A. 22 months
B. 20 months
C. 16 weeks
D. 14 weeks
38. If you are in Malaysia, when is your attendance date?
A. January 17th.
B. January 15th.
C. January 29th.
D. February 27th.
Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer questions 37 and 38.
CHICAGO
Worldwide campuses.
World renowned faculty.
World class M.
B. A. degree.
A world of opportunity.
Limitless, lifelong opportunity awaits you when you attend the University of Chicago Graduate School of
Business, and now you can do so from anywhere in the world.
Experience international business firsthand at the only top ranked graduate school with campuses
worldwide. The Chicago GSB M.
B. A. Programme for Executives spreads 16 weeks of class sessions over 20 months so you can earn this
renowned degree without leaving your job or relocating. Base your studies in Singapore; then collaborate with
executives at our Chicago and Barcelona campuses. Learn not just the business theories of today but the
business framework of tomorrow from the most acclaimed faculty in the world. Establish a global network of
accomplished peers. And benefit for the rest of your life from the leadership training, the thinking, the
relationships that become yours at Chicago GSB.
If you are a top level manager seeking an unparalleled general management education, apply to the
Chicago GSB M.
B. A. Programme for Executives.
And be among those who shape the future.
The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Where world class leaders emerge.
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专八真题 2004 年
Chicago GSB / Asia Campus
101Penang Road, Singapore 238466
telephone 65 238 2196 fax 65 835 6483
email singapore.inquiries@gsb.uchicago.edu
www.gsb.uchicago.edu/execMBASia
Please reserve your attendance by fax or email.
Jakarta 15/Jan, Tuesday
The Grand Hyatt Hotel 19:00-21:30
Manila 24/Jan, Tuesday Taipei
The Shangri La Edsa Plaza 19:00-21:30 The Grand Formosa Regent
Hotel Hotel
17/Jan, Tuesday Kuala Lumpur 19/Feb, Tuesday
19:00-21:30 The Regent Hotel 19:00-21:30
29/Jan, Tuesday
Bangkok 19:00-21:30 Singapore
The Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel GSB Asia Campus
22/Jan, Tuesday Hong Kong 27/Feb, Tuesday
19:00-21:30 The Mandarin Oriental Hotel 19:00-21:30
05/Feb, Tuesday
Tokyo 19:00-21:30
The Imperial Hotel
TEXT K
First read the questions.
39. Who has written Cultural Amnesia: America's Future and the Crisis of Memory?
A. Michael G. Zey.
B. Stephen Bertman.
C. Don Tapscott, et al.
D. Marvin Cetron et al.
40. Which book is a collection of papers?
A. Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs.
B. Cheating Death: The Promise and the Future Impact of Trying to Live Forever.
C. The Future Factor: The Five Forces Transforming Our Lives and Shaping Human Destiny.
D. The University in Transformation: Global Perspectives on the Future of the University.
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Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer questions 39 and 40.
Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs by Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, and Alex Lowy.
Harvard Business School Press. 2000. 272 pages.
Electronic business webs have demolished the rules of competition. Innovative partnerships of digitally
linked producers, suppliers, service providers, and customers are accelerating productivity and generating
wealth in entirely new ways.
This book offers a behind the scenes look at success stories such as Linux, eBay, and Cisco, and provides
a step by step process for implementing an effective business web strategy.
Regular Price:$27.50
The University in Transformation: Global Perspectives on the Future of the University edited by Sohail
Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley.
Bergin & Garvey/Greenwood Publishing Group. 2000. 270 pages.
This anthology of essays from scholars around the world describes how the forces of technology and
economic globalization may alter what we think of as higher education. Topics include the virtual university,
paying for college, feminist alternative universities, the role of corporations in higher education, and the rise of
"multiversities".
Regular Price:$65.00
The Future Factor: The Five Force Transforming Our Lives and Shaping Human Destiny by Michael G. Zey.
McGraw Hill. 2000. 289 pages.
This optimistic vision of the human future argues that unprecedented opportunities for growth are
emerging from breathtaking innovations in biotechnology, computing, robotics, medicine, energy development,
and space technology. Powerful new forces altering society and the global economy include cybergenesis, the
merging of humans and smart machines, and biogenesis, the harnessing of genetic technologies to improve
ourselves.
Regular Price: $24.95
Cheating Death: The Promise and the Future Impact of Trying to Live Forever by Marvin Cetron and Owen
Davies.
St. Martin's Press. 1998. 224 pages.
With advances in medicine and new gene research, the human life span could extend hundreds of years.
But a future of billions of people "cheating death" could have devastating impacts on societies, the economy,
the environment, and family life.
Regular Price: $21.95
Cultural Amnesia: America's Future and the Crisis of Memory by Stephen Bertman.
Praeger. 2000. 176 pages.
American society is losing its memory: 60% of American adults cannot name the president who ordered the
dropping of the first atomic bomb, and 42% of college seniors cannot place the Civil War in the correct half of
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the nineteenth century.
This loss of culture memory, as insidious as Alzheimer's disease, eats away at the soul of the nation, says
Bertman, author of Hyperculture. He argues that, to build a culture worthy of the future, Americans need to
move away from their materialistic, present oriented lives and get more in touch with other dimensions of time.
Regular Price: $35.00
试 卷 二 ( 1 2 0 m i n )
PART IV Translation (60 min)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
在人际关系问题上我们不要太浪漫主义。人是很有趣的 , 往往在接触一个人时首先看到的都是他
或她的优点。这一点颇像是在餐馆里用餐的经验。开始吃头盘或冷碟的时候 , 印象很好。吃头两个主
菜时 , 也是赞不绝口。愈吃愈趋于冷静 , 吃完了这顿宴席 , 缺点就都找出来了。于是转喜为怒 , 转赞
美为责备挑剔 , 转首肯为摇头。这是因为 , 第一 , 开始吃的时候你正处于饥饿状态 , 而饿了吃糠甜如
蜜 , 饱了吃蜜也不甜。第二, 你初到一个餐馆, 开始举筷时有新鲜感, 新盖的茅房三天香, 这也可以
叫做"陌生化效应"吧。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the underlined part of the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
For me the most interesting thing about a solitary life, and mine has been that for the last twenty years, is
that it becomes increasingly rewarding. When I can wake up and watch the sun rise over the ocean, as I do most
days, and know that I have an entire day ahead, uninterrupted, in which to write a few pages, take a walk with
my dog, read and listen to music, I am flooded with happiness.
I'm lonely only when I am overtired, when I have worked too long without a break, when fro the time
being I feel empty ad need filling up. And I am lonely sometimes when I come back home after a lecture trip,
when I have seen a lot of people and talked a lot, and am full to the brim with experience that needs to be sorted
out.
Then for a little while the house feels huge and empty, and I wonder where my self is hiding. It has to be
recaptured slowly by watering the plants and perhaps, by looking again at each one as though it were a person.
It takes a while, as I watch the surf blowing up in fountains, but the moment comes when the worlds falls
away, and the self emerges again from the deep unconscious, bringing back all I have recently experienced to be
explored and slowly understood.
PART V Writing (60 min)
It was reported in the press some time ago that a few second-and third-year students in a provincial
university decided to try their hands at business in order to get prepared for the future. They opened six small
shops near their university. Their teachers and classmates had different opinions about this phenomenon. Some
thought that the students' business experience would help them adapt better to society after graduation, while
others held a negative view, saying that running shops might occupy too much of the students' time and energy
which should otherwise be devoted to their academic study. What do you think? Write a composition of about
300 words on the following topic:
Should University Students Go in for Business?
In the first part of your writing you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you
should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should brig what you have written to
a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the
above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
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专八真题 2004 年
2004 年专八答案
PART II PROOF READING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.set →up∧
2.consisted→consisting/composed
3.in→on
4.rely →on∧
5.out→去掉 out
6.its→their
7. public→the∧
8.nevertheless→therefore
9.interests→interest
10.these→those
PART III Reading Comprehension
16-20 CAAAC
21-25 CBDAB
26-30 BDACA
31-35 CCCBA
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2003)
-GRADE EIGHT-
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
sheet
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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. 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 your
________.
A. 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 EXCEPT
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A. 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 INTERVIEW
Questions 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 in ________.
A. aliens
B. UFOs.
C. the TV character
D. government conspiracies
8. David thinks he is fit for the TV role because of his ________.
A. professional training
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B. personality
C. life experience
D. appearance
9. From the interview, we know that at present David feels ________.
A. a sense of frustration
B. haunted by the unknown things
C. 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 BROADCAST
Question 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 because ________.
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A. 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. Britain.
B. France.
C. Finland.
D. Switzerland.
15. According to the UN report, the least developed country is ________.
A. Ethiopia.
B. Mali.
C. Sierra Leon.
D. Central African Republic.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING & GAP-FILLING (15 MIN)
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While
listening to the lecture, 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.
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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.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow has developed a famous theory of human needs, which can be
arranged in order of importance.
Physiological needs:
the most ones for survival. They include such needs as
food, water, etc. And there is usually one way to satisfy these needs.
needs: needs for
a) physical security;
b) security.
The former means no illness or injury, while the latter is concerned
with freedom from , misfortunes, etc. These needs can be
met through a variety of means, e.g. job security, 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
.
These needs can be fulfilled by achievement, promotion, honours,
etc.
Self-realization needs:
need to realize one's potential. Ways to realize these needs are indi-
vidually .
Features of the hierarchy of needs:
(a) Social, esteem and self-realization needs are exclusively
needs.
(b) Needs are satisfied in a fixed order from the bottom up.
(c) for needs comes from the lowest un-met level.
(d) Different levels of needs may when they come
into play.
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 proofread 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
provided at the end of the line.
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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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
(1)
(2)
(3)
Demographic indicators show that Americans in the postwar
period were more eager than ever to establish families. They quickly
brought down the age at marriage for both men and women and brought
the birth rate to a twentieth century height after more than a hundred
years of a steady decline, producing the baby boom. These young
adults established a trend of early marriage and relatively large
families that Went for more than two decades and caused a major
but temporary reversal of long-term demographic patterns. From
the 1940S through the early 1960s, Americans married at a high rate
and at a younger age than their Europe counterparts.
Less noted but equally more significant, the men and women on who
formed families between 1940 and 1960 nevertheless reduced the
divorce rate after a postwar peak; their marriages remained intact to
a greater extent than did that of couples who married in earlier as well
as later decades. Since the United States maintained its dubious
distinction of having the highest divorce rate in the world, the
temporary decline in divorce did not occur in the same extent in
Europe. Contrary to fears of the experts, the role of breadwinner and
homemaker was not abandoned.
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 A
Hostility 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.
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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
times the 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 they ________.
A. 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 following
EXCEPT ________.
A. 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 of ________.
A. language
B. culture
C. identity
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D. custom
TEXT B
I 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 that once 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.
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An improved economy, tougher law enforcement, and community efforts against drugs have
contributed to a 60 percent drop in crime since 1993.
19. At the beginning the author seems to indicate that Harlem ________.
A. 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 of ________.
A. indifference
B. discomfort
C. delight
D. nostalgia
21. Harlem was called the capital of Black America in the 1920s and '30s mainly because of its
________.
A. art and culture
B. immigrant population
C. political enthusiasm.'
D. distinctive architecture
22. From the passage we can infer that, generally speaking, the author ________.
A. 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 C
The 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
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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 partners, who slid the
resume and dossier into an open briefcase. All three reached for their jackets. Lamar 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.
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24. The details of the private investigation show that the firm ________.
A. 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 that
________.
A. his image could help impress McDeere
B. he would soon become a partner himself
C. he was good at interviewing applicants
D. his background was similar to MeDeere's
26. We get the impression from the passage that in job recruitment the firm was NOT
A. selective
B. secretive
C. perfunctory
D. racially biased
TEXT D
Harry Truman didn't think his successor had the right training to be president. "Poor Ike it won't
be a bit like the Army," he said. "He'll sit there all day saying 'do this, do that,' and nothing will
happen." Truman was wrong about Ike. Dwight Eisenhower had led a fractious alliance you
didn't tell Winston Churchill what to do- in a massive, chaotic war. He was used to politics. But
Truman's insight could well be applied to another, even more venerated Washington figure: the
CEO-mined cabinet secretary.
A 20-year bull market has convinced us all that CEOs are geniuses, so watch with astonishment
the troubles of Donald Rumsfeld and Paul O'Neill. Here are two highly regarded businessmen,
obviously intelligent and well-informed, foundering in their jobs.
Actually, we shouldn't be surprised. Rumsfeld and O'Neill are not doing badly despite having
been successful CEOs but because of it. The record of senior businessmen in government is one
of almost unrelieved disappointment. In fact, with the exception of Robert Rubin, it is difficult to
think of a CEO who had a successful career in government.
Why is this? Well, first the CEO has to recognize that he is no longer the CEO. He is at best an
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adviser to the CEO, the president. But even the president is not really the CEO. No one is. Power
in a corporation is concentrated and vertically structured. Power in Washington is diffuse and
horizontally spread out. The secretary might think he's in charge of his agency. But the chairman
of the congressional committee funding that agency feels the same. In his famous study
"Presidential Power and the Modem Presidents," Richard Neustadt explains how little power the
president actually has and concludes that the only lasting presidential power is "the power to
persuade."
Take Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the cold-war military into one geared for the future. It's
innovative but deeply threatening to almost everyone in Washington. The Defense secretary did
not try to sell it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, the budget office or the White House. As a
result, the idea is collapsing.
Second, what power you have, you must use carefully. For example, O'Neill's position as Treasury
secretary is one with little formal authority. Unlike Finance ministers around the world, Treasury
does not control the budget. But it has symbolic power. The secretary is seen as the chief
economic spokesman for the administration and, if he plays it right, the chief economic adviser
for the president.
O'Neill has been publicly critical of the IMF's bailout packages for developing countries while at
the same time approving such packages for Turkey, Argentina and Brazil. As a result, he has
gotten the worst of both worlds. The bailouts continue, but their effect in holstering investor
confidence is limited because the markets are rattled by his skepticism.
Perhaps the government doesn't do bailouts well. But that leads to a third role: you can't just quit.
Jack Welch's famous law for re-engineering General Electric was to be first or second in any
given product category, or else get out of that business. But if the government isn't doing a
particular job at peak level, it doesn't always have the option of relieving itself of that function.
The Pentagon probably wastes a lot of money. But it can't get out of the national-security
business.
The key to former Treasury secretary Rubin's success may have been that he fully understood that
business and government are, in his words, "necessarily and properly very different." In a recent
speech he explained, "Business functions around one predominate organizing principle,
profitability ... Government, on the other hand, deals with a vast number of equally legitimate and
often potentially competing objectives for example, energy production versus environmental
protection, or safety regulations versus productivity."
Rubin's example shows that talented people can do well in government if they are willing to treat
it as its own separate, serious endeavour. But having been bathed in a culture of adoration and
flattery, it's difficult for a CEO to believe he needs to listen and learn, particularly from those
despised and poorly paid specimens, politicians, bureaucrats and the media. And even if he knows
it intellectually, he just can't live with it.
27. For a CEO to be successful in government, he has to ________.
A. regard the president as the CEO
B. take absolute control of his department
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C. exercise more power than the congressional committee
D. become acquainted with its power structure
28. In commenting on O'Neill's record as Treasury Secretary, the passage seems to indicate that
________.
A. O'Neill has failed to use his power well.
B. O'Neill's policies were well received.
C. O'Neill has been consistent in his policies.
D. O'Neill is uncertain about the package he's approved.
29. According to the passage, the differences between government and business lie in the
following areas EXCEPT ________.
A. nature of activity
B. option of withdrawal
C. legitimacy of activity
D. power distribution
30. The author seems to suggest that CEO-turned government officials ________.
A. are able to fit into their new roles
B. are unlikely to adapt to their new roles
C. can respond to new situations intelligently
D. may feel uncertain in their new posts
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as
required and then mark your answers on your COLOURED ANSWER SHEET.
TEXT E
First read the question.
31. The passage is mainly concerned with _____ in the U.S.A.
A. travelling
B. big cities
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C. cybercafes
D. inventions
Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.
Planning to answer your e-mail while on holiday in New York? That may not be easy. The
Internet may have been invented in the United States, but America is one of the least likely places
where a traveller might find an Internet cafe. "Every major city in the world has more cybercafes
than New York," says Joie Kelly, who runs CyberCafeGuide.com. The numbers seem to bear her
out according to various directories, London has more than 30, Paris 19, Istanbul 17, but New
York has only 8. Other U.S. cities fare just as poorly: Los Angeles has about 11, Chicago has 4.
"Here it's quite hard work to find a cafe. I was surprised," says Michael Robson, a sportswriter
from York, England, who was visibly relieved to be checking his e-mail at CyberCafe near New
York's Times Square.
Why the lack of places to plug in? Americans enjoy one of the highest rates of Internet access
from work and home in the world, and they've never really taken to cafes. About 80 percent of
CyberCafe's clients, for instance, are tourists from overseas. Greek tycoon Stelios Hajiloannou
also thinks high prices drive away locals. Last November he opened a branch of his Internet-cafe
chain easyEverything in Times Square. With 800 terminals, it's the largest Net cafe in the world.
While the typical American cafe charges $8 to $12 an hour, easyEverything charges $1 to $4.
Marketing manager Stephanie Engelsen says half the cafe's customers are locals. "We get
policemen, firemen, nurses who don't work at desks with computers, actors between auditions."
Easy Everything is now planning to open new locations in Harlem, and possibly SoHo. Unless
there's some cultural shift afoot, however, New York will continue to lag behind metropolises
from Mexico City to Moscow.
TEXT F
First read the question.
32. In the passage below the author primarily attempts to ________.
A. criticize yogis in the West
B. define what yoga is
C. teach yoga postures
D. experiment with yoga
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.
Most of the so-called yogis in the West seem to focus on figure correction, not true awareness.
They make statements about yoga being for the body, mind and soul. But this is just semantics.
Asanas (postures), which get such huge play in the West, are the smallest aspect of yoga. Either
you practice yoga as a whole or you don't. If one is practicing just for health, better to take up
walking. Need to cure a disease? See a doctor. Yoga is not about fancy asanas or breath control.
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Nor is it a therapy or a philosophy. Yoga is about inside awareness. It is the process of union of
the self with the whole. Yoga is becoming the Buddha.
Yogis are experimentalists. In the West, scientists research mainly external phenomena. Yogis
focus on the inside. They know that the external world is maya (illusionary) and everything inside
is sathya (truth). In maya everything goes, but if you know yourself nothing goes. The West tends
to practice only what we call cultural asanas that focus on the external. We don't practice asanas
just to become fit. Indian yogis have discovered 8.4 million such postures. It is essential to train
our bodies to find the most comfortable pose that we can sit in for hours. Beyond that there is no
role for physical yoga.
Basically yoga is made up of two parts: bahirang (external yoga) and antarang (internal yoga).
The West practices only the former. It needs to enter into antarang yoga. After that begins the trip
to the unknown where the master makes the student gradually aware at every stage, where you
know that you are not the body or the mind and not even the soul. That is when you get the first
taste of moksha, or enlightenment. It is the sense of the opening of the silence, the sense where
you lose yourself and are happy doing it, where for the first time your ego has merged with the
superconsciousness. You feel you no longer exist, for you have walked into the valley of death.
And if you start walking more and more in this valley, you become freer.
TEXT G
First read the question.
33. The reviewer's comments on Henry Kissinger's new book are basically ________.
A. negative
B. noncommittal
C. unfounded
D. positive
Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 33.
Whatever you think of Henry Kissinger, you have to admit: the man has staying power. With a
new book- Does America Need a Foreign Policy on the shelves, Kissinger is once again helping
to shape American thinking on foreign relations. This is the sixth decade in which that statement
can be said to be true.
Kissinger's new book is terrific. Plainly intended as an extended tutorial on policy for the new
American Administration, it is full of good sense and studded with occasional insights that will
have readers nodding their heads in silent agreement. A particularly good chapter on Asia rebukes
anyone who unthinkingly assigns China the role once played by the Soviet Union as the natural
antagonist of the U.S.
Kissinger's book can also be read in another, and more illuminating, light. It is, in essence, an
extended meditation on the end of a particular way of looking at the world: one where the
principal actors in international relations are nation-states, pursuing their conception of their own
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national interest, and in which the basic rule of foreign policy is that one nation does not intervene
in the internal affairs of another.
Students of international relations call this the "Westphalian system," after the 1648 Peace of
Westphalia that ended Europe's Thirty Years War, a time of indescribable carnage waged in the
name of competing religions. The treaties that ended the war put domestic arrangements - like
religion-off limits to other states. In the war's aftermath a rough-and-ready commitment to a
balance of power among neighbours took shape. Kissinger is a noted scholar of the balance of
power. And he is suspicious of attempts to meddle in the internal business of others.
Yet Kissinger is far too sophisticated to attempt to recreate a world that is lost. "Today," he writes,
"the Westphalian order is in systematic crisis." In particular, nation-states are no longer the sole
drivers of the international system. In some cases, groups of states - like the European Union or
Mercosur have developed their own identifies and agendas. Economic globalization has both
blurred the boundaries between nations and given a substantial international role to those giant
companies for whom such boundaries make little sense. In today's world, individuals can be as
influential as nations; future historians may consider the support for public health of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation to be more noteworthy than last week's United Nations conference on
AIDS. And a large number of institutions are premised on the assumption that intervention in the
internal affairs of others is often desirable. Were that not the case, Slobodan Milosevic would not
have been surrendered last week to the jurisdiction of the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
The consequences of these changes are profound. Kissinger is right to note that globalization has
undermined the role of the nation-state less in the case of the U.S. (Why? Because it's more
powerful than anyone else.) Elsewhere, the old ways of thinking about the "national interest" that
guiding fight of the Westphalian system have fewer adherents than they once did.
TEXT H
First read the question.
34. In the passage the author expresses his concern about ________.
A. the survival of small languages
B. globalization in the post-Cold War era
C. present-day technological progress
D. ecological imbalance
Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.
During the past century, due to a variety of factors, more than 1,000 of the world's languages have
disappeared, and it is possible to foresee a time, perhaps 100 years from now, when about half of
today's 6,000 languages will either be dead or dying.
This startling rate of linguistic extinction is possible because 96 per cent of the world's languages
are now spoken only by 4 per cent of the world's population.
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Globalization in the post-Cold War era has witnessed the coming of the information age, which
has played an important role in promoting economic co-operation but which has, at the same time,
helped facilitate the assimilation of smaller cultural systems into a larger, mostly English-
speaking whole.
Internet and other forms of mass media have succeeded in making English the worldwide
standard.
In 1998, the Seminar on Technological Progress & Development of the Present-day World was
held in China. At the seminar, many participants expressed concern over the potential risks
associated with excessive dependency on information technology. These critics claimed a move
from "information monopoly" to "information hegemony" could possibly become just another
way for the strong to dominate the weak, culturally as well as economically.
In other words, life in a technology- and information-based global society may lead to a new
social stratification, in which linguistic assimilation will lead to cultural assimilation and social
injustice will abound.
In the 20th century, human society's over-development caused the deterioration of the
environment and ecological imbalance. The extinction of myriad biological species aroused deep
concern which led people to an understanding of the special importance of protecting rare animals
and plants on the brink of extinction.
Now we face the question, is the maintenance of cultural and linguistic diversity as important as
the preservation of pandas and Chinese white-flag dolphins?
Given the open society in which we live, or wish to live, this question becomes complicated. A
balance must be struck between promoting international exchanges on the one hand, and taking
measures to protect "small" languages on the other hand.
Most widely used languages, such as the six working languages - including English and Chinese -
used in the United Nations, have little to fear and need no special protection.
But for other, more marginal languages some measures should be taken. Professionals should be
trained to study and use them in order to keep them alive. Effective measures such as bilingual or
multilingual education should also be implemented to protect them from extinction.
To some, 6,000 may seem like an inexhaustible number of languages. To those same people, it
may seem irrelevant if one or two of those languages cease to be used.
But what many fail to realize is that language and culture are linked. Without one, the other dies,
and so with the death of different languages we have the death of different cultures. The
extinction of languages is equal to animal extinction in this respect. The fading away of a
language, no matter how small, causes real damage to the "ecological balance" in the field of
culture.
TEXT I
First read the questions.
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35. The work of Project Manager is chiefly concerned with ________.
A. emergency relief programmes
B. agricultural rehabilitation
C. helicopter assisted surveys
D. strategic planning
36. The working contract is offered on a basis.
A. two-month
B. twenty-month
C. ten-month
D. twelve-month
Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer questions 35 and 36.
Project Manager
AGRICULTURAL REHABILITATION PROJECT, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA
SCF started work in Ethiopia in 1973 with an emergency relief programme in response to the
famine of that year. Since then SCF has been involved in a range of longer-term relief and
development programmes to secure lasting benefits for children.
As a result of a helicopter assisted survey undertaken in the northern highlands of Ethiopia in
2000, SCF has been involved in a number of interventions aimed at engaging with the
agricultural sector in order to promote food security in the most vulnerable areas of North
Wollo.
As Project Manager your key task will be to manage, promote and develop all SCF's activities
in the agriculture/livestock and natural resources sectors in Wollo. You will also play a major
role in developing policy at national level.
To meet the challenge of this exciting new post you will need a relevant post graduate
qualification; substantial experience in managing agricultural development projects in Africa
with an emphasis on providing institutional support to the capacity of extension services while
prompting farmer participation; ability to think and plan strategically; proven team
management skills; report writing and financial skills; willingness to travel extensively and live
and work in an isolated location.
This post is offered on a twelve-month contract with a salary of £19,294 (normally tax-free).
You can also expect a generous benefits package including all flights and reasonable living and
accommodation expenses.
For further details and an application form please apply with CV to Jenny Thomas, Overseas
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Personnel Administrator, SCF, 17 Grove Lane, London SE5 8RD
Closing date: 30th November 2001.
TEXT J
First read the questions.
37. Who have found a protein called M27 ________.
A. Scientists from a Belgium University.
B. Drug-makers in Belgium.
C. Doctors in a Belgium hospital.
D. It is not mentioned.
38. How many causes of bad breath does the passage cite?
A. One.
B Two.
C. Three.
D. Four.
Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer questions 37 and 38.
THE COMMON COLD?
The conventional wisdom says no, but by mid-century that assessment along with the sniffles
may well be ancient history. Colds are considered incurable today because it would take months
to come up with a vaccine for every new strain. That's fine for the flu, which breeds in animals
and only jumps over to humans every year or two. But colds mutate even while they're infecting
you, and new strains pop up so often that by the time drug-makers create a vaccine against one
variation, the serum is already out of date.
The flu may yet point the way toward a cold cure though. Scientists at the University of Ghent, in
Belgium, have found a protein called M2 that seems to be present in virtually every flu strain
known to man. Using that knowledge, they have made a vaccine that they think could protect
against all flus old, new and those not yet in existence.
If a similar protein is found in cold viruses - a protein that's present no matter what strain is
involved- then it is possible that by 2025 or so, children could be getting a universal cold vaccine.
And then they will have to listen to us old geezers reminisce about the days when we used to
carry a small white cloth called a handkerchief.
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BAD BREATH?
Afraid not. Bad breath isn't an illness; it's merely a symptom of something else. In some cases, the
something else really is an illness - some kidney disorder or an infection. Infections can usually
be cured, and if you're suffering from an incurable one or from another serious condition, bad
breath is the least of your problems.
Another cause is foods like onions or garlic, in which case you're out of luck: essential oils from
such foods get into the blood, then into the lungs, then out with each exhaled breath. Even in the
21st century, if you want the flavour, you risk disflavour.
The most common reason for bad breath, though, is, to put it delicately, food molecules rotting in
the mouth. Mouthwash masks the smell, but ultimately you have to get rid of the stuff. Brushing
removes larger particles, but dentists suggest brushing the back of the tongue as well, where food
residues and bacteria congregate. The microscopic bits that remain must be flushed down by drink
or saliva. But if you're waiting for a true cure, it won't happen until we eat all our food in pill
form. In other words, don't hold your breath.
TEXT K
First 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.
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In 1928 Moore met Irina Radesky, 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.
PART IV TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate 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 行霸道横 , 一旦隔离, 拘禁在花 山坡上一幢小房子里园 ,
我 打入冷顿觉 宫, 十分郁郁不得志起 。一 春天的傍来 个 晚, 中百花怒放园 , 父母在 中园
宴设 , 一 客云集时宾 , 笑 四溢。我在山坡的小屋里语 , 悄悄掀起窗帘, 中大千世界窥见园 ,
一片繁华, 自己的哥姐, 堂表弟兄, 也穿 其插 间, 喜 洋洋。一霎个个 气 时, 一 被人阵 摈
弃, 世所 的悲 兜上心为 遗 愤 头, 禁不住痛哭起 。来
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
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
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the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?" she asks. He's astonished she can't
see them. "Where! Why everywhere," he replies. For thought they are not yet built on earth, he
has built them in his mind, and they are 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."
PART V WRITING (60 MIN)
An English newspaper is currently running a discussion on whether young people in China today
are (not) more self-centered and unsympathetic than were previous generations. And the paper is
inviting contributions from university students. You have been asked to write a short article for
the newspaper to air your views.
Your article should be about 300 words in length. In the first part of your article you should state
clearly your main argument, and in the second part you should support your argument with
appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural
conclusion or a summary.
You should supply a title for your article.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to
following the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
—THE END
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2002)
-GRADE EIGHT-
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 response to each question on your COLOURED
ANSWER SHEET.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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. According to the passage, during the 18th and 19th centuries cities were small in size mainly
because ________.
A. the urban population was stable
B. few people lived in cities
C. transport was backward
D. it was originally planned
2. Cities survived in those days largely as a result of ________.
A. the trade activities they undertook
B. the agricultural activities in the nearby areas
C. their relatively small size
D. the non-economic roles they played
3. City dwellers were engaged in all the following economic activities EXCEPT ________.
A. commerce
B. distribution
C. processing
D. transportation
4. Urban people left cities for the following reasons EXCEPT ________.
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A. more economic opportunities
B. a freer social and political environment
C. more educational opportunities
D. a more relaxed religious environment
5. Why did the early cities fail to grow as quickly as expected throughout the 18th century?
A. Because the countryside attracted more people.
B. Because cities did not increase in number.
C. Because the functions of the cities changed.
D. Because the number of city people was stable.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 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. According to Janet, the factor that would most affect negotiations is ________.
A. English language proficiency.
B. different cultural practices
C. different negotiation tasks
D. the international Americanized style
7. Janet's attitude towards the Americanized style, as a model for business negotiations is
________.
A. supportive
B. negative
C. ambiguous
D. cautious
8. Which of the following can NOT be seen as a difference between Brazilian and American
negotiators?
A. Americans prepare more points before negotiations.
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B. Americans are more straightforward during negotiations.
C. Brazilians prefer more eye contact during negotiations.
D. Brazilians seek more background information.
9. Which group of people seems to be the most straightforward?
A. The British.
B. Germans.
C. Americans.
D. Not mentioned.
10. Which of the following is NOT characteristic of Japanese negotiators?
A. Reserved.
B. Prejudiced.
C. Polite.
D. Prudent.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Question 11 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.
11. The news item is mainly about ________.
A. a call for research papers to be read at the conference
B. an international conference on traditional Tibetan medicine
C. the number of participants at the conference and their nationalities
D. the preparations made by the sponsors for the international conference
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. The news item mainly concerns ________ in Hong Kong.
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A. Internet centres.
B. an IBM seminar
C. e-government
D. broadcasting
13. The aims of the three policy objectives include all the following EXCEPT ________.
A. improvement of government efficiency
B. promotion of e-commerce
C. integration of service delivery
D. formulation of Digital 21 Strategy
Questions 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. Which of the following records was the second best time of the year by Donovan Bailey?
A. 9.98.
B. 9.80.
C. 9.91.
D. 9.95.
15. The record shows that Bailey was ________.
A. still suffering from an injury
B. getting back in shape
C. unable to compete with Greene
D. less confident than before
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING & GAP-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While
listening to the lecture, 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.
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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.
Study Activities in University
In order to help college and university students in the process of learning, four
key study activities have been designed and used to encourage them to make
knowledge their own.
1. Essay writing: central focus of university work esp. in the humanities, e.g.
benefits: 1) helping to select interesting content in books and to
express understanding.
2) enabling teachers to know progress and to offer .
3) familiarizing students with exam forms.
2. Seminars and classroom discussion: another form to internalize knowledge
in specialized contexts.
Benefits: 1) enables you to know the effectiveness of and others
response to your speech immediately.
2) Within the same period of time, more topics can be dealt with than in .
3) The use of a broader range of knowledge is encouraged.
3. Individual tutorials: a substitute for group discussion.
Format: from teacher to flexible conversation.
Benefit: encouraging ideas and interaction.
4. Lectures: a most used study activity.
disadvantages: 1) less than discussions or tutorials.
2) more demanding in note-taking.
Advantages: 1) providing a general of a subject under discussion.
2) offering more easily understood versions of a theory.
3) updating students on developments.
4) allowing students to follow different .
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 proofread 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
provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
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it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
There are great impediments to the general use of a standard
in pronunciation comparable to that existing in spelling
(orthography). One is the fact that pronunciation is learnt
"naturally" and unconsciously, and orthography is learnt
deliberately and consciously. Large numbers of us, in fact,
remain throughout our lives quite unconscious with what
our speech sounds like when we speak out, and it often
comes as a shock when we firstly hear a recording of ourselves.
It is not a voice we recognize at once, whereas our own handwriting
is something which we almost always know. We begin the "natural"
learning of pronunciation long before we start learning to read or
write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously imitating and
practicing the pronunciation of those around us for many more hours
per every day than we ever have to spend learning even our difficult
English spelling. This is "natural", therefore, that our speech-sounds
should be those of our immediate circle; after all, as we have seen,
speech operates as a means of holding a community and
to give a sense of "belonging". We learn quite early to recognize a
"stranger", someone who speaks with an accent of a different
community-perhaps only a few miles far.
PART III READING 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 and then mark your answers on your COLOURED ANSWER
SHEET.
TEXT A
Do you ever feel as though you spend all your time in meetings?
Henry Mintzberg, in his book The Nature of Managerial Work, found that in large organizations
managers spent 22 per cent of their time at their desk, 6 per cent on the telephone, 3 per cent on
other activities, but a whopping 69 per cent in meetings.
There is a widely-held but mistaken belief that meetings are for "solving problems" and "making
decisions". For a start, the number of people attending a meeting tends to be inversely
proportional to their collective ability to reach conclusions and make decisions. And these are the
least important elements.
Instead hours are devoted to side issues, playing elaborate games with one another. It seems,
therefore, that meetings serve some purpose other than just making decisions.
All meetings have one thing in common: role-playing. The most formal role is that of chairman.
He sets the agenda, and a good chairman will keep the meeting running on time and to the point.
Sadly, the other, informal, role-players are often able to gain the upper hand. Chief is the
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"constant talker", who just loves to hear his or her own voice.
Then there are the "can't do" types who want to maintain the status quo. Since they have often
been in the organization for a long time, they frequently quote historical experience as an excuse
to block change: "It won't work, we tried that last year and it was a disaster." A more subtle
version of the "can't do" type, the "yes, but… ", has emerged recently. They have learnt about the
need to sound positive, but they still can't bear to have things change.
Another whole sub-set of characters are people who love meetings and want them to continue
until 5:30 pm or beyond. Irrelevant issues are their specialty. They need to call or attend
meetings, either to avoid work, or to justify their lack of performance, or simply because they do
not have enough to do.
Then there are the "counter-dependents", those who usually disagree with everything that is said,
particularly if it comes from the chairman or through consensus from the group. These people
need to fight authority in whatever form.
Meetings can also provide attenders with a sense of identification of their status and power. In this
case, managers arrange meetings as a means of communicating to others the boundaries of their
exclusive club: who is "in", and who is not.
Because so many meetings end in confusion and without a decision, another game is played at the
end of meetings, called reaching a false consensus. Since it is important for the chairman to
appear successful in problem solving and making a decision, the group reaches a false consensus.
Everyone is happy, having spent their time productively. The reality is that the decision is so
ambiguous that it is never acted upon, or, if it is, there is continuing conflict, for which another
meeting is necessary.
In the end, meetings provide the opportunity for social intercourse, to engage in battle in front of
our bosses, to avoid unpleasant or unsatisfying work to highlight our social status and identity.
They are, in fact, a necessary though not necessarily productive psychological sideshow. Perhaps
it is our civilized way to moderating, if not preventing, change.
16. On role-playing, the passage seems to indicate that chairman ________.
A. talks as much as participants
B. is usually a "constant talker"
C. prefers to take the role of an observer
D. is frequently outshone by participants
17. Which of the following is NOT a distinct characteristic of the three types of participants?
A. Submissiveness.
B. Stubbornness.
C. Disobedience.
D. Lack of focus.
18. The passage suggests that a false consensus was reached at the end of a meeting in order to
________.
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A. make room for another meeting
B. bring an illusory sense of achievement
C. highlight the importance of a meeting
D. go ahead with the agreed programme
TEXT B
Cooperative competition. Competitive cooperation. Confused? Airline alliances have travellers
scratching their heads over what's going on in the skies. Some folks view alliances as a blessing to
travellers, offering seamless travel, reduced fares and enhanced frequent-flyer benefits. Others see
a conspiracy of big businesses, causing decreased competition, increased fares and fewer choices.
Whatever your opinion, there's no escaping airline alliances: the marketing hype is unrelenting,
with each of the two mega-groupings, Oneworld and Star Alliance, promoting itself as the best
choice for all travellers. And, even if you turn away from their ads, chances are they will figure in
any of your travel plans. By the end of the year, Oneworld and Star Alliance will between them
control more than 40% of the traffic in the sky. Some pundits predict that figure will be more like
75% in 10 years.
But why, after years of often ferocious competition, have airlines decided to band together? Let's
just say the timing is mutually convenient. North American airlines, having exhausted all means
of earning customer loyalty at home, have been looking for ways to reach out to foreign flyers.
Asian carriers are still hurting from the region-wide economic downturn that began two years
ago-just when some of the airlines were taking delivery of new aircraft. Alliances also allow
carriers to cut costs and increase profits by pooling manpower resources on the ground (rather
than each airline maintaining its own ground crew) and code-sharing-the practice of two partners
selling tickets and operating only one aircraft.
So alliances are terrific for airlines-but are they good for the passenger? Absolutely, say the
airlines: think of the lounges, the joint FFP (frequent flyer programme) benefits, the round-the-
world fares, and the global service networks. Then there's the promise of "seamless" travel: the
ability to, say, travel from Singapore to Rome to New York to Rio de Janeiro, all on one ticket,
without having to wait hours for connections or worry about your bags. Sounds utopian? Peter
Buecking, Cathay Pacific's director of sales and marketing, thinks that seamless travel is still
evolving. "It's fair to say that these links are only in their infancy. The key to seamlessness rests in
infrastructure and information sharing. We're working on this." Henry Ma, spokesperson for Star
Alliance in Hong Kong, lists some of the other benefits for consumers: "Global travellers have an
easier time making connections and planning their itineraries." Ma claims alliances also assure
passengers consistent service standards.
Critics of alliances say the much-touted benefits to the consumer are mostly pie in the sky, that
alliances are all about reducing costs for the airlines, rationalizing services and running joint
marketing programmes. Jeff Blyskal, associate editor of Consumer Reports magazine, says the
promotional ballyhoo over alliances is much ado about nothing. "I don't see much of a gain for
consumers: alliances are just a marketing gimmick. And as far as seamless travel goes, I'll believe
it when I see it. Most airlines can't even get their own connections under control, let alone
coordinate with another airline."
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Blyskal believes alliances will ultimately result in decreased flight choices and increased costs for
consumers. Instead of two airlines competing and each operating a flight on the same route at
70% capacity, the allied pair will share the route and run one full flight. Since fewer seats will be
available, passengers will be obliged to pay more for tickets.
The truth about alliances and their merits probably lies somewhere between the travel utopia
presented by the players and the evil empires portrayed by their critics. And how much they affect
you depends on what kind of traveller you are.
Those who've already made the elite grade in the FFP of a major airline stand to benefit the most
when it joins an alliance: then they enjoy the FFP perks and advantages on any and all of the
member carriers. For example, if you re a Marco Polo Club "gold" member of Cathay Pacific's
Asia Miles FFP, you will automatically be treated as a valuable customer by all members of
Oneworld, of which Cathay Pacific is a member-even if you've never flown with them before.
For those who haven't made the top grade in any FFP, alliances might be a way of simplifying the
earning of frequent flyer miles. For example, I belong to United Airline's Mileage Plus and
generally fly less than 25, 000 miles a year. But I earn miles with every flight I take on Star
Alliance member-All Nippon Airways and Thai Airways.
If you fly less than I do, you might be smarter to stay out of the FFP game altogether. Hunt for
bargains when booking flights and you might be able to save enough to take that extra trip
anyway. The only real benefit infrequent flyers can draw from an alliance is an inexpensive
round-the-world fare.
The bottom line: for all the marketing hype, alliances aren't all things to all people-but everybody
can get some benefit out of them.
19. Which is the best word to describe air travellers reaction to airline alliances?
A. Delight.
B. Indifference.
C. Objection.
D. Puzzlement.
20. According to the passage, setting up airline alliances will chiefly benefit ________.
A. North American airlines and their domestic travellers.
B. North American airlines and their foreign counterparts.
C. Asian airlines and their foreign travellers.
D. Asian airlines and their domestic travellers.
21. Which of the following is NOT a perceived advantage of alliances?
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A. Baggage allowance.
B. Passenger comfort.
C. Convenience.
D. Quality.
22. One disadvantage of alliances foreseen by the critics is that air travel may be more expensive
as a result of ________.
A. less convenience
B. higher operation costs
C. less competition
D. more joint marketing
23. According to the passage, which of the following categories of travellers will gain most from
airline alliances?
A. Travellers who fly frequently economy class.
B. Travellers who fly frequently business class.
C. Travellers who fly occasionally during holidays.
D. Travellers who fly economy class once in a while.
TEXT C
It is nothing new that English use is on the rise around the world, especially in business circles.
This also happens in France, the headquarters of the global battle against American cultural
hegemony. If French guys are giving in to English, something really big must be going on. And
something big is going on.
Partly, it's that American hegemony. Didier Benchimol, CEO of a French e-commerce software
company, feels compelled to speak English perfectly because the Internet software business is
dominated by Americans. He and other French businessmen also have to speak English because
they want to get their message out to American investors, possessors of the world's deepest
pockets.
The triumph of English in France and elsewhere in Europe, however, may rest on something more
enduring. As they become entwined with each other politically and economically, Europeans need
a way to talk to one another and to the rest of the world. And for a number of reasons, they've
decided upon English as their common tongue.
So when German chemical and pharmaceutical company Hoechst merged with French competitor
Rhone-Poulenc last year, the companies chose the vaguely Latinate Aventis as the new company
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name-and settled on English as the company's common language. When monetary policymakers
from around Europe began meeting at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt last year to set
interest rates for the new Euroland, they held their deliberations in English. Even the European
Commission, with 11 official languages and traditionally French-speaking bureaucracy,
effectively switched over to English as its working language last year.
How did this happen? One school attributes English's great success to the sheer weight of its
merit. It's a Germanic language, brought to Britain around the fifth century A. D. During the four
centuries of French-speaking rule that followed Norman Conquest of 1066, the language morphed
into something else entirely. French words were added wholesale, and most of the complications
of Germanic grammar were shed while few of the complications of French were added. The result
is a language with a huge vocabulary and a simple grammar that can express most things more
efficiently than either of its parents. What's more, English has remained ungoverned and open to
change-foreign words, coinages, and grammatical shifts-in a way that French, ruled by the purist
Academic Francaise, had not.
So it's a swell language, especially for business. But the rise of English over the past few
centuries clearly owes at least as much to history and economics as to the language's ability to
economically express the concept win-win. What happened is that the competition-first Latin,
then French, then, briefly, German-faded with the waning of the political, economic, and military
fortunes of, respectively, the Catholic Church, France, and Germany. All along, English was
increasing in importance: Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and London the
world's most important financial centre, which made English a key language for business.
England's colonies around the world also made it the language with the most global reach. And as
that former colony the U.S. rose to the status of the world's preeminent political economic,
military, and cultural power, English became the obvious second language to learn.
In the 1990s more and more Europeans found themselves forced to use English. The last
generation of business and government leaders who hadn't studied English in school was leaving
the stage. The European Community was adding new members and evolving from a paper-
shuffling club into a serious regional government that would need a single common language if it
were ever to get anything done. Meanwhile, economic barriers between European nations have
been disappearing, meaning that more and more companies are beginning to look at the whole
continent as their domestic market. And then the Internet came along.
The Net had two big impacts. One was that it was an exciting, potentially lucrative new industry
that had its roots in the U.S., so if you wanted to get in on it, you had to speak some English. The
other was that by surfing the Web, Europeans who had previously encountered English only in
school and in pop songs were now coming into contact with it daily.
None of this means English has taken over European life. According to the European Union, 47%
of Western Europeans (including the British and Irish)speak English well enough to carry on a
conversation. That's a lot more than those who can speak German (32%) or French (28%), but it
still means more Europeans don't speak the language. If you want to sell shampoo or cell phones,
you have to do it in French or German or Spanish or Greek. Even the U.S. and British media
companies that stand to benefit most from the spread of English have been hedging their bets-
CNN broadcasts in Spanish; the Financial Times has recently launched a daily German-language
edition.
But just look at who speaks English: 77% of Western European college students, 69% of
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managers, and 65% of those aged 15 to 24. In the secondary schools of the European Union's
non-English-speaking countries, 91% of students study English, all of which means that the
transition to English as the language of European business hasn't been all that traumatic, and it's
only going to get easier in the future.
24. In the author's opinion, what really underlies the rising status of English in France and
Europe is ________.
A. American dominance in the Internet software business.
B. a practical need for effective communication among Europeans
C. Europeans eagerness to do business with American businessmen.
D. the recent trend for foreign companies to merge with each other
25. Europeans began to favour English for all the following reasons EXCEPT its ________.
A. inherent linguistic properties
B. association with the business world
C. links with the United States
D. disassociation from political changes
26. Which of the following statements forecasts the continuous rise of English in the future?
A. About half of Western Europeans are now proficient in English.
B. U.S. and British media companies are operating in Western Europe.
C. Most secondary school students in Europe study English.
D. Most Europeans continue to use their own language.
27. The passage mainly examines the factors related to ________.
A. the rising status of English in Europe
B. English learning in non-English-speaking E.U. nations.
C. the preference for English by European businessmen
D. the switch from French to English in the European Commission
TEXT D
As humankind moves into the third millennium, it can rightfully claim to have broken new
ground in its age-old quest to master the environment. The fantastic achievements of modern
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technology and the speed at which scientific discoveries are translated into technological
applications attest to the triumph of human endeavour.
At the same time, however, some of these applications threaten to unleash forces over which we
have no control. In other words, the new technology Man now believes allows him to dominate
this wider cosmos could well be a Frankenstein monster waiting to turn on its master.
This is an entirely new situation that promises to change many of the perceptions governing life
on the planet. The most acute challenges facing the future are likely to be not only those pitting
man against his fellow man, but those involving humankind's struggle to preserve the
environment and ensure the sustainability of life on earth.
A conflict waged to ensure the survival of the human species is bound to bring humans closer
together. Technological progress has thus proved to be a double-edged sword, giving rise to a new
form of conflict: a clash between Man and Nature.
The new conflict is more dangerous than the traditional one between man and his fellow man,
where the protagonists at least shared a common language. But when it comes to the reactions of
the ecosystems to the onslaught of modern technology, there is no common language.
Nature reacts with weather disturbances, with storms and earthquakes, with mutant viruses and
bacteria-that is, with phenomena having no apparent cause and effect relationship with the
modern technology that supposedly triggers them.
As technology becomes ever more potent and Nature reacts ever more violently, there is an urgent
need to rethink how best to deal with the growing contradictions between Man and Nature.
For a start, the planet, and hence all its inhabitants, must be perceived as an integral whole, not as
a dichotomous mass divided geographically into the rich and developed and the poor and
underdeveloped.
Today, globalization encompasses the whole world and deals with it as an integral unit. It is no
longer possible to say that conflict has shifted from its traditional east-west axis to a north-south
axis. The real divide today is between summit and base, between the higher echelons of the
international political structure and its grassroots level, between government and NGOs, between
state and civil society, between public and private enterprise.
The mesh structure is particularly obvious on the Internet. While it is true that to date the Internet
seems to be favouring the most developed sectors of the international community over the less
developed, this need not always be the case. Indeed, it could eventually overcome the disparities
between the privileged and the underdeveloped.
On the other hand, the macro-world in which we live is exposed to distortions because of the
unpredictable side-effects of a micro-world we do not and cannot totally control.
This raises the need for a global system of checks and balances, for mandatory rules and
constraints in our dealings with Nature, in short, for a new type of veto designed to manage what
is increasingly becoming a main contradiction of our time: the one between technology and
ecology.
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A new type of international machinery must be set in place to cope with the new challenges. We
need a new look at the harnessing of scientific discoveries, to maximize their positive effects for
the promotion of humanity as a whole and to minimize their negative effects. We need an
authority with veto powers to forbid practices conducive to decreasing the ozone hole, the
propagation of AIDS, global warming, desertification-an authority that will tackle such global
problems.
There should be no discontinuity in the global machinery responsible for world order. The UN in
its present form may fall far short of what is required of it, and it may be undemocratic and
detrimental to most citizens in the world, but its absence would be worse. And so we have to hold
on to the international organization even as we push forward for its complete restructuring.
Our best hope would be that the functions of the present United Nations are gradually taken over
by the new machinery of veto power representing genuine democratic globalization.
28. The mention of Man's victory over Nature at the beginning of the passage is to highlight
________.
A. a new form of conflict
B. Man's creative powers.
C. the role of modern technology
D. Man's ground-breaking work.
29. According to the passage, which is NOT a responsibility of the proposed international
authority?
A. Monitoring effects of scientific discoveries.
B. Dealing with worldwide environmental issues.
C. Vetoing human attempts to conquer Nature.
D. Authorizing efforts to improve human health.
30. When commenting on the present role of the UN, the author expresses his ________.
A. dissatisfaction
B. disillusionment
C. objection
D. doubt
SECTION B SKIMMING & SCANNING [10 min]
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as
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required and then mark your answers on your COLOURED ANSWER SHEET.
TEXT E
First read the following question.
31. What is the most appropriate topic of the following passage?
A. Strikes.
B. Pensions.
C. Retirement Ages.
D. Government decisions.
Now go through TEXT E quickly and answer the question.
In addition to the national social security system, 17 special pension schemes are among the
social advantages that government employees are not prepared to give up.
Under the national scheme, retirement is at the age of 65, whereas the special schemes offer
retirement at 55 or even 50.
Most of the pension schemes are in the red and have to be topped up by the state. The total state
contribution in 1994 was F125 billion ($ 25 billion).
The prime minister says he wants to keep the special schemes. There are three solutions for
keeping them afloat: lengthening the contribution period, increasing contributions, or reducing the
pensions paid out. The government chose the first solution in the plan that it announced on
November 15. Private sector employees were required in 1993 to contribute for 40 instead of 37.5
years, in order to qualify for a full pension. State employees could still retire after 37.5 years
service provided they had reached the age limit.
The prime minister's announcement touched off strikes on the railways, Paris's transport services
and government departments. Facing increasing opposition to this proposal, the prime minister
said on December 5 that working more years would no longer be a condition for reforming the
special pension schemes.
A government commission that will examine pensions will, however, be free to propose changes
in the retirement age in certain professions. But it will take into consideration the hardships
involved in the work and the constraints of working hours.
At the moment, the minimum retirement age is 60-as in the private sector before 1983-for 65
percent of public service employees. It is 55, or even 50, for 35 per cent of employees considered
to be doing work "involving special risks or exceptional fatigue".
Primary school teachers can retire at 55, but the limit for new, better qualified recruits is 60.
Postal workers at sorting offices can retire at 55. The retiring age for police officers is 50, prison
officers 50, nurses 55, and railwaymen 50 and 55 for others. The 30, 000 employees of the Paris
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Metro have an average retirement age of 53.
Two-thirds of the "active" employees and those working in conditions that can damage health in
the public gas and electric utility retire at 55. Retirement age for notary's clerks is 55 for women,
and 60 for men. For miners, retirement is at 55.
Comparing the national pension scheme and the special schemes is not easy, because state
employees receive bonuses-some of them substantial-which are not included in calculating their
contributions or their pensions.
TEXT F
First read the following question.
32. In the following passage the author intends to ________.
A. explain how the Gulf Stream is formed
B. compare global warming with global cooling
C. explain the composition of the sea currents
D. deliver a warning of a coming ice age
Now go through TEXT F quickly and answer the question.
It seems obvious that trapping more of the sun's heat will make the planet hotter. But what seems
obvious isn't always true. According to some respected scientists, there is a chance that global
warming could plunge us into, of all things, an ice age.
The argument hinges on the Gulf Stream, the ocean current that brings warm surface water north
and east and heats Europe. As it travels, some of the water evaporates; what's left is saltier and
thus denser. Eventually the dense surface water sinks to the sea bottom, where it flows back
southward. And then, near the equator, warm, fresh water from tropical rivers and rain dilutes the
salt once again, allowing the water to rise to the surface, warm up and begin flowing north again.
But with global warming, melting ice from Greenland and the Arctic Ocean could pump fresh
water into the North Atlantic; so could the increased rainfall be predicted for northern latitudes in
a warmer world. Result: the Gulf Stream's water wouldn't get saltier after all and wouldn't sink so
easily. Without adequate re-supply, the southerly underwater current would stop, and the Gulf
Stream would in turn be shut off.
If that happens, Europe will get very cold. Rome is, after all, at the same latitude as Chicago, and
Paris is about as far north as North Dakota. More snow will fall, and the bright snow cover will
reflect more of the sun's energy back into space, making life even chillier. Beyond that, the Gulf
Stream is tied into other ocean currents, and shutting it down could rearrange things in a way that
would cause less overall evaporation.
Worst of all, the experts believe, such changes could come on with astonishing speed-perhaps
within a decade or less. And while we might have a great deal of trouble adjusting to a climate
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that gets 2℃ warmer over the next century, an ice age by mid-century would be unimaginably
devastating. The lingering uncertainty about whether our relentless production of greenhouse
gases will keep heating our planet or ultimately cool it suggests that we should make a better
effort to leave the earth's thermostat alone.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
33. What is the main theme of the following passage?
A. Strengths of paper books over E-books.
B. Projected extinction of paper books.
C. Market prospects of E-books.
D. The history of paper books.
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer the question.
Experts predict that the printed paper and glue book will be rendered obsolete by electronic text
delivery systems, of which one, the Microsoft Reader, is already on the market, offering "book"
on a pocket PC manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. This is not impossible; already much of the
written communication that used to be handled by letters, newspapers and magazines has shifted
to computer screens and to the vast digital library available over the Internet. If the worst comes
true and the paper book joins the papyrus scroll and parchment codex in extinction, we will miss,
I predict, a number of things about it.
The book as furniture. Shelved rows of books warm and brighten the starkest room. By bedside
and easy chair, books promise a cozy, swift and silent release from this world into another. For
ease of access and speed of storage, books are tough to beat.
The book as sensual pleasure. Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average
book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth,
glazed jacket or flexible paperback. The weight can rest on the little finger of the right hand for
hours without strain, while the thumb holds the pages open and the fingers of the other hand turn
them.
The rectangular block of type, a product of five and a half centuries of printers lore, yields to
decipherment so gently that one is scarcely aware of the difference between immersing oneself in
an imaginary world and scanning the furniture of one's own room.
The book as souvenir. One's collection comes to symbolize the contents of one's mind. Books
read in childhood, in yearning adolescence, at college and in the first self-conscious years of
adulthood travel along, often, with readers as they move from house to house. My mother's
college texts sat untouched in a corner of our country bookcase.
The bulk of my own college books are still with me, rarely consulted but always there, reminders
of moments, of stages, in a pilgrimage. The decades since add their own drifts and strata of
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volumes read or half read or intended to be read. Books preserve, daintily, the redolence of their
first reading-this beach, that apartment, that summer afternoon, this flight to Indonesia.
Books as ballast. As movers and the moved both know, books are heavy freight, the weight of
refrigerators and sofas broken up into cardboard boxes. They make us think twice about changing
addresses. How many aging couples have decided to stay put because they can't imagine what to
do with the books? How many divorces have been forestalled by love of the jointly acquired
library?
Books hold our beams down. They act as counterweight to our fickle and flighty natures. In
comparison, any electronic text delivery device would lack substance. Further, speaking of
obsolescence, it would be outdated in a year and within 15 years as inoperable as my formerly
treasured Wang word processor from the mid-80's. Electronic equals immaterial. Without books,
we might melt into the airwaves, and be just another set of blips.
TEXT H
First read the following question.
34. The passage intends primarily to ________ in some Asian cities.
A. explain how porters work
B. introduce top-end eateries
C. provide advice on tipping
D. describe how taxis are metered
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer the question.
It's difficult to determine what constitutes an appropriate tip in any country. In Japan, if you leave
a couple of coins on the table, the waiter is liable to chase after you to return your forgotten
change. In New York, on the other hand, if you leave less than 15%, your reservation might not
hold up next time. Asia, with its multiplicity of cultures and customs, is a particularly difficult
terrain. To make your next trip a little easier, here's a guide to tipping across the region:
HONG KONG
Tipping is de rigueur in this money-mad metropolis at all but the lowest establishments. Even
bathrooms in posh hotels have little dishes for loose change.
Restaurants: Most places automatically add a 10% service charge to the bill, but the surcharge
often ends up in the pocket of the owner, not the staff kitty. If the service is good, add another
10% to the bill, up to HK $ 100 if you've in an especially nice restaurant.
Porters: HK $ 10 should do it at all but the nicest hotels where a crisp HK $ 20 bill may be more
acceptable.
Taxis: Round up to the nearest dollar, although many drivers will do this on their own when
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making change.
MANILA
Tipping is common in Manila, and anything above 10% will gain you undying loyalty.
Restaurants: Even if a service charge is included, custom dictates adding another 5% ～10% to
the bill.
Porters: Service in top hotels is good and should be rewarded with 20 pesos per bag.
Taxis: Most cabs are metered, and rounding up to the next five pesos is a good rule of thumb.
SEOUL
Tipping is not part of Korean culture, although it has become a matter of course in international
hotels where a 10% service charge is often added.
Restaurants: If you re at a Korean barbecue joint, there's no need to add anything extra. But a
sleek Italian restaurant may require a 10% contribution.
Porters: If you re at a top-end hotel, international standards apply, so expect to give 500～1, 000
won per bag.
Taxis: Drivers don't expect a tip, so unless you re feeling remarkably generous, keep the change
for yourself.
SINGAPORE
According to government mandate in the Lion City, tipping is a no-no. It's basically outlawed at
Changi Airport and officials encourage tourists not to add to the 10% service charge that many
high-end hotels add on to the bill.
Porters: Hotel staff are the one exception to the no-tipping rule. As a general guide, S $ 1 should
be adequate for baggage-lugging service.
Taxis: Drivers don't expect tipping, but they won't refuse if you want to round up the fare to the
next Singaporean dollar.
TEXT I
First read the following questions.
35. If you want to see a performance by the Beijing Peking Opera Theatre, which phone number
would you ring?
A. 6841-9283.
B. 6848-5462.
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C. 6301-6688.
D. 6523-3320.
36. Supposing you have some free time after 7 pm on July 1st, which performance or exhibition
can you go to?
A. Traditional Chinese music.
B. Chinese modern operas.
C. Peking Opera.
D. Lao Dao's recent paintings.
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer the questions.
WHAT'S ON
CONCERTS
New concert hall: The movie theatre of the National Library of China has been turned into a
concert hall after months of renovation.
The Guotu Concert Hall will open to the public for the first time on June 30. After the opening
ceremony, the China National Song and Dance Theatre will present highlights of Chinese modern
operas from the past 50 years.
Programme: excerpts from Chinese modern operas including "The White-haired Girl", "Red
Rocks" and more.
Time: 7:30 pm, June 30
Place: Guotu Concert Hall at the National Library of China
Tel: 6841-9283
Chinese music: The Traditional Band of China National Song and Dance Theatre will perform
traditional Chinese music, under Liu Wenjin, composer and director of the theatre.
Programme: "Butterfly Lovers", "Moonlight Reflected on Number Two Spring", "The Night is
Deep" and other traditional pieces.
Time: 7:30 pm, July 1～2
Place: Guotu Concert Hall at the National Library of China
Tel: 6848-5462
EXHIBITIONS
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One-man show: Lao Dao is presenting his most recent paintings at the Wanfung Gallery.
Titled "Spanning the Space", the exhibition features about 30 works created from synthetic
materials. The paintings are composed of mottled ancient doors with faded couplets pasted on
them, leading the viewers into ancient stories hidden behind the door.
Time: 9 am～5 pm until July 1st
Place: 136 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng District
Tel: 6523-3320
Charm of ink: The Huangshicheng Gallery is hosting a solo show of ink-and-colour paintings by
veteran calligrapher and painter Qin Tang. More than just visually appealing, Qin's work
impresses the viewer with its vividness and simplicity.
Time: 9 am～5 pm until July 5th
Place: Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng District
Tel: 6528-9103
STAGE
Peking Opera: The Liyuan Theatre presents traditional Peking Opera excerpts in short
programmes for foreign audiences and in original styles. With an explanation in English, the
performances are from the Beijing Opera Theatre.
Time: 7:30 pm July 3～5
Place: Liyuan Theatre, Qianmen Jianguo Hotel, Xuanwu District
Tel: 6301-6688
TEXT J
First read the following questions.
37. Who's the author of Culture/Metaculture?
A. Linda Anderson.
B. Peter Childs.
C. Adam Roberts.
D. Francis Mulhern.
38. Which of the following books draws on case studies?
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A. Modernism.
B. Science Fiction.
C. Autobiography.
D. Culture/Metaculture.
Now go through TEXT J quickly and answer the questions.
Autobiography
Linda Anderson, University of Newcastle, UK
This wide-ranging introduction to the study of autobiography offers a historical overview of
autobiographical writing from St Augustine to the present day. Linda Anderson follows the
important developments in autobiographical criticism in the last thirty years, paying particular
attention to psychoanalytic, post-structuralist and feminist approaches. This volume:
● outlines the main theoretical issues and concepts of this difficult area
● looks at the different forms from confessions to narratives to memoirs to diaries
● considers the major writers of this historical tradition.
Culture/Metaculture
Francis Mulhern, Middlesex University, UK
Culture/Metaculture is a stimulating introduction to the meanings of "culture" in contemporary
Western society. This essential survey examines:
● culture as an antidote to "mass" modernity, in the work of Thomas Mann, Julien Benda, Karl
Mannheim and F. R. Leavis
● post-war theories of "popular" culture and the rise of Cultural Studies, paying particular
attention to the key figures of Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall
● theories of "metaculture", or the ways in which culture, however defined, speaks of itself.
Modernism
Peter Childs, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, UK
With its battle cry of "Make it New", the modernist movement shook the foundations of the late
nineteenth-and early twentieth-century literary establishment. Modernism offers an outstanding
analysis of this literary and cultural revolution. Peter Childs immensely readable account:
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● details the origins of the modernist movement and the influence of thinkers such as Darwin,
Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Saussure and Einstein
● explores the radical changes which occurred in the literature, drama, art and film of the period
● traces "modernism at work" in the writing of Joyce, Woolf, Mansfield, Forster, Yeats, Ford,
Eliot, Beckett and other key literary figures.
Science Fiction
Adam Roberts, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Science Fiction is one of the most vigorous and exciting areas of modern culture, ranging from
ground-breaking novels of ideas to blockbusters on the cinema screen. This outstanding volume
offers a clear and critically engaged account of the phenomenon. Adam Roberts:
● provides a concise history of science fiction and the ways in which the genre has been defined
● examines the interactions between science fiction and science fact
● anchors each chapter with a case study drawn from short story, book or film, from Frank
Herbert's Dune to Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black.
TEXT K
First read the following questions.
39. What are "Cookies" in the following passage?
A. Computer data.
B. Shopping habits.
C. Websites.
D. Passwords.
40. How many pieces of advice are offered by the author to protect online shoppers privacy?
A. 1.
B. 2.
C. 3.
D. 4.
Now go through TEXT K quickly and answer the questions.
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We all enjoy a little extra-special every now and then, whether it's a prime table at our favourite
restaurant or an upgrade on that long flight across the Pacific. Being recognized makes us feel
valued-and we re more likely to do business with someone who takes the time to go that extra
mile. E-commerce sites know this, and they re doing everything they can to create personalized
environments so we'll want to spend money online. How? By employing cookies.
Cookies are bits of data stored on your computer's hard drive when you visit a website. They can
only be read by the site that sets them. Companies use them to store information about you and to
track your behaviour on a particular website and, of course, your shopping habits.
Cookies help companies personalize their websites. This is how an online bookstore knows you're
you, or how a news website knows to show you headlines from your hometown. Retailers use
cookies to promote products they think you might like or to target ads that you might find
appealing. Cookies also record user IDs and passwords so you don't have to log in each time you
visit a site.
Cookies, however, have a darker side too, and all kinds of privacy issues lurk at every bend. On
their own, cookies are generally harmless, if mildly intrusive. One potential problem, though,
crops up when you enter personal information on a survey. This can be easily linked up with
cookies about your surfing habit and the website knows pretty much everything there is to know
about you. Often this information is used simply to show you an advertisement for a product you
might want to buy. But privacy advocates worry that this information could be misused.
Here's what you can do as an online shopper to protect your privacy:
● Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server. But Microsoft Explorer and
Netscape Communicator offer this option.
● Shop only with sites that post online privacy policies.
● Be careful about what sort of information you give out in surveys.
● Set up a secondary profile using an anonymous e-mail account and bogus ID. It's clandestine,
but you'll surf with greater anonymity. Of course, when you actually want to buy something you'll
have to give out your real name and address.
试 卷 二 ( 1 2 0 m i n )
PART IV TRANSLATION [60 min]
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET
THREE.
大自然 人的恩对 赐,无 富论贫 ,一律平等。所以人 于大自然全部一致 深深地依 着。们对 并 赖
尤其在乡间,上千年 人 一直以不 的方式生活着来 们 变 : 植庄稼和葡萄种 , 酒和 酒酿 饮 , 牛和喂
奶挤 , 草和栽花锄 ;在周末去 堂祈 和做 拜教 祷 礼 ,在 日到广 拉琴、跳舞和唱歌。往日的节 场
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田 依 是今日的 馨家 。园 旧 温 园 这样,每 地方都有自己的个 传说, 俗也就衍 了下 。风 传 来
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
The word "winner" and "loser" have many meanings. When we refer to a person as a winner, we
do not mean one who makes someone else lose. To us, a winner is one who responds authentically
by being credible, trustworthy, responsive, and genuine, both as an individual and as a member of
a society.
Winners do not dedicate their lives to a concept of what they imagine they should be; rather, they
are themselves and as such do not use their energy putting on a performance, maintaining
pretence and manipulating others. They are aware that there is a difference between being loving
and acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid, between being knowledgeable and
acting knowledgeable. Winners do not need to hide behind a mask.
Winners are not afraid to do their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can
separate facts from opinions and don't pretend to have all the answers. They listen to others,
evaluate what they say, but come to their own conclusions. Although winners can admire and
respect other people, they are not totally defined, demolished, bound, or awed by them.
Winners do not play "helpless", nor do they play the blaming game. Instead, they assume
responsibility for their own lives.
PART V WRITING [60 min]
All of us would agree that in order to be successful in the present-day society, we university
graduates have to possess certain personal qualities that can enable us to realize our aim. What do
you think is the most important personal quality of a university graduate? Write a composition of
about 300 words on the following topic:
THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSONAL QUALITY OF A UNIVERSITY STUDENT
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part
you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring
what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow
the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2001)
-GRADE EIGHT-
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 response to each question on your Coloured Answer
Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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 list en to the talk.
1. Changes in the size of the World Bank's operations refer to ________.
A. the expansion of its loan programme
B. the inclusion of its hard loans
C. the inclusion of its soft loans
D. the previous lending policies
2. What actually made the Bank change its overall lending strategy?
A. Reluctance of people in poor countries to have small families.
B. Lack of basic health services and inequality in income distribution.
C. The discovery that a low fertility rate would lead to economic development.
D. Poor nutrition and low literacy in many poor countries of the world.
3. The change in emphasis of the Bank's lending policies meant that the Bank would ________.
A. be more involved in big infrastructure projects
B. adopt similar investment strategies in poor and rich countries
C. embark upon a review of the investment in huge dams and steel mills
D. invest in projects that would benefit the low-income sector of society
4. Which of the following is NOT a criticism of the bank?
A. Colossal travel expenses of its staff.
B. Fixed annual loans to certain countries.
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C. Limited impact of the Bank's projects.
D. Role as a financial deal maker.
5. Throughout the talk, the speaker is ________ while introducing the World Bank.
A. biased
B. unfriendly
C. objective
D. sensational
SECTION B CONVERSATION
Questions 6 to 10 are based on a conversation. At the end of the conversation you will be given
15 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the conversation.
6. The man sounds surprised at the fact that ________.
A. many Australians are taking time off to travel
B. the woman worked for some time in New Zealand
C. the woman raised enough money for travel
D. Australians prefer to work in New Zealand.
7. We learn that the woman liked Singapore mainly because of its ________.
A. cleanness
B. multi-ethnicity
C. modern characteristics
D. shopping opportunities
8. From the conversation we can infer that Kaifeng and Yinchuan impressed the woman with
their ________.
A. respective locations
B. historic interests
C. ancient tombs
D. Jewish descendants.
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9. Which of the following words can best describe the woman's feelings a bout Tibet?
A. Amusement.
B. Disbelief.
C. Ecstasy.
D. Delight.
10. According to the conversation, it was that made the woman ready to stop traveling.
A. the unsettledness of travel
B. the difficulties of trekking
C. the loneliness of travel
D. the unfamiliar environment
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 and 12 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.
11. Mike Tyson was put in prison last August because he ________.
A. violated the traffic law
B. illegally attacked a boxer
C. attacked somebody after a traffic accident
D. failed to finish his contract
12. The license granted to Tyson to fight will be terminated ________.
A. by the end of the year
B. in over a year
C. in August
D. in a few weeks
Question 13 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.
13. The Russian documents are expected to draw great attention because ________.
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A. they cover the whole story of the former US president
B. the assassin used to live in the former Soviet Union
C. they are the only official documents released about Kennedy
D. they solved the mystery surrounding Kennedy's assassination
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. New listen to the news.
14. In the recent three months, Hong Kong's unemployment rate has ________.
A. increased slowly
B. decreased gradually
C. stayed steady
D. become unpredictable
15. According to the news, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Business conditions have worsened in the past three months.
B. The past three months have seen a declining trend in job offers.
C. The rise of unemployment rate in some sectors equals the fall in others.
D. The unemployment rate in all sectors of the economy remains unchanged.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While
listening to the lecture, 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.
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.
The Press Conference
The press conference has certain advantages. The first advantage lies with the
nature of the event itself; public officials are supposed to submit to scrutiny by
responding to various questions at a press conference. Secondly, statements
previously made at a press conference can be used as a in judging following
statements or policies. Moreover, in case of important events, press conferences
are an effective way to break the news to groups of reporters.
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However, from the point of view of , the press conference possesses some
disadvantages, mainly in its and news source. The provider virtually determines
the manner in which a press conference proceeds. This, sometimes, puts news
reporters at a (n) , as can be seen on live broadcasts of news conferences.
Factors in getting valuable information preparation: a need to keep up to date on
journalistic subject matter;
— of the news source:
1) news source's to
provide information;
2) news-gathering methods.
Conditions under which news reporters cannot trust the information provided by
a news source
—not knowing the required information;
—knowing and willing to share the information, but without skills;
—knowing the information, but unwilling to share;
—willing to share, but unable to recall.
of questions asked
Ways of improving the questions:
no words with double meanings;
no long questions;
—specific time, place, etc.;
— questions;
—clear alternatives, or no alternatives in answers.
PART II Proofreading and 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 proofread 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
provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
During the early years of this century, wheat was seen as
the very lifeblood of Western Canada. People on city streets watched
the yields and the price of wheat in almost as much feeling as if
they were growers. The marketing of wheat became an increasing
favorite topic of conversation.
War set the stage for the most dramatic events in marketing
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the western crop. For years, farmers mistrusted speculative grain
selling as carried on through the Winnipeg Grain Exchange.
Wheat prices were generally low in the autumn, so farmers could
not wait for markets to improve. It had happened too often that
they sold their wheat soon shortly after harvest when farm debts
were coming due, just to see prices rising and speculators getting rich.
On various occasions, producer groups, asked firmer control,
but the government had no wish to become involving, at
least not until wartime when wheat prices threatened to run wild.
Anxious to check inflation and rising life costs, the federal
government appointed a board of grain supervisors to deal with
deliveries from the crops of 1917 and 1918. Grain Exchange
trading was suspended, and farmers sold at prices fixed by the
board. To handle with the crop of 1919, the government
appointed the first Canadian Wheat Board, with total authority to
buy, sell, and set prices.
PART III Reading 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 and then mark answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
"Twenty years ago, Blackpool turned its back on the sea and tried to make itself into an
entertainment centre." say Robin Wood, a local official. "Now't he thinking is that we should try,
to refocus on the sea and make Blackpool a family destination again." To say that Blackpool
neglected the sea is to put it mildly. In 1976 the European Community, as it then was called,
instructed member nations to make their beaches conform to certain minimum standards of
cleanliness within ten years. Britain, rather than complying, took the novel strategy of contending
that many of its most popular beaches were not swimming beaches at all. Be cause of Britain's
climate the sea-bathing season is short, and most people don ' t go in above their knees anyway-
and hence can't really be said to be swimming. By averaging out the number of people actually
swimming across 365 days of the year, the government was able to persuade itself, if no one else,
that Britain had hardly any real swimming beaches.
As one environmentalist put it to me: "You had the ludicrous situation in which Luxembourg had
mere listed public bathing beaches than the whole of the United Kingdom. It was preposterous."
Meanwhile, Blackpool continued to discharge raw sewage straight into the se a. Finally after
much pressure from both environmental groups and the European Union, the local water authority
built a new waste-treatment facility for the whole of Blackpool and neighbouring communities.
The facility came online in June 1 996. For the first time since the industrial revolution
Blackpool's waters are safe to swim in.
That done, the town is now turning its attention to making the sea-front me re visually attractive.
The promenade, once a rather elegant place to stroll, had become increasingly tatty and neglected.
"It was built in Victorian times and needed a thorough overhaul anyway," says Wood, "so we
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decided to make aesthetic improvements at the same time, to try to draw people back to it."
Blackpool recently spent about. 4 million building new kiosks for vendors and improving seating
around the Central Pier and plans to spend a further $ 15 million on various amenity projects.
The most striking thing about Blackpool these days compared with 20 years a go is how empty its
beaches are. When the tide is out, Blackpool's beaches are a vast plain of beckoning sand. They
look spacious enough to accommodate comfortably the entire populace of northern England. Ken
Welsby remembers days when, as he puts it, "you couldn't lay down a handkerchief on this beach,
it was that crowded."
Welsby comes from Preston, 20 miles down the road, and has been visiting Blackpool all his life.
Now retired, he had come for the day with his wife, Kitty, and their three young grandchildren
who were gravely absorbed in building a sandcastle. "Two hundred thousand people they'd have
on this beach sometimes." Welsby said. "You can't imagine it now, can you?"
Indeed I could not. Though it was a bright sunny day in the middle of summer. I counted just 13
people scattered along a half mile or so of open sand. Except for those rare times when hot
weather and a public holiday coincide, it is like this nearly always now.
"You can't imagine how exciting it was to come here for the day when we were young." Kitty
said. "Even from Preston, it was a big treat. Now children don't want the beach. They want arcade
games and rides in helicopters and goodness knows what else." She stared out over the glittery
water. "We'll never see those days again. It's sad really."
"But your grandchildren seem to be enjoying it," I pointed out.
"For the moment," Ken said. "For the moment."
Afterward I went for a long walk along the empty beach, then went back to the town centre and
treated myself to a large portion of fish-and-chips wrapped in paper. The way they cook it in
Blackpool, it isn't so much a meal as an invitation to a heart attack, but it was delicious. Far out
over the sea the sun was setting with such splendor that I would almost have sworn I could hear
the water hiss where it touched.
Behind me the lights of Blackpool Tower were just twinkling on, and the streets were beginning
to fill with happy evening throngs. In the purply light of dusk the town looked peaceful and happy
enchanting even and there was an engaging air of expectancy, of fun about to happen. Somewhat
to my surprise, I realized that this place was beginning to grow on me.
16. At the beginning, the passage seems to suggest that Blackpool ________.
A. will continue to remain as an entertainment centre
B. complied with EC's standards of clearliness
C. had no swimming beaches all along
D. is planning to revive its former attraction
17. We can learn from the passage that Blackpool used to ________.
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A. have as many beaches as Luxumbourg
B. have seriously polluted drinking water
C. boast some imposing seafront sights
D. attract few domestic holiday makers
18. What Blackpool's beaches strike visitors most is their ________.
A. emptiness
B. cleanliness
C. modernity
D. monotony
TEXT B
Pundits who want to sound judicious are fond of warning against generalizing. Each country is
different, they say, and no one story fits all of Asia. This is, of course, silly: all of these economies
plunged into economic crisis within a few months of each other, so they must have had something
in common.
In fact, the logic of catastrophe was pretty much the same in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and
South Korea. (Japan is a very different story.) In each ca se investors mainly, but not entirely,
foreign banks who had made short-term loans all tried to pull their money out at the same time.
The result was a combined banking and currency crisis: a banking crisis because no bank can
convert all its assets into cash on short notice; a currency crisis because panicked investors were
trying not only to convert long-term assets into cash, but to convert baht or rupiah into dollars. In
the face of the stampede, governments had no good options. If they let their currencies plunge
inflation would soar and companies that had borrowed in dollars would go bankrupt; if they tried
to support their currencies by pushing up interest rates, the same firms would probably go bust
from the combination of debt burden and recession. In practice, countries' split the difference and
paid a heavy price regardless.
Was the crisis a punishment for bad economic management? Like most clichés, the catchphrase
"crony capitalism" has prospered because it gets at something real: excessively cozy relationships
between government and business really did lead to a lot of bad investments. The still primitive
financial structure of Asian business also made the economies peculiarly vulnerable to a loss of
confidence. But the punishment was surely disproportionate to the crime, and many investments
that look foolish in retrospect seemed sensible at the time.
Given that there were no good policy options, was the policy response mainly on the fight track?
There was frantic blame-shifting when everything in Asia seemed to be going wrong: now there is
a race to claim credit when some things have started to go right. The international Monetary Fund
points to Korea's recovery and more generally to the fact that the sky didn't fall after all as proof
that its policy recommendations were right. Never mind that other IMF clients have done far
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worse, and that the economy of Malaysia which refused IM F help, and horrified respectable
opinion by imposing capital controls also seems to be on the mend. Malaysia's prime Minister, by
contrast, claims full credit for any good news even though neighbouring economies also seem to
have bottomed out.
The truth is that an observer without any ax to grind would probably conclude that none of the
policies adopted either on or in defiance of the IMF's adv ice made much difference either way.
Budget policies, interest rate policies, ban king reform whatever countries tried, just about all the
capital that could flee, did. And when there was no mere money to run, the natural recuperative
powers of the economies finally began to prevail. At best, the money doctors who purported to
offer cures provided a helpful bedside manner; at worst, they were like medieval physicians who
prescribed bleeding as a remedy for all ills.
Will the patients stage a full recovery? It depends on exactly what you mean by "full". South
Korea's industrial production is already above its pre-crisis level; but in the spring of 1997 anyone
who had predicted zero growth in Korean industry over the next two years would have been
regarded as a reckless doomsayer. So if by recovery you mean not just a return to growth, but one
that brings the region's performance back to something like what people used to regard as the
Asian norm, they have a long way to go.
19. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT the writer's opinion?
A. Countries paid a heavy price for whichever measure taken.
B. Countries all found themselves in an economic dilemma.
C. Withdrawal of foreign capital resulted in the crisis.
D. Most governments chose one of the two options.
20. The writer thinks that those Asian countries ________.
A. well deserved the punishment
B. invested in a senseless way at the time
C. were unduly punished in the crisis
D. had bad relationships between government and business
21. It can be inferred from the passage that IMF policy recommendations ________.
A. were far from a panacea in all cases
B. were feasible in their recipient countries
C. failed to work in their recipient countries
D. were rejected unanimously by Asian countries
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22. At the end of the passage, the writer seems to think that a full recovery of the Asian economy
is ________.
A. due
B. remote
C. imaginative
D. unpredictable
TEXT C
Human migration: the term is vague. What people usually think of is the permanent movement of
people from one home to another. More broadly, though, migration means all the ways from the
seasonal drift of agricultural workers within a country to the relocation of refugees from one
country to another.
Migration is big, dangerous, compelling. It is 60 million Europeans leaving home from the 16th to
the 20th centuries. It is some 15 million Hindus, Skihs, and Muslims swept up in a tumultuous
shuffle of citizens between India and Pakis tan after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
Migration is the dynamic undertow of population change: everyone's solution, everyone's conflict.
As the century turns, migration, with its inevitable economic and political turmoil, has been called
"one of the greatest challenges of the coming century."
But it is much more than that. It is, as has always been, the great adventure of human life.
Migration helped create humans, drove us to conquer the planet, shaped our societies, and
promises to reshape them again.
"You have a history book written in your genes," said Spencer Wells. The book he's trying to read
goes back to long before even the first word was written, and it is a story of migration.
Wells, a tall, blond geneticist at Stanford University, spent the summer of 1998 exploring remote
parts of Transcaucasia and Central Asia with three colleagues in a Land Rover, looking for drops
of blood. In the blood, donated by the people he met, he will search for the story that genetic
markers can tell of the long paths human life has taken across the Earth. Genetic studies are the
latest technique in a long effort of modern humans' to find out where they have come from. But
however the paths are traced, the basic story is simple: people have been moving since they were
people. If early humans hadn't moved and intermingled as much as they did, they probably would
have continued to evolve into different species. From beginnings in Africa, most researchers
agree, groups of hunter-gatherers spread out, driven to the ends of the Earth.
To demographer Kingsley Davis, two things made migration happen. First, hum an beings, with
their tools and language, could adapt to different conditions without having to wait for evolution
to make them suitable for a new niche. Second, as populations grew, cultures began to differ, and
inequalities developed between groups. The first factor gave us the keys to the door of any room
on the planet; the other gave us reasons to use them.
Over the centuries, as agriculture spread across the planet, people moved toward places where
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metal was found and worked and to centres of commerce that then became cities. Those places
were, in turn, invaded and overrun by people later generations called barbarians.
In between these storm surges were steadier but similarly profound fides in which people moved
out to colonize or were captured and brought in as slaves. F or a while the population of Athens,
that city of legendary enlightenment was as much as 35 percent slaves.
"What strikes me is how important migration is as a cause and effect in the great world events."
Mark Miller, co-author of The Age of Migration and a professor of political science at the
University of Delaware, told me recently.
It is difficult to think of any great events that did not involve migration. Religions spawned
pilgrims or settlers; wars drove refugees before them and ma de new land available for the
conquerors; political upheavals displaced thousand's or millions; economic innovations drew
workers and entrepreneurs like magnets; environmental disasters like famine or disease pushed
their bedraggled survivor's anywhere they could replant hope. "It's part of our nature, this
movement," Miller said, "It's just a fact of the human condition."
23. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. Migration exerts a great impact on population change.
B. Migration contributes to Mankind's progress.
C. Migration brings about desirable and undesirable effects.
D. Migration may not be accompanied by human conflicts.
24. According to Kingsley Davis, migration occurs as a result of the following reasons EXCEPF
________.
A. human adaptability
B. human evolution
C. cultural differences
D. inter-group inequalities
25. Which of the following groups is NOT mentioned as migrants in the pas sage?
A. Farmers.
B. Workers.
C. Settlers.
D. Colonizers.
26. There seems to be a (n) ________ relationship between great events and migration.
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A. loose
B. indefinite
C. causal
D. remote
TEXT D
How is communication actually achieved? It depends, of course, either on a common language or
on known conventions, or at least on the beginnings of these. If the common language and the
conventions exist, the contributor, for example, the creative artist, the performer, or the reporter,
tries to use them as well as he can. But often, especially with original artists and thinkers, the
problem is in one way that of creating a language, or creating a convention, or at least of
developing the language and conventions to the point where they are capable of bearing his
precise meaning. In literature, in music, in the visual arts, in the sciences, in social thinking, in
philosophy, this kind of development has occurred again and again. It often takes a long time to
get through, and for many people it will remain difficult. But we need never think that it is
impossible; creative energy is much more powerful than we sometimes suppose. While a man is
engaged in this struggle to say new things in new ways, he is usually more than ever concentrated
on the actual work, and not on its possible audience. Many artists and scientists share this
fundamental unconcern about the ways in which their work will be received. They may be glad if
it is understood and appreciated, hurt if it is not, but while the work is being done there can be no
argument. T he thing has to come out as the man himself sees it.
In this sense it is true that it is the duty of society to create condition's in which such men can live.
For whatever the value of any individual contribution, the general body of work is of immense
value to everyone. But of course things are not so formal, in reality. There is not society on the
one hand and these individuals on the other. In ordinary living, and in his work, the contributor
shares in the life of his society, which often affects him both in minor ways and in ways
sometimes so deep that he is not even aware of them. His ability to make his work public depends
on the actual communication system: the language its elf, or certain visual or musical or scientific
conventions, and the institution's through which the communication will be passed. The effect of
these on his actual work can be almost infinitely variable. For it is not only a communication
system outside him; it is also, however original he may be, a communication system which is in
fact part of himself. Many contributors make active use of this kind of internal communication
system. It is to themselves, in a way, that they first show their conceptions, play their music,
present their arguments. Not only as a way of getting these clear, in the process of almost endless
testing that active composition involves. But also, whether consciously or not, as a way of putting
the experience into a communicable form. If one mind has grasped it, then it may be open to other
minds.
In this deep sense, the society is in some ways already present in the act of composition. This is
always very difficult to understand, but often, when we have the advantage of looking back at a
period, we can see, even if we cannot explain, how this was so. We can see how much even
highly original individuals had in common, in their actual work, and in what is called their
"structure of feeling", with other individual workers of the time, and with the society of that time
to which they belonged. The historian is also continually struck by the fact that men of this kind
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felt isolated at the very time when in reality they were beginning to get through. This can also be
noticed in our own time, when some of the most deeply influential men feel isolated and even
rejected. The society and the communication are there, but it is difficult to recognize them,
difficult to be sure.
27. Creative artists and thinkers achieve communication by ________.
A. depending on shared conventions
B. fashioning their own conventions
C. adjusting their personal feelings
D. elaborating a common language
28. A common characteristic of artists and scientists involved in creative work is that ________.
A. they cave about the possible reaction to their work
B. public response is one of the primary conceits
C. they are keenly aware of public interest in their work
D. they are indifferent toward response to their work
29. According to the passage, which of the following statements is INCORR ECT?
A. Individual contributions combined possess great significance to the public.
B. Good contributors don't neglect the use of internal communication system.
C. Everyone except those original people comes under the influence of society.
D. Knowing how to communicate is universal among human beings.
30. It is implied at the end of the passage that highly original individuals feel isolated because
they ________.
A. fail to acknowledge and use an acceptable form of communication
B. actually differ from other individuals in the same period
C. have little in common with the society of the time
D. refuse to admit parallels between themselves and the society
SECTION B SKIMMING & SCANNING (10 min)
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as
required and then mark your answers on your COLOURED ANSWER SHEET.
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TEXT E
First read the question.
31. The purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. review some newly-published interior-design books
B. explore the potential market for interior-design books
C. persuade people to buy some good books
D. stress the importance of reading good books
Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.
Do your relationships keep failing? When you leave your home in the morning are you already
feeling stressed? Is there no time in your life for fun any more? Cancel your appointment with the
doctor. What you need is a good interior-design book. Publishers have created a new genre of
books for the home, titles that go beyond paint charts and superficial style and instead show you
how your home can be transformed and even heal your life.
Dawna Walter is one of the authors leading the way in Britain with her book Organized Living
that attempts to show how even a tidy sock drawer can improve the quality of your life. Walter is
the owner of the Holding Company, a shop on London's Kings Road which sells hundreds of
storage ideas for the home. It has been such a hit that Walter is planning to open four new outlets
in the near future. Born in America, Dawna Walter is a fast talker, a self-confessed perfectionist,
and a tidiness fundamentalist. "If it takes 10 minutes for you to find a matching pair of socks in
the morning, then you are not in control and your outlook just isn't any good. Being organized
saves you a couple of hours every week and gives you more time to do the things you enjoy," she
explains.
Her book contains dozens of ideas for streamlining your life. In the kitchen she recommends
filing magazine recipes immediately, and organizing them by types-of dishes or particular cooks,
and using ice-cube trays to freeze sauces in individual portions. Her ideas seem common sense
but nevertheless require you to be at least slightly obsessive. CDs are a case in point: "How often
do you wan't to find one particular CD and can't? Now, how much easier it would be if you placed
them in alphabetical order? That will only take an hour. Then divide out the ones you listen to
regularly into a separate section."
Another recent book in the British market was Sarah Shurety's Chinese-inspired Feng Shui For
Your Home. Within 14 days of publication every copy had been sold. Shurety's room-by-room
guide to creating a harmonious living space, based on the ancient Chinese tradition Feng Shui,
contains rules for how to create the best atmosphere and promote health, wealth and happiness.
Dinner party hosts are told to place quiet people at the head of the table and facing the door so
that they will feel more garrulous; those looking for romance learn to place pink flowers by their
beds; and house-buyers are warned to beware of properties built on sloping foundations if they
want stability in their lives.
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The book Creating Space, by Elizabeth Wilhide, claims that readers following its advice will not
just improve their homes but transform their lives. Wilhide believes that as we increasingly work
from home, we need to reassess the way our houses work (especially when there are children in
the household) if we want to avoid being overran by junk and that feeling of "being mentally
weighed down." Unfortunately, she admits, she finds it difficult to follow her own advice. She
sheepishly confesses to having "dumping zones" in her house, a handbag "that doesn't bear
looking into", and a car "that's a no-go zone" But she is undaunted by these small failures. In the
future, she says she is determined to tidy up her own life and follow the path to stress-free health,
wealth and happiness.
TEXT F
First read the question.
32. The writer of the passage mainly intends to ________.
A. criticize Germany's tax system
B. help companies ease their tax burden
C. examine the current corporate tax rates
D. propose ways to reform the tax system
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.
One major reason for Germany's high unemployment and the evident weakness of business
investment is the nature of the tax system, which tends to discourage both individual effort and
investment. Nominal corporate tax rates are, in fact, very high and it is these rates that potential
investors primarily look at. However, the actual burden borne by companies is not as great as it
might seem, be cause the tax base is fairly narrow. This combination in itself tend to encourage
tax avoidance at both the personal and corporate levels. Moreover, by international standards,
firms in Germany are still taxed quite heavily.
A reform of corporate taxation, therefore, should start by, reducing tax rates, cutting subsidies
and broadening the taxable base. The resulting positive impact on growth would be reinforced if
there were also a substantial easing of the net burden.
How do the current plans for a reform of corporate taxation measure up to these goals? The
overall tax burden on companies is to be brought down significantly, with the ceiling of 35%
being set. To this end, a dramatic reduction in the corporate tax on retained earnings is planned.
The related drop in revenues is to be offset by changes in the rules governing tax breaks.
An approach incorporating these basic features would be a welcome step. I f realized in its
presents form, it should ensure that the objective of making tax rates more attractive for
businesses is achieved. At the same time, however, it would be unfortunate if an excessive
broadening of the taxable base made it impossible to attain the equally important goal of
providing relief.
Comprehensive tax reform is needed in Germany to spur investment and to create new jobs,
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thus putting the economy on a higher growth path. The drop in revenues caused by the tax relief
granted to both companies and households would, in time, be at least partially offset by the larger
volume of tax receipts produced by economic growth. The gaps that remained should primarily be
closed through spending cuts. If measure of this sort proved inadequate, then, as a last resort, an
increase in indirect taxes could perhaps be considered.
TEXT G
First read the question.
33. The following passage emphasizes the role of ________ in health conservation.
A. advertising
B. research
C. governments
D. taxation
Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 33.
Most of the ill health we suffer could be prevented if people made more effort to change their life
styles. Instead many people continue to smoke, to drink excessively and to eat unbalanced diets.
How can governments help people conserve their health and avoid premature death?
Well, many of the measures which need to be taken are primarily a matter of new legislation and
need not be expensive. One of the first preventive health measures should be an increase in taxes
on tobacco to the point at which consumption falls off. The aim should be to raise the same
amount of revenue from a decreasing number of people. In the short term such a policy could
even raise extra money which should then be spent on subsidizing sport so that advertising
tobacco through sports sponsorship could be banned.
Legislation is badly needed to ban all advertising of tobacco products as it persuades people to
smoke more and so is in a large part responsible for the ill health and thousands of premature
deaths caused by cancer of the lung. Other measures should be enforced, such as a much tougher
health warning on cigarette packets, and tobacco companies should be made to contribute to
research into a cure for lung cancer.
Alcoholism could be prevented by making wines, spirits and strong beers more expensive and the
revenue raised could be used to set up clinics to help the people who already have a drink
problem and want to give up. Similarly all advertising of alcohol should be banned and
compensation paid to families of alcoholic's who die of cirrhosis of the liver.
A country's food and agricultural policy should also be based on a coherent health policy. For
political reasons it is considered important to have a relatively cheap supply of eggs, cheese and
milk, the very foods which are blamed as the cause of heart disease when eaten in excess. And
even if it is disputed that excess animal fat is detrimental to health, foods could be labelled with
the average percentage of different fats so that consumers who wanted to reduce their saturated fat
intake would be able to do so easily.
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Much more could be done to improve people's diet in Britain and everyone should be encouraged
to eat the types of food which are good for health. Current research on the nutritional value of
foods should be freely available and the government should control the advertising of "rubbish"
food. A programme of health education and lessons on sensible eating could be started in the
schools with the Government's backing.
TEXT H
First read the question.
34. The passage is primarily ________ in the development of the thesis.
A. persuasive
B. descriptive
C. narrative
D. expository
Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.
The question remains: must we conform? Or can we, somehow, resist the power's that conspire to
domesticate us? And if so, with what arms are we to redeem our almost-lost manhood? Where are
we to find the weapons of resistance?
I believe that the question of conformity, in the long run, answers itself. I think that if there was a
possibility, once, of a yes or no if at one time humans could decide "we must conform" or "we
must not" that possibility has been lost in the long reaches of evolution, far back along the
corridors of Ti me. The simple truth is that we cannot conform.
Built into man, is an instinct. I have chosen to call it the "instinct of rebellion", since it reveals
itself as a drive or urge toward mastery over every obstacle, natural or man-made, that stands as a
barrier between man and his distant, perhaps never-to-be-achieved but always striven after goals.
It is this instinct that underwrites his survival, this instinct from which he derives his nature: a
great and powerful dynamic that makes him what he is restless, seeking, curious, forever
unsatisfied, eternally straggling and eventually victorious. Because of the instinct of rebellion
man has never been content with the limits of his body; it has led him to extend his senses almost
infinitely, so that his fingers now probe space, his eyes magnify the nuclei of atoms, and his ears
detect whispers from the bottoms of seas. Because of the instinct of rebellion man has never been
content with the limits of his mind; it has led him to inquire the secrets of the universe, to gather
and learn and manipulate the fabulous inventory of the cosmos, to seek the very mysteries of
creation.
Man is a rebel. He is committed by his biology not to conform, and herein lies the paramount
reason for the awful tension he experiences today in relation to Society. Unlike other cream of
earth, man cannot submit, cannot surrender his birthright of protest, for rebellion is one of his
essential dimensions. He can not deny it and remain man. In order to live he must rebel. Only
total annihilation of humanity as a species can eliminate this in-built necessity. Only with the
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death of the last man will the revolt that is the essence of his nature also die.
TEXT I
First read the questions.
35. According to the census prediction, the average male Americans will be expected to live up to
________ years of age by 2050.
A. 73.3
B. 75.1
C. 81.3
D. 83.6
36. Crime experts predict that in the near future crime rates will first decrease in ________.
A. South and Southwest.
B. North and Northeast.
C. Southwest and Midwest.
D. Northeast and Midwest.
Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer questions 35 and 36.
If past is prologue, then it ought to be possible to draw some modest conclusions about the future
from the wealth of data about America's present. Will the rate continue to fall? Will single-person
households actually swamp the traditional family?
All projections, of course, must be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Nonetheless, the
urge to make sense of what lies ahead is inescapable. After the 1980 census, the Census Bureau
decided for the first time to venture some forecasts of its own for the decades to come. Working
from what America already knows about itself, the bureau's experts and other demographers offer
an irresistible, if clouded, crystal ball among their visions.
According to the census projections, female life expectancy will increase from 78.3 years in 1981
to 81.3 in the year 2005. The life expectancy of American men will grow from 70.7 for babies
born in 1981 to 73.3 years in 2005. And by the year 2050, women will have a life expectancy of
83.6 years and men of at least 75.1.
Annual population growth will slow to almost nothing by 2050. In fact, the Census Bureau
predicts that the rate of natural increase will be negative after 2035; only continuing immigration
will keep it growing after that. The total population will be 268 million in 2000 and 309 million
an all-time high in 2050. After that, it will start to decline.
The American population will grow steadily older. From 11.4 percent in 1981, the proportion of
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the population that is 65 and over will grow to 13.1percen't in 2000 and 21.7 percent in 2050. The
percentage of the population that lives beyond the age of 85 will mere than quintuple over the
same period. Meanwhile the median age 30.3 in 1981 will rise to 36.3 by 2000 and 41.6 50 years
later.
When it comes to the quality of life, more prognosticators are fairly cautious. John Hopkins
sociologist Andrew Cherlin observes that "as we enter the 198 0 s, the pace of change appears to
have slowed." For the next few decades, he predicts, there may be only modest swings in the
marriage, birth and divorce rates giving society time to adjust to the new patterns that have
formed in recent years. "We are in a plateau in our family patterns that will likely last awhile,"
Cherlin maintains. Crime expert Alfred Blumstein, who foresees a drop in crime over the coming
decade, predicts that the Northeast and Midwest, with stable but aging populations, will see the
falloff first; for the South and Southwest, with their large proportions of younger people, the
improvement will come less quickly.
TEXT J
First read the questions.
37. The formal diplomatic relations between China and the United States were established on
________.
A. February 28, 1972.
B. January 28, 1979.
C. December 16, 1978.
D. January 1, 1979.
38. The Five Principles for the establishment of a new type of Sino-US relationship were put
forward by Chinese President Jiang Zemin in ________.
A. Seattle.
B. Jakarta.
C. Manila.
D. New York.
Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer questions 37 and 38.
The following is a list of some of the major events in Sino-US relations from February 1972
to May 1998.
February 21 28, 1972: The US President Richard Nixon paid an official visit to China, during
which a Sino-US joint communiqué was issued in Shanghai.
May 1, 1973: The liaison offices set up by China and the US in each other's capital started
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functioning.
December 16, 1978: China and the US issued a joint communiqué which called for the
establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries on January 1, 1979.
January 1, 1979: China and the US formally established diplomatic ties.
January 28 February 5,1979: Then Chinese vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping paid an official visit
to the US, during which two agreements were signed on scientific, technological and cultural co-
operation between the two countries.
August 17, 1982: The Chinese and the US governments issued a joint communiqué under which
the US promised to gradually reduce its sales of weapons to Taiwan until the complete settlement
of the problem.
April 26 May 1, 1984: Then US President Ronald Reagan visited China, during which the two
countries signed four agreements on avoiding double-taxation and tax evasion and initiated an
agreement on co-operation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
July 23 31, 1985: Then Chinese President Li Xiannian visited the US, the first visit by a Chinese
head of state since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
February 25 6, 1989: Then US President George Bush paid a working visit to China. November
19, 1993: Chinese President Jiang Zemin held talks with US President Bill Clinton during the
informal Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) leadership meeting in Seattle.
November 14, 1994: Chinese President Jiang Zemin, on the sidelines of attending an informal
APEC leadership meeting in Bogor, met US President Bill Clinton in Jakarta and put forward the
Five Principles for the establishment of a new type of Sino-US relationship.
October 24, 1995: Chinese President Jiang Zemin met US President Bill Clinton in New York
while attending the special conference held for marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of
the United Nations.
November 24, 1996: Chinese President Jiang Zemin met US President Bill Clinton at an informal
APEC leadership meeting in Manila.
February 24, 1997: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited China.
October 26 November 3, 1997: Chinese President Jiang Zemin paid a state visit to the US, the
first by a Chinese president in 12 years. A joint communiqué, issued on October 29, called on the
two countries to strengthen co-operation and strive for the establishment of a constructive
strategic partnership oriented to the 21(th) century, in a bid to promote world peace and
development.
March 14, 1998: The US declared that the US-Chinese Agreement on Cooperation on the
Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy, which had been dormant for 13 years, could now come into
effect.
April 29 May 1, 1998: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited China. An agreement
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was signed between the two countries on the establishment of a direct secure telephone link.
TEXT K
First read the questions.
39. Whose works would you most probably choose to read if you were interested in satire?
A. Alexander Pope.
B. Oliver Goldsmith.
C. R. B. Sheridan.
D. W. M. Thackeray.
40. Which of the following writers was a Nobel-Prize winner?
A. Alexander Pope.
B. John Galsworthy.
C. Thomas Hardy.
D. W. M. Thackeray.
Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer questions 39 and 40.
JOHN GALSWORTHY (1867 1933) Although John Galsworthy wrote many good plays, it is as
a novelist and creator of the Forsyte family that he is best remembered. The whole progress and
background of the Forsyte family over a period of forty years is told with great skill and charm in
a series of novels. Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728 1774) Born and educated in Ireland, Oliver Gold smith travelled
widely in his earlier years and the knowledge and experience he accumulated were later put to
good use. He arrived in London where he made the acquaintance of Samuel Johnson, who helped
him sell a short novel, The Vicar of Wakerfield. His drama She Stoops to Conquer, produced in
1773, was a great success.
THOMAS HARDY (1840 1928) The wild heaths of mid-Dorset are Thomas Hardy country; he
was born here, the Wessex of his novels. Hardy's impressions of the countryside and of nature
were the staple of much of his writing. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Return of the Native and
Far from the Madding Crowd are his best-known books. Hardy is also remembered for his poetry
and drama.
ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744) Alexander Pope, poet and satirist, was born in the City of
London. He was largely self-educated and at an early age showed the satirical skill and metrical
ingenuity on which much of the fame rests. The Rape of the Lock, published in 1712, established
Pope's reputation. He occupies a high place among English poets.
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R. B. SHERIDAN (1751-1816) Richard Brinsley Sheridan, dramatist and politician, was born in
Ireland but educated in England. Although at first unsuccessful, when Sheridan came to London
he made his name as the writer of such comedies as The Rivals, The School for Scandal and The
Critic, which brilliantly exposed the intellectual and social pretensions of the time. These place
Sheridan in the forefront of the great English dramatists. He also shone as an orator in Parliament.
试 卷 二 ( 1 2 0 m i n )
PART IV Translation (60 min)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following underlined part of the text into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
羽的歌大家都熟悉。但他另外 大 好却 人知乔 两 爱 鲜为 , 那就是 和喝酒。钓鱼
年的 羽喜 垂晚 乔 爱 钓 , 他 ：说 " 有水有 的地方大都是有好 境的鱼 环 , 好 境便 人好心环 会给
情。我 最好的 所不是舒适的、 准 好 的垂认为 钓鱼场 给你 备 饿鱼 钓园 , 而是那 其有吸引力极
的大自然野外天成的 所。场 " 是一 能 陶冶性情的钓鱼 项 够 运动 , 有益于身心健康。 羽乔 说 ：
" 可分三 段：第一 段是吃 ；第二 段是吃 和情趣兼而有之；第三 段主要钓鱼 个阶 阶 鱼 阶 鱼 阶
是的趣 , 面 一池碧水对 , 心 全都抛在一将忧 烦恼 边 , 使自己的身心得到充分休息。 "
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood would have been
Thoreau's idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening one's perception of what is
enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low was time
and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of starvation, but he would
put into feeding himself only as much effort as would keep him functioning for more important
efforts.
Effort is the gist of it. There is no happiness except as we take on life-engaging difficulties. Short
of the impossible, as Yeats put it, the satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on how high we
choose our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in something like the same terms when he
spoke of "The pleasure of taking pains". The mortal flaw in the advertised version of happiness is
in the fact that it purports to be effortless.
We demand difficulty even in our games. We demand it because without diffic ulty there can be no
game. A game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an
arbitrary imposition of difficulty. When someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to
play by the roles. It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to change the wholly
arb itrary roles, but the fun is in winning within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.
PART V Writing (60 min)
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The Internet is about to take off in China. As many as 9 million people are online, a number that
is estimated to hit 20 million by the end of 2000. It is predicted that this phenomenal growth will
have great impact on our society and economy. Choose ONE aspect of our society or economy
where you think the impact will be most strongly felt, and write an essay of about 300 words
entitled.
THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET ON…
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part
you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring
what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow
the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2000)
-GRADE EIGHT-
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
Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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 list en to the talk.
1. The rules for the first private library in the US were drawn up by ________.
A. the legislature
B. the librarian
C. John Harvard.
D. the faculty members
2. The earliest public library was also called a subscription library because books ________.
A. could be lent to everyone
B. could be lent by book stores
C. were lent to students and the faculty
D. were lent on a membership basis
3. Which of the following is NOT stated as one of the purposes of free public libraries?
A. To provide readers with comfortable reading rooms.
B. To provide adults with opportunities of further education.
C. To serve the community's cultural and recreational needs.
D. To supply technical literature on specialized subjects.
4. The major difference between modem private and public libraries lies in ________.
A. readership
B. content
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C. service
D. function
5. The main purpose of the talk is ________.
A. to introduce categories of books in US libraries
B. to demonstrate the importance of US libraries
C. to explain the roles of different US libraries
D. to define the circulation system of US libraries
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 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. Nancy became a taxi driver because ________.
A. she owned a car
B. she drove well
C. she liked drivers' uniforms
D. it was her childhood dream
7. According to her, what was the most difficult about becoming a taxi driver?
A. The right sense of direction.
B. The sense of judgment.
C. The skill of maneuvering.
D. The size of vehicles.
8. What does Nancy like best about her job?
A. Seeing interesting buildings in the city.
B. Being able to enjoy the world of nature.
C. Driving in unsettled weather.
D. Taking long drives outside the city.
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9. It can be inferred from the interview that Nancy in a (n) ________ mother.
A. uncaring
B. strict
C. affectionate
D. permissive
10. The people Nancy meets are ________.
A. rather difficult to please
B. rude to women drivers
C. talkative and generous with tips
D. different in personality
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Question 11 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.
11. The primary purpose of the US anti-smoking legislation is ________.
A. to tighten control on tobacco advertising
B. to impose penalties on tobacco companies
C. to start a national anti-smoking campaign
D. to ensure the health of American children
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. The French President's visit to Japan aims at ________.
A. making more investments in Japan
B. stimulating Japanese businesses in France
C. helping boost the Japanese economy
D. launching a film festival in Japan
13. This is Jacques Chirac's ________ visit to Japan.
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A. second
B. fourteenth
C. fortieth
D. forty-first
Questions 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. Afghan people are suffering from starvation because ________.
A. melting snow begins to block the mountain paths
B. the Taliban have destroyed existing food stocks
C. the Taliban are hindering food deliveries
D. an emergency air-lift of food was cancelled
15. ________ people in Afghanistan are facing starvation.
A. 160,000
B. 16,000
C. 1,000,000
D. 100,000
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While
listening to the lecture, 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.
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.
The Press Conference
When people are asked to give a speech in public for the first time, they usually
feel terrified no matter how well they speak in informal situations. In fact,
public speaking is the same as any other form of that people are usually engaged
in. Public speaking is a way for a speaker to his thoughts with the audience.
Moreover, the speaker is free to decide on the of his speech.
Two key points to achieve success in public speaking:
— of the subject matter.
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—good preparation of the speech.
To facilitate their understanding, inform your audience beforehand of the of
your speech, and end it with a summary.
Other key points to bear in mind:
—be aware of your audience through eye contact.
—vary the speed of
—use the microphone skillfully to yourself in speech.
— be brief in speech; always try to make your message Example: the best
remembered inaugural speeches of the US presidents are the ones.
Therefore, brevity is essential to the of a speech.
PART II Proofreading and 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 proofread 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
provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
The grammatical words which play so large a part in English
grammar are for the most part sharply and obviously different
from the lexical words. A rough and ready difference which may
seem the most obvious is that grammatical words have" less
meaning", but in fact some grammarians have called them
"empty" words as opposed in the "full" words of vocabulary.
But this is a rather misled way of expressing the distinction.
Although a word like the is not the name of something as man is,
it is very far away from being meaningless; there is a sharp
difference in meaning between "man is vile and" "the man is
vile", yet the is the single vehicle of this difference in meaning.
Moreover, grammatical words differ considerably among
themselves as the amount of meaning they have, even in the
lexical sense. Another name for the grammatical words has been
"little words". But size is by no mean a good criterion for
distinguishing the grammatical words of English, when we
consider that we have lexical words as go, man, say, car. Apart
from this, however, there is a good deal of truth in what some
people say: we certainly do create a great number of obscurity
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when we omit them. This is illustrated not only in the poetry of
Robert Browning but in the prose of telegrams and newspaper
headlines.
PART III Reading 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 and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
Despite Denmark's manifest virtues, Danes never talk about how proud they a re to be Danes.
This would sound weird in Danish. When Danes talk to foreigners about Denmark, they always
begin by commenting on its tininess, its unimportance, the difficulty of its language, the general
small-mindedness and self-indulgence of their countrymen and the high taxes. No Dane would
look you in the eye and say, "Denmark is a great country." You're supposed to figure this out for
yourself.
It is the land of the silk safety net, where almost half the national budget goes toward smoothing
out life's inequalities, and there is plenty of money for schools, day care, retraining programmes,
job seminars-Danes love seminars: three days at a study centre hearing about waste management
is almost as good as a ski trip. It is a culture bombarded by English, in advertising, pop music, the
Internet, and despite all the English that Danish absorbs there is no Danish Academy to defend
against it old dialects persist in Jutland that can barely be understood by Copenhageners. It is the
land where, as the saying goes, "Few have too much and fewer have too little," and a foreigner is
struck by the sweet egalitarianism that prevails, where the lowliest clerk gives you a level gaze,
where Sir and Madame have disappeared from common usage, even Mr. and Mrs. It's a nation of
recyclers about 55% of Danish garbage gets made into something new and no nuclear power
plants. It's a nation of tireless planner. Trains run on time. Things operate well in general.
Such a nation of overachievers a brochure from the Ministry of Business and Industry says,
"Denmark is one of the world's cleanest and most organized countries, with virtually no pollution,
crime, or poverty. Denmark is the most corruption-free society in the Northern Hemisphere."So,
of course, one's heart lifts at any sighting of Danish sleaze: skinhead graffiti on buildings
("Foreigner's Out of Denmark!"), broken beer bottles in the gutters, drunken teenagers slumped in
the park.
Nonetheless, it is an orderly land. You drive through a Danish town, it comes to an end at a stone
wall, and on the other side is a field of barley, a nice clean line: town here, country there. It is not
a nation of jay-walkers. People stand on the curb and wait for the red light to change, even if it's 2
a. m. and there's not a car in sight. However, Danes don't think of themselves as a wainting-at-2-
a.m.-for-the-green-light people that's how they see Swedes and Germans. Danes see themselves
as jazzy people, improvisers, more free spirited than Swedes, but the truth is (though one should
not say it) that Danes are very much like Germans and Swedes. Orderliness is a main selling
point. Denmark has few natural resources, limited manufacturing capability; its future in Europe
will be as a broker, banker, and distributor of goods. You send your goods by container ship to
Copenhagen, and these bright, young, English-speaking, utterly honest, highly disciplined people
will get your goods around to Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and Russia. Airports, seaports,
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highways, and rail lines are ultramodern and well-maintained.
The orderliness of the society doesn't mean that Danish lives are less messy or lonely than yours
or mine, and no Dane would tell you so. You can hear plenty about bitter family feuds and the
sorrows of alcoholism and about perfectly sensible people who went off one day and killed
themselves. An orderly society can not exempt its members from the hazards of life.
But there is a sense of entitlement and security that Danes grow up with. Certain things are yours
by virtue of citizenship, and you shouldn't feel bad for taking what you're entitled to, you're as
good as anyone else. The rules of the welfare system are clear to everyone, the benefits you get if
you lose your job, the steps you take to get a new one; and the orderliness of the system makes it
possible for the country to weather high unemployment and social unrest without a sense of crisis.
16. The author thinks that Danes adopt a ________ attitude towards their country.
A. boastful
B. modest
C. deprecating
D. mysterious
17. Which of the following is NOT a Danish characteristic cited in the passage?
A. Fondness of foreign culture.
B. Equality in society.
C. Linguistic tolerance.
D. Persistent planning.
18. The author's reaction to the statement by the Ministry of Business and Industry is ________.
A. disapproving
B. approving
C. noncommittal
D. doubtful
19. According to the passage, Danish orderliness ________.
A. sets the people apart from Germans and Swedes
B. spares Danes social troubles besetting other people
C. is considered economically essential to the country
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D. prevents Danes from acknowledging existing troubles
20. At the end of the passage the author states all the following EXCEPT that ________.
A. Danes are clearly informed of their social benefits.
B. Danes take for granted what is given to them.
C. the open system helps to tide the country over
D. orderliness has alleviated unemployment
TEXT B
But if language habits do not represent classes, a social stratification in to something as bygone as
"aristocracy" and "commons", they do still of course serve to identify social groups. This is
something that seems fundamental in the use of language. As we see in relation to political and
national movements, language is used as a badge or a barrier depending on which way we look at
it. The new boy at school feels out of it at first because he does not know the fight words for
things, and awe-inspiring pundits of six or seven look down on him for no't being aware that
racksy means "dilapidated", or hairy "out first ball". The miner takes a certain pride in being "one
up on the visitor or novice who calls the cage a "lift" or who thinks that men working in a warm
seam are in their "underpants" when anyone ought to know that the garments are called hoggers.
The "insider" is seldom displeased that his language distinguishes him from the "outsider".
Quite apart from specialized terms of this kind in groups, trades and professions, there are all
kinds of standards of correctness at which mast of us feel more or less obliged to aim, because we
know that certain kinds of English invite irritation or downright condemnation. On the other hand,
we know that other kinds convey some kind of prestige and bear a welcome cachet.
In relation to the social aspects of language, it may well be suggested that English speakers fall
into three categories: the assured, the anxious and the in different. At one end of this scale, we
have the people who have "position" and "status", and who therefore do not feel they need worry
much about their use of English. Their education and occupation make them confident of
speaking an unimpeachable form of English: no fear of being criticized or corrected is likely to
cross their minds, and this gives their speech that characteristically unselfconscious and easy flow
which is often envied.
At the other end of the scale, we have an equally imperturbable band, speaking with a similar
degree of careless ease, because even if they are aware that their English is condemned by others,
they are supremely indifferent to the fact. The Mrs. Mops of this world have active and efficient
tongues in their heads, and if we happened not to like the/r ways of saying things, well, we "can
lump it". That is their attitude. Curiously enough, writers are inclined to represent the speech of
both these extreme parties with-in' for ing. On the one hand, "we're goin' huntin', my dear sir"; on
the other, "we're goin' racin', mate."
In between, according to this view, we have a far less fortunate group, the anxious. These actively
try to suppress what they believe to be bad English and assiduously cultivate what they hope to be
good English. They live their lives in some degree of nervousness over their grammar, their
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pronunciation, and their choice of words: sensitive, and fearful of betraying themselves. Keeping
up with the Joneses is measured not only in houses, furniture, refrigerators, cars, and clothes, but
also in speech.
And the misfortune of the "anxious" does not end with their inner anxiety. Their lot is also the
open or veiled contempt of the "assured" on one side of them and of the "indifferent" on the other.
It is all too easy to raise an unworthy laugh at the anxious. The people thus uncomfortably stilted
on linguistic high heels so often form part of what is, in many ways, the most admirable section of
any society: the ambitious, tense, inner-driven people, who are bent on"going places and doing
things". The greater the pity, then, if a disproportionate amount of their energy goes into what Mr.
Sharpless called "this shabby obsession" with variant forms of English especially if the net result
is (as so often) merely to sound affected and ridiculous. "Here", according to Bacon, "is the first
distemper of learning, when men study words and not matter…. It seems to me that Pygmalion's
frenzy is a good emblem…of this vanity: for words axe but the images of matter; and except they
have life of reason and invention, to fall in love with them is to fall in love with a picture."
21. The attitude held by the assured towards language is ________.
A. critical
B. anxious
C. self-conscious
D. nonchalant
22. The anxious are considered a less fortunate group because ________.
A. they feel they are socially looked down upon
B. they suffer from internal anxiety and external attack
C. they are inherently nervous and anxious people
D. they are unable to meet standards of correctness
23. The author thinks that the efforts made by the anxious to cultivate what they believe is good
English are ________.
A. worthwhile
B. meaningless
C. praiseworthy
D. irrational
TEXT C
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Fred Cooke of Salford turned 90 two days ago and the world has been beating a path to his door.
If you haven't noticed, the backstreet boy educated at Blackpool grammar styles himself more
grandly as Alastair Cooke, broadcaster extraordinaire. An honorable KBE, he would be Sir
Alastair if he had not taken American citizenship more than half a century ago.
If it sounds snobbish to draw attention to his humble origins, it should be reflected that the real
snob is Cooke himself, who has spent a lifetime disguising them. But the fact that he opted to
renounce his British passport in 1941 just when his country needed all the wartime help it could
get-is hardly a matter for congratulation.
Cooke has made a fortune out of his love affair with America, entrancing listeners with a weekly
monologue that has won Radio 4 many devoted adherents. Part of the pull is the developed drawl.
This is the man who gave the world "mida tlantic", the language of the disc jockey and public
relations man.
He sounds American to us and English to them, while in reality he has for decades belonged to
neither. Cooke's world is an America that exists largely in the imagination. He took ages to
acknowledge the disaster that was Vietnam and even longer to wake up to Watergate. His politics
have drifted to the right with age, and most of his opinions have been acquired on the golf course
with fellow celebrities.
He chased after stars on arrival in America, Fixing up an interview with Charlie Chaplin and
briefly becoming his friend. He told Cooke he could turn him into a fine light comedian; instead
he is an impressionist's dream.
Cooke liked the sound of his first wife's name almost as much as he admired her good looks. But
he found bringing up baby difficult and left her for the wife of his landlord.
Women listeners were unimpressed when, in 1996, he declared on air that the fact that 4% of
women in the American armed forces were raped showed remarkable self-restraint on the part of
Uncle Sam's soldiers. His arrogance in not allowing BBC editors to see his script in advance
worked, not for the first time, to his detriment. His defenders said he could not help living with
the 1930s values he had acquired and somewhat dubiously went on to cite "gallantry" as chief
among them. Cooke's raconteur style encouraged a whole generation of BBC men to think of
themselves as more important than the story. His treacly tones were the model for the regular
World Service reports From Our Own Correspondent, known as FOOCs in the business. They
may yet be his epitaph.
24. At the beginning of the passage the writer sounds critical of ________.
A. Cooke's obscure origins.
B. Cooke's broadcasting style.
C. Cooke's American citizenship.
D. Cooke's fondness of America.
25. The following adjectives can be suitably applied to Cooke EXCEPT ________.
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A. old-fashioned
B. sincere
C. arrogant
D. popular
26. The writer comments on Cooke's life and career in a slightly ________ tone.
A. ironic
B. detached
C. scathing
D. indifferent
TEXT D
Mr. Duffy raised his eyes from the paper and gazed out of his window on the cheerless evening
landscape. The river lay quiet beside the empty distillery and from time to time a light appeared in
some house on Lucan Road. What an end! The whole narrative of her death revolted him and it
revolted him to think that he had ever spoken to her of what he held sacred. The cautious words of
a reporter won over to conceal the details of a commonplace vulgar death attacked his stomach.
Not merely had she degraded herself, she had degraded him. His soul's comp anion! He thought
of the hobbling wretches whom he had seen carrying cans and bottles to be filled by the barman.
Just God, what an end! Evidently she had been unfit to live, without any strength of purpose, an
easy prey to habits, one of the wrecks on which civilization has been reared. But that she could
have sunk so low! Was it possible he had deceived himself so utterly about her? He remembered
her outburst of that night and interpreted it in a harsher sense than he had ever done. He had no
difficulty now in approving of the course he had taken.
As the light failed and his memory began to wander he thought her hand touched his. The shock
which had first attacked his stomach was now attacking his nerves. He put on his overcoat and hat
quickly and went out. The cold air met him on the threshold; it crept into the sleeves of his coat.
When he came to the public house at Chapel Bridge he went in and ordered a hot punch.
The proprietor served him obsequiously but did not venture to talk. There were five or six
working-men in the shop discussing the value of a gentleman's estate in County Kildare. They
drank at intervals from their huge pint tumblers, and smoked, spitting often on the floor and
sometimes dragging the sawdust over their heavy boots. Mr. Duffy sat on his stool and gazed at
them, without seeing or hearing them. After a while they went out and he called for another
punch. He sat a long time over it. The shop was very quiet. The proprietor sprawled on the
counter reading the newspaper and yawning. Now and again a tram was heard swishing along the
lonely road outside.
As he sat there, living over his life with her and evoking alternately the two images on which he
now conceived her, he realized that she was dead, that's he had ceased to exist, that she had
become a memory. He began to feel ill at ea se. He asked himself what else could he have done.
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He could not have lived with her openly. He had done what seemed to him best. How was he to
blame? Now that's he was gone he understood how lonely her life must have been, sitting night
after night alone in that room. His life would be lonely too until he, too, died, ceased to exist,
became a memory-if anyone remembered him.
27. Mr. Duffy's immediate reaction to the report of the woman's death was that of ________.
A. disgust
B. guilt
C. grief
D. compassion
28. It can be inferred from the passage that the reporter wrote about the woman's death in a
________ manner.
A. detailed
B. provocative
C. discreet
D. sensational
29. We can infer from the last paragraph that Mr. Duffy was in a (n) ________ mood.
A. angry
B. fretful
C. irritable
D. remorseful
30. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT t rue?
A. Mr. Duffy once confided in the woman.
B. Mr. Duffy felt an intense sense of shame.
C. The woman wanted to end the relationship.
D. They became estranged probably after a quarrel.
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 min)
In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan
them as required and then mark your answers on the Coloured Answer Sheet.
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TEXT E
First read the following question.
31. In the passage Bill Gates mainly discusses ________.
A. a person's opportunity of a lifetime
B. the success of the computer industry
C. the importance of education
D. high school education in the US
Now go through TEXT E quickly and answer question 31.
Hundreds of students send me e-mail each year asking for advice about education. They want to
know what to study, or whether it's OK to drop out of college since that's what I did.
My basic advice is simple and heartfelt."Get the best education you can. Take advantage of high
school and college. Learn how to learn."
It's true that I dropped out of college to start Microsoft, but I was at H a rvard for three years
before dropping out-and I'd love to have the time to go ba ck. As I've said before, nobody should
drop out of college unless they believe they face the opportunity of a lifetime. And even then they
should reconsider.
The computer industry has lots of people who didn't finish college, but I 'm not aware of any
success stories that began with somebody dropping out of high school. I actually don't know any
high school dropouts, let alone any successful ones.
In my company's early years we had a bright part-time programmer who threatened to drop out of
high school to work full-time. We told him no.
Quite a few of our people didn't finish college, but we discourage dropping out.
College isn't the only place where information exists. You can learn in a library. But somebody
handing you a book doesn't automatically foster learning. You want to learn with other people, ask
questions, try out ideas and have a way to test your ability. It usually takes more than just a book.
Education should be broad, although it's fine to have deep interests, too.
In high school there were periods when I was highly focused on writing soft ware, but for most of
my high school years I had wide-ranging academic interests. My parents encouraged this, and I'm
grateful that they did.
One parent wrote me that her 15-year old son "lost himself in the hole of' the computer."He got an
A in Web site design, but other grades were sinking, she said.
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This boy is making a mistake. High school and college offer you the best chance to learn broadly-
math, history, various sciences-and to do projects with other kids that teach you firsthand about
group dynamics. It's fine to take a deep interest in computers, dance, language or any other
discipline, but not if it jeopardizes breadth.
In college it's appropriate to think about specialization. Getting real expertise in an area of interest
can lead to success. Graduate school is one way to get specialized knowledge. Choosing a
specialty isn't something high school students should worry about. They should worry about
getting a strong academic start.
There's not a perfect correlation between attitudes in high school and success in later life, of
course. But it's a real mistake not to take the opportunity to learn a huge range of subjects, to learn
to work with people in high school, and to get the grades that will help you get into a good
college.
TEXT F
First read the following question.
32. The passage focuses on ________.
A. the history and future of London
B. London's manufacturing skills.
C. London's status as a financial centre.
D. the past and present roles of London
Now go through Text F quickly and answer question 32.
What is London for? To put the question another way, why was London, by 190 0, incomparably
the largest city in the world, which it remained until the bombardments of the Luftwaffe? There
could be many answers to this question, but any history of London will rehearse three broad
explanations. One is the importance of its life as a port. When the Thames turned to ice in
February 1855, 50,000 men were put out of work, and there were bread riots from those whose
livelihoods had been frozen with the river. Today, the Thames could be frozen for a year with out
endangering the livelihoods of any but a few pleasure-boatmen.
The second major cause of London's wealth and success was that it was easily the biggest
manufacturing centre in Europe. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Dutch looms and
the stocking knitting frame were first pioneered in London. The vast range of London's
manufacturing skills is another fact; almost any item you can name was manufactured in London
during the days of its prosperity. In 1851, 13.75 percent of the manufacturing work-force of Great
Britain was based in London. By 1961, this had dramatically reduced. By 1993, there were a mere
328,000 Londoners engaged in manufacturing. In other words, by our own time s, two of the chief
reasons for London's very existence-its life as a pert and as a centre of manufacture-had dwindled
out of existence.
London's third great function, since the seventeenth century, has been that of national and
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international bourse: the exchange of stocks and shares, banking, commerce and, increasingly,
insurance. Both In wood and Francis Sheppard, in London: A history, manage to make these
potentially dry matters vivid to the general reader, and both authors assure us that "The City" in
the financial sensei's still as important as ever it was. Both, however, record the diminution of the
City as an architectural and demographic entity, with the emptying of many city offices (since the
advent of the computer much of the work can be done anywhere) and the removal of many
distinctive landmarks.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
33. The primary purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. discuss the impact of the internet
B. forecast the future roles of the bookstore
C. compare the publisher with the editor
D. evaluate the limitations of the printed page
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question 33.
Since the advent of television people have been prophesying the death of the book. Now the rise
of the World Wide Web seems to have revived this smoldering controversy from the ashes. The
very existence of paper copy has been brought into question once more.
It might be the bookstore, rather than the book itself, that is on the brink of extinction. Many of
you will have noted tom of bookseller websites popping up. They provide lists of books and let
you read sample chapters, reviews from other customers and interviews with authors.
What does all this mean? Browsing a virtual bookstore may not afford you the same dusty
pleasure as browsing round a real shop, but as far as service, pr ice and convenience are
concerned there is really no competition. This may change before long, as publishers' websites
begin to offer direct access to new publications.
Perhaps it is actually the publisher who is endangered by the relentless advance of the Internet.
There are a remarkable number of sites republishing texts online an extensive virtual library of
materials that used to be handled primarily by publishing companies.
From the profusion of electronic-text sites available, it looks as if this virtual library is here to
stay unless a proposed revision to copyright law takes many publications out of the public
domain. However, can electronic texts still be considered books?
Then again, it might be the editor at risk, in danger of being cut out of the publishing process. The
Web not only makes it possible for just about anyone to publish whatever they like whenever they
like-there are virtually no costs involved. The editors would then be the millions of Internet users.
And there is little censor ship, either.
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So possibly it is the printed page, with its many limitations, that is perishing as the implications of
new technologies begin to be fully realized. Last year Stanford University published the
equivalent of a 6,000 page Business English dictionary, online. There seem to be quite obvious
benefits to housing these multi-volume reference sets on the Web. The perceived benefits for
other books, such as the novel, are perhaps less obvious.
TEXT H
First read the following question.
34. The reviewer's attitude towards the books is ________.
A. ambiguous
B. objective
C. doubtful
D. ho stile
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question 34.
The 1990s have witnessed a striking revival of the idea that liberal democratic political system are
the best basis for international peace. Western states men and scholars have witnessed worldwide
process of democratization, and tend to see it as a sounder basis for peace than anything we have
had in the past.
Central to the vision of a peaceful democratic world bas been the proposition that liberal
democracies do not fight each other; that they may and frequently do get into fights with illiberal
states, but not with other countries that a re basically similar in their political systems. The
proposition appeals to political leaders and scholars as well.
Yet it is doubtful whether the proposition is strong enough to bear the vast weight of
generalization that has been placed on it. Among the many difficulties it poses, two stand out: first
there are many possible exceptions to the rule that democracies do not fight each other; and
second, there is much uncertainty about why democracies have, for the most part, not fought each
other.
Liberal Peace, Liberal War: American politics and international security by John M. Owen is an
attempt to explain the twin phenomena of liberal peace (why democracies do not fight each other)
and liberal war (why they fight other states, sometimes with the intent of making them liberal).
Owen's analysis in the book strongly suggests that political leaders on all sides judged a given
foreign country largely on the basis of its political sys tem; and this heavily influenced decisions
on whether or not to wage war against it. However, be also shows that military factors, including
calculations of the cost of going to war, were often influential in tipping the balance against war.
In other words, democratic peace does not mean the end of power politics.
Owen hints at, but never addresses directly, a sinister aspect of democratic peace theory: its
assumption that there would be peace if only everybody else was like us. This can lead only too
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easily to attempts to impose the favoured system on benighted foreigners by force-regardless of
the circumstances and sensibilities that make the undertaking hazardous, Owen's central argument
is not strengthened by the occasional repetition nor by the remorselessly academic tone of the
more theoretical chapters. However, most of the writing is succinct; the historical accounts are
clear and to the point; and the investigation of the causal links between liberalism and war is
admirably thorough.
There are several grounds on which the book's thesis might be criticized. The most obvious is that
some twentieth-century experience goes against the argument that liberal states ally with others,
above all, because they perceive them as fellow liberals. In our own time, several liberal
democracies have maintained long and close relations with autocracies. However, Owen's
argument for a degree of solidarity between liberal states provides at least part of the explanation
for the continuation and even expansion of NATO in the post-Cold War era.
TEXT I
First read the following questions.
35. In ________, the table of contents of the magazine was placed on its back cover.
A. 1922
B. 1948
C. the 1930s
D. the 1960s
36. The magazine was criticized for failing to ________.
A. appeal to the young
B. attract old people
C. interest readers aged 47
D. captivate readers in their 50s
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer questions 35 and 36.
New York-Reader's Digest, the most widely read magazine in the world, will get a new look in a
bid to attract younger readers, Reader' Digest Association Inc. announced on March 29.
Beginning with the May issue, the world's largest-circulation magazine will move its table of
contents off the front cover to modernize its look and make it easier for readers to navigate, editor
in chief Chris top her Willcox said. "When you have the table of contents on the cover, it limits
what you can say about what's in the magazine," Willcox said. The magazine's familiar table of
contents will be replaced with a photograph. The small size and focus of the editorial content will
be unchanged, publisher Gregory Coleman said. "It will be a much more visual magazine, with
more photography and less illustration," he said in an interview.
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Reader's digest was first published in 1922, with line drawings on the covers, and in the 1930s
began listing the contents on the front. For a couple of years in the 1960s, Willcox said, the table
of contents was shifted to the back cover. The May issue will feature a cover photo of a woman
firefighter in San Francisco for an except from a new book, "Fighting Fire." The names of a few
articles are listed on the cover, but the full table of contents will be on pages 2 and 3. The issue
began reaching subscribers on April 10 and will be on newsstands two weeks later. All 48 of the
Digest's worldwide editions 27 million copies in 19 languages are making the change. Publisher
Gregory Coleman said he expected the redesign to boost advertising sales. "We've done a lot of
research, and have tested the concept in the US, Sweden, and New Zealand," Coleman said.
The move comes as Reader's Digest Association Inc. has struggled to boost profits. But industry
analysts said its problems stretch beyond changes that were needed at the magazine. Publishing
industry executives and Wall Street analyst's have criticized the magazine for failing to attract the
next generation of readers. The company says its average reader is about 47, the same as the age
for the weekly new magazines, "They've been looking for ways to make the magazine a little bit
more the '90s than the '50s," said Doug Arthur at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. "The
company has to be addressing the response rate on its direct marketing campaign," where its main
problems lie. The company earned USD 133.5 million on sales of USD 2.8 billion in the year
which ended last June. But it said, when it reported results, that profits would fall in the current
year.
In answer to a question, Coleman said the redesign was not done because of advertisers, although
they were enthusiastic about the changes. "This is being done from a reader-driven standpoint," he
said.
TEXT J
First read the following questions.
37. Words in both the OWF and Longman Activator are ________.
A. listed according to alphabetical order
B. listed according to use frequency
C. grouped according to similarities only
D. grouped according to differences only
38. To know the correct word for "boiling with a low heat", you will probably turn to first
________.
A. page 10
B. page 99
C. page 100
D. page 448
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Now go through TEXT J quickly and answer questions 37 and 38.
The Oxford Wordfinder (OWF) is a "production dictionary" designed for learner's of English at
Intermediate level and above, It is a useful tool with which to discover and encode (produce)
meaning, rather than just to simply check the meaning, grammar and pronunciation of words. The
OWF encourages a reversal of the traditional role of the language learners' dictionary, which is
normally to help decode and explain aspects of words that appear in a text.
The OWF is based upon similar lines to the ground breaking Longman Activator in that words in
each dictionary are not simply listed in alphabetical order. Instead, they are grouped according to
their similarities and differences in both meaning and use. Twenty-three main groups of 630
"keywords" (concepts) in alphabetical order, assist the learner in exploring semantic areas such
as: "People", "Food and drink", and "Language and Communication". Each of these rather large
areas contains cross-referencing in order to provide further helpful lexical in formation. Some of
the keywords helpfully direct the learner to another keyword. Most keywords, however, have an
index that shows how lexical items and their related terms are organized. Other keywords point to
smaller sub-section headings whilst a few contain sections labeled "More", which deal with less
frequently occurring vocabulary.
The majority of words in the OWF are grouped together because they are clearly related in
meaning. Examples include: rucksack, "suitcase", trunk and hold-all, on page 28, under the
keyword "Bag". Other words are grouped together because statistically they tend to "collocate",
i.e. appear in English very near, if not next to each other. The reader would, more often than not,
find them in the same sentence or phrase. Examples include those for "butter", "spread" and
"melt", and those for Television on page 448: "watching", "turn on/off" and "programme".
The OWF is an ideal supplementary resource for learners to engage in word-building activities
during topic based lessons. How is it best used? Let's say the learner wishes to know the correct
word for "boiling with a low heat". The intermediate learner, who will probably begin her search
under "Cook" on page 99, locates the sub-section: "heating food in order to cook it" on page 100,
then the further sub-section "cooking food in water" and finally finds the definition followed by
the word: to boil slowly and gently: simmer. With the help of the OWF teachers could design a
variety of such vocabulary exercises for a class, or even go on to designing a vocabulary-based
syllabus.
Definitions in the OWF are, as with all good dictionaries, concise but clear. They are obviously
written according to a controlled defining vocabulary. Linguistic varieties are also taken into
consideration: formal/in formal labels are provided and, where it occurs, American English
(AmE) is pointed out, e.g. for alcohol, liquor in AmE on page 10. The OWF also contains many
drawings that outline meaning where words could not possibly do so or would require too much
space. Items chosen for inclusion in the OWF, along with example phrases outlining meaning are,
it is assumed, based on evidence of frequency from a carefully constructed linguistic corpus,
although this is not made clear.
TEXT K
First read the following questions.
39. Students who wish to take courses in Dutch or French ________.
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A. should pass the TOEFL test first
B. must speak Dutch or French fluently
C. may receive language training
D. must have a good command of English
40. Belgian universities do NOT offer courses on ________.
A. medical sciences
B. computer science
C. political and social sciences
D. archaeology and art sciences
Now go through TEXT K quickly and answer questions 39 and 40.
To qualify to study in Belgium, it is essential to meet relevant requirements in academic
credentials, linguistic skills, academic objectives and financial resources. Let us review these
four points:
1. Academic credentials
Equivalence and admissibility of degrees will be assessed according to Belgian law and individual
university regulations. Please submit a copy of your degree with a translation to the chosen
university's admission board.
2. Language skills
Chinese students who wish to follow courses in Dutch or French must realize that a superficial
knowledge of the language will not do. The ability to speak Dutch or French is imperative in
order to follow lectures and to pass examinations. A preparatory year of language instruction is
available in some universities for already enrolled students. Please apply for information at the
university of your choice. Students who wish to attend lectures in English (post-academic training
international courses) must of course have a good command of that language. Universities will
inform you about their individual TOEFL requirements.
3. Programmes
Belgian universities offer basic academic courses, advance academic training courses, doctoral
programmes, post-academic training and various international study programmes (Master's) in the
field of technology, law, economics and applied economics, political and social sciences,
dentistry, pharmaceutical sciences, language and literature/history, archaeology and art sciences,
psychology and educational sciences, medical sciences, engineering and applied biological
sciences.
4. Financing
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Although precise determination of study and living expenses depends on individual life style, one
can assess that about 350,000 Belgian Francs (BEF) (about 88,000 RMB) is necessary for one
year's study. This amount should include books, housing, food, transport, and health insurance. It
does not include registration fees which can vary from about 25,000 BEF for a student under
scholarship to 290,000 BEF for a self-financing student, according to the chosen study program.
试 卷 二 ( 1 2 0 m i n )
PART IV Translation (60 min)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following underlined part of the text into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
中 科技 的 生 之不易。 著名科技 和其他博物 相比国 馆 诞 来 与国际 馆 馆 , 先天有些不足它 , 后
天也常缺乏营养, 但是 成 的步伐却是 而有力的。 在 上已被公 后起之秀它 长 坚实 它 国际 认为 。
世界上第一代博物 于自然博物馆属 馆 , 是通 化石、 本等向人 介 地球和各 生物它 过 标 们 绍 种
的演化 史。第二代 于工 技 博物历 属 业 术 馆 , 所展示的是工 文明 的各 段性 果它 业 带来 种阶 结 。
代博物 然起到了 播科 知 的作用这两 馆虽 传 学 识 , 但是 , 把 者 成了被 的旁 者它们 参观 当 动 观 。
世界上第三代博物 是充 全新理念的博物 。在 里馆 满 馆 这 , 可以自己去 手操作观众 动 , 自己
心体察。细 这样 , 他 可以更 近先 的科 技们 贴 进 学 术 , 去探索科 技 的 妙。学 术 奥
中 科技 正是 的博物国 馆 这样 馆! 汲取了 上一些著名博物 的它 国际 馆 长处, 制作了力设计 学、
光 、 、 、 、生物 等展品学 电学 热学 声学 学 , 展示了科 的原理和先 的科技成果。学 进
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SH EET
THREE.
If people mean anything at all by the expression "untimely death", they must believe that some
deaths nm on a better schedule than others. Death in old age is rarely called untimely a long life
is thought to be a full one. But with the passing of a young person, one assumes that the best years
lay ahead and the measure of that life was still to be taken.
History denies this, of course. Among prominent summer deaths, one recalls those of MariLarry
Monroe and James Deans, whose lives seemed equally brief and complete. Writers cannot bear
the fact that poet John Keats died at 26, and only half playfully judge their own lives as failures
when they pass that year. The id ea that the life cut short is unfulfilled is illogical because lives are
measured by the impressions they leave on the world and by their intensity and virtue.
PART V Writing (60 min)
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Some people simply see education as going to schools or colleges, or as a means to secure good
jobs; most people view education as a lifelong process. In your opinion, how important is
education to modem man?
Write a composition of about 300 words on the following topic:
EDUCATION AS A LIFELONG PROCESS
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part
you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring
what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to
follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1999)
-GRADE EIGHT-
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 response to each question on your Coloured Answer
Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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 list en to the talk.
1. The technology to make machines quieter ________.
A. 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 devices ________.
A. 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 EXCEPT
________.
A. streets
B. factories
C. aircraft
D. cars
4. According to the talk, workers in "zones of quiet" can ________.
A. be more affected by noise
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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 about ________.
A. noise-control technology
B. noise in factories
C. noise-control regulations
D. noise-related effects
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 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 to ________.
A. 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 that ________.
A. 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.
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9. We can be assumed from the interview that an informal atmosphere might be found in
________.
A. small firms
B. major banks
C. big corporations
D. law offices
10. The interview is mainly about ________ in the USA.
A. office hierarchies
B. office conditions
C. office roles
D. office life
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Question 11 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.
11. Senator Bob Dole's attitude towards Clinton's anti-crime policy is that of ________.
A. 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 now ________.
A. 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
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13. The news item seems to indicate that the agreement ________.
A. 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
Questions 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 about ________.
A. oxygen
B. ancient weather
C. carbon dioxide
D. temperature
15. Which of the following statements 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-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While
listening to the lecture, 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.
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.
At 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
throughout the world.
The second reason is that companies and industries money, as they get
reductions in the tax they owe if they sponsor sports or arts activities.
As sponsorship is , careful thinking is required in deciding which events to
sponsor.
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It is important that the event to be sponsored the product (s) to be promoted.
That is, the right and maximum product coverage must be guaranteed in the
event.
Points to be considered in sports sponsorship:
Popularity of the event
International sports events are big events, which get extensive coverage on TV
and in the press.
Smaller events attract fewer people.
Identification of the potential audience
Aiming at the right audience is most important for smaller events.
The right audience would attract manufacturers of other related products like ,
etc.
Advantages of sponsorship
Advantages are longer-term.
People are expected to respond to the products promoted. And be more likely to
buy them.
Advertising is the mind.
Sponsorship is better than straight advertising: a) less
b) tax-free
PART II Proofreading and 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 proofread 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
provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
The hunter-gatherer tribes that today live as our prehistoric
human ancestors consume primarily a vegetable diet supplementing
with animal foods. An analysis of 58 societies of modem hunter-
gatherers, including the Kung of southern Africa, revealed that one
half emphasize gathering plant foods, one-third concentrate on fishing
and only one-sixth are primarily hunters. Overall, two-thirds
and more of the hunter-gatherer's calories come from plants. Detailed
studies of the Kung by the food scientists at the University of
London, showed that gathering is a more productive source of food
than is hunting. An hour of hunting yields in average about 100
edible calories, as an hour of gathering produces 240.
Plant foods provide for 60 percent to 80 percent of the Kung
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diet, and no one goes hungry when the hunt fails. Interestingly, if
they escape fatal infections or accidents, these contemporary
aborigines live to old ages despite of the absence of medical care.
They experience no obesity, no middle-aged spread, little dental
decay, no high blood pressure, on heart disease, and their blood
cholesterol levels are very low (about half of the average American
adult), if no one is suggesting what we return to an aboriginal life
style, we certainly could use their eating habits as a model for
healthier diet.
PART III Reading 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 mark your answers on your Coloured Answer
Sheet.
TEXT A
Ricci's "Operation Columbus"
Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plan's 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.
Ricci is so confident that he has christened his 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 art magazine 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 issue carrying 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.
To realize this vision, 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 60% 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."
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.
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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 reader... 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 won 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 to
________.
A. 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 because ________.
A. 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 probably ________.
A. carry many academic articles of high standard
B. follow the style of some famous existing magazines
C. be mad by one third of American magazine readers
D. pursue a distinctive editorial style of its own
TEXT B
My mother's relations were very different from the Mitfords. Her brother, Uncle Geoff, who often
came to stay at Swimbrook, was a small spare man with thoughtful blue eyes and a rather silent
manner. Compared to Uncle Tommy, 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.
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The Black 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.
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:
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's oil to nourish Englishmen's bodies and spirits.
The law requiring pasteurization of milk in England was a particular 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 by ________.
A. 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 as ________.
A. facetious
B. serious
C. nostalgic
D. factual
TEXT C
Interview
So what have they taught you at college about interviews? Some courses go to town on it, others
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do very little. You may get conflicting advice. Only one thing is certain: the key to success is
preparation.
There follow some useful suggestions from a teacher training course coordinator, a head of
department and a headteacher. As they appear to be in complete harmony with one another despite
never having met, we may take their advice seriously.
Oxford Brookes University's approach to the business of application and interview focuses on
research and rehearsal. Training course coordinator Brenda St evens 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.
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 St evens. "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 tree, says Ms Stevens, you must still make your own case.
"Beware of infernality," 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.
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.
Find out about the people 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.
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.
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.
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 over coming 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.
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
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circumnavigating it, and never, ever let them see that you think they have said something foolish.
You will almost certainly be asked how you see the future and it is import ant to have a good
answer prepared. Some people are put off by being asked what they expect to be doing in five or
ten years' 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.
The headteacher offers his thoughts in a nine-point plan.
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.
Ensure that your application is tailored to the particular school. Make the head feel you are
writing directly to him or her.
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.
Listen. There is a danger of not hearing accurately what is being said. Make eye contact with
the speakers, and with everyone in the room.
Allow your warmth and humanity to be seen. A sense of humour is very important.
Have a portfolio of your work that can link theory to practice. Many schools want you to
show work. For a primary appointment, give examples from the range of the curriculum, not just
art. (For this reason, taking pictures on your teaching practice is important.)
Prepare yourself in case you are asked to give a talk. Have prompt cards ready, and don't
waffle.
Your speech must be clear and articulate, with correct grammar. This is important: they want
to hear you and they want to 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.
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 should ________.
A. go through each other's CVs
B. rehearse their answers to questions
C. understand thoroughly the situations
D. go to town to attend training course
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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 interviewees to reject you.
23. The best way to deal with odd questions from the interviewers is to ________.
A. 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 headteacher are ________.
A. original
B. ambiguous
C. practical
D. controversial
TEXT D
Family Matters
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.
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 So n" law.
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 proves insufficient. Singapore needs this bill not to replace
morality, but to provide incentives to shore it up.
Like many other developed nations, Singapore faces the problems of an increasing proportion of
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people over 60 years of age. Demography is inexorable. In 19 80, 7.2% of the population was in
this bracket. By the end of the century that figure will grow to 11%. By 2030, the proportion is
projected to be 26%. The problem is not old age per se. It is that the ratio of economically active
people to economically inactive people will decline.
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 fall through the
holes in any safety net.
Traditionally, a person's insurance against poverty in his old age was his family, lifts 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It would be nice to think Singapore doesn't need this kind of law. But that belief ignores the clear
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demographic trends and the effect of affluence itself on traditional bends. 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 firs't place.
25. The Maintenance of Parents Bill ________.
A. 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 the old
26. By quoting the growing percentage points of the aged in the population, the author seems to
imply that ________.
A. 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 values ________.
A. 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 be ________.
A. indirect
B. unnoticed
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C. apparent
D. straightforward
30. At the end of the passage, the author seems to imply that success of the Bill depends upon
________.
A. strict enforcement
B. public support
C. government assurance
D. filial awareness
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 min)
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as
required and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT E
First read the question.
31. The primary purpose of the letter is to ________.
A. illustrate the World Bank's efforts in poverty-relief programmes
B. call for further efforts by nations in sustainable development
C. provide evidence for the World Bank's aid to the private sectors
D. clear up some misunderstanding about the World Bank
Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.
August 18th 199__
Dear Sir,
In your July 28th article you noted that the Bank's own internal analysis rated one third of the
projects completed in 1991 as unsatisfactory. But that statement fails to take account of the Bank's
criteria for 'success', which are exceptionally strict. For instance, before a project can be
considered successful, it must have at least a 10% rate of return. This rate is far higher than the
minimum demanded by many bilateral aid donors, many of which require a return of only 5% or
6%. Thus, projects rated unsatisfactory under the Bank's standards still yield many benefits.
You imply that, because it deals mainly with governments, the Bank does not sufficiently support
private sector development. Here are the facts. The World Bank has:
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supported reforms in mere than 80 countries aimed at opening up trade, making prices realistic
and dismantling state monopolies which stifle individual enterprise invested in infrastructure to
facilitate business activity;
assisted and advised over 200 privatization-related operations involving nearly US $ 25 billion in
loans;
provided mere than US $ 12 billion through an affiliate, the International Finance Corp. over the
last 30 years to mere than 1,000 private companies in the dev eloping world; and through another
affiliate, the Multi lateral Investment Guarantee Agency, offered insurance against non-
commercial risk to encourage foreign investment in poor countries.
The record shows that, over the past generation, more progress has been made in reducing poverty
and raising living standards than during any other comparable period in history.
In the developing countries:
life expectancy has been increased from 40 to 63 years;
infant mortality has been reduced by 50%;
and per capita income has doubled.
The World Bank consistently stresses that most of the credit for these advances should go to the
countries themselves. Nevertheless, the Bank and organizations with which it collaborates –
bilateral and international agencies and non-governmental organizations have played a valuable
role in this progress. In the future the Bank will continue to do its utmost to support its member
countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable development.
www.Topsage.com LEANDRO V. CORONEL
www.Topsage.com Public Affairs www.Topsage.com The
Worm Bank www.Topsage.com Washington
TEXT F
First read the question.
32. The author's main argument is that ________.
A. most farmers in developing countries face unemployment
B. developing countries need agricultural aid to boost economy
C. agricultural aid hints the economy in developing countries
D. a well-developed agricultural sector provides a domestic market
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.
Ours is an agrarian economy. We must become serf-sufficient in food to feed a rapidly growing
population at an annual growth rate of more than 3 million people. A well-developed agricultural
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sector would offset the need for food import and play an important role in the development
process by providing a home market for the products of the industrial sector. This implies that the
rate of industrialization itself depends upon how fast agricultural incomes are rising. Development
in the agricultural sector in our country means a rise in the income level of 70 percent of the
population who are related to this sector. Their increased income in turn will give us mere
voluntary savings and investment and thus a source of revenue through taxation and potential
capital formation by the government plus reduction in income inequalities between the urban
population and rural masses. In this sense, aid received in the form of agricultural commodities
hurts the developing countries and benefits developed countries mere than proportionately,
because most of the farmers in developing countries are already at a mere subsistence level with a
high rate of unemployment, disguised-unemployment and underemployment.
The Chinese experience with rural development has demonstrated that agricultural modernization
via labour-intensive techniques is a highly promising way to create extra jobs without extensive
geographic displacement of the farmers. Regarding the impact of transfer of agricultural
commodities on the long-term growth rate in the recipient country, it can be said that transfer of
agricultural commodities under confessional terms may result in an ultimate lowering of the
recipient countries long-term growth rate.
TEXT G
First read the question.
33. The passage is most probably from ________.
A. a review of a book on cowboys
B. a study of cowboy work culture
C. a novel about cowboy life and culture
D. a school textbook on the cowboy history
Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 33.
A cowboy is defined by the work that he does. Any man can lay claim to that name if he lives on a
ranch and works drives, brands, castrates, or murmurs a cattleman's herd. In addition, working
accounts for ways in which cowboy's portray themselves in their art: in 19th-century poems that
they orally composed and sang on the ranch, in 20th-century poems that they write, in books that
they publish, and in art objects that they fashion, cowboys always represent themselves as
engaging in some form of labour. This book's three fold purpose is, first, to look at art that
cowboys produce art, that has never been studied before and, second, to demonstrate that
cowboy art values historically document labour routines that cowboys have traditionally acted out
in their work culture.
I use the term work culture not only to suggest that cowboys are defined by the work that they do,
but also to argue that they are serf-represented in culture by poems, prose, and art that ail reveal
cowboys to be men who are culturally unified by engaging in labour routines that they think of as
cowboy work. Art deals with cowboy work, as well as with concerns about economics, gender,
religion, and literature, even though these thoughts sometimes express themselves as concerns
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about cattle branding, livestock castration, and other tasks. The book's third and most important
function is, therefore, to show that artistic self-re presentations of labour also formulate systems
of thought which cowboys use as a metaphor for discussing economies, gender, religion, and
literature, sometimes equating branding with religious salvation, at other times defining spur
making as freedom, and so on.
TEXT H
First read the question.
34. The writer of this letter attempts to ________ the views in the editorial.
A. refute
B. illustrate
C. support
D. substantiate
Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.
October 3rd 199__
Dear Sir,
In your editorial on August 31st, there seems to be some confused thinking in attempting to
establish a direct relationship between the desire of the OAA airlines to negotiate more equitable
agreements with the United States for air-traffic rights and the cost of air travel for the public.
It is simply untrue that the Asian carriers are not looking for increased access to the U.S. market,
including its domestic market; they are, as part of balanced agreements that provide equality of
opportunity. So long as the U.S. takes the inequitable arrangements enshrined in current
agreements as a starting point for negotiation, however, there is no chance that U.S. carriers will
be granted more regional rights which further unbalance the economic opportunities available to
each side. Most importantly from the consumer viewpoint, it has yet to be demonstrated that in
those regional sectors where U.S. carriers currently operate-such as Hong Kong/Tokyo-they have
added anything in terms of price, quality of service, innovation or seat availability in peak
seasons.
Turning to cost, I am not sure to which Merrill Larrych study you are referring, but it would be
simplistic to compare seat-mile costs of narrow-body operation over U.S. domestic sectors with
wide-body operation over international sectors; comparative studies of seat-mile costs are valid
only if they compare similar aircraft operating over identical sectors. On this basis, International
Civil Aviation Organization figures show that Asian carriers are highly competitive. O f course,
given its operating environment Japan Air Lines will have high seat-mi le costs, while a carrier
based in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore Airlines, will have relatively low costs. But it is a
fallacy to assume this means 'higher ticket prices or higher taxes' for the 'hapless Asian air
traveller 'if he travels on JAL.
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The Japanese carriers have to compete in the Asian marketplace with others, and costs cannot
simply be passed on to the consumer or taxpayer. The people who really pay the price or reap the
reward of differing cost levels are the share holders.
www.topsage.com (RICHARD. T. STIRLAND
www.topsage.com Director General
www.topsage.com Orient Airlines Association
TEXT I
First read the questions.
35. Today's computers can process data ________ times faster than the 1952 model, ILLIAC.
A. 4
B. 100
C. 200
D. 4, 000
36. NCSA aims to develop ________.
A. a new Internet browser
B. a more powerful national system
C. human-computer intelligence interaction
D. a new global network
Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer questions 35 and 36.
URBANA, Illinois. Welcome to Cyber City, USA, where scientists are developing the next-
generation Internet and leading ground-breaking research in artificial intelligence.
The University of Illinois at Urbana, which has a student body of 36,100, has a proud computing
tradition. In 1952, it became the first educational institution to build and own its own computer.
That computer, ILLIAC, was four metres tall, four metres long and sixty centimetres deep. Its
processing speed was about 50 kilohertz compared with 200 megahertz-that's 200,000 kilohertz
for today's computers.
At the state-of-the-art Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, researchers from
disciplines as far-ranging as psychology, computer science and biochemistry are focusing on
biological intelligence and human-computer intelligence interaction.
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Beckman also houses the National Centre for Supercomputing Application (NCS A), which
played a key role in the development of the Internet global network. I t was NCSA that developed
Mosaic, the graphically driven programme that first ma de surfing on the Internet possible.
Mosaic, introduced in 1992, has been replaced by much more powerful Internet browsers such as
its successor Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
NCSA officials say they are now trying to bring more advanced computing and communication to
research scientists, engineers and ultimately the public.
"What we're looking for is a national system in which the networks are 10 0 times greater than the
Internet today, and the supercomputers are 100 times more powerful," said NCSA Director Larry
Smart.
A proposed joint project would develop a prototype or demonstration model for the "21st century
national information infrastructure" in line with an initiative announced by President Bill Clinton
last October.
If funded by the National Science Foundation, the new structure would take effect on October 1st.
NCSA, one of the four operational federal supercomputer centres in the country, is awaiting a
decision from the Foundation's board late this month on a competition for US $ 16 million in
continued annual federal funding.
NCSA, which employs 200 people and has a yearly budget of US $ 31 million, is expected to be
one of two winners along with its counterpart in San Diego.
"The University has put a great deal of effort into this competition. We remain hopeful about the
outcome, but we will have no comment until the National Science Foundation Board's decision,"
Smart said.
TEXT J
First read the questions.
37. In Japanese the work depato refers to ________.
A. traditional Japanese stores
B. modern stores in cities
C. special clothing stores
D. railway stores
38. During the Meiji era depato was regarded by Japanese customers as a (n) ________ shopping
place.
A. cheap
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B. traditional
C. fashionable
D. attractive
Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer questions 37 and 38.
The Japanese have two words for the modern department stores that abound in large urban areas.
The older word, hyakkaten, which is seldom used in daily speech, can usually be found engraved
in ideographs in a building cornerstone, and it is part of a store's official rifle. Literally "a store
with one hundred items," this word was coined during the late Meiji era (1868-1912), when
clothing stores began to expand their product lines and railroads began to build shops at major
train crossings. The more recent and more commonly used word is depato (from the English
'department store').
These words reflect the dual nature of Japanese department stores. Words written in ideographs
can impart an aura of antiquity and tradition. Frequently, a's in the case of the word hyakkaten,
they suggest indigenous origin. In contrast, foreign borrowed words often give a feeling of
modernity and foreignness. Many Japanese department stores actually originated in Japan several
hundred years a go as dry goods stores that later patterned themselves after foreign department
stores. Even the trendiest and most avant-garde of these stores practise pattern's of merchandising
and retain forms of prepaid credit, customer service, and special relationships with suppliers
characteristic of merchandising during the Tok ygawa era (1600 1868). To many Japanese these
large urban stores may seem like a direct import from the West, but like the word depato, they
have undergone a transformation in the process of becoming Japanese.
Throughout the Tokygawa era, Japan was closed by decree to foreign influences. During the Meiji
era, however, Japan reopened to the western world; concurrently, depato emerged as large-scale
merchandisers in Japan. The Meiji depato were soon perceived by Japanese customers as
glamorous places to shop because of their Western imports, which the Japanese were eager to see
and buy. Depato also sold Japanese goods but often followed practices that people of the time
considered foreign, such as letting customers wear their shoes while shopping in the store.
A representative of the Japan Department Store Association told me that throughout their history
depato have played on the Japanese interest in foreign pl aces, cultures and objects, and that to a
great extent these were introduced to Japan through department stores. I suggest that in addition
to this role of cultural importer depato have also been involved in the creation of domestic
cultural meanings. They have made foreign customs, ideas and merchandise familiar by giving
them meanings consistent with Japanese cultural practice.
TEXT K
First read the questions.
39. The Agency for International Development is a ________ organization.
A. new
B. regional
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C. UN
D. US
40. According to NDS's statistics, the number of babies the average Philipino woman bears
dropped by ________ between 1960 and 1993.
A. 4.1
B. 6.4
C. 2.3
D. 2.9
Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer questions 39 and 40.
When representatives from 170 nations gather in Cairo next month for the third International
Conference on Population and Development, they will vote on the largest population-control plan
in history. It is ambitious. Not only does it call for a host of "reproductive fights" and aim to
freeze world population at 72 billion people by 2050; it also calls for billions of dollars in new
government spending on the issue-US $ 13.2 billion by the end of the century.
Some of the plan's provisions have already aroused opposition, most notably from Pope John Paul
II. All this has been gleefully covered by the newspapers. Yet scant attention has been paid to
many of the dubious social and economic assumptions that underlie the plan. In particular, it is
interesting to see how the se programmes are being sold in places like the Philippines, on the front
lines of the population debate. For the way the proponents of population control have gone about
pushing their programmes raises serious doubts about the integrity of their studies, their ultimate
value to development, and the role of foreign-aid groups.
Although population-control measures in the Philippines never reached the coercive levels they
did in India, they were not popular. This time, proponents have learned their lesson. For the past
few years, they have been quietly laying the groundwork for Cairo. Rather than attack the issue
head-on, it has been redefined in terms of a host of new "reproductive rights" to which the
solution is invariably a government-funded initiative.
We have just had a good taste of this in the Philippines. The National Statistics Office recently
published the results of the 1993 National Demographic Survey (NDS), which happens to have
been funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It is probably mere coincidence,
but the NDS report, published on the eve of the Cairo meeting, nicely supports the thrust of the
Cairo Declaration. That is, it has found a connection between mothers' and children's health and
fertility behaviour. The implication is that large-scale government family-planning programmes
are essential if health issues are to be addressed.
But the demographic survey seems to have been selective about what facts it would report and
connections it would make. Take the health issue. The document concludes that the high risk of
infant, child and maternal mortality is associated with pregnancies where mothers are too young,
too old, or have already had several children. But a discussion of poverty is missing from the list
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of factor's related to health. It would be difficult to deny that poverty, lack of access to safe water,
poor housing, poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions all have a strong bearing on the health of
the mother and child. Although the NDS collected data on housing characteristics, it did not
include any data on income.
A closer look at the fertility behaviour of the poor is important because of the extensive literature
on the "replacement effect" of high infant mortality. Statistical studies in various countries show
high fertility among the poor as a rational desire to have children who will survive into adulthood
to help take care of them. This helps to explain why many poor women have babies at such short
intervals. The 1993 NDS would have been a good opportunity to verify the validity of this
behaviour in the Philippines.
The NDS avoided collecting data on socio-economic variables that would have a serious effect on
these health issues. But, in one area, it made painstaking efforts to quantify fertility preference to
derive figures for planned and unplanned pregnancies. It concluded that "if all unwanted births
were avoided, the total fertility rate would be 2.9 children, which is almost 30% less than the
observed rate." This, too, was used to establish an "unmet" need requiring a government
programme.
Yet the NDS's own numbers suggest that Filipinos are aware of their option s. The total fertility
rote the number of babies the average woman bears over her lifetime has dropped to 4.1 in 1993
from 6.4 in 1960. Some 61% used contraceptives, just a few percentage points short of the 65-
80% rate prevailing in Europe, North America and most of East Asia. The delay of marriage by
Filipinos to the age of 23 years represents a reduction of the risk of pregnancy by 19% given the
35 years of their reproductive life.
In short, the Philippines has its problems but its people are not as ignorant as the population-
control lobby would suppose. Unfortunately, this lobby has development dollars, organizational
muscle and support of the media. "We've built a consensus about population as a global issue and
family planning as a health issue," says the UN's Naris Sadik, host of the conference. Yes, they
have. And now we know how.
试 卷 二 ( 1 2 0 m i n )
PART IV Translation (60 min)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following underlined part of the text into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
加拿大的 哥温 华 1986 年 度 百 生日刚刚 过 岁 , 但城市的 展令世界 目。以港立市发 瞩 , 以港
市兴 , 是 多港口城市生存 展的道路。 百年 建许 发 经过 开发 设, 有着天然不 良港的 哥冻 温 华,
成 世 名的港口城市为举 闻 , 同 洲、大洋洲、 洲、拉丁美洲均有定期班亚 欧 轮, 年 物货 吞
吐量 到达 8, 000 万吨, 全市就 人口中有三分之一 事 易 行 。业 从 贸 与运输 业
哥温 华 (Vancouver) 的 煌是 哥 人智慧和勤 的 晶辉 温 华 奋 结 , 其中包括多民族的 。加拿贡献
大地广人稀 , 土面 比中 大国 积 国还 , 人口却不足
3000
万。吸收外 移民来 , 是加拿大 期长
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专八真题 1999 年
奉行的 策。可以国 说 , 加拿大除了印第安人外 , 无一不是外 移民来 , 不同的只是 短时间长
而已。 哥 更是世界上屈指可 的多民族城市。 今温 华则 数 现
180
万 哥 居民中温 华 , 有一半不
是在本地出生的 , 每
4
居民中就有一 是 洲人。而个 个 亚
25
万 人 哥 的 型起着华 对温 华 经济转
定性的作用。他 其中有一半是近决 们
5
年才 到 哥 地 的来 温 华 区 , 使 哥 成 洲以外最温 华 为亚
大的中 人聚居地。国
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SH EET
THREE.
In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the
family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of
religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized
society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.
In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the following category, namely,
having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the
wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption
that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the
failure to bear children (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.
Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of the family itself.
To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family they need children to
enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of offspring.
Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution
uniquely available, at least in principle, for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a
changing, often hostile, world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more
than one person for sustenance and in generational extension.
PART V Writing (60 min)
Some people claim that competition is more important than co-operation in the present-day
society. How far do you agree OR disagree with these people? You are to write a composition of
about 300 words on the following topic:
COMPETITION OR CO-OPERATION
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part
you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring
what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to
follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1998)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN)
Directions: In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and then
answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct response for each question on your Colored
Answer Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Question 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. According to the talk, compulsive gambling and alcoholic addiction share similarities
because ________.
A. no actual figure of addicts has been reported
B. no scientific studies have yielded effective solutions
C. both affect all sectors of society
D. both cause serious mental health problems
2. The development of the gambling compulsion can be described as being ________.
A. gradual
B. slow
C. periodic
D. radical
3. G.A. mentioned in the talk is believed to be a(n) ________
A. anonymous group
B. charity organization
C. gamblers' club
D. treatment centre
4. At the end of the talk, the speaker's attitude towards the cure of gambling addiction is
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________.
A. unclear
B. uncertain
C. optimistic
D. pessimistic
5. Throughout the talk, the speaker examines the issue of gambling in a ________ way.
A. balanced
B. biased
C. detached
D. lengthy
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Question 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 question.
Now listen to the interview.
6. What strikes the woman most about the male robber is his ________.
A. clothes
B. age
C. physique
D. appearance
7. The most detailed information about the woman robber is her ________.
A. manners
B. talkativeness
C. height
D. jewelry
8. The interviewee is believed to be a bank ________.
A. receptionist
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B. manager
C. customer
D. cashier
9. Which of the following about the two robbers is NOT true?
A. Both were wearing dark sweaters.
B. Neither was wearing glasses.
C. Both were about the same age.
D. One of them was marked by a scar.
10. After the incident the interviewee sounded ________.
A. calm and quiet
B. nervous and numb
C. timid and confused
D. shocked and angry
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 and 12 are based on the following news. At the end of the news items, you will be
given 30 seconds to answer the questions.
11. According to the news, the enormous food shortage in Iraq has the most damaging effect on
its ________.
A. national economy
B. adult population
C. young children
D. national currency
12. The WFP is appealing to donor nations to ________.
A. double last year's food-aid
B. raise '122 million for Iraqi people
C. provide each Iraqi family with '26 a month
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D. help Iraq's 12 million population
Question 13 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15
seconds to answer the question.
13. As a result of the agreement, the two countries' arsenals are to be ________.
A. upgraded in reliability and safety
B. reduced in size and number
C. dismantled partly later this year
D. maintained in their present conditions
Questions 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.
14. We can infer from the news that ________ of teenagers under survey in 1993 were drug
users.
A. 28%.
B. 22%.
C. 25%.
D. 21%.
15. The following statements are correct EXCEPT ________.
A. Parents are asked to join in the anti-drug efforts.
B. The use of both cocaine and LSD are on the increase.
C. Teenagers hold a different view of drugs today.
D. Marijuana is as powerful as it used to be.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING & GAP-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. While
listening to the lecture, 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.
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.
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The Rise of RP
Historical reasons
Received Pronunciation (RP) was originally associated with a spoken in the
region between central England and London, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Its survival was due to its use by the in the 14th century and by university
students in the Ages.
Its rise in importance resulted from its application in government and official
documents.
The prestige of its pattern of pronunciation came about with its use in schools
in the 19th century.
As a result, its is accepted by Television and the radio, the professions and
teaching English as a foreign language.
Three characteristics of RP
1) its speakers don't regard themselves as connected with any geographical
region;
2) RP is largely used in England;
3) RP is a 'class' accent, associated with social classes.
Its present status
Decline in the prestige of RP is the result of a) loss of monopoly of education by
the privileged; b) of higher education in the post-war period.
However, it still retains its eminence among certain professional people.
There is a rise in the status of all accents.
We are moving towards the position: general acceptance of all regional accents
and absence of a class accent that transcends all regions.
PART II PROOFREADING AND 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 proofread 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
provided 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 a unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the
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blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit,∧
it buys things in finished form and hangs
them on the wall. When a natural history
museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
(1)
(2)
(3)
When a human infant is born into any community in any part of the
world it has two things in common with any infant, provided neither of them
have been damaged in any way either before or during birth. Firstly, and
most obviously, new born children are completely helpless. Apart from a
powerful capacity to pay attention to their helplessness by using sound,
there is nothing the new born child can do to ensure his own survival.
Without care from some other human being or beings, be it mother,
grandmother, or human group, a child is very unlikely to survive. This
helplessness of human infants is in marked contrast with the capacity of
many new born animals to get on their feet within minutes of birth and run
with the herd within a few hours. Although young animals are certainly in
risk, sometimes for weeks or even months after birth, compared with the
human infant they very quickly grow the capacity to fend for them.
It is during this very long period in which the human infant is totally
dependent on the others that it reveals the second feature which it shares
with all other undamaged human infants, a capacity to learn language. For
this reason, biologists now suggest that language be "species specific" to the
human race, that is to say, they consider the human infant to be genetic
programmed in such way that it can acquire language.
This suggestion implies that just as human beings are designed to see
three-dimensionally and in colour, and just as they are designed to stand
upright rather than to move on all fours, so they are designed to learn and
use language as part of their normal developments as well-formed human
beings.
PART III READING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN)
SECTION A: READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
Directions: In this section there are four reading passages followed by fifteen multiple-choice
questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
STAYING HEALTHY ON HOLIDAY
Do people who choose to go on exotic, far-flung holidays deserve free health advice before they
travel? And even if they pay, who ensures that they get good, up-to-date information? Who, for
that matter, should collect that information in the first place? For a variety of reasons, travel
medicine in Britain is a responsibility nobody wants. As a result, many travelers go abroad ill
prepared to avoid serious disease.
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Why is travel medicine so unloved? Partly there's an identity problem. Because it takes an interest
in anything that impinges on the health of travelers, this emerging medical specialism invariably
cuts across the traditional disciplines. It delves into everything from seasickness, jet lag and the
hazards of camels to malaria and plague. But travel medicine has a more serious obstacle to
overcome. Travel clinics are meant to tell people how to avoid ending up dead or in a tropical
diseases hospital when they come home. But it is notoriously difficult to get anybody to pay out
money for keeping people healthy.
Travel medicine has also been colonized by commercial interests -- the vast majority of travel
clinics in Britain are run by airlines or travel companies. And while travel concerns are happy to
sell profitable injections, they may be less keen to spread bad news about travelers' diarrhea in
Turkey, or to take the time to spell out preventive measures travelers could take. "The NHS finds
it difficult to define travelers' health," says Ron Behrens, the only NHS consultant in travel and
tropical medicine and director of the travel clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London.
"Should it come within the NHS or should it be paid for? It's a gray area, and opinion is split. No
one seems to have any responsibility for defining its role," he says. To compound its low status in
the medical hierarchy, travel medicine has to rely on statistics that are patchy at best. In most
cases we just don't know how many Britons contract diseases when abroad. And even if a disease
is linked to travel there is rarely any information about where those afflicted went, what they ate,
how they behaved, or which vaccinations they had. This shortage of hard facts and figures makes
it difficult to give detailed advice to people, information that might even save their lives.
A recent leader in the British Medical Journal argued: "Travel medicine will emerge as a credible
discipline only if the risks encountered by travelers and the relative benefits of public health
interventions are well defined in terms of their relative occurrence, distribution and control."
Exactly how much money is wasted by poor travel advice? The real figure is anybody's guess, but
it could easily run into millions. Behrens gives one example. Britain spends more than ￡ 1
million each year just on cholera vaccines that often don't work and so give people a false sense
of security: "Information on the prevention and treatment of all forms of diarrhea would be a
better priority," he says.
36. Travel medicine in Britain is ________.
A. not something anyone wants to run
B. the responsibility of the government
C. administered by private doctors
D. handled adequately by travel agents
37. The main interest of travel companies dealing with travel medicine is to ________.
A. prevent people from falling ill
B. make money out of it
C. give advice on specific countries
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D. get the government to pay for it
38. In Behren's opinion the question of who should run travel medicine ________.
A. is for the government to decide
B. should be left to specialist hospitals
C. can be left to travel companies
D. has no clear and simple answer
39. People will only think better of travel medicine if ________.
A. it is given more resources by the government
B. more accurate information on its value is available
C. the government takes over responsibility from the NHS
D. travelers pay more attention to the advice they get
TEXT B
THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
While the roots of social psychology lie in the intellectual soil of the whole western tradition, its
present flowering is recognized to be characteristically an American phenomenon. One reason for
the striking upsurge of social psychology in the United States lies in the pragmatic tradition of
this country. National emergencies and conditions of social disruption provide special incentive to
invent new techniques, and to strike out boldly for solutions to practical social problems. Social
psychology began to flourish soon after the First World War. This event, followed by the great
depression of the 1930s, by the rise of Hitler, the genocide of Jews, race riots, the Second World
War and the atomic threat, stimulated all branches of social science. A special challenge fell to
social psychology. The question was asked: How is it possible to preserve the values of freedom
and individual rights under condition of mounting social strain and regimentation? Can science
help provide an answer? This challenging question led to a burst of creative effort that added
much to our understanding of the phenomena of leadership, public opinion, rumor, propaganda,
prejudice, attitude change, morale, communication, decision-making, race relations, and conflicts
of war.
Reviewing the decade that followed World War II, Cartwright [1961] speaks of the "excitement
and optimism" of American social psychologists, and notes "the tremendous increase in the total
number of people calling themselves social psychologists." Most of these, we may add, show
little awareness of the history of their field.
Practical and humanitarian motives have always played an important part in the development of
social psychology, not only in America but in other lands as well. Yet there have been discordant
and dissenting voices. In the opinion of Herbert Spencer in England, of Ludwig Gumplowicz in
Austria, and of William Graham Sumner in the United States, it is both futile and dangerous for
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man to attempt to steer or to speed social change. Social evolution, they argue, requires time and
obeys laws beyond the control of man. The only practical service of social science is to warn man
not to interfere with the course of nature [or society]. But these authors are in a minority. Most
social psychologists share with Comte an optimistic view of man's chances to better his way of
life. Has he not already improved his health via biological sciences? Why should he not better his
social relationships via social sciences? For the past century this optimistic outlook has persisted
in the face of slender accomplishment to date. Human relations seem stubbornly set. Wars have
not been abolished, labor troubles have not abated, and racial tensions are still with us. Give us
time and give us money for research, the optimists say.
40. Social psychology developed in the USA ________.
A. because its roots are intellectually western
B. as a direct response to the great depression
C. to meet the threat of Adolf Hitler and his policy of mass genocide
D. for its pragmatic traditions for dealing with social problems
41. According to the author, social psychology should help man to ________.
A. preserve individual rights
B. become healthier
C. be aware of history
D. improve material welfare
42. Who believed that man can influence social change for the good of society?
A. Cartwright.
B. Spencer.
C. Sumner.
D. Comte.
TEXT C
GOD AND MY FATHER
I thought of God as a strangely emotional being. He was powerful; He was forgiving yet
obdurate, full of warmth and affection. Both His wrath and affection were fitful, they came and
they went, and I couldn't count on either to continue: although they both always did. In short God
was much such a being as my father himself.
What was the relation between them, I wondered -- these two puzzling deities?
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My father's ideas of religion seemed straightforward and simple. He had noticed when he was a
boy that there were buildings called churches; he had accepted them as a natural part of the
surroundings in which he had been born. He would never have invented such things himself.
Nevertheless they were here. As he grew up he regarded them as unquestioningly as he did banks.
They were substantial old structures, they were respectable, decent, and venerable. They were
frequented by the right sort of people. Well, that was enough.
On the other hand he never allowed churches -- or banks -- to dictate to him. He gave each the
respect that was due to it from his point of view; but he also expected from each of them the
respect he felt due to him.
As to creeds, he knew nothing about them, and cared nothing either; yet he seemed to know
which sect he belonged with. It had to be a sect with the minimum of nonsense about it; no total
immersion, no exhorters, no holy confession. He would have been a Unitarian, naturally, if he'd
lived in Boston. Since he was a respectable New Yorker, he belonged in the Episcopal Church.
As to living a spiritual life, he never tackled that problem. Some men who accept spiritual beliefs
try to live up to them daily; other men who reject such beliefs, try sometimes to smash them. My
father would have disagreed with both kinds entirely. He took a more distant attitude. It disgusted
him where atheists attacked religion: he thought they were vulgar. But he also objected to having
religion make demands upon him -- he felt that religion was too vulgar, when it tried to stir up
men's feelings. It had its own proper field of activity, and it was all right there, of course; but there
was one place religion should leave alone, and that was a man's soul. He especially loathed any
talk of walking hand in hand with his Savior. And if he had ever found the Holy Ghost trying to
soften his heart, he would have regarded its behavior as distinctly uncalled for; even
ungentlemanly.
43. The writer says his father's idea of religion seemed straightforward and simple because his
father ________.
A. born in natural surroundings with banks and churches
B. never really thought of God as a real existence
C. regarded religion as acceptable if it did not interfere
D. regarded religion as a way he could live a spiritual life
44. The writer's father would probably agree with the statement that ________.
A. both spiritualists and atheists are vulgar
B. being aware of different creeds is important
C. religion should expect heart and soul devotion
D. churches like banks are not to be trusted
TEXT D
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ETIQUETTE
In sixteenth-century Italy and eighteenth-century France, waning prosperity and increasing social
unrest led the ruling families to try to preserve their superiority by withdrawing from the lower
and middle classes behind barriers of etiquette. In a prosperous community, on the other hand,
polite society soon absorbs the newly rich, and in England there has never been any shortage of
books on etiquette for teaching them the manners appropriate to their new way of life.
Every code of etiquette has contained three elements; basic moral duties; practical rules which
promote efficiency; and artificial, optional graces such as formal compliments to, say, women on
their beauty or superiors on their generosity and importance.
In the first category are considerations for the weak and respect for age. Among the ancient
Egyptians the young always stood in the presence of older people. Among the Mponguwe of
Tanzania, the young men bow as they pass the huts of the elders. In England, until about a century
ago, young children did not sit in their parents' presence without asking permission.
Practical rules are helpful in such ordinary occurrences of social life as making proper
introductions at parties or other functions so that people can be brought to know each other.
Before the invention of the fork, etiquette directed that the fingers should be kept as clean as
possible; before the handkerchief came into common use, etiquette suggested that after spitting, a
person should rub the spit inconspicuously underfoot.
Extremely refined behavior, however, cultivated as an art of gracious living, has been
characteristic only of societies with wealth and leisure, which admitted women as the social
equals of men. After the fall of Rome, the first European society to regulate behavior in private
life in accordance with a complicated code of etiquette was twelfth-century Provence, in France.
Provence had become wealthy. The lords had returned to their castle from the crusades, and there
the ideals of chivalry grew up, which emphasized the virtue and gentleness of women and
demanded that a knight should profess a pure and dedicated love to a lady who would be his
inspiration, and to whom he would dedicate his valiant deeds, though he would never come
physically close to her. This was the introduction of the concept of romantic love, which was to
influence literature for many hundreds of years and which still lives on in a debased form in
simple popular songs and cheap novels today.
In Renaissance Italy too, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a wealthy and leisured society
developed an extremely complex code of manners, but the rules of behavior of fashionable
society had little influence on the daily life of the lower classes. Indeed many of the rules, such as
how to enter a banquet room, or how to use a sword or handkerchief for ceremonial purposes,
were irrelevant to the way of life of the average working man, who spent most of his life outdoors
or in his own poor hut and most probably did not have a handkerchief, certainly not a sword, to
his name.
Yet the essential basis of all good manners does not vary. Consideration for the old and weak and
the avoidance of harming or giving unnecessary offence to others is a feature of all societies
everywhere and at all levels from the highest to the lowest.
45. One characteristic of the rich classes of a declining society is their tendency to ________.
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A. take in the recently wealthy
B. retreat within themselves
C. produce publications on manners
D. change the laws of etiquette
46. Which of the following is NOT an element of the code of etiquette?
A. Respect for age.
B. Formal compliments.
C. Proper introductions at social functions.
D. Eating with a fork rather than fingers.
47. According to the writer which of the following is part of chivalry?
A knight should ________.
A. inspire his lady to perform valiant deeds
B. perform deeds which would inspire romantic songs
C. express his love for his lady from a distance
D. regard his lady as strong and independent
48. Etiquette as an art of gracious living is quoted as a feature of which country?
A. Egypt.
B. 18th century France.
C. Renaissance Italy.
D. England.
TEXT E
CONFLICT AND COMPETITION
The question of whether war is inevitable is one which has concerned many of the world's great
writers. Before considering the question, it will be useful to introduce some related concepts.
Conflict, defined as opposition among social entities directed against one another, is distinguished
from competition, defined as opposition among social entities independently striving for
something which is in inadequate supply. Competitors may not be aware of one another, while the
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parties to a conflict are. Conflict and competition are both categories of opposition, which has
been defined as a process by which social entities function in the disservice of one another.
Opposition is thus contrasted with cooperation, the process by which social entities function in the
service of one another. These definitions are necessary because it is important to emphasize that
competition between individuals or groups is inevitable in a world of limited resources, but
conflict is not. Conflict, nevertheless, is very likely to occur, and is probably an essential and
desirable element of human societies.
Many authors have argued for the inevitability of war from the premise that in the struggle for
existence among animal species, only the fittest survive. In general, however, this struggle in
nature is competition, not conflict. Social animals, such as monkeys and cattle, fight to win or
maintain leadership of the group. The struggle for existence occurs not in fights, but in the
competition for limited feeding areas and for the occupancy of areas free from meat-eating
animals. Those who fail in this competition starve to death or become victims to other species.
The struggle for existence does not resemble human war, but rather the competition of individuals
for jobs, markets, and materials. The essence of the struggle is the competition for the necessities
of life that are insufficient to satisfy all.
Among nations there is competition in developing resources, trades, skills, and a satisfactory way
of life. The successful nations grow and prosper; the unsuccessful decline. While it is true that this
competition may induce efforts to expand territory at the expense of others, and thus lead to
conflict, it cannot be said that war-like conflict among other nations is inevitable, although
competition is.
49. According to the author which of the following is inevitable?
A. War.
B. Conflict.
C. Competition.
D. Co-operation.
50. In the animal kingdom the struggle for existence ________.
A. is ce of the inevitability of conflict among the fittest
B. arises from a need to live in groups
C. is evidence of the need to compete for scarce resources
D. arises from a natural desire to fight
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
In this section there are seven passage followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan
them as required and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet. (This part will be limited to
a period of time. The text won't be visible before or after that period. The period will last 10
minutes.)
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TEXT F ANGRY RESIDENTS
First read the questions.
51. The writer believes the problems of chaos and noise will most probably only be solved by
________.
A. the students themselves
B. the students' parents
C. the college authorities
D. the newspaper
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer the question.
12. Gradge Crescent ________.
Rudwick ________.
Sir,
On two occasions since Rudwick College opened you have given front page reports on the chaotic
conditions prevailing there
But whilst chaos and upheaval reigns in the college, what of the chaos and noise that local
residents are subjected to? Cars are parked on the pavement, and, still worse, on the pavements at
street corners. The noise from motor cycles is such that at times conversation is impossible. To
add to this, our streets are littered with paper, Coca Cola tins and empty milk bottles. Huge
transistor radios are carried by students at all times of the day, blasting out music so loudly that
babies wake and old people are unable to take their afternoon naps. All in all, we have found
students' behavior to be quite intolerable.
We appeal to students [whom we support financially via our local authority rates] to have some
consideration for other people. And if the young people themselves won't listen to what we say,
and we suspect they won't, then perhaps their parents should knock some sense into their heads.
Yours faithfully,
John Smith ________.
51. The writer believes the problems of chaos and noise will most probably only be solved by
________.
A. the students themselves
B. the students' parents
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C. the college authorities
D. the newspaper
TEXT G RACE
First read the question.
52. In the passage the writer's tone is ________.
A. critical
B. apathetic
C. sympathetic
D. neutral
Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer the question.
About one-fifth of the high school students here are boycotting classes to protest the reinstatement
of a principal who threatened to ban interracial couples from the prom.
The boycott began on Monday as classes resumed after spring break for the 680 students at
Randolph County High School.
It was also the first day back for the principal, Hulond Humphries, a white man who was
reinstated by a 4-to-2 vote of the school board after being suspended on March 14. Mr.
Humphries, 55, who has been principal for 25 years, declined to comment on the boycott.
The boycott was organized by the school board's only black member, Charlotte Clark-Freison.
Parents who attended a meeting on Monday night decided to keep their children out of school
today, said Ms. Clark-Freison.
A group of parents traveled today to Montgomery, about 90 miles to the southwest, to meet with
state education officials and ask about setting up an alternative school during the boycott, Ms.
Clark-Freison said.
School Superintendent Dale McKay said he did not know how many students were absent from
class either on Monday or today.
Tawanna Mize, a white senior, said school attendance sheets showed 157 absent students, 115 of
them black. Ms. Clark-Freison said about 200 black students boycotted today. She did not know
how many white students stayed away.
Many black students gathered on Monday and today at two churches to discuss multicultural
issues and non-violent protests. Many of the boycotting students wore black-and-white ribbons.
The boycotters included ReVonda Bowen, who filed a civil rights lawsuit against Mr. Humphries
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for saying at a school assembly on Feb. 24 that she was "a mistake" because her father is white
and her mother is black. At the same assembly, Mr. Humphries announced that mixed-race
couples would not be allowed at the prom and that the dance would be cancelled if they showed
up.
The next day, Mr. Humphries withdrew the threat to close the prom if mixed-race couples showed
up, and he said his comments had been misunderstood.
52. In the passage the writer's tone is ________.
A. critical
B. apathetic
C. sympathetic
D. neutral
TEXT H USA/IRAN
First read the questions.
53. The writer advises that the problems between Iran and the USA might be best dealt with in
the UN by getting the support of ________.
A. America's NATO allies in the West.
B. Islamic Third World countries.
C. Russia.
D. Britain.
Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer the question.
Sir,
The present quarrel between the US and Iran seems to be drifting dangerously near to a
confrontation between the West and the Third World. It is understandable that the US should seek
support from her allies within NATO but the result of this could be seen as an attempt by a group
of powerful industrial countries to bully the people of a Third World country which, in recent
years, had no cause to be grateful for the policies of the US.
Surely the appropriate forum in which to search out a settlement to this extremely dangerous
quarrel is the UN and the West should do its utmost, within that forum, to gather the greatest
possible support from Third World, and particularly Islamic countries.
I am well aware that the matter has been considered by the Security Council and the General
Assembly and that the International Court of Justice has also pronounced in favor of the American
case. I myself in no way support the behavior of the Iranians on this issue, which I believe to be
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dangerous and provocative. Nevertheless, it is my view that it would be wise for the Western
powers to continue to use the quiet diplomacy of the UN and also, if this should prove practicable,
the good offices of Islamic countries who have no desire to be caught up in a middle Eastern
conflict arising from the present tension between Iran and the US.
In addition to exploiting still further the use of the machinery of the UN, I also consider that
European leaders ought to suggest that it would be helpful if a summit meeting could take place
between the American and Russian leaders to exchange views about the whole situation in the
Middle East.
Such an exchange of views would be unlikely to produce instant solutions, but it might help the
Russian and American governments to read each other's minds and seek methods of backing away
from the perilous trial of strength in that part of the world.
Yours sincerely ________.
Frank Hooley, MP
House of Commons, London SW1
53. The writer advises that the problems between Iran and the USA might be best dealt with in
the UN by getting the support of ________.
A. America's NATO allies in the West.
B. Islamic Third World countries.
C. Russia.
D. Britain.
TEXT I GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!
First read the question.
54. The purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. describe the mining of gold
B. describe man's pursuit of gold
C. determine the importance of gold
D. discuss the role of gold
Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer the question.
Gold has enthralled man since the dawn of civilization. For centuries he braved arctic cold, tropic
heat and inhuman privations to wrest gold from the earth. He used it for religious objects,
sculpture, jewellery and as a symbol of wealth. Paradoxically, he often buried it -- for use in the
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afterlife, as the pharaohs did, or for safekeeping against the uncertainties of this life.
Gold's luster and rarity, which implied its owner possessed great power, gave it a musical quality
from the start. Gold was considered divine in ancient Greece and was used to adorn temples and
as an offering to the gods. Despite their reverence, the ancients were quick to recognize gold's
practical qualities, particularly its malleability, which made it ideal for jewellery. Even Cleopatra
used gold ornaments to enhance her charm.
However, it has been as a symbol of wealth -- of nations as well as individuals -- that gold has
played its most dramatic role. The quest for gold changed the course of history -- shifting nations'
borders and opening wildernesses.
The cry "Gold!" probably launched more ships than a hundred Helens of Troy. History books tell
us Columbus' expedition was inspired by his scientific curiosity. But it was also backed by Queen
Isabella, who may have been motivated to donate her jewels by more than just sympathy for his
cause or desire for a trade route to the East. Whatever the original motive might have been,
certainly her royal spouse was moved by more than scientific triumph in 1511 when he wrote to
his men in South America: "Get gold," he commanded, "humanely if possible, but at all hazards
get gold."
The intrinsic value of gold, perhaps enhanced by its mystique, made it a medium of exchange in
many parts of the world. Payments were made in gold hundreds of years before 550 B. C., when
the first known gold coins were cast. King Croesus of Lydia [western Turkey], whose legendary
wealth inspired the phrase "rich as Croesus", is generally credited with that minting. However,
gold played a relatively minor monetary role until the great 19th century gold rushes in
California, Alaska, Canada and South Africa produced sufficient quantities to make wide-scale
monetary use practical.
The artistic, industrial and ornamental uses of gold have changed little since ancient times, but its
monetary use has been transformed. Gold ducats, double eagles and sovereigns can't meet
industrial societies' need for convenient and efficient money. Modern nations use paper currency,
base-metal coins, and checkbook balances to meet the needs of their fast-paced economies.
As a rule, nations now keep gold for payments to each other. The "coin" used in these payments is
a gold bar, often about the size and shape of a common building brick, weighing about 400 troy
ounces [about 27 avoirdupois pounds] and valued at about '17,000 at today's official U. S.
Government price. In the "free" market, where the forces of supply and demand constantly
determine gold's value, this same bar was worth about thirteen times as much in early 1981. When
nations trade gold, it is done at the market price rather than at the official price.
54. The purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. describe the mining of gold
B. describe man's pursuit of gold
C. determine the importance of gold
D. discuss the role of gold.
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TEXT J
WEATHER
First read the question.
Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer the question.
Severe winter weather during the first three weeks of January caused hundreds of deaths in
Europe. A massive dome of cold air became entrenched over northern Scandinavia and northern
USSR in mid-December of 1986. It migrated westward and southward so that by January 12
much of the continent was under its influence. On that day, central England had its coldest day
since 1945, with London recording 160F [-90 ]. In Leningrad, USSR, temperatures dipped to℃
-490 [-450 ], reportedly the coldest in 250 years.℉ ℃
Coastal and river ice brought a halt to shipping in northern Europe. The cold was also
accompanied by a major snowstorm that snarled rail and road transport in Western Europe on
January 11 to 13. Snow fell as far south as the French Riviera. On January 14, East Berlin
recorded an all-time record low of -130 [-110 ], while Paris measured a snowfall of 5.5 inches℉ ℃
[14 centimeters] -- the fourth heaviest on record.
During the first two weeks of the month, the cold was blamed for 77 deaths in the USSR,
including 48 from heating accidents and 29 from avalanches. In Poland, home fires claimed 27
lives. By the time the cold began easing around January 19, the total reported deaths from snow
and cold across Europe and the USSR neared 350.
The interior of North America was experiencing record mildness. Parts of Alberta, Canada,
enjoyed the warmest January ever, with temperatures averaging up to 18 [10 ] above normal.℉ ℃
The January warmth turned out to be part of a remarkably persistent weather anomaly. From
December 1986 through 1987, monthly average temperatures across a large area of Canada
remained above normal. From December through April, readings averaged 110 [60 ] above℉ ℃
normal in an area extending from eastern Alberta to western Ontario. In Ontario, August was the
first month with below-normal temperatures after eight consecutive months above normal.
Localized areas had even more persistent warmth. At Vancouver International Airport, November
was the 16th consecutive month with above-normal temperatures. The relative warmth across the
continent is a feature often associated with warm ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific
Ocean.
55. According to the passage, London recorded its coldest day in ________ years when the
temperature dropped to -90 .℃
A. 40
B. 41
C. 42
D. 43
56. How many people died in Poland because of the weather in the first half of January 1987?
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A.
77.
B.
29.
C.
48.
D.
27.
TEXT K WHO'S WHO
First read the question.
57. Which person won the Lenin Peace Prize?
A. McGuigan.
B. Mach.
C. Machado.
D. Machel.
58. Which person carried out research in the Amazon region?
A. McGuigan.
B. Mach.
C. Machado.
D. Machel.
Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer the question.
McGUIGAN, Hon. Thomas Malcolm; New Zealand, parliamentarian and business consultant; b
20 Feb 1921, Christchurch; m Ruth Deacon 1946; two s. one d.; ed. Christchurch Boys' High
School, Christchurch Tech. Evening School; served in Navy 1941-45; secretarial and accountancy
posts in commerce 1946-54; House Man. Christchurch Hosp. 1955-57; Sr. Admin Officer,
Princess Margaret Hosp., Christchurch 1958-69; M. P. 1969-75; Minister of Railways, Electricity
and Civil Defence 1972-74, of Health and Public Trust Office 1974-75; J. P. 1953-; Pres. New
Zealand Football Asscn. 1974-75. Leisure interests: golf, cricket, fishing, football, reading, music.
Address: 71 Main Road, Christchurch 8, New Zealand.
MACH, Stanislaw, M. ECON., C. SC; Polish politician; b 22 April 1938, Przychody, near Olkusz;
economic studies; Chief Mechanic, Cart Factory, Sianow 1960-61, Voivodship Amalgamation of
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Establishments for Mechanization of Agric., Koszalin 1961-63; Branch Sec. Main Tech Org.
[NOT], Koszalin 1963-68; Deputy Chair Voivodship Council of Trade unions, Koszalin 1968-71;
mem. Polish United Workers' Party [PZPR] 1961-; First Sec. PZPR District Cttee. Kolobrzeg
1971-72; Chair Presidium, Voivodship Nat. Council [WRN], Koszalin 1972-73, Voivode,
Koszalin 1973-75; First sec. PZPR Voivodship Cttee., Slupsk 1975-77; Chair Presidium, WRN
Slupsk 197577; Deputy mem. PZPR Cen. Cttee. 1975-; deputy to Seym [Parl.] 1976-80; Minister
of Light Industry 1977-80; Deputy Chair. Council of Ministers Oct. 1980-; decorations include
Knight's Cross of Order Polonia Restituta. Address: Urzad Rady Ministrow, Al. Ujazdowskie 1/3,
00-583, Warsaw, Poland.
MACHADO, Paulo de Almeida; Brazilian medical doctor; b. Minas Gerais; active in planning
public health and sanitary services; Dir. Nat. Inst. for Research in the Amazon Region until 1974;
Minister of Health 1974-78. Address: c/o Ministerio da Saude, Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco
11, Brasilia, D. F. Brazil.
MACHEL, Samora Moises; Mozambique nationalist leader and politician; b. Oct. 1933, Lourenco
Marques [now Maputo]; m. Grace Simbine 1975; trained as a male nurse; sent to Algeria for mil.
training 1963; organized training camp programme in Tanzania; C.-in-C. army of Frente de
Libertacao de Mocambique [FRELIMO] in guerilla war against Portugues 1966-74; Sec. of
Defence, FRELIMO 1966-74, Pres. May 1970-; Pres. of Mozambique June 1975-; Joliot-Curie
Gold Medal 1977, Lenin Peace Prize 1977, Order of Suhbuator [Mongolia] 1978, Order of
Friendship 1980. Address: Officio do Presidento, Maputo, Mozambique.
McHENRY, Donald F., M. Sc.; American diplomatist; b. 13 Oct 1936, St. Louis, Mo.; m Mary
Williamson [divorced]; one s. two d.; ed Illinois State Univ., Southern Illinois and Georgetown
Univs; taught Howard Univ., Washington 1959-62; active in civil rights movt., during 1960s;
joined dept of State 1963.
57. Which person won the Lenin Peace Prize?
A. McGuigan.
B. Mach.
C. Machado.
D. Machel.
58. Which person carried out research in the Amazon region?
A. McGuigan.
B. Mach.
C. Machado.
D. Machel.
TEXT L MILESTONES
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First read the following two questions.
59. Who among the following is a biographer?
A. Tapie.
B. El-Shinawwy.
C. Haslip.
D. Nazir-Ali.
60. Who among the following owns a soccer team?
A. Tapie.
B. Helu.
C. Haslip.
D. Nazir-Ali.
Now, go through the text quickly in order to answer the questions.
APPOINTED. MICHAEL NAZIR-ALI, 44, an assistant bishop in central London; as Bishop of
Rochester, the first non-white diocesan bishop of the Church of England; in Kent. The general
secretary of the Church Missionary Society, Nazir-Ali, who was ordained in Karachi in 1976 and
holds dual Pakistani and British citizenship, has written several books on Islamic-Christian
relations. Of his appointment he said "I think it reflects the way in which this country has
changed."
RANSOMED. ALFREDO HARP HELU, 50, billionaire president and co-owner of one of Latin
America's largest financial firms, Banamex-Accival; for about '30 million, paid by his family,
after he was held 106 days by his kidnappers; in Mexico city. The release followed a dramatic TV
appearance in which Harp's son, accompanied by a family lawyer and a priest, accepted the
kidnappers' terms unconditionally. At the family's request, the police did not intervene, giving rise
to fears that the huge ransom will encourage more kidnappings and adding to concerns about
Mexico's stability.
ARRESTED. BERNARD TAPIE, 51, flamboyant entrepreneur and one of France's fastest rising
political stars; only 12 hours after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity; on fraud and tax-
evasion charges involving the use of his yacht, Phocea; in Paris. The Marseilles Deputy and
former Urban Affairs Minister was already under investigation in four other cases, which
involved defamation, embezzlement, fraud and a bribery scandal connected to his Olympique de
Marseilles soccer team. If convicted on the latest charges, Tapie risks heavy fines and up to five
years in prison -- yet his political support remains strong.
DIED. MA'MOUN EL-SHINNAWY, 80, master of the modern Arabic lyrical poetry who also
wrote the words to more than 1,000 popular Egyptian songs; in Cairo. Originally a journalist
noted for his lancing wit, El-Shinnawy co-founded a political-humor magazine in 1950 called
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专八真题 1998 年
Word and a Half, which was closed down during the 1952 revolution that brought Gamal Abdel
Nasser to power. In the '60s El-Shinnawy penned the romantic verse that would bring him renown
throughout the Arab world.
DIED. JOAN HASLIP, 82, popular biographer of such historical figures as France's Marie
Antoinette and Emperor Maximilian of Mexico; in Bellosguardo, Italy. The British-born Haslip,
who spent much of her life in Italy, made a precocious entrance into the world of letters,
publishing two novels by the time she was 20. But after being called a "pretty, witty spendthrift
writer" by V. S. Pritchett she turned to biography because she was "determined to be taken
seriously". Critical and commercial success greeted her 1971 book on Maximilian, Imperial
Adventurer, which became a best seller. Marie Antoinette, her 1987 portrait of the guillotined
queen, was translated into 10 languages.
59. Who among the following is a biographer?
A. Tapie.
B. El-Shinawwy.
C. Haslip.
D. Nazir-Ali.
60. Who among the following owns a soccer team?
A. Tapie.
B. Helu.
C. Haslip.
D. Nazir-Ali.
PART IV: TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A: CHINESE TO ENGLISH (30 MIN)
Translate the following underlined part of the text into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
97 年 2 月 24 日我们代表团下榻日月潭中信大饭店, 送走了最后一批客人, 已是次日凌晨 3
点了。我躺在床上久久不能入睡, 批衣走到窗前, 往外看去, 只见四周群峦叠翠, 湖面波光粼
磷。望着台湾这仅有的景色如画的天然湖泊, 我想了许多, 许多……
这次到台湾访问交流, 虽然行程匆匆, 但是, 看了不少地方, 访了旧友, 交了新知, 大家走到一
起, 谈论的一个重要话题就是中华民族在 21 世纪的强盛。虽然祖国大陆、台湾的青年生活
在不同的社会环境中, 有着各自不同的生活经历, 但大家的内心都深深铭刻着中华文化优秀
传统的印记, 都拥有着振兴中华民族的共同理想。在世纪之交的伟大时代, 我们的祖国正在
走向繁荣富强, 海峡两岸人民也将加强交流, 共同推进祖国统一大业的早日完成。世纪之交
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的宝贵机遇和巨大挑战将青年推到了历史前台。跨世纪青年一代应该用什么样的姿态迎接
充满希望的新世纪, 这是我们必须回答的问题。
日月潭水波不兴, 仿佛与我一同在思索……
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
I agree to some extent with my imaginary English reader. American literary historians are perhaps
prone to view their own national scene too narrowly, mistaking prominence for uniqueness. They
do over-phrase their own literature, or certainly its minor figures. And Americans do swing from
aggressive overphrase of their literature to an equally unfortunate, imitative deference. But then,
the English themselves are somewhat insular in their literary appraisals. Moreover, in fields where
they are not pre-eminent -- e. g. in painting and music -- they too alternate between boasting of
native products and copying those of the Continent. How many English paintings try to look as
though they were done in Paris; how many times have we read in articles that they really
represent an 'English tradition' after all.
To speak of American literature, then, is not to assert that it is completely unlike that of Europe.
Broadly speaking, America and Europe have kept step. At any given moment the traveller could
find examples in both of the same architecture, the same styles in dress, the same books on the
shelves. Ideas have crossed the Atlantic as freely as men and merchandise, though sometimes
more slowly. When I refer to American habit, thoughts, etc., I intend some sort of qualification to
precede the word, for frequently the difference between America and Europe (especially England)
will be one of degree, sometimes only of a small degree. The amount of divergence is a subtle
affair, liable to perplex the Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at a country
which in important senses grew out of his own, which in several ways still resembles his own --
and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd overlappings and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship
yields to a sudden alienation, as when we hail a person across the street, only to discover from his
blank response that we have mistaken a stranger for a friend.
PART V WRITING (60 MIN)
Direction: Nowadays with the development of economy, existing cities are growing bigger and
new cities are appearing. What do you think is ONE of the major problems that may result from
this process of urbanization?
Write an essay of about 300 words on the topic given below.
ONE MAJOR PROBLEM IN THE PROCESS OF URBANIZATION
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part
you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring
what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to
follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1997)
-GRADE EIGHT-
试 卷 一 ( 9 5 m i n )
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
Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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. In the Black Forest, the acid rain is said to attack all EXCEPT ________.
A. firs
B. metals
C. leaves
D. soil
2. The percentage of firs dying in the Black Forest is ________.
A.41% B.43% C.26% D.76%
3. Germany is tackling part of the problem by introducing ________.
A. new car designing schemes
B. new car production lines
C. a new type of smoke stacks
D. new car safety standards
4. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. Germany is likely to succeed in persuading her neighbours to reduce acid rain.
B. The disastrous effects of acid rain are not confined to one area.
C. German tourists are allowed to drive across their neighbours' borders.
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D. Germany's neighbours are in favour of the use of lead-free petrol.
5. On the issue of future solution of acid rain, the speaker's tone is that of ________.
A. warning
B. pessimism
C. indifference
D. optimism
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 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. What subject is Mr. Pitt good at________?
A. Art.
B. French.
C. German. D. Chemistry.
7. What does Mr. Pitt NOT do in his spare time?
A. Doing a bit of acting and photography.
B. Going to concerts frequently.
C. Playing traditional jazz and folk music.
D. Travelling in Europe by hitch-hiking.
8. When asked what a manager's role is Mr. Pitt sounds ________.
A. confident
B. hesitant
C. resolute
D. doubtful
9. What does Mr. Pitt say he would like to be?
A. An export salesman working overseas.
B. An accountant working in the company.
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C. A production manager in a branch.
D. A policy maker in the company.
10. Which of the following statements about the management trainee scheme is TRUE?
A. Trainees are required to sign contracts initially.
B. Trainees' performance is evaluated when necessary.
C. Trainees' starting salary is 870 pounds.
D. Trainees cannot quit the management scheme.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Question 11 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.
11. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Five gunmen were flown to Iran in a helicopter.
B. Most of the ransom was retrieved in the end.
C. The children were held for five days.
D. The authorities have passed sentence on the gunmen.
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. According to the news, American troops in Panama ________.
A. were attacked at refugee camps
B. were angry at delays in departure
C. attacked Cuban refugee camps last week
D. will be increased to 2,000
Question 13 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.
13. Which of the following statements is CORRECT? U. S. lawmakers ________.
A. challenged the accord for freezing Pyongyang's nuclear programme
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B. required the inspection of Pyongyang's nuclear site for at least five years
C. were worried that North Korea may take advantage of the concessions
D. blamed the U. S. negotiator for making no compromises with North Korea
Questions 14 & 15 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,
you will be given 30 seconds to answer the two questions. Now listen to the news.
14. According to the news, the Italian Parliament was asked to act by ________.
A. the U. N
B. the Red Cross
C. the Defence Minister
D. the Swedish Government
15. On the issue of limited use of landmines, the Italian Parliament is ________.
A. noncommittal
B. resolute
C. unsupportive
D. wavering
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
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.
In business, many, places adopt a credit system, which dates back to ancient times. At present,
purchases can be made by using credit cards. They fall into two categories: one has use, while the
1.________
other is accepted almost everywhere. The application for the use of the latter one must be made at
a . 2.________
Once the customer starts using the card, he will be provided with a monthly statement of by the
credit company. He is 3.________
required to pay one quarter to half of his credit every 4.________
month.
Advantages. 1. With a card, it is not to save up money 5.________
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before an actual purchase. 2. If the card is lost, its owner is protected.
3. A and complete list of purchase received from the credit 6.________.
company helps the owner to remember the time and of his 7.________
purchase. 4. the cards axe accepted in a (n) by professional 8.________
people like dentists, etc.
Major disadvantage. The card owner is tempted to his 9.________
money. If this is the case, it will become increasingly diflie-lt for the user to keep up with the
required , which will result in the 10.________
credit card being cancelled by the credit company.
PART II Proofreading an Error Correction (15 min)
The following passage contains TEN errors. Each line contains a maximum of one error and three
are free from error. In each case, only one word is involved. You should proofread 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 provided 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 out the unnecessary word with a slash “/” and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
Example
When art museum wants a new exhibit, a∧ n it never〖KG-1*3〗/ buys things in finished form
and hangs never them on the wall. When a natural history museum wants an exhibition, it must
often build it. exhibit
Classic Intention Movement
In social situations, the classic Intention Movement is th e chair-grasp'. Host and guest have been
talking for some time,
but now the host has an appointment to keep and can get away. 1.________
His urge to go is held in cheek by his desire not be rude to his 2.________
guest, if he did not care of his guest's feelings he would simply 3.________
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get up out of his chair and to announce his departure. This is 4.________
what his body wants to do, therefore his politeness glues his body 5.________
to the chair and refuses to let him raise. It is at this point that he 6.________
performs the chair-grasp Intention Movement. He continues to talk to the guest and listen to him,
but leans forward and grasps the arms of the chair as about to push himself upwards. This is
7.________
the first act he would make if he were rising. If he were not 8.________
hesitating, it would only last a fraction of the second. He would 9.________
lean, push, rise, and be up. But now, instead, it lasts much longer.
He holds his 'readiness-to-rise' post and keeps on holding it. It is 10.________
as if his body had frozen at the get-ready moment.
PART III READING 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 and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
A magazine's design is more than decoration, more than simple packaging. It expresses the
magazine's very character. The Atlantic Monthly has long attempted to provide a design
environment in which two disparate traditions literar y and journalistic can co-exist in
pleasurable dignity. The redesign that we in troduce with this issue the work of our art director,
Judy Garlan represents, we think, a notable enhancement of that environment.
Garlan explains some of what was in her mind as she began to create the new design: I saw this
as an opportunity to bring the look closer to matching the elegance and power of the writing
which the magazine is known for. The overall design has to be able to encompass a great diversity
of styles and subjects urgent pieces of reporting, serious essays, lighter pieces, lifestyle-oriented
pieces, short stories, poetry. We don't want lighter pieces to seem too heavy, and we don't want
heavier pieces to seem too petty. We also use a broad range of art and photography, and the design
has to work well with that, too. At the same time
, the magazine needs to have a consistent feel, needs to underscore the sense that everything in it
is part of one Atlantic World.
The primary typefaces Garlan chose for this task are Times Roman, for a more readable body
type, and Bauer Bodoni, for a more stylish and flexible display type (article titles, large initials,
and so on). Other aspects of the new design are structural. The articles in the front of the
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magazine, which once flowed in to one another, now stand on their own, to gain prominence. The
Travel column, now featured in every issue, has been moved from the back to the front. As noted
in this space last month, the word Monthly rejoins The Atlantic on the cover, after a decade
long absence.
Judy Garlan came to the Atlantic in 1981 after having served as the art director of several other
magazines. During her tenure here The Atlantic has won more than 300 awards for visual
excellence, from the Society of illustrators, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Art
Directors Club, Communication Arts, and elsewhere. Garlan was in various ways assisted in the
redesign by the entire art-department staff: Robin Gilmore, Barnes, Betsy Urrico, Gillian Kahn,
and Is a Manning.
The artist Nicholas Gaetano contributed as well: he redrew our colophon (the figure of Neptune
that appears on the contents page) and created the symbols that will appear regularly on this page
(a rendition of our building), on the Puzzler page, above the opening of letters, and on the
masthead. Gaetano, whose work manages to combine stylish clarity and breezy strength, is the
cover artist for this issue.
16. Part of the new design is to be concerned with the following EXCEPT ________.
A. variation in the typefaces
B. reorganization of articles in the front
C. creation of the travel column
D. reinstatement of its former name
17. According to the passage, the new design work involves ________.
A. other artists as well
B. other writers as well
C. only the cover artist
D. only the art director
18. This article aims to ________.
A. emphasize the importance of a magazine's design
B. introduce the magazine's art director
C. persuade the reader to subscribe to the magazine
D. inform the reader of its new design and features
TEXT B
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WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National
Biography? I do not mean that it is bad, as the reviewers will agree.
But it will cost you 65 pounds. And have you got the rest of volumes? You need the basic 22 plus
the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31. Of course, it will be answered, public
and academic libraries will want the new volume. After all, it adds 1,068 lives of people who
escaped the net of the original compilers. Yet in 10 year's time a revised version of the whole
caboodle, called the New Dictionary of National Biography, will be published. Its editor, Proessor
Colin Matthew, tells me that he will have room for about 50,000 lives, some 13,000 more than in
the current DNB. This rather puts the 1,068 in Missing Persons in the shade.
When Dr. Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 1989 asking for name of people whom readers had
looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some
100,000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to 'other quality newspapers' too.) As soon as her
committee had whittled the numbersdown, the professional problems of an editor began.
Contributors didn't file copy on time; some who did sent too much: 50,000 words instead of 500
is a record, according to Dr. Nicholls.
There remains the dinner-party game of who's in, who's out. That is a game that the reviewers
have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original
edition of the DNB boasted: Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received
hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr. John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he
complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the
injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie was a force in the repeal of capital
punishment in Britain, as Ludovie Kennedy (the author of Christies entry in Missing Persons)
notes. But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy (he had tried
to escape by ship to America).
It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There
has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives
not much is always known.
Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not
recorded, his biographer comments: Whether or not Hugo was a wall-painter, the records of his
activities as carver and manuscript painter attest to his versatility'. Then there had to be more
women, too ( 12 percent, against the original DBN's 3), such as Roy Strong's subject, the Tudor
painterLevina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks: Her most characteristic feature is a head attached
to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory'. Doesn't
seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original
DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to
give thanks to J. W. Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced
footnote, except for the entry in the List of Contributors there is no trace of J. W. Clerke'.
19. The writer suggests that there is no sense in buying the latest volume ________.
A. because it is not worth the price
B. because it has fewer entries than before
C. unless one has all the volumes in the collection
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D. unless an expanded DNB will come out shortly
20. On the issue of who should be included in the DNB, the writer seems to suggest that
________.
A. the editors had clear roles to follow
B. there were too many criminals in the entries
C. the editors clearly favoured benefactors
D. the editors were irrational in their choices
21. Crippen was absent from the DNB ________.
A. because he escaped to the U. S
B. because death sentence had been abolished
C. for reasons not clarified
D. because of the editors' mistake
22. The author quoted a few entries in the last paragraph to ________.
A. illustrate some features of the DNB
B. give emphasis to his argument
C. impress the reader with its content
D. highlight the people in the Middle Ages
23. Throughout the passage, the writer's tone towards the DNB was ________.
A. complimentary
B. supportive
C. sarcastic
D. bitter
TEXT C
Medical consumerism like all sorts of consumerism, only more menacingly is designed to be
unsatisfying. The prolongation of life and the search for perfect health (beauty, youth, happiness)
are inherently self - defeating. The law of diminishing returns necessarily applies. You can make
higher percentages of people survive into their eighties and nineties. But, as any geriatric ward
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shows, that is not the same as to confer enduring mobility, awareness and autonomy. Extending
life grows medically feasible, but it is often a life deprived of everything, and one exposed to
degrading neglect as resources grow over - stretched and politics turn mean.
What an ignoramus destiny for medicine if its future turned into one of bestowing meager
increments of unenjoyed life! It would mirror the fate of athletes, in which disproportionate
energies and resources not least medical ones, like illegal steroids are now invested to shave
records by milliseconds. And, it goes without saying, the logical extension of longevism the
"abolition" of death would not be a solution but only an exacerbation. To air these predicaments
is not anti - medical spleen a churlish reprisal against medicine for its victories but simply to
face the growing reality of medical power not exactly without responsibility but with dissolving
goals.
Hence medicine's finest hour becomes the dawn of its dilemmas. For centuries, medicine was
impotent and hence unproblematic. From the Greeks to the Great War, its job was simple: to
struggle with lethal diseases and gross disabilities, to ensure live births, and to manage pain. It
performed these uncontroversial tasks by and large with meager success. Today, with mission
accomplished, medicines triumphs are dissolving in disorientation. Medicine has led to vastly
inflated expectations, which the public has eagerly swallowed. Yet as these expectations grow
unlimited, they become unfulfillable. The task facing medicine in the twenty - first century will be
to redefine its limits even as it extends its capacities.
24. In the author's opinion, the prolongation of life is equal to ________.
A. mobility
B. deprivation
C. autonomy
D. awareness
25. In the second paragraph a comparison is drawn between ________.
A. medicine and life
B. resources and energies
C. predicaments and solutions
D. athletics and longevism
TEXT D
The biggest problem facing Chile as it promotes itself as a tourist destination to be reckoned with,
is that it is at the end of the earth. It is too far south to be a convenient stop on the way to
anywhere else and is much farther than a relatively cheap half - day's flight away from the big
tourist markets, unlike Mexico, for example. Chile, therefore, is having to fight hard to attract
tourists, to convince travellers that it is worth coming halfway round the world to visit. But it is
succeeding, not only in existing markets like the USA and Western Europe but in new territories,
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in particular the Far East. Markets closer to home, however, are not being forgotten. More than
50% of visitors to Chile still come from its nearest neighbour, Argentina, where the cost of living
is much higher.
Like all South American countries, Chile sees tourism as a valuable earner of foreign currency,
although it has been far more serious than most in promoting its image abroad. Relatively stable
politically within the region, it has benefited from the problems suffered in other areas. In Peru,
guerrilla warfare in recent years has dealt a heavy blow to the tourist industry and fear of street
crime in Brazil has reduced the attraction of Rio de Janeiro as a dream destination for foreigners.
More than 150,000 people are directly involved in Chile's tourist sector, an industry which earns
the country more than US $ 950 million each year. The state - run National Tourism Service, in
partnership with a number of private companies, is currently running a worldwide campaign,
taking part in trade fairs and international events to attract visitors to Chile.
Chile's great strength as a tourist destination is its geographical diversity. From the parched
Atacama Desert in the north to the Antarctic snowfields ofthe south, it is more than 5,000 km
long. With the Pacific on one side and the Andean mountains on the other, Chile boasts natural
attractions. Its beaches are not up to Caribbean standards but resorts such as Vina del Mar are
generally clean and unspoilt and have a high standard of services.
But the tromp card is the Andes mountain range. There are a number of excellent ski resorts
within one hour's drive of the capital, Santiago, and the national parks in the south are home to
rare animal and plant species. The parks already attract specialist visitors, including mountaineers,
who come to climb the technically difficult peaks, and fishermen, lured by the salmon and trout in
theregion's rivers. However, infrastructural development in these areas is limited. The ski resorts
do not have as many lifts and pistes as their European counterparts and the poor quality of roads
in the south means that only the most determined travelers see the best of the national parks.
Air links between Chile and the rest of the world are, at present, relatively poor. While Chile's two
largest airlines have extensive networks within South America, they operate only a small number
of routes to the United States and Europe, while services to Asia are almost non - existent.
Internal transport links are being improved and luxury hotels are being built in one of its national
parks. Nor is development being restricted to the Andes. Easter Island and Chile's Antarctic
Territory axe also on the list of areas where the Government believes it can create tourist markets.
But the rush to open hitherto inaccessible areas to mass tourism is not being welcomed by
everyone. Indigenous and environmental groups, including Greenpeace, say that many parts of the
Andes will suffer if they become over - developed.
There is a genuine fear that areas of Chile will suffer the cultural destruction witnessed in Mexico
and European resorts.
The policy of opening up Antarctica to tourism is also politically sensitive. Chile already has
permanent settlements on the ice and many people see the decision to allow tourists there as a
political move, enhancing Santiago's territorial claim over part of Antarctica.
The Chilean Government has promised to respect the environment as it seeks to bring tourism to
these areas. But there are immense commercial pressures to exploit the country's tourism
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potential. The Government will have to monitor developments closely if it is genuinely concerned
in creating a balanced, controlled industry and if the price of an increasingly lucrative tourist
market is not going to mean the loss of many of Chile's natural riches.
26. Chile is disadvantaged in the promotion of its tourism by ________.
A. geographical location
B. guerrilla warfare
C. political instability
D. street crime
27. Many of Chile's tourists used to come from EXCEPT ________.
A. U. S. A.
B. the Far East
C. western Europe
D. her neighbours
28. According to the author, Chile's greatest attraction is ________.
A. the unspoilt beaches
B. the dry and hot desert
C. the famous mountain range
D. the high standard of services
29. According to the passage, in WHICH area improvement is already under way?
A. Facilities in the ski resorts.
B. Domestic transport system.
C. Air services to Asia.
D. Road network in the south.
30. The objection to the development of Chile's tourism might be all EXCEPT that it ________.
A. is ambitions and unrealistic
B. is politically sensitive
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C. will bring harm to culture
D. will cause pollution in the area
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple-Choice questions. Skim or scan
them as required and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT E
First read the question.
31. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. illustrate the features of willpower
B. introduce ways to build up willpower
C. explain the advantages of willpower
D. define the essence of willpower
Now go through the TEXT E quickly and answer the question.
Willpower isn't immutable trait we're either born with or not. It is a skill that can be developed,
strengthened and targeted to help us achieve our goals.
Fundamental among man's inner powers is the tremendous unrealized potenc y of man's own
will, wrote Italian psychologist Roberto Assagioli 25 years ago.
The trained will is a masterful weapon, added Man Marlatt of the University of Washington, a
psychologist who is studying how willpower helps people break habits and change their lives.
The dictionary defines will power as control of one's impulses and actions. The key words are
power and control. The power is there, but you have to control it. Here, from Marlatt and other
experts, is how to do that: Be positive. Don't confuse willpower with self-denial. Willpower is
most dynamic when applied to positive, uplifting purposes.
Positive willpower helps us overcome inertia and focus on the future. When the going gets tough,
visualize yourself happily and busily engaged in your goal, and you' ll keep working toward it.
Make up your mind. James Prochaska, professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island,
has identified four stages in making a change. He calls themprecontemplation (resisting the
change), contemplation (weighing the pros and cons of the change), action ( exercising willpower
to make the change), and maintenance (using willpower to sustain the change).
Some people are chronic contemplators, Prochaska says. They know they should reduce their
drinking but will have one mere cocktail while they consider the matter. They may never put
contemplation into action.
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To focus and mobilize your efforts, set a deadline.
Sharpen your will. In 1915, psychologist Boyd Barrett suggested a list of repetitive will-training
activities-stepping up and down from a chair 30 times, spilling a box of matches and carefully
replacing them one by one. These exercises, he maintained, strengthen the will so it can confront
more consequential and difficult challenges.
New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley was a basketball star with the champion New York Knicks. On top
of regular practice, he always went to the gym early and practised foul shots alone. He was
determined to be among the best form of the foul line. True to his goal, he developed the highest
percentage of successful free throws on his team.
Expect trouble. The saying "Where there's a will, there's a way" is not the whole truth. Given the
will, you still have to anticipate obstacles and plan how to deal with them.
When professor of psychology Saul Shiffman of the University of Pittsburgh worked with
reformed smokers who's gone back to cigarettes, he found that many of them hadn't considered
how they' d cope with the urge to smoke. They had summoned the strength to quit, but couldn't
remain disciplined. The first time they were offered a cigarette, they went back to smoking.
If you've given up alcohol, rehearse your answer for when you're offered a drink. If you're
expecting to jog but wake up to a storm, have an indoor workout program ready.
Be realistic. The strongest will may falter when the goal is to lose 50 pounds in three months or to
exercise three hours a day. Add failure undercuts your desire to try again.
Sometimes it's best to set a series of small goals instead of a single big one. As in the Alcohohes
Anonymous slogan One day at a time, ” divide your objective into one-day segments, then
renew your resolve the next day. At the end of a week, you'll have a series of triumphs to look
back on.
Be patient. A strong will doesn't develop overnight. It takes shape in increments, and there can be
setbacks. Figure out what caused you to backslide, and redouble your efforts.
When a friend of ours tried to give up cigarettes the first time, she failed. Analyzing her relapse,
she realized she needed to do something with her hands. On her second try, she took up knitting
and brought out needles and yam every time she was tempted to light up. Within months she had
knitted a sweater for her husband-and seemed to be off cigarettes for good.
Keep it up. A strong will becomes stronger each time it succeeds. If you've successfully mustered
the willpower to kick a bad habit or leave a dead-end job, you gain confidence to confront other
challenges.
A record of success fosters an inner voice of confidence that, in the words of Assagioli, gives you
a firm foot on the edge of the precipice. You may face more difficult tasks, but you've
conquered before, and you can conquer gain.
TEXT F
First read the question.
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32. The message of the passage is that shares can now be sold ________.
A. through the computer
B. in the shop
C. at the bank
D. through the mail
Now go through the TEXT F quickly and answer the question.
Investors seeking a cheap, no-frills way to sell privatisation shares need look no further than the
post box.
Most stockbrokers offer bargain-basement deals on postal trades. They are i deal for selling a
small holding for the lowest possible commission.
But the arrangements leave investors at the mercy of the Royal Mail and a seller will not know in
advance how much a sale will produce.
Data processing engineer Mark Stanistreet of Bradford sold by post after buying a few National
Power and Power Gen shares when they were privatised.
He says. I didn't really know where to go to for help. An information sli p with the shares gave
details of Yorkshire Building Society's share shop service, which offered to sell for a flat fee of $
5.
It was an ideal first step that showed me how easy and cheap it is to sell shares, l have been
investing in a small way since then.
I use Yorkshire's telephone service, which has a $ 9 minimum fee. Many stockbrokers offer
postal deals as part of their usual dealing services, but clients may normally sell only big company
or privatization shares this way.
Share Hnk's minimum postal commission is $ 7.50, Skipton Building Socie's is $ 9 and Nat
Weat's is $ 9.95.
TEXT G
First read the question.
33. In the passage the author' attitude towards the subject under discussion is ________.
A. factual
B. critical
C. favourable
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D. ambiguous
Now go through the TEXT G quickly and answer the question.
With increasing prosperity, Western European youth is having a fling that is creating distinctive
consumer and cultural patterns.
The result has been the increasing emergence in Europe of that phenomenon well known in
America as the youth market. This is a market in which enterprising businesses cater to the
demands of teenagers and older youths in all their rock mania and pop-art forms.
In Western Europe, the youth market may appropriately be said to be in its infancy. In some
countries such as Britain, West Germany and France, it is more advanced than in others. Some
manifestations of the market, chiefly sociological, have been recorded, but it is only just
beginning to be the subject of organized consumer research and promotion.
Characteristics of the evolving European youth market indicate dissimilarities as well as
similarities to the American youth market.
The similarities:
The market's basis is essentially the same-more spending power and freedom to use it in the hands
of teenagers and older youth. Young consumers also make up an increasingly high proportion of
the population.
As in the United States, youthful tastes in Europe extend over a similar range of products-records
and record players, transistor radios, leather jackets and way out, extravagantly styled clothing,
cosmetics and soft drinks. Generally it now is difficult to tell in which direction trans-Atlantic
teenage influences are flowing.
Also, a pattern of conformity dominates European youth as in this country, though in Britain the
object is to wear clothes that make the wearer stand out, but also make him in , such as tight
trousers and precisely tailored jackets.
Worship and emulation of idols in the entertainment field, especially the “ pop singers and
other performers is pervasive. There is also the same exuberance and unpredictability in sudden
fad switches. In Paris, buyers of stores catering to the youth market carefully watch what dress is
being worn by a popular television teenage singer to be ready for a sudden demand for copies. In
Stockholm other followers of teenage fads call the youth market attractive but irrational.
The most obvious differences between the youth market in Europe and that in the United States is
in size. In terms of volume and variety of sales, the market in Europe is only a shadow of its
American counterpart, but it is a growing shadow.
But there are also these important dissimilarities generally with the American youth market:
In the European youth market, unlike that of the United States, it is the working youth who
provides the bulk of purchasing power.
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On the average, the school-finishing age still tends to be 14 years. This is the maximum age to
which compulsory education extends, and with Europe's industrial manpower shortage, thousands
of teenage youths may soon attain incomes equal in many cases to that of their fathers.
Although, because of general prosperity, European youths are beginning to continue school
studies beyond the compulsory maximum age, they do not receive anything like the pocket money
or allowances of American teenagers. The Europe an average is about $ 5 to $ 10 a month.
Working youth, consequently, are the big spenders in the European youth market, but they also
have less leisure than those staying on at school, who in mm have less buying power.
TEXT H
First read the question.
34. The passage mainly ________.
A. discusses patterns in company car use
B. advertises famous British company cars
C. recommends inexpensive company cars
D. introduces different models of cars
Now go through the TEXT H quickly and answer the question.
Motorists would rather pay more tax than lose the place in the corporate pecking order conferred
on them by their company cars.
And it is the company car which accounts for half of all new motor sales each year which
continues to be the key method of measuring your progress up the greasy pole.
Although a Roll-Royce or Bentley is the ultimate success symbol, a Jaguar is still desired by most
top directors, according to the survey by top people's pay and perks experts at the Monks
Partnership.
About 40 percent of company cars are perks rather than necessities for the job, even though the
average company car driver with a 1500cc engine is paying more than three times as much in tax
compared to a decade ago.
Average cash allowances for a company car rise from 1,500 for those whose job requires them to
have four wheels, to ￡ 4,000 for chief executives.
For company chairmen, the BMW 7 series and Jaguar's Daimler Double Six top the list of
favoured cars, with upper range Mercedes-Benz models close behind.
The chief executive's tastes follow a similar pattern with Jaguar's Sovereign 4.0 litre and XJ 63.2,
Mercedes-Benz's 320/300 and the BMW 7-series proving most popular.
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For other directors, the BMW 5 series is tops, followed by the Mercedes-Benz 200 series, Jaguar's
XJ 63.2 and the Rover 800 series.
Senior managers favour the BMW 3 and 5 series, depending on their rank and company size.
Sales representatives drive the 1.8 and 1.6 litre Ford Mondeos, Rover 200 and 400 series and
Peugeot's 405.
Top of the prohibited list are sports cars and convertibles.
But British policies are being relaxed, with 64 per cent of companies offering Japanese cars. The
practice of employees trading up by making cash contribution to the value of the car they want is
becoming more common, with some from reporting take-up rates in excess of 70 per cent.
TEXT I
First read the questions.
35. ________ deals with Marx's intellectual impact.
A. Chapter I.
B. Chapter II.
C. Chapter III.
D. Chapter IV.
36. The chapter that discusses an important source of learning in high-technology industries is
________.
A. Chapter III.
B. Chapter IV.
C. Chapter V.
D. Chapter VI.
37. The role of market forces in innovative activities is addressed in ________.
A. Part I.
B. Part II.
C. Part III.
D. Part V.
Now go through the TEXT I quickly and answer the questions.
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The book opens with a broad survey, in Part I, of the historical literature on technical change. It
attempts to provide a guide to a wide range of writings that illuminate technological change as a
historical phenomenon. The first chapter discusses aspects of the conceptualization of
technological change and then goes on to consider what the literature has had to say on (l) the rate
of technological change, the forces influencing its direction, the speed with which new
technologies have diffused, and the impact of technological change on the growth in productivity.
A separate chapter is devoted to Marx. Marx's intellectual impact has been so pervasive as to rank
him as a major social force in history, as well as an armchair interpreter of history.
Part II is, in important respects, the core of the book. Each of its chapters advances an argument
about some significant characteristics of industrial technologies. Chapter 3 explores a variety of
less visible forms in which technological improvements enter the economy. Chapter 4 explicitly
considers some significant characteristics of different energy forms. It examines some of the
complexities of the long-term interactions between technological change and energy resources.
Chapter 5, On Technological Expectations, addresses an issue that is simultaneously relevant to
a wide range of industries indeed, to all industries that are experiencing, or are expected to
experience, substantial rates of technical improvement.
The last two chapters of Part II are primarily concerned with issues of greatest relevance to high-
technology industries. Chapter 6, Learning by Using, identifies an important source of learning
that grows out of actual experience in using products characterized by a high degree of system
complexity. In contrast to learning by doing, which deals with skill improvements that grow out
of the productive process, learning by using involves an experience that begins where learning by
doing ends.
The final chapter in Part II, How Exogenous Is Science? looks explicitl y at the nature of
science technology interactions in high-technology industries.
It examines some of the specific ways in which these industries have been drawing upon the
expanding pool of scientific knowledge and techniques.
The three chapters constituting Part III share a common concern with the role of market forces in
shaping both the rate and direction of innovative activities, They attempt to look into the
composition of forces constituting the demand and the supply for new products and processes,
especially in high-technology industries.
Chapter 8 examines the history of technical change in the commercial aircraft industry over a
fifty-year period 1925 - 1975.
Finally, the two chapters of Part IV place the discussion of technological change in an
international context, with the first chapter oriented toward its long history and second toward the
present and the future. Chapter 11 pays primary attention to the transfer of industrial technology
from Britain to the world-wide industrialization, because nineteenth-century industrialization was,
in considerable measure, the story of the overseas transfer of the technologies already developed
by the first industrial society. The last chapter speculates about the prospects for the future from
an American perspective, a perspective that is often dominated by apprehension over the loss of
American technological leadership, especially in high-technology industries. By drawing upon
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some of the distinctive characteristics of high-technology industries, an attempt is made to
identify possible elements of a future scenario.
TEXT J
First read the questions.
38. Who can enter the contest?
A. Postgraduates.
B. Undergraduates.
C. Journalists.
D. Teachers.
39. Which of the following entry rules is NOT correct?
A. Submissions had been published within a specified period.
B. No limits are set on content or length of the submission.
C. Each entrant can submit no more than one entry.
D. A cover letter by the entrant is required.
Now go through the TEXT J quickly and answer the questions.
THE FIFTH ANNUAL
NATION/I. F. STONE AWARD
FOR STUDENT JOURNALISM
ENTRY DEADLINE: JUNE 29, 1994
PURPOSE: The Nation Institute/I. F. Stone Award recognizes excellence in student journalism.
Entries should exhibit the uniquely independent journalistic tradition of I. F. Stone. A self -
described Jeffersonian Marxist, Stone combined progressive polities, investigative zeal and a
compulsion to tell the truth with a commitment to human rights and the exposure of injustice. As
Washington edit or of the Nation magazine and founder of the legendary I. F. Stone's Weekly, he
specialized in publishing information ignored by the mainstream media (which he often found in
The Congressional Record and other public documents overlooked by the big - circulation
dailies).
ELIGIBILITY: The contest is open to all undergraduate students enrolled in a U. S. college.
Articles may be submitted by the writers themselves or nominated by editors of student
publications or faculty members. While entries originally published in student publications are
preferred, all articles will be considered provided they were not written as part of a student's
regular course work.
THE PRIZE: The article that, in the opinion of the judges, represents the most outstanding
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example of student journalism in the tradition of I. F. Stone will be published in a fall issue of The
Nation. The winner will receive a cash award of $ 1,000. The Nation reserves the right to edit the
winning article to conform to the space limitations of the magazine. Announcement of the
winning article will be made in The Nation in the fall of 1994.
DEADLINE: All entries must be postmarked by June 29, 1994.
ENTRY RULES: All entries must have been written or published between June 30, 1993 and June
29, 1994. Please send 2 photocopies.
Each writer may submit up to three separate entries. A series of related articles will be considered
as a single entry. Investigative articles are particularly encouraged. There are no restrictions as to
scope, content or length.
Accompanying material in support of entries is not required, but entrants are encouraged to
submit a cover letter explaining the context of the submitted story, along with a brief biographical
note about the author. Elaborate presentations are neither required nor desired. Entries will not be
returned.
Judges reserve the right to authenticate, accept or disallow entries at their discretion. The decision
of the judges is final.
All entries must include the writer's school, home address and telephone number.
ALL ENTRIES SHOULD BE SENT TO:
NATION/STONE AWARD, C/O THE NATION INSTITUTE,
72 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10011
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE
CAI J.(212) 463 - 9270
A PROJECT OF THE NATION INSTITUTE
TEXT K
First read the question.
40. According to the holiday advertisement, $ 939 is for a ________.
A. two-week holiday in October
B. two-week holiday in November
C. three-week holiday in November
D. three-week holiday in October
Now go through the TEXT K quickly and answer the question.
What price paradise?
Less than you could possibly imagine on this incredible value holiday with
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Page & Moy, the UK's No 1 tour operator to Hawaii.
You can enjoy three weeks for the price of two at the Outrigger Village Hotel for just $ 899 during
November or $ 939 in October.
The PoLarryesians call Hawaii Paradise on earth . You'll soon see why, whil st enjoying the
facilities of the Outrigger Village Hotel including pool, bars, restaurant and shopping arcade, and
just a five minute walk from the legendary Waikiki beach.
Life can be as busy or as relaxing as you like we can even help you create your own itinerary of
excursions to the other islands, each stunningly beautiful but very different.
To start your holiday you can choose a 2 night stay in San Francisco, Los Angeles or as Vegas
absolutely free.
Join us in the tropical paradise of Hawaii-2 weeks from an unrepeatable price of $ 899 with a 3rd
week free.
THE PRICE INCLUDES
2 nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
Scheduled flights from London/Manchester/Birmingham.
Transfers between airport and hotels (except Las Vegas)
14 nights accommodation in Hawaii-3rd week free.
Traditional Lei greeting.
Services of experienced local travel representatives
Free travel bag.
Holiday Delay Insurance.
试 卷 二 ( 1 2 0 m i n )
PART IV TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following text into English. Write your translation on answer sheet three.
美 求 的中 生 其他 裔 生一来 国 学 国学 与 亚 学 样, 大多非常刻苦勤奋, 周末也往往 抽出一天会
甚至 天的 去 室加班两 时间 实验 , 因而比起美 生国学 来, 成果出得 多。我的 是 裔人较 导师 亚 ,
嗜烟好酒, 脾 暴躁。但他十分欣 裔 生勤 扎 的基 知气 赏亚 学 奋与 实 础 识, 也特 了解 裔别 亚
生的心理。因此学 , 在他 室所招的 生中实验 学 , 除有一名 自德 外来 国 , 其余 5 位均是 裔亚
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生。他干脆在 室的 上 一醒目招牌： “ 本室助 必 每周工作学 实验 门 贴 研 须 7 天, 早 10 至时 晚
12 时, 工作 必 全力以赴。 ” 位 的 格及苛刻是全校有名的时间 须 这 导师 严 , 在我所呆的 3 年
半中, 共有 14 位 生被招 他的 室学 进 实验 , 最后博士 的只剩下毕业 5 人。1990 年夏天, 我
不 人 阻顾别 劝 , 硬着 皮接受了 的 助头 导师 资 , 此 始了 的求 旅程。从 开 艰难 学
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are not inevitably the province
of the rich unless we abdicate society's power of choice. We can choose to make opera, and other
expensive forms of culture, accessible to those who cannot individually pay for it. The question
is: why should we? Nobody denies the imperatives of food, shelter, defence, health and education.
But even in a prehistoric cave, mankind stretched out a hand not just to eat, drink or fight, but also
to draw. The impulse towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through
imagination and representation is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfillment in the
masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones for
all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and
imagination may aspire; they carry the most profound messages that can be sent from one human
to another.
PART V WRITING (60 MIN)
Some people hold the view that a student's success in university study follows the same pattern as
that of fanning, which is characterized by the sowing the seeds, nurturing growth and harvesting
the rewards' process. Write an essay of about 300 words on the topic given below to support this
view with your own experience as a university student.
SOWING THE SEEDS, NURTURING GROWTH AND HARVESTING THE REWARDS
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement
, and in the second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the
last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion with a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to
follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1996)
-GRADE EIGHT-
试 卷 一 ( 9 5 m i n )
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 response for each question on your Colored Answer
Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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 speaker thinks that.
A. car causes pollution only in some cities
B. 60% of the cities are affected by car pollution
C. 90% of the city residents suffer from car pollution
D. car is the main contributing factor in polluting air
2. Which of the following is not mentioned as a cause of car pollution?
A. Car tyres.
B. Car engines.
C. Car horns.
D. Car brakes.
3. Which of the following is not cited as a means to reduce the number of cars?
A. To pass laws to control the use of cars.
B. To improve public transport systems.
C. To increase car tax and car price.
D. To construct effective subway systems.
4. One of the mechanical solutions to car pollution is.
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A. to change the mechanical structure of fuel
B. to improve on the exhaust pipe
C. to experiment with new engines
D. to monitor the amount of chemicals
5. According to the speaker. a sensible way to solve car pollution is that we should ________.
A. focus on one method only
B. explore some other alternatives
C. improve one of the four methods
D. integrate all of the four methods
-
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 6 to 10 are based on an interview with an architect. At the end of the interview you
will be given 13 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the
interview.
6. The interviewee's first job was with.
A. a newspaper
B. the government
C a construction firm
D. a private company
7. The interviewee is not self-employed mainly because.
A. his wife likes him to work for a firm
B. he prefers working for the government
C. self-employed work is very demanding
D. self-employed work is sometimes insecure
8. To study architecture in a university one must.
A. be interested in arts
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B. study pure science first
C. get good exam results
D. be good at drawing
9. On the subject of drawing, the interviewee says that.
A. technically speaking artists draw very well
B. an artist's drawing differs little from an architect's
C. precision is a vital skill for the architect
D. architects must be natural artists
10. The interviewee says that the job of an architect is ________.
A. more theoretical than practical
B. to produce sturdy, well-designed buildings
C. more practical than theoretical
D. to produce attractive, interesting buildings
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 to 12 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be
given 30 seconds to answer the two questions. Now listen to the news.
11. The man was convicted for.
A. dishonesty
B. manslaughter
C. murder
D. having a gun
12. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. Mark Eastwood had a license for a revolver.
B. Mark Eastwood loved to go to noisy parties.
C. Mark Eastwood smashed the windows of a house.
D. Mark Eastwood had a record.
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Questions 13 to 15 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be
given 45 seconds to answer the three questions. Now listen to the news.
13. How many missing American servicemen have been positively confirmed dead in ________.
Vietnam so far?
A.
67.
B. 280.
C.
84.
D. 1,648.
14. According to the search operation commander, the recovery of the missing ________.
Americans is slowed down because.
A. the weather conditions are unfavorable
B. the necessary documents are unavailable
C. the sites are inaccessible
D. some local people are greedy
15. According to the news, Vietnam may be willing to help American mainly because of.
A. its changed policy towards America
B. recent international pressure
C. its desire to have the US trade embargo lifted
D. the impending visit by a senior US military officer
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the lecture, 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 paper for
note-taking. 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.
LAND USE
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A problem related to the competition for land use is whether crops should be used to produce food
or fuel. areas will be examined in this respect. Firstly, the problem should be viewed in its
perspective. When oil prices rose sharply in the 1970s, countries had to look for alternatives to
solve the resulting crisis.
In developing countries, one of the possible answers to it is to produce alcohol from material.
This has led to a lot of research in this area particularly in the use of . The use of this material
resulted from two economic reasons: a in its price and low costs.
There are other starchy plants that can be used to produce alcohol, like the sweet or the cassava
plant in tropical regions, and and sugar beet in non-tropical regions. The problem with these
plants is that they are also the people's staple food in many poor countries.
Therefore, farmers there are faced with a choice: crops for food or for fuel. And farmers naturally
go for what is more . As a result, the problems involved are economic in nature, rather than
technological. This is my second area under consideration. Finally, there have already been
practical applications of using alcohol for fuel. Basically, they come in two forms of use: pure
alcohol as is the case in , and a combination of alcohol and gasoline known as gasohol in
Germany.
( 5) ________
PART II PROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION
(15 MIN)
The following passage contains TEN errors. Each line contains a maximum of one error and three
are free from error. In each case, only one word is involved. You should proofread 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 provided 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 out the unnecessary word with a slash “/” and put the word in the
blank provided at the end of the line.
If the line is correct, place a V in the blank provided at the end of the line
Example
When ^ art museum wants a new exhibit, an
It never buys things in finished form and bangs never them on the wall. When a natural history
museum v wants an exhibition, it must often build it. exhibit
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WATER
The second most important constituent of the biosphere is liquid water. This can only exist in a
very narrow range of temperatures, since water freezes at 0°C and boils at 100°C. This is only a
tiny range compared with the low temperatures of some other planets and the hot interior of the
earth, let the temperatures
of the sun.
As we know, life would only be possible on the face of a
planet had temperatures somewhere within this range.
The earth's supply of water probably remains quite fairly
constant in quantity. A certain number of hydrogen atoms, which are one of the main constituents
of water, are lost by escaping from the atmosphere to out space, but they are probably just
about replaced by new water rising away from the depths of the
earth during volcanic action. The total quantity of water is not known, and it is about enough to
cover the surface of the globe
to a depth of about two and three-quarter kms. Most of it -97%
- is in the form of the salt waters of the oceans. The rest is fresh, but three quarter of this is in the
form of ice at the Poles
and on mountains, and cannot be used by living systems when
melted. Of the remaining fraction, which is somewhat fewer than
1% of the whole, there is 10 – 20 times as much stored as underground water as is actually on the
surface. There is also a minor, but extremely important, fraction of the water supply which is
present as water vapor in the atmosphere.
PART III READING 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 mark your answers on your Colored Answer
Sheet.
TEXT A
STAYING HEALTHY ON HOLIDAY
Do people who choose to go on exotic, far-flung holidays deserve free healthy advice before they
travel? And even if they pay, who ensures that they get good, up-to-date information? Who, for
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that matter, should collect that information in the first place? For a variety of reasons, travel
medicine in Britain is a responsibility nobody wants. As a result, many travelers go abroad ill
prepared to avoid serious disease.
Why is travel medicine so unloved? Partly there's an identity problem. Because it takes an interest
in anything that impinges on the health of travelers, this emerging medical specialism invariably
cuts across the traditional disciplines. It delves into everything from seasickness, jet lag and the
hazards of camels to malaria and plague. But travel medicine has a more serious obstacle to
overcome. Travel clinics are meant to tell people how to avoid ending up dead or in a tropical
diseases hospital when they come home. But it is notoriously difficult to get anybody pay out
money for keeping people healthy.
Travel medicine has also been colonized by commercial interests - - the vast majority of travel
clinics in Britain are run by airlines or travel companies. And while travel concerns are happy to
sell profitable injections, they may be less keen to spread bad news about travelers' diarrhea in
Turkey, or to take the time to spell out preventive measures travelers could take. " The NHS finds
it difficult to define travelers' health," says Ron Behrens, the only NHS consultant in travel and
tropical medicine and director of the travel clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London.
"Should it come within the NHS or should it be paid for? It's a grey area, and opinion is split. No
one seems to have any responsibility for defining its role," he says.
To compound its low status in the medical hierarchy, travel medicine has to rely on statistics that
are patchy at best. In most cases we just don't know how many Britons contract diseases when
abroad. And even if a disease is linked to travel there is rarely any information about where those
afflicted went, what they ate, how they behaved, or which vaccinations they had. This shortage of
hard facts and figures makes it difficult to give detailed advice to people, information that might
even save their lives.
A recent leader in the British Medical Journal argued: "Travel medicine will emerge as a credible
discipline only if the risks encountered by travelers and the relative benefits of public health
interventions are well defined in terms of their relative occurrence, distribution and control. "
Exactly how much money is wasted by poor travel advice? The real figure is anybody's guess, but
it could easily run into millions. Behrens gives one example. Britain spends more than £1 million
each year just on cholera vaccines that often don't work and so give people a false sense of
security: "Information on the prevention and treatment of all forms of diarrhea would be a better
priority", he says.
16. Travel medicine in Britain is.
A. not something anyone wants to run
B. the responsibility of the government
C. administered by private doctors
D. handled adequately by travel agents
17. The main interest of travel companies dealing with travel medicine is to.
A. prevent people from falling ill
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B. make money out of it
C. give advice on specific countries
D. get the government to pay for it
18. In Behren's opinion the question of who should run travel medicine.
A. is for the government to decide
B. should be left to specialist hospitals
C. can be left to travel companies
D. has no clear and simple answer
19. People will only think better of travel medicine if.
A. it is given more resources by the government
B. more accurate information on its value is available
C. the government takes over responsibility from the NHS
D. travelers pay more attention to the advice they get
TEXTB
THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOCIAL PSYCHOIXJGY
While the roots of social psychology lie in the intellectual soil of the whole western tradition, its
present flowering is recognized to be characteristically an American phenomenon. One reason for
the striking upsurge of social psychology in the United States lies in the pragmatic tradition of
this country. National emergencies and conditions of social disruption provide special incentive to
invent new techniques, and to strike out boldly for solutions to practical social problems. Social
psychology began to flourish soon after the First World War. This event, followed by the great
depression of the 1930s, by the rise of Hitler, the genocide of Jews, race riots, the Second World
War and the atomic threat, stimulated all branches of social science. A special challenge fell to
social psychology. The question was asked: How is it possible to preserve the values of freedom
and individual rights under condition of mounting social strain and regimentation? Can science
help provide an answer? This challenging question led to a burst of creative effort that added
much to our understanding of the phenomena of leadership, public opinion, rumor, propaganda,
prejudice, attitude change, morale, communication, decision-making, race relations, and conflicts
of war.
Reviewing the decade that followed World War II, Cartwright [1961] speaks of the "excitement
and optimism" of American social psychologists, and notes "the tremendous increase in the total
number of people calling themselves social psychologists." Most of these, we may add, show
little awareness of the history of their field.
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Practical and humanitarian motives have always played an important part in the development of
social psychology, not only in American but in other lands as well. Yet there have been discordant
and dissenting voices. In the opinion of Herbert Spencer in England, of Ludwig Gumplowicz in
Austria, and of William Graham Sumner in the United States, it is both futile and dangerous for
man to attempt to steer or to speed social change. Social evolution, they argued, requires time and
obeys laws beyond the control of man. The only practical service of social science is to warn man
not to interfere with the course of nature (or society). But these authors are in minority. Most
social psychologists share with Comte an optimistic view of man's chances to better his way of
life. Has he not already improved his health via biological sciences? Why should he not better his
social relationship via social science? For the past century this optimistic outlook has persisted in
the face of slender accomplishment to date. Human relations seem stubbornly set. Wars have not
been abolished, labor troubles have not abated, and racial tensions are still with us. Give us time
and give us money for research, the optimists say.
20. Social psychology developed in the USA.
A. because its roots are intellectually western in origin
B. as a direct response to the great depression
C. to meet the threat of Adolf Hitler and his policy of mass genocide
D. because of its pragmatic traditions for dealing with social problem
21. According to the author, social psychology should help him to.
A. preserve individual rights
B. become healthier
C. be aware of history
D. improve material welfare
22. Who believed that man can influence social change for the good of society?
A. Cartwright.
B. Spencer.
C. Sumner.
D. Comte.
TEXTC
GOD AND MY FATHER
I thought of God as a strangely emotional being. He was powerful; he was forgiving yet obdurate,
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full of warmth and affection. Both his wrath and affection were fitful, they came and they went,
and I couldn't count on either to continue: although they both always did. In short God was much
such a being as my father himself.
What was the relation between them, 1 wondered – these two puzzling deities?
My father's ideas of religion seemed straightforward and simple. He had noticed when he was a
boy that there were buildings called churches; he had accepted them as a natural part of the
surroundings in which he had been born. He would never have invented such things himself.
Nevertheless they were here. As he grew up he regarded them as unquestioningly as he did banks.
They were substantial old structures; they were respectable, decent, and venerable. They were
frequented by the right sort of people. Well, that was enough.
On the other hand he never allowed churches – or banks – to dictate to him. He gave each the
respect that was due to it from his point of view; but he also expected from each of them the
respect he felt due to him.
As to creeds, he knew nothing about them, and cared nothing either; yet he seemed to know
which sect he belonged with. It had to be a sect with the minimum of nonsense about it; no total
immersion, no exhorters. no holy confession. He would have been a Unitarian, naturally, if he'd
lived in Boston. Since he was a respectable New Yorker; he belonged in the Episcopal Church.
As to living a spiritual life, he never tackled that problem. Some men who accept spiritual beliefs
try to live up to them daily: other men who reject such beliefs, try sometimes to smash them. My
father would have disagreed with both kinds entirely. He took a more distant attitude. It disgusted
him where atheists attacked religion: he thought they were vulgar. But he also objected to having
religion make demands upon him he felt that religion was too vulgar, when it tried to stir up men's
feelings. It had its own proper field of activity, and it was all right there, of course; but there was
one place religion should leave alone, and that was a man's soul. He especially loathed any talk of
walking hand in hand with his Savior. And if he had ever found the Holy Ghost trying to soften
his heart, he would have regarded its behavior as distinctly uncalled for; even ungentlemanly.
23. The writer says his father's idea of religion seemed straightforward and simple because his
father.
A. had been born in natural surroundings banks and churches
B. never really thought of God as having a real existence
C. regarded religion as acceptable as long as it did not interfere
D. regarded religion as a way that he could live a spiritual life
24. The writer's father would probably agree with the statement that ________.
A. both spiritualists and atheists are vulgar
B. being aware of different creeds is important
C. religion should expect heart and soul devotion
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D. churches like banks are not to be trusted
[NextPage]
TEXT D
ETIQUETTE
In sixteenth-century Italy and eighteenth-century France, waning prosperity and increasing social
unrest led the ruling families to try to preserve their superiority by withdrawing from the lower
and middle classes behind barriers of etiquette. In a prosperous community, on the other hand,
polite society soon absorbs the newly rich, and in England there has never been any shortage of
books on etiquette for teaching them the manners appropriate to their new way of life.
Every code of etiquette has contained three elements; basic moral duties; practical rules which
promote efficiency; and artificial, optional graces such as formal compliments to, say. women on
their beauty or superiors on their generosity and importance.
In the first category are considerations for the weak and respect for age. Among the ancient
Egyptians the young always stood in the presence of older people. Among the Mponguwe of
Tanzania, the young men bow as they pass the huts of the elders. In England, until about a century
ago, young children did not sit in their parents' presence without asking permission.
Practical rules are helpful in such ordinary occurrences of social file as making proper
introductions at parties or other functions so that people can be brought to know each other.
Before the invention of the fork, etiquette directed that the fingers should be kept as clean as
possible; before the handkerchief came into common use. etiquette suggested that after spiting, a
person should rub the spit inconspicuously underfoot.
Extremely refined behavior, however, cultivated as an art of gracious living, has been
characteristic only of societies with wealth and leisure, which admitted women asthe social equals
of men. After the fall of Rome, the first European society to regulate behavior in private life in
accordance with a complicated code of etiquette was twelfth-century Provence, in France.
Provence had become wealthy. The lords had returned to their castle from the crusades, and there
the ideals of chivalry grew up, which emphasized the virtue and gentleness of women and
demanded that a knight should profess a pure and dedicated love to a lady who would be his
inspiration, and to whom he would dedicate his valiant deeds, though he would never come
physically close to her. This was the introduction of the concept of romantic love, which was to
influence literature for many hundreds of years and which still lives on in a debased form in
simple popular songs and cheap novels today.
In Renaissance Italy too, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a wealthy and leisured society
developed an extremely complex code of manners, but the rules of behavior of fashionable
society had little influence on the daily life of the lower classes. Indeed many of the rules, such as
how to enter a banquet room, or how to use a sword or handkerchief for ceremonial purposes,
were irrelevant to the way of life of the average working man, who spent most of his life outdoors
or in his own poor hut and most probably did not have a handkerchief, certainly not a sword, to
his name.
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Yet the essential basis of all good manners does not vary. Consideration for the old and weak and
the avoidance of harming or giving unnecessary offence to others is a feature of all societies
everywhere and at all levels from the highest to the lowest.
25. One characteristic of the rich classes of declining society is their tendency to ________.
A. take in the recently wealthy
B. retreat within themselves
C. produce publications on manners
D. change the laws of etiquette
26. Which of the following is NOT an element of the code of etiquette?
A. Respect for age.
B. Formal compliments.
C. Proper introductions at social functions.
D. Eating with a fork rather than fingers.
27. According to the writer which of the following is part of chivalry? A knight should ________.
A. inspire his lady to perform valiant deeds
B. perform deeds which would inspire romantic songs
C. express his love for his lady from a distance
D. regard his lady as strong and independent
28. Etiquette as an art of gracious living is quoted as a feature of which country?
A. Egypt.
B. 18th century France.
C. Renaissance Italy.
D. England.
TEXTE
CONFLICT AND COMPETITION
The question of whether war is inevitable is one which has concerned many of the world's great
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writers. Before considering the question, it will be useful to introduce some related concepts.
Conflict, defined as opposition among social entities directed against one another, is distinguished
from competition, defined as opposition among social entities independently striving for
something which is in inadequate supply. Competitors may not be aware of one another, while the
parties to a conflict are. Conflict and competition are both categories of op/x>sition, which has
been defined as a process by which social entities function in the disservice of one another.
Opposition is thus contrasted with cooperation, the process by which social entities function in the
service of one another. These definitions are necessary because it is important to emphasize that
competition between individuals or groups is inevitable in a world of limited resources, but
conflict is not. Conflict, nevertheless, is very likely to occur, and is probably an essential and
desirable element of human societies.
Many authors have argued for the inevitability of war from the premise that in the struggle for
existence among animal species, only the fittest survive. In general, however, this struggle in
nature is competition, not conflict. Social animals, such as monkeys and cattle, fight to win or
maintain leadership of the group. The struggle for existence occurs not in fights, but in the
competition for limited feeding areas and for the occupancy of areas free from meat-eating
animals. Those who fail in this competition starve to death or become victims to other species.
The struggle for existence does not resemble human war, but rather the competition of individuals
for jobs, markets and materials. The essence of the struggle is the competition for the necessities
of life that are insufficient to satisfy all.
Among nations there is competition in developing resources, trades, skills, and a satisfactory way
of life. The successful nations grow and prosper; the unsuccessful decline. While it is true that this
competition may induce efforts to expand territory at the expense of others, and thus lead to
conflict, it cannot be said that war-like conflict among other nations is inevitable, although
competition is.
29. According to the author which of the following is inevitable?
A. War.
B. Conflict.
C. Competition.
D. Cooperation.
30. In the animal kingdom the struggle for existence.
A. is evidence of the inevitability of conflict among the fittest
B. arises from a need to live in groups
C. is evidence of the need to compete for scarce resources
D. arises from a natural desire to fight
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
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In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan
them as required and then mark your answers on your Colored Answer Sheet.
TEXT F
First read the following question.
31. The writer believes the problems of chaos and noise will most probably only be ________.
solved by.
A. the students themselves
B. the students' parents
C. the college authorities
D. the newspaper
Now go through TEXT F quickly and answer question
31.
ANGRY RESIDENTS
12 Gradge Crescent
Rudwick
Sir,
On two occasions since Rudwick College opened you have given front page reports on the chaotic
conditions prevailing there...
But whilst chaos and upheaval reigns in the college, what of the chaos and noise that local
residents are subjected to? Cars are parked on the pavement, and, still worse, on the pavements at
street corners. The noise from motorcycles is such that at times conversation is impossible. To add
to this, our streets are littered with paper, Coca Cola tins and empty milk bottles. Huge transistor
radios are carried by students at all times of the day, blasting out music so loudly that babies wake
and old people are unable to take their afternoon naps. All in all, we have found students' behavior
to be quite intolerable.
We appeal to students (whom we support financially via our local authority rates) to have some
consideration for other people. And if the young people themselves won't listen to what we say,
and we suspect they won't, then perhaps their parents should knock some sense into their heads.
Yours faithfully,
John Smith
TEXTG
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First read the following question.
32. In the passage the writer's tone is.
A. critical
B. apathetic
C. sympathetic
D. neutral
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question
32.
RACE
About one-fifth of the high school students here are boycotting classes to protest the reinstatement
of a principal who threatened to ban interracial couples from the prom.
The boycott began on Monday as classes resumed after spring break for the 680 students at
Randolph County High School.
It was also the first day back for the principal, Hulond Humphries, a white man who was
reinstated by a 4-to-2 vote of the school board after being suspended on March 14. Ms.
Humphries, 55, who has been principal for 25 years, declined to comment on the boycott.
The boycott was organized by the school board's only black member, Charlotte Clark-Freison.
Parents who attended a meeting on Monday night decided to keep their children out of school
today, said Ms. Clark-Freison.
A group of parents traveled today to Montgomery, about 90 miles to the southwest, to meet with
state education officials and ask about setting up an alternative school during the boycott, Ms.
Clark-Freison said.
School Superintendent Dale McKay said he did not know how many students were absent from
class either on Monday or today.
Tawanna Mize, a white senior, said school attendance sheets showed 157 absent students, 115 of
them black. Ms. Clark-Freison said about 200 black students boycotted today. She did not know
how many white students stayed away.
Many black students gathered on Monday and today at two churches to discuss multicultural
issues and non-violent protests. Many of the boycotting students wore black-and-white ribbons.
The boycotters included Re Vonda Bowen, who filed a civil rights lawsuit against Mr. Humphries
for saying at a school assembly on Feb. 24 that she was "a mistake" because her father is white
and her mother is black. At the same assembly, Mr. Humphries announced that mixed-race
couples would not be allowed at the prom and that the dance would be cancelled if they showed
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up.
The next day, Mr. Humphries withdrew the threat to close the prom if mixed-race couples showed
up, and he said his comments had been misunderstood.
TEXT H
First read the following question.
33. The writer advises that the problems between Iran and the USA might be best dealt with in
the UN by getting the support of.
A. America's NATO allies in the west.
B. Islamic Third World countries.
C. Russia.
D. Britain.
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question
33.
USA/IRAN
Sir,
The present quarrel between the US and Iran seems to be drifting dangerously near to a
confrontation between the West and the Third World. It is understandable that the US should seek
support from her allies within NATO but the result of this could be seen as an attempt by a group
of powerful industrial countries to bully the people of a Third World country which, in recent
years, had no cause to be grateful for the policies of the US.
Surely the appropriate forum in which to search out a settlement to this extremely dangerous
quarrel is the UN and the West should do its utmost, within that forum, to gather the greatest
possible support from the Third World, and particularly Islamic countries.
I am well aware that the matter has been considered by the Security Council and the General
Assembly and that the International Court of Justice has also pronounced in favor of the American
case. I myself in no way support the behavior of the Iranians on this issue, which I believe to be
dangerous and provocative. Nevertheless, it is my view that it would be wise for the Western
powers to continue to use the quiet diplomacy of the UN and also, if this should prove practicable,
the good offices of Islamic countries who have no desire to be caught up in a middle Eastern
conflict arising from the present tension between Iran and the US.
In addition to exploiting still further the use of the machinery of the UN, I also consider that
European leaders ought to suggest that it would be helpful if a summit meeting could take place
between the American and Russian leaders to exchange views about the whole situation in the
Middle East.
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Such an exchange of views would be unlikely to produce instant solutions, but it might help the
Russian and American governments to read each other's minds and seek methods of backing away
from the perilous trial of strength in that part of the world.
Yours sincerely,
Frank Hooley, MP
House of Commons, London SW1
TEXT I
First read the following question.
34. The purpose of the passage is to.
A. describe the mining of gold
B. describe man's pursuit of gold
C. determine the importance of gold
D. discuss the role of gold
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer question
34.
GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!
Gold has enthralled man since the dawn of civilization. For centuries he braved arctic cold. tropic
heat and inhuman privations to wrest gold from the earth. He asked it for religious objects,
sculpture, and jewelry and as a symbol of wealth. Paradoxically, he often buried it – for use in the
afterlife; as the pharaohs did, or for safekeeping against the uncertainties of this life.
Gold's luster and rarity, which implied its owner possessed great power, gave it a musical quality
from the start. Gold was considered divine in ancient Greece and was used to adorn temples and
as an offering to the gods. Despite their reverence, the ancients were quick to recognize gold's
practical qualities, particularly its malleability, which made it ideal for jewelry. Even Cleopatra
used gold ornaments to enhance her charm.
However, it has been as a symbol of wealth – of nations as well as individuals – that gold has
played its most dramatic role. The quest for gold changed the course of history – shifting nations'
borders and opening wildernesses.
The cry "Gold!" probably launched more ships than a hundred Helens of Troy. History books tell
us Columbus' expedition was inspired by his scientific curiosity. But it was also backed by Queen
Isabella, who may have been motivated to donate her jewels by more than just sympathy for his
cause or desire for a trade route to the East. Whatever the original motive might have been,
certainly her royal spouse was moved by more than scientific triumph in 1511 when he wrote to
his men in South American: "Get gold!" he commented, "humanely if possible, but at all hazards
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get gold."
The intrinsic value of gold, perhaps enhanced by its mystique, made it a medium of exchange in
many parts of the world. Payments were made in gold hundreds of years before 550 B. C., when
the first known gold coins were cast. King Croesus of Lydia (western Turkey), whose legendary
wealth inspired the phrase " rich as Croesus", is generally credited with that minting. However,
gold played a relatively minor monetary role until great 19th century gold rushes in California.
Alaska, Canada and South Africa produced sufficient quantities to make wide-scale monetary use
practical.
The artistic, industrial and ornamental uses of gold have changed little since ancient times, but its
monetary use has been transformed. Gold ducats, double eagles and sovereigns can't meet
industrial societies' need for convenient and efficient money. Modern nations use paper currency,
base-metal coins, and checkbook balances to meet the needs of their fast-paced economics.
As a rule, nations now keep gold for payments to each other. The "coin" used in these payments is
a gold bar. often about the size and shape of a common building brick, weighing about 400 troy
ounces (about 27 avoirdupois pounds) and valued at about $17 000 at today's official US
Government price. In the "free" market, where the forces of supply and demand constantly
determine gold's value, this same bar was worth about thirteen times as much in early 1981. When
nations trade gold, it is done at the market price rather than at the official price.
TEXT J
First read the following two questions.
35. According to the passage. London recorded its coldest day in years when ________.
the temperature dropped to 90 degrees.
A. 40
B. 41
C. 42
D. 43
36. How many people died in Poland because of the weather in the first half of January 1987?
A.
77.
B.
29.
C.
48.
D.
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27.
Now go through TEXT J quickly and answer questions 35 and
36.
WEATHER
Severe winter weather during the first three weeks of January caused hundreds of deaths in
Europe. A massive dome of cold air became entrenched over northern Scandinavia and northern
USSR in mid-December of 1986. It migrated westward and southward so that by January 12
much of the continent was under its influence. On that day, central England had its coldest day
since 1945, with London recording 160 F ( - 90 C). In Leningrad, USSR, temperatures dipped to –
490 F ( 450 C)! reportedly the coldest in 250 years.
Coastal and river ice brought a halt to shipping in northern Europe. The cold was also
accompanied by a major snowstorm that snarled rail and road transport in Western Europe on
January 11 to 13. Snow fell as far south as the French Rivera. On January 14, East Berlin
recorded an all-time record low of – 130 F ( HOC), while Paris measured a snowfall of 5. 5
inches (14 centimeters) – the fourth heaviest on record.
During the first two weeks of the month, the cold was blamed for 77 deaths in the USSR,
including 48 from heating accidents and 29 from avalanches. In Poland, home fires claimed 27
lives. By the time the cold began easing around January 19, the total reported deaths from snow
and cold across Europe and the USSR neared 350.
The interior of North America was experiencing record mildness. Parts of Alberta, Canada,
enjoyed the warmest January ever, with temperatures averaging up to 18 F (10 C) above normal.
The January warmth turned out to be part of a remarkably persistent weather anomaly. From
December 1986 through 1987, monthly average temperatures across a large area of Canada
remained above normal. From December through April, readings averaged 110 F (60 C) above
normal in an area extending from eastern Alberta to western Ontario. In Ontario, August was the
first month with below-normal temperatures after eight consecutive months above normal.
Localized areas had even more persistent warmth. At Vancouver International Airport, November
was the 16th consecutive month with above-normal temperatures. The relative warmth across the
continent is a feature often associated with warm ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific
Ocean.
[NextPage]
TEXT K
First read the following two questions.
37. Which person won the Lenin Peace Prize?
A. McGuigan.
B. Mach.
C. Machado.
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D. Machel.
38. Which person carried out research in the Amazon region?
A. McGuigan.
B. Mach.
C. Machado.
D. Machel.
Now go through TEXT K quickly and answer questions 37 and
38.
WHO' WHO
McGUIGAN, Hon. Thomas Malcolm; New Zealand, parliamentarian and business consultant; b
20 Feb. 1921, Christchurch; m Ruth Deacon 1946; two%. one d.; ed. Christchurch Boys' High
School, Christchurch Tech. Evening School; served in Navy 1941 1945; secretarial and
accountancy posts in commerce 1946 1954; House Man. Christchurch Hosp. 1955 1957: Sr.
Admin Officer, Princess Margaret Hosp., Christchurch 1958 1969: M. P. 1969 1975; Minister of
Railways, Electricity and Civil Defense 1972-1974, of Health and Public Trust Office 1974 1975;
J. P. 1953 ; Pres. New Zealand Football Asscn. 1974 1975. Leisure interests-, golf, cricket,
finishing, football, reading, and music. Address-. 71 Main Road, Christchurch 8, New Zealand.
MACH, Stanislaw, M. ECON,
C. SC; Polish politician; b 22 April 1938, Przychody. near Olkusz; economic studies; chief
Mechanic, Cart Factory, Sianow 1960 1961, Voivodship Amalgamation of Establishments for
Mechanization of Agric, Koszalin 1961 1963; Branch Sec. Main Tech Org. (NOT), Koszalin
1963 1968; Deputy Chair Voivoship Council of Trade unions, Koszalin 1968 1971; mem. Polish
United Workers' Party (PZPR) 1961 ; First Sec. PZPR District Cttee Kolobrzeg 1971 1972;
Chair Presidium, Voivodship Nat. Council (WRN), Koszalin 1972-1973, Voivode, Koszalin 1973
1975; First Sec. PZPR Voivodship Cttee., Slupsk 1975 1977; Chair Presidium, WRN Slupsk
1975 1977; Deputy mem. PZPR Cen. Cttee 1975 ; deputy to Seym (Parl). 1976 1980; Minister
of Light Industry 1977 1980; Deputy Chair. Council of Ministers Oct. 1980 ; decorations include
Knight's Cross of Order Polonia Restituta. Address-. Urzad Rady Ministrow, Al. Ujazdowskie 1/3,
00 583, Warsaw, Poland.
MACHADO, Paulo de Almeida; Brazilian doctor, b. Minas Gerais; active in planting public
health and sanitary services? Dir. Nat. Inst. for Research in the Amazon Region until 1974;
Minister of Health 1974 1978. Address-, c/o Ministerio da Saude, Esplanada dos Ministerios,
blocoll. Brasilia,
D. F. Brazil.
MACHEL, Samora Moises: Mozambique nationalist leader and politician. b. Oct. 1933, Lourenco
Marques (now Maputo); m. Grace Simbine 1975; trained as a male nurse; sent to Algeria for mil.
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training 1963; organized training camp program in Tanzania; C.-in-c, army of Frente de
Libcrtacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO) in guerilla war against Portuguese 1966 1974; Sec. of
Defense. FRELIMO 1966-1974. Pres May 1970 ; Pres. of Mozambique June 1975- ; Joliot-
Curie Gold Medal 1977. Lenin Peace Prize 1977, Order of Suhbuator (Mongolia) 1978. Order of
Friendship 1980. Address-. Officio do Presidento. Maputo. Mozambique.
McHENRY. Donald F. M. Sc.; American diplomatists; b. 13 Oct. 1936, St. Louis, Mo.; m Mary
Williamson (divorced); one s. two d; ed Illinois State Univ. Southern Illinois and Georgetown
Univs; taught Howard Univ., Washington 1959 1962; active in civil rights movt.. during 1960s;
joined dept of State 1963.
TEXT L
First read the following two questions.
39. Who among the following is a biographer?
A. Tapie.
B. El-Shinawwy.
C. Haslip.
D. Nazir-Ali.
40. Who among the following owns a soccer team?
A. Tapie.
B. Helu.
C. Haslip.
D. Nazir-Ali.
Now go through TEXT L quickly and answer questions 39 and
40.
MILESTONES
APPOINTED. MICHAEL NAZIR-ALI, 44, an assistant bishop in central London; as Bishop of
Rochester, the first non-white diocesan bishop of the Church of England; in Kent. The general
secretary of the church Missionary Society, Nazir-Ali, who was ordained in Karachi in 1976 and
holds dual Pakistani and British citizenship, has written several books on Islamic-Christian
relations. Of his appointment he said, "I think it reflects the way in which this country has
changed."
RANSOMED. ALFREDO HARP HELU, 50. billionaire president and co-owner of one of Latin
America's largest financial firms, Banamex-Accival; for about $30 million, paid by his family,
after he was held 106 days by his kidnappers; in Mexico city. The release followed a dramatic TV
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专八真题 1996 年
appearance in which Harp's son.
accompanied by a family lawyer and a priest, accepted the kidnappers' terms unconditionally. At
the family's request, the police did not intervene, giving rise to fears that the huge ransom will
encourage more kidnappings and adding to concerns about Mexico's stability.
ARRESTED. BERNARD TAPIE. 51. flamboyant entrepreneur and one of France's fastest rising
political stars; only 12 hours after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity: on fraud and tax-
evasion charges involving the use of his yacht, Phocea, in Paris. The Marseilles Deputy and
former Urban Affairs Minister was already under investigation in four other cases, which
involved defamation, embezzlement, fraud and a bribery scandal connected to his Olympique de
Marseilles soccer team. If convicted on the latest charges. Tapie risks heavy fines and up to five
years in prison – yet his political support remains strong.
DIED. MA'MOUN EL-SHINNAWY, 80. master of the modern Arabic lyrical poetry who also
wrote the words to more than 1 000 popular Egyptian songs; in Cairo. Originally a journalist
noted for has lancing wit. El-Shinawy co-founded a political-humor magazine in 1950 called
World and a Half. which was closed down during the 1952 revolution that brought Gamal Abdel
Nasser to power. In the '60s El-Shinnawy penned the romantic verse that would bring him renown
throughout the Arab world.
DIED. JOAN HASLIP, 82. popular biographer of such historical figures as France's Marie
Antoinette and Emperor Maximilian of Mexico; in Bellosguardo, Italy. The British-born Haslip,
who spent much of her life in Italy- made a precocious entrance into the world of letters,
publishing two novels by the time she was 20. But after being called a "pretty, witty spendthrift
writer" by V. S. Pritchett she turned to biography because she was "determined to be taken
seriously". Critical and commercial success greeted her 1971 book on Maximilian. Imperial
Adventurer, which became a best seller. Marie Antoinette • her 1987 portrait of the guillotined
queen, was translated into 10 languages.
PAPER TWO
PART IV TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following underlined part of the TEXT into English. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
近期报纸, 对国外名片和请柬的议论颇多, 于是想起客居巴黎时经常见到的法国人手中的名
片和请柬, 随笔记下来, 似乎不无借鉴之处。
在巴黎, 名目繁多的酒会, 冷餐会是广交朋友的好机会。在这种场合陌生人相识 , 如果是亚
洲人, 他们往往开口之前先毕恭毕敬地用双手把自己的名片呈递给对方, 这好像是不可缺少
的礼节。然而, 法国人一般却都不大主动递送名片, 双方见面寒暄几句, 甚至海阔天空地聊
一番也就各自走开, 只有当双方谈话投机, 希望继续交往时, 才会主动掏出名片。二话不说
先递名片反倒有些勉强。
法国人的名片讲究朴素大方, 印制精美, 但很少有镶金边的、闪光多色的或带香味的。名片
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上的字体纤细秀丽, 本人的名字也不过分突出, 整张纸片上空白很大, 毫无拥挤不堪的感觉。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the TEXT into Chinese. Write your translation on
ANSWER SHEET THREE.
Four months before election day, five men gathered in a small conference room at the Reagan-
Bush headquarters and reviewed an oversize calendar that mark the remaining days of the 1984
presidential campaign. It was the last Saturday in June and at ten o'clock in the morning the rest
of the office was practically deserted. Even so, the men kept the door shut and the drapes
carefully drawn. The three principals and their two deputies had come from around the country
for a critical meeting. Their aim was to devise a strategy that would guarantee Ronald Reagan's
resounding reelection to a second term in the White House.
It should have been easy. These were battle-tested veterans with long ties to Reagan and even
longer ones to the Republican party, men who understood presidential politics as well as any in
the country. The backdrop of the campaign was hospitable, with lots of good news to work with:
America was at peace, and the nation's economy, a key factor in any election, was rebounding
vigorously after recession. Furthermore, the campaign itself was lavishly financed, with plenty of
money for a top-flight staff, travel, and television commercials. And, most important, their
candidate was Ronald Reagan, a president of tremendous personal popularity and dazzling
communication skills. Reagan has succeeded more than any president since John F. Kennedy in
projecting a broad vision of America – a nation of renewed military strength, individual initiative,
and smaller federal government.
PART V WRITING (60 MIN)
On a Chinese college campus, usually several college students share a dormitory. Unfortunately
some college students do not pay enough attention to living in a shared environment. For instance,
they may ignore the sanitation of their dormitory or they may suddenly start to play music while
others are sound asleep. Hence the idea of making dormitory policies to curb these indecencies
has become popular on campus.
You are in favor of this idea and have therefore decided to write to your university campus radio a
passage entitled:
IN SUPPORT OF DORMITORY POLICIES
You are to write a passage of approximately 300 words on this issue.
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part
you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring
what you have written to a natural conclusion with a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to
follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1995)
----GRADE EIGHT--
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN.)
In Section A, B and C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and then
answer the questions that follow Mark the correct response for each question on your
Colored Answer Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 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 speaker is
[A] explaining the credit system. [B] recommending the tutor system.
[C] introducing a short summer course.[D] talking to some college students.
2. A student with a 75% attendance record will only receive a certificate if she has
[A] completed the individual assignments. [B] submitted good reasons for this.
[C] undertaken the required group work. [D] carried out the necessary private
study.
3. In the speaker' s opinion, the method of evaluation is
[A] more demanding. [B] under review.
[C] better than before. ID] optional.
4. According to the speaker which of the following is a rule?
[A] No cooking in rooms. [B] No smoking on campus.
[C] No accommodation for friends. [D] No consumables in classrooms.
5. The general tone of this talk can be described as
[A] impartial. [B] dominthing.
[C] authoritative. [D] condescending.
SECTION B CONVERSATION
Questions 6 to 10 are based on a conversation between Pauline and her friend. At the
end of the conversation you will be given 13 seconds to answer each of the following
questions. Now listen to the conversation.
6. Pauline failed to catch the flight because
[A] her ticket was not confirmed. [B] she booked her ticket at the wrong place.
[C] she didn' t have the right documents. [D] her visa had run out.
7. Which of the following did not occur? Pauline
[A] visited one of London' s parks.[B] went to the airport by taxi.
[C] contacted the airline by telephone. [D] stayed the night in London.
8. In Ibiza, Pauline took a taxi because
[A] she had too much luggage. [B] nobody came to pick her up.
[C] the plane was delayed. [D] her friend' s home was far away.
9. Pauline learned her friend' s address in [A] Newcastle. [B] Gatwick. [C]
London. [D] Luton.
10. From the conversation we get the impress:
[A] some official agencies in London are
[B] taxi drivers abroad always overcharge.
[C] customs formalities in Britain are flexible.
[D] travel agents tend to misinform people.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 and 12 are based on the follow end of the news item, you will be given
30 seconds to answer the two questions. Now listen to the news.
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11. The weather on the wedding day was
[A] cold. [B] warm. [C] foggy. [D] rainy.
12. The wedding reception was held
[A] in Edinburgh. [B] on Deeside. [C] at Balmoral. [D] near York.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the following news from the VOA. At the end of the
news item, you will be given 45 seconds to answer the three questions.
Now listen to the news.
13. Rachel Whiteread is
[A] a traditional artist. [B] a sculptor.
[C] an interior decorator. [D] a house designer.
14. Which of the following was not considered for this year' s Turner Prize?
[A] A model containing a large amount of rice.
[B] A sculpture showing the inside of old houses.
[C] A display made up of fish and glass.
[D] A sculpture involving colored neon lights.
15. What made Rachel Whiteread unhappy was the fact that
[A] she knew her creation was to be pulled down.
[B] she got the prize as the worst artist.
[C] she was ridiculed and mocked by newspapermen.
[D] she was regarded as a hypocrite and the worst artist.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In 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. Your notes will not
be marked, but you will need them to complete a 15-minute gap-filling task on the
ANSWER SHEET after the mini-lecture.
ANSWER SHEET
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING [20 MIN.]
Fill in each of the gaps with ONE suitable word. You may refer to your notes. Make
sure the word you fill in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable.
Computers
There are millions of computers in the world today.
As computers process extremely (1) information at (1)
a very fast speed, they are changing various aspects of
our lives. And the introduction of (2) has accelerated (2)
this change and also led to (3) computers. (3)
Computers are widely employed in banking for
(4) cheques. They are also used in(4)
(5) and for the payment of standing orders. The (5)
newly developed Electronic Funds (6) System (6)
could allow the computer controlling it to become the
centre of a wider (7) . (7)
TEM8-95-2
The most popular use of computers in (8) is in(8)
keeping (9) located on hospital wards and even in (9)
operating theatres. Computers are also involved in assisting
(10)through the immediate provision of the (10)
(11) medical data, previously often only to be (11)
found in published material.
Computers are revolutionizing the production of
(12). For example, the reporter can put his story(12)
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专八真题 1995 年
, known as (13) , directly into the computer, (13)
and this then appears on a (14) When he is satisfied (14 )
with a reporter' s work, the (15) can access (15)
the final version and make any further alterations. By
.means of a special (16) , the articles can then be (16)
organized into (17) and finally the whole is auto- (17)
matically transferred to the (18) section. (18)
Because of the application of computers, significant
changes have taken place in the type of (19) done (19)
by many people and more importantly in the (20) (20)
people needed to do the work.
PART II PROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION (20
MINS)
Air quality in Britain has improved considerably in the
last thirty years. Total emissions of smoke in the air have risen by(1)
over 85 percent since 1950. The domestic smoking control program (2)
has been particularly important in achieving this result. London and (3)
other major cities are no longer have the dense smoke-laden (4)
"smogs" of the 1950s but in central London winter sunshine has (5)
increased about 70 percent since 1958. (6)
Since 1990, everyday air pollution data from the British (7)
monitoring network has been made available to the public by(8)
the Department of the Environment' s Air Quantity Bulletins.(9)
These give the concentrations on three main pollutants - ozone, (10)
nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide - and grade air quality on (11)
a scale between "very weak" and "very good". The information (12)
features in television and radio weather reports, appears (13)
in many national and local newspapers. Therefore, the data are also (14)
available on the special free telephone number and on videotext systems. (15)
A comprehensive review of the issue of urbanized air (16)
quality was announced in January 1992. Three independent committees (17)
of which experts have been established to advise on different(18)
aspects of the problem, and will set guidelines and targets for air (19)
quality. The network also being extended and upgraded at a cost (20)
of 10 million pounds.
PART III READING COMPREHENSION [40 MIN.]
SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION [30 MIN.]
In this section there are six reading passages followed by a total of twenty multiple-
choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your Colored
Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
David Frost - Autobiography
[Part one]
by David Frost
Looked at one way, it is faintly ludicrous that Sir David Frost should be writing his
autobiography already. That he should have written just the first 30 years' worth might
be thought strange. Here he is, not yet 55 years old, producing a volume of 528 pages
that takes us no further than 1969.
It is, true, the period of his life that established his name and fortune, that swift rise
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from undergraduate cabaret turn to star host on both sides of the Atlantic, joint
founder of an ambitious ITV company and long since able to invite show business
stars, business tycoons and a British Prime Minister to breakfast at three days' notice.
(An event recalled in his book with such empty indifference that you cannot decide
whether the comprehensive name-dropping is intended to impress or just a habit.)
And yet David Frost, a significant figure in British television, certainly in the rapidly
changing environment of the 1960' s, remains something of a mystery. Never far from
positions of influence, wealthier from his broadcasting activities than all but the
biggest moguls, he is in many
ways on the edge of things.
His book, like his career, perhaps, is as fascinating as it is unsatisfactory. The length is
due to its liberal resort to program transcripts, which yield verbatim exchanges with
his many interviewees as well as detailed recall of the highs and lows of That Was
The Week That Was and the scripting process that achieved them.
The private Frost is to be caught only in passing, as he remains true to his preface:
"Where there was a choice between a ` 60s tale and a personal one I have tried always
to include the former."
The outcome is, I think, an insider' s book, dependent on remembering the times or
knowing the people. But at that level, it is highly suggestive of its era, offers a view
from a unique angle, yields some new insights - into the formation of London
Weekend Television, for instance - and earns its place in the history of British
Television. Like its author.
16. The autobiography covers the author' s
[A] last thirty years. [B] life after 1969.
[C] life before 1969. [D] first 55 years.
17. David Frost is [B] a famous movie star.
[A] an influential TV host. [D] a fascinating novelist.
[C] an ambitious politician.
18. The autobiography is described as an insider' s book because it requires a
knowledge of
[A] all his personal experiences.
[B] his unique insights into British history.
[C] the development of British television.
[D] what was really happening in the 1960s.
TEXT B
He Came in on Cat Paws
Quietly, almost unnoticed by a world sunk into the Great Depression, Germany on
Jan. 30, 1933, was handed to a
monster. Adolf Hitler arrived, not in jackboots at the head of his Nazi legions but on
cat paws, creeping in the side door.
The president, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, 85 and doddering, hated Hitler
and all he represented. In 1931, after their first meeting, Hindenburg said Hitler
"might become minister of posts but never chancellor". In 1932 Hitler challenged
Hindenburg. The president - Protestant, Prussian, a conservative monarchist - won
with the votes of socialists, Unions, Centrist Catholics and Liberal Democrats. Hitler -
Catholic, Austrian and a former tramp - carried upper-class Protestants, Prussian
landowners and monarchists.
Nearly senile and desperate for any way to establish order in the fractious
environment, Hindenburg fell prey to intriguers. Papen began plotting to bring
himself to power and his supposed friend Schleicher to the top of the army. Papen
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offered Hindenburg a government with Hitler' s support but without Hitler in the
cabinet. Hindenburg made Papen chancellor and Schleicher defense minister.
In the July 1932 parliamentary elections, the Nazis won 230 of 608 seats, and Hitler
demanded the chancellorship; Hindenburg refused. Papen lost a confidence vote in
August, and his government fell after losing in the fourth election in a year in
November. Schleicher, whose very name means "intriguer", turned on Papen,
persuading Hindenburg to name him chancellor. Hitler' s propagandist Joseph
Goebbels noted: "He won' t last long."
To get revenge, Papen proposed sharing power with Hitler in January 1933; Hitler
agreed, but with Papen as vice chancellor. Ever eager for order, Hindenburg shifted
once again and fired Schleicher. "I am sure," the president said, "I shall not regret this
action in heaven." Schleicher replied bitterly, "After this breach of trust, sir, I am not
sure you will go to heaven." Schleicher would later say: "I stayed in power only 57
days, and on each and every one of them I was betrayed 57 times. Don' t ever speak to
me of German loyalty!"
At noon on Jan. 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as chancellor. Within one month,
the Reichstag burned and civil liberties were suspended. Within two months, the
Enabling Act stripped parliament of power and made Hitler dictator. On April 1,
Hitler decreed a boycott of Jewish business. On April 4, he created the Reich Defense
Council and began secretly rearming Germany. On July 14, Hitler made the Nazi
Party "the only political party in Germany".
As they sowed, so they reaped. In the BloodPurge of 1934, a Nazi SS squad murdered
Kurt yon Schleicher in the doorway of his home. Franz von Papen lingered on, so
powerless an errand boy for Hitler that he was acquitted at the Nuremberg trials.
19. The author says that Hitler came into power "On cat paws" because
[A] he seized power illegally.
[B] he seized power by military force.
[C] he quietly took advantage of the internal conflict.
[D] he cleverly took advantage of the Depression.
20. Hitler first asked to be made chancellor when
[A] Papen lost a confidence vote. [B] Hitler had won a third of the votes.
[C] Hindenburg fired Schleicher. [D] Schleicher was fired.
21. The chancellor was held by
[A] Papen, Schleicher, and then Hitler.
[B] Schleicher, Papen, and then Hitler.
[C] Hindenburg, Schleicher, and then Hitler.
[D] Hindenburg, Papen, and then Hitler.
TEXT C
Mercedes-Benz Gets Turned Upside Down
Iris Rossner has seen eastern Germany customers weep for joy when they drive away
in shiny, new Mercedes-Benz sedans. "They have tears in their eyes and keep saying
how lucky they are," says Rossner, the Mercedes employee nale for post-delivery
celebrations. Rossner has also seen the French pop corks on bottles of champagne as
their national flag was hoisted above a purchase. And she has seen American business
executives, Japanese tourists and Russian politicians travel thousands of miles to a
Mercedes plant in southwestern Germany when a classic sedan with the trade mirk
three-pointed star was about to roll off the assembly line and into their lives. Those
were the good economic miracle of the 1960s and ended in 1991.
Tunes have changed. "Ten years ago, we had clear leadership in the market," says
Mercedes spokesman Horst Ki' ambeer. "But over this period, the market has changed
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drastically. We are now in a pitched battle. The Japanese are partly responsible, but
Mercedes has had to learn the hard way that even German firms like BMW and Audi
have made efforts to rise to our standards of technical proficiency:"
Mercedes experienced one of its worst years ever in 1992. The autornaker' s
worldwide car sales fell by 5 percent from the previous year, to a low of 527,500.
Before the decline, in 1988, the company could sell close to 600,000 cars per year. In
Germany alone, there were 30,000 fewer new Mercedes registrations last year than in
1991. As a result, production has plunged by almost 50,000 cars to 529,400 last year,
a level well beneath the company' s potential capacity of 650,000.
Mercedes' competitors have been catching up in the United States, the world' s largest
car market. In 1986, Mercedes sold 100,000 vehicles in America; by 1991, the
number had declined to 59,000. Over the last two years, the struggling company has
lost a slice of its US market share to BMW, Toyota and Nissan. And BMW outsold
Mercedes in America last year for the first time in its history. Meanwhile, just as
Mercedes began making some headway in Japan, a notoriously difficult market, the
Japanese economy fell on hard times and the company saw its sales decline by 13
percent in Thai country.
Revenues will hardly improve this year, and the time has come for getting dOwn to
business. At Mercedes, that means cutting payrolls, streamlining production and
opening up to consumer needs - revolutionary steps for a company that once
considered itself beyond improvement.
22. The author' s intention in citing various nationalities' interests in Mercedes is to
illustrate Mercedes'
[A] sale strategies. [B] market monopoly.
[C] superior quality. [D] past record.
23. Mercedes is having a hard time because
[A] it is lagging behind in technology.
[B] Japan is turning to BMW for cars.
[C] its competitors are catching up.
[D] sales in America have dropped by 13%.
24. In the good years Mercedes could sell about
[A] 527,500 cars. [B] 529,400 cars.
[C] 600,000 cars.[D] 650,000 cars.
25. What caused the decline of Mercedes' sales in Japan?
[A] Japan is a very difficult market.
[B] The state of the economy there.
[C] Competition from other car companies.
[D] BMW and Audi' s improved technical standards.
TEXT D
Send in the Clones
"Scientists have made a breakthrough to clone a human being. That' s how at least one
television news anchor put it last week, and while his description was off the mark,
the real news was almost as fantastic: researchers at George Washington University
Medical Center in Washington, D. C., split single human embryos into identical
copies, a technology that opens a pandora' s box of ethical questions and has sparked
a storm of controversy around the world.
Claiming they began the experiments to spur debate, the researchers got more than
they bargained for. The Vatican condemned the technology as perverse; one German
magazine called the research "unscrupulous", and ethicists in this country disagreed
hotly over whether or not the technology should be offered to infertile couples.
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The news also left many people wondering what, precisely, the technology is all
about. The headlines conjured up futuristic images of armies of clones, or human
beings reconstructed from a few cells - a sort of Jurassic Park for humans. But what
researchers Robert Stillman and Jerry Hall actually did was to extend a technique that
has been used in livestock for more than decade. The physicians, who specialize in
helping infertile couples conceive, used in vitro fertilization to create .17 human
embryos in a laboratory dish. When the embryos had grown enough to contain two to
eight cells. The researchers separated them into 48 individual cells. Two of the
separated cells survived for a few days in the lab, developing into new human
embryos smaller than the head of a pin and consisting of 32 cells each. Though no
great technical feat, the procedure opens a range of unsettling possibilities. For
example, parents could have one embryo implanted in the mother' s womb and store
its identical siblings indefinitely. The spare embryos could be implanted later,
allowing parents to create an entire family of identical children of different ages.
Spare embryos could also be sold to other families, who would be able to see from an
already born child how their embryo would turn out. Even more bizarre, a woman
conceived from a split embryo could give birth to her own twin.
Issues to come. Such scenarios raise thorny issues about the rights of parents and the
meaning of individuality. Some ethicists maintain that parents have the right to do
with embryos what they will, including having twins born very apart But others fear
that the procedure unacceptably alters what it means to be a human being, especially
when the younger twins are forced to see older versions of themselves. "Does looking
at yourself violate some profound sense of self and individuality?" asks Dr. Mary
Mathews, director of the infertility program at the University of California at San
Francisco.
Amid the controversy, one thing seems certain: the experiments will continue. While
cloning is forbidden, in Germany among other countries, fertility researchers
proceeding in the United States, largely without federal funding or regulation. The
researchers must obtain approval only from their hospitals or clinic' s board. Without
federal oversight, the highly competitive fertility business may soon use the new
technology to attract clients. As Hall told the scientific journal Science last week, "It
was just a matter of time."
26. The news that scientists were able to split human embryos into identical copies
has
[A] pleased many infertile couples.
[B] caused much heated debates.
[C] been condemned all over the world.
[D] been proclaimed as a scientific breakthrough.
27. According to the passage, the research opens the possibility that
[A] infertile couples could conceive.
[B] human beings could be produced outside the mother womb.
[C] a woman could give birth to her own twin.
[D] people would all look alike
28. In the United States, the experiments are
[A] wholly funded by the government. [B] discouraged by the people in general.
[C] supervised by the government. [D] commercially promising.
TEXT E
Language and Thought
It is evident that there is a close connection between the capacity to use language and
the capacities covered by the verb "to think". Indeed, some writers have identified
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thinking with using words: Plato coined the saying, "In thinking the
soul is talking to itself'; J. B. Watson reduced thinking to inhibited speech located in
the minute movements or tensions of the physiological mechanisms involved in
speaking; and although Ryle is careful to point out that there are many senses in
which a person is said to think in which words are not in evidence, he has also said
that saying something in a specific frame of mind is thinking a thought.
Is thinking reducible to, or dependent upon, language habits? It would seem that many
thinking situations are hardly distinguishable from the skillful use of language,
although there are some others-in which language is not involved. Thought cannot be
simply identified with using language. It may be the case, of course, that the non-
linguistic skills involved in thought can only be acquired and developed if the learner
is able to use and understand language. However, this question is one which we
cannot hope to answer in this book. Obviously being able to use language makes for a
considerable development in all one' s capacities but how precisely this comes about
we cannot say.
At the common-sense level it appears that there is often a distinction between thought
and the words we employ to communicate with other people. We often have to
struggle hard to find words to capture what our thinking has already grasped, and
when we do find words we sometimes feel that they fail to do their job properly.
Again when we report or describe our thinking to other people we do not merely
report unspoken words and sentences. Such sentences do not always occur in
thinking, and when they do they are merged with vague imagery and the hint of
unconscious or subliminal activities going on just out of rage. Thinking, as it happens,
is more like struggling, striving, or searching for something than it is like talking or
reading. Words do play their part but they are rarely the only feature of thought. This
observation is supported by the experiments of the Wurzburg psychologists reported
in Chapter Eight who showed that intelligent adaptive responses can occur in
problem-solving situations without the use of either'words or images of any ltind.
"Set" and "determining tendencies" opens without the actual use of language in
helping us to think purposefully and intelligently.
Again the study of speech disorders due to brain injury disease suggest that patients
can think without having adequate control over their language. Some patients, for
example, fail to fmd the names of objects presented to them and are unable to describe
simple events which they witness; they even find it difficult to interpret long written
notices. But they succeed in playing games of chess or draughts. They can use the
concepts needed for chess playing or draught playing but are unable to use many of
the concepts in ordinary language. How they manage to do this we do not know. Yet
animals such as Kohler' s chimpanzees can solve problems by-working out strategies
such as the?invention of implements or climbing aids when such animals have no
language beyond a few warning cries. Intelligent or "insightful" behavior is not
dependent in the case of monkeys on language skills; presumably human beings have
various capacities for thinking situations which are likewise independent of language.
29. According to the theory of "thought" devised. by J. B. Watson, thinking is
[A] talking to the soul. [B] suppressed speech.
[C] speaking nonverbally. [D] nonlinguistic behavior.
30. Which of the following statements is true in the author' s opinion?
[A] Ability to use language enhances one' s capacities.
[B] Words and thought match more often than not.
[C] Thinking never goes without language.
[D] Language and thought are generally distinguishable.
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31. According to the author, when we intend to describe our thoughts,
[A] we merely report internal speech.
[B] neither words nor imagery works.
[C] we are overwhelmed with vague imagery.
[D] words often fail to do their jobs.
32. Why are patients with speech disorders able to think without having adequate
control over language?
[A] They use different concepts.
[B] They do not think linguistically.
[C] It still remains an unsolved problem.
[D] Thinking is independent of language.
TEXT F
Spring Funeral
They decided to bury him in our churchyard at Greymede under the beeches; the
widow would have it so, and nothing might be denied her in her state.
It was magnificent morning in early spring when I watched among the trees to see the
procession come down the hillside. The upper air was woven with the music of the
larks, and my whole world thrilled with the conception of summer. The young pale
windflowers had arisen by the wood-gale, and under the hazels, when perchance the
hot sun pushed his way; new little suns dawned, and blazed with the real light. There
was a certain thrill and quickening everywhere, as a woman must feel when she has
conceived. A sallow-tree in a favored spot looked like a pale gold cloud of summer
dawn; nearer it had poised a golden, fairy bushy on every twig, and was voiced with a
hum of bees, like any sacred golden bush, uttering its gladness in the thrilling murmur
of bees, and in warm scent. Birds called and flashed on every hand; they made off
exultant with streaming strands of grass, or wisps of fleece, plunging into the dark
spaces of the wood, and out again into the blue.
A lad moved across the field from the farm below with a dog trotting behind him - a
dog, no, a fussy, blackleggecl lamb trotting along on its toes, with its tail swinging
behind. They were going to the mothers on the common, who moved like little gray
clouds among the dark gorse.
I cannot help forgetting, and sharing the spink' s triumph, when he flashed past with a
fleece from a bramble bush. It will cover the bedded moss; it will weave among the
soft red cow-hair beautifully. It is a prize; it is an ecstasy to have captured it at the
right moment, and the nest is nearly ready.
Ah, but the thrush is scornful, ringing out his voice from the hedge! He sets his breast
against the mud, models it warm for the turquoise eggs - blue, blue, bluest of eggs,
which cluster so close and round against the breast, which round up beneath the
breast, nestling content. You should see the bright ecstasy in the eyes of a nesting
thrush, because of the rounded caress of the eggs against her breast.
Till the heralds come- till the heralds wave like shadows in the bright air, crying,
lamenting, fretting forever. Rising and falling and circling round and round, the slow-
waving pewits cry and complain, and lift their broad wings in sorrow. They stoop
anguish and protest, they swing up again, offering a glistening white breast to the
sunlight, to deny it in black shadow, then a glisten of green, and all the time crying
and crying in despair.
The pleasants are frightened into cover, they run and dart through the hedge. The old
cock must fly in his haste, spread himself on his streaming plumes, and sail into the
wood' s security.
There is a cry in answer to the pewits, echoing louder and stronger the lamentation of
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the lapwings, a wail which hushes the birds. The men came over the brow of the hill,
slowly, with the old squire walking tail and straight in front; six bowed men bearing
the coffin on another shoulder, treading heavily and cautiously, under the great weight
of the glistening white coffin, six men following behind, ill at ease, waiting their turn
for the burden. You can see the red handkerchief knotted round their throats, and their
shirt fronts blue and white between the open waistcoats. The coffin is of new
unpolished wood, gleaming and glistening in the sunlight; the men who carry it
remember all their lives after the smell of new, warm wood.
33. What seems to have been predominant in the mind of the narrator during this
episode?
[A] Death. [B] Sadness. [C] Life. [D] Nature.
34. In what sense are the lapwings "heralds"?
[A] They welcome the approaching summer.
[B] They warn other invading birds.
[C] They tell the coming of the procession.
[D] They report the change of weather.
35. Why were there twelve coffin bearers?
[A]?To follow tradition. [B] To divide the task.
[C] To accompany the squire. [D] To pay respects to the dead.
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING [10 MIN.]
In this section there are several passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions.
Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Colored Answer
Sheet.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
36. The purpose of the passage is to
[A] show the harm viruses can bring to us.
[B] compare the results of different experiments.
[C] describe the growth of cancer.
[D] explain the way to prevent cancer.
Now skim the TEXT Below and answer question 36.
Viruses And Cancer
In 1911, a New York scientist succeeded in producing tumors in chickens by
inoculating them with a filtrate of tumor tissue containing no cells. His experiments
were the first clear demonstration of the role of a virus in one type of malignant
tumor. His discovery failed to arouse much interest, however, and only a few workers
continued this line of research. But in the 1930s, two important cancer-virus
discoveries were made.
First, scientist succeeded in transmitting a skin wart from a wild rabbit to domestic
rabbits by cell-free filtrates. Moreover, in the domestic rabbits the warts were no
longer benign, but malignant. As observed with the chickens, the filterable agent, a
virus, could seldom be recovered from the malignant tumor which it had induced.
Second, in 1936, workers discovered that breast cancer in offspring of mice occurred
only if the mother came from a strain noted for its high incidence of breast cancer.
When one of the simplest possibilities was explored - that something was transmitted
from the mother to the young after birth - it was found that this something was a virus
in the milk of the mothers. When high breast-cancer strain offspring were nursed by
low breast-cancer females, the occurrence of cancer was dramatically reduced. In
contrast, feeding young mice of low breast cancer strains with milk from mice of high
cancer strains greatly increased the incidence of breast cancer.
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Credit for bringing the attention of investigators back to viruses is also probably due
to two other discoveries in the 1950s. A scientist showed that mouse leukemia could
be transmitted by cell-free filtrates. Newborn animals had to be used for these
experiments.
Government scientists have succeeded in isolating from mouse leukemia tissue
another agent, which has produced salivary gland cancers in mice. After the agent had
been grown in tissue culture, it produced many different types of tumors, not only in
mice but also in rats and hamsters. This many-tumor virus removed all previous
doubts about virus research in cancer. Up until then, it was believed that the few
known cancer viruses could each produce only one kind of tumor in one species of
animal. Now this concept was shattered, and the question of viruses as a cause of
human cancer assumed new significance.
TEXT H
First read the following question.
37. The general tone of the letter is
[A] dogmatic. [B] personal.[C] impersonal. [D] persuasive.
Now Odin the TEXT Below and answer question 37.
August 6, 1992
Dear Colleague,
Until recently, attention to perceived problems in American higher education from
academic and non-academic leaders alike focuses on the content of college curricula.
This preoccupation also limited the scope of initial reform efforts in the area of
general education. As faculty and administrators became involved in the complex of
issues raised by general reform. However, they began to grapple with a new set of
questions related, but not restricted, to the content of courses and programs.
* Can we rethink new contents and materials in isolation from questions of pedagogy?
* What, if any, are the pedagogical implications of the current interest in global and
domestic cultural relations?
* Now can we integrate the acquisition of fundamental analytical and communication
skills with the study of new materials and world cultures?
* Which claims are common and which are competing among distinct versions of
multi-culturalism? To what moral and/or social ends are they linked?
* How can we sustain the intellectual and institutional renewal accomplished in the
process of general education reform? In the interest of pursuing these important
questions, we have designed a program which brings together specialists in the fields
of general education reform, pedagogical innovation and multicultural curricula. We
have also included faculty who have recently inaugurated a successfully revised
program in general education at their institution. We invite you to attend the three
days of presentations, discussions, and workshops in Chicago. We also invite faculty
currently involved in any aspect of general education revision to consider leading a
session during the conference.
I hope you will join us for this conversation.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth 0' Connor Chandler
Director, Institute on Issues in Teaching and Learning
TEXT I
First read the following question.
38. The index is most probably from a book on
[A] religion. [B] political history.
[C] national economies. [D] anthropology.
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Now skim the TEXT Below and answer question 38.
Podgorny, Nikolai, 305
Police, 10, 21. See also Policy implementation institutions; Secret police
Policy implementation
institutions, 385-388; in Chile, 422-428; in Egypt, 414-417; in France, 399-404; in
Germany, 393-399; in Nigeria, 410-414; in Soviet Union, 404-410; in Tanzania, 417-
422; in United Kingdom, 388-393
Policy-making institutions 332; in Chile, 374-381; comparison of, 381-383; in Egypt,
363-369; in France, 345-351; in Germany, 339-345 ; in Nigeria, 356-363 ; in Soviet
Union, 351-356 in Tanzania, 369-374; in United Kingdom, 332339 Poliburo, Soviet,
231, 293, 353-354
Political culture, 10-12 French, 167-168, 583-585; German, 112, 580-581; Soviet 127,
587-588; in United Kingdom 575-577 Political opposition, see dissent
Political participation, 153-154; in Chile, 191; in Egypt, 181-185; in France, 167-172;
in Germany, 162; in Nigeria, 176; opportunity for, 155-157; rewards and incentives
for, 154-155' risks of, 155; in Soviet Union, 172-176; in Tanzania; 185; in United
Kingdom, 157-162
Political parties, 2, 10 Chilean, 34, 93, 252-260, 621; and economic expectations, 523;
Egyptian, 77-78, 140,242,248, 621; French, 221-229, 286, 620; function of, 21-22,
199, 202-203; German, 111, 167, 212-221, 280, 620; importance of, 262, Nigerian,
179, 233-242, 621; organization of, 250-251; performance of, 203-204, 212, 220-221,
228-229, 233, 241-242, 247-248, 251-252, 259-260; in Soviet Union, 28, 229-233,
620; in Tanzania, 88, 248-252, 621; of totalitarian systems, 570; in United Kingdom,
204-212, 620
Political performance, in Chile, 563-569 : comparison of, 569-571; in Egypt, 556-557;
in France, 536-538; in Germany, 530; in Nigeria, 550-551; in Northern Ireland, 526-
528; in Soviet Union, 541-544; in Tanzania, 660; in United Kingdom, 322-328
Political systems, 9-10; and change, 605, civil service in, 419-420 ; comparing, 19-
22 ; developed vs. developing systems,
21-22; economic organization of, by; and interest groves, 101; leadership selection,
328-329; policy implementation
in, 385-388; redicting future for, 573-575; and threat of coercion, 6; traditional vs.
modern, 20-21 Politics: categories for 3; comparative, 2; defined, 4; vs. government,
3; primacy of, 4-9
Pompidou, Gorges, 227, 342, 448
Popular Republican Movement (MRP), French, 226
Popular Unity Coalition, Chilean, 257-258, 259, 321,325, 379, 565
Population growth: in Chile, 615; in Egypt, 32, 135, 552,615; in France, 534, 614; in
Germany, 614, in Nigeria,614; in Soviet Union, 615, in Tanzania, 615; in United
Kingdom, 614
Portales, Diego, 92
Poujade, Pirre, 120, 285
Powell, Enoch, 106
Power, political, 6, 7, 8
Progmatism, British, 157-158
Prats, Carlos, 380
Precedent, British reliance on, 484
Premier, French, 348:349
Presidency: Chilean, 375, 474-476, 514, 563-566; Egyptian.
TEXT J
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First read the following question.
39. The author leads the reader to believe that, as the Clintons begin their vacation,
the local inhabitants are [A] indifferent. [B] restless. [C] afraid. [D] curious.
Now skim the TEXT Below and answer question 39.
PRESIDENTIAL INVASION
Finally, on the afternoon of his 47th birthday, seven months after he took the oath of
office, the President came to rest on a New England island so small it has no traffic
lights. Martha' s Vineyard, a 260-sq-km haven of quaint shingled houses, quiet
country gardens, yacht-studded harbors and stunning beaches, has many attributes to
recommend it, not the least of which is that its inhabitants are sufficiently celebrity-
trained so that no one stares into opera diva Beverly Sills' grocery cart at Cronig' s or
gawks at Jackie Onassis riding her bike near her house in Bay Head. A President - no
big deal.
A live-and-let-live attitude toward the famous is one reason Martha' s Vineyard won
out over a number of other possibilities. Not that the decision came easily, or could
have been carried out if seven- day-advance-purchase airline tickets were a factor.
Unlike most U. S. Presidents, Clinton is a man without a country house.
Clinton doesn' t even take off weekends, and he delayed making holiday plans as if he
were putting off minor surgery.
Some people wondered if a man who had not got away for four years on a regulation
vacation would make it five.
Enter Vernon Jordan, close advisor to Clinton and a man "determined to have fun", as
press secretary Dee Myers put it. Jordan had vacationed at Martha' s Vineyard for 20
years, and he pointed out that it met all the First Family' s requirements, it has
beaches, a golf course (18 golf carts were shipped in for the Secret Service), a good
price (former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara donated his house), and enough
celebrities to be interesting without being rarefied.
But while the Vineyard might be perfect for the Clintons, there was some
apprehension that the First Vacationers would not be perfect for a tiny community
already stuffed to the gills with artists, writers, journalists, psychiatrists and
academics so set in their reverse-chic ways that no newcomer could hope to adapt.
TEXT K
First read the following questions.
40. How long did Alex Harper work as an engineering writer?
[A] Less than eight years. [B] More than eight years.
[C] For exactly eight years. [D] From 1983 to the present. - ?
41. What is his present academic field of interest?
[A] Business administration. [B] Electronics.
[C] Engineering. [D] Communication.
Now scan the TEXT Below and answer questions 40 and 41.
ALEX M. HARPER
938 Middle Street Age: 34
- El Segundo, California 90245 Ht: 6 - 2 wt: 190
(213) 238-9-265 Married, two children
EXPERIENCE
Department Supervisor, TRM Systems, Manufacturing Engineering and Processes
Department, Redondo Beach. California, May 1993 to the present. Responsible for
obtaining, scheduling and overseeing work assignments of 30 engineering, planning
and administrative support personnel. Also responsible for reconciling Department
budgets. Engineering Writer, TRM Systems, Integrated Logistics Department,
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专八真题 1995 年
Redondo Beach, California, May 1985 to April 1993. Responsible for writing and
updating technical manuals. On classified spacecraft and military projects was granted
"Secret" security clearance.
Engineering Writer, Stromberg-carlson, Technical Publications Group, El Segundo,
California, August 1984 to May 1985. Responsible for writing and updating Air Force
Technical Orders and the Launch Enabling and Communications Systems on the
TITAN IV project.
EDUCATION
El Redondo Junior College, Torrance, California, Graduated in June 1981. Associate
of Arts Degree in Electronics, and Radio Technician' s Certificate. California State
University at Long Beach. Electronics major, from September 1981 to June 1982.
California State College, Domingguez Hills. Part-time night student since March
1990. Will be graduated with a B. S. in Business Administration in Spring 1996. (Plan
to continue study as a part-time night M.B. A Degree. )
PERSONAL INTERESTS
President of investment club; basketball and softball player, coach in the Bobbysox
Softball League.
MILITARY SERVICE
Served two years active duty in the United States Air Force, March Air Force Base,
Riverside, California, September 1982 to August t984. Member of the Air Force
Reserve, September 1984 to March 1988. Honorable Discharge, March 1988.
REFERENCES
Will gladly be provided upon request
TEXT L
First read the following questions.
"42. If you wanted to buy a car without air bags, you would buy
[A] .A CADILLAC Seville ELS. [B] A HONDA Accord EX.
IC] A MERCEDES-BENZ C280. [D] A CHEVROLET S-BLAZER. 43. Which of the
following cars has a built-in safety seat for a child?
[A] LINCOLN Town Can [B] DODGE Intrepid.
[C] PONTIAC Firebird Formula. [D] GEO Prizm LSi
Now scan the TEXT Below and answers questions 42 and 43.
MERCEDES-BENZ
C280
24-valve v-6; emergency tension retractors for the front seat
belts, front and rear crumple zones, dual air bags
LINCOLN Town
Car
32-valve v-8; dual air bags; sequential multi-point electronic
fuel injection; four- wheel disc anti-lock brakes; six-way
power driver and passenger seats; remote illuminated
keyless entry system
DODGE Intrepid
24-valve v-6 214hp; driver & passenger air bags; anti-lock
brakes & traction con- trol; integrated child safety seat;
speed sensitive steering
CADILLAC Servilte
32-valve v-8 270hp; dual air bags; road - sensing
PONTIAC Firebird
Formula
32-valve v-8 275hp; driver and passenger air bags; anti-lock
brakes; 6-speed trans- mission; safety cage construction;
theft-deterrent key system
HONDA Accord EX
16-valve v-4 145hp; driver' s and front passenger' s air bags,
JEEP Grand Cherokee
32-valve v-8; driver' s side air' bag; four-wheel anti-lock
brakes; four-wheel drive system; side-guard door beams
GEO Primz LSi
16-valve v-4; dual air bag; bumper-to-bumper warranty;24-
FORD F-series
32-valve v-8; driver side air bag; automatic transmission; air
conditioning; rear antilock brakes; speed control; power door
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CHEVROLET S-
Blazer
24-valve v-6 200hp; electronic automatic transmission; push-
button 4WD; aluminum wheels; power windows and locks
First read the following questions.
44. Which of the following is considered to be Otmar Nussio' s masterpiece?
[A] Quo Vadis. [B] Suite ticinese. [C] Rubensiana. [D] Esapades musicales.
45. Which of the following composers was born and later died in the same city?
[A] Nucius. [B] Nunn. [C] Nystedt. [D] Nuitter.
Now scan the TEXT Below and answer questions 44 and 45.
Societies in Berlin; from 1909, director of the Musical Society and conductor of the
symph, concerts in Cracow; also conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orch.; 1914,
returned to Berlin, where he lived during the war; 1920-27; prof. of organ and church
music at the State Cons. in Poznan. In 1935 he won the Polish State Music Prize. The
oratorio Quo Vadis (after Sienkiewi.vicz) is his best-known work. Also wrote operas,
orchestral works, organ pieces, oratorios, choruses, songs, etc.
MUCIUS (NUCIS), JOHANNES, German composer and theorist; b. Gorlitz, c. 1556;
d. Himmelwetz, March 25, 1620. In 1591 he became a Cistercian monk in the
monastery of Rauden; from 1609, abbot of the monastery of Himmelwitz in Silesia.
He publ. d Modulationes sacrae, 5-6 voices (1591), and 2 books of Sacrae Cantiones
(1609); 2 of his Masses are in MS. Also publ. a theoretical work, Musices poeticae
sive de com-positione cantum praeceptiones uhissimae (1613). - cf. S. Widmann,
Johannes Mucius, Abt yon Himmelwitz (Bregenz, 1921); E. Kirsch, Vonder
Personlichkeit and dem Stil des... Johannes Mucius (1926).
Nuitter, Charles. Louis Etienne, French writer of music; b. Paris, April 24, 1828; d.
there, Feb. 24, 1899. He was a lawyer by profession; then became interested in the
theater, was custodian of the archives of the Paris Opera. He changed his real name,
Trainer., to Nuitter by anagrammatic transposition of letters, and under that name
Wrote librettos for many operas and operettas, including some by Offenbach; also
translated librettos of operas by Weber, Mozart, Wagner, and verdi; wrote scenarios
for Delibes (Coppelia) and others. He publ. le Nouvel Opera (1875); les Origins del'
opera Francois (1886; with Thoinan); many articles in music magazines.
Nunn, Edward Cuthbert, English organist, conductor, and composer; b. Bristol, Feb.
23, 1868; d. London, Nov. 26, 1914. Hestudied at the royal Academy of Music; then
served as organist at various churches, and conducted opera. He composed a ballet
suite, Fete Champetre; a cantana, Everyman; the children' s operas: Kamar-al-zaman,
The Fairy Slipper, The Garden of Shepherds and the Sweep, The Garden of Paradise,
The Wooden Bowl.
Nano, Jaime, Spanish bandmaster; composer of the Mexican national anthem: b. San
Juan de las Abadesas, Sept. 8, 1824; d. Auburndale, N. Y., July 18, 1908. He studied
with Mercadante in Italy; in 1851 went to Cuba, and in 1853 to Mexico, where he was
appointed chief of military bands; was commissioned to write a national anthem for
Mexico; it was sung for the first time on Sept. 15, 1854. Subsequently he was active
as impresario for Italian opera companies in Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. In 1870 he
settled in.Buffalo as organist and teacher; composed a number of sacred works.
Nussio, Otmar, composer; b. Grosseto, Italy, Oct. 23, 1902. He was a student of
Respighi in Rome; then went to Switzerland, taught flute at the Zurich Cons.; in 938
became music director of Radio Monte Ceneri. He has conducted a number of
concerts of light music; composed numerous orchestral suites: Suite ticinese (his
best), Esapades musicales, dann di Mallorca; a flute concerto; also a piano concerto, a
violin concerto; also a children' s opera, Hans in Marchenland. His suite for
harpsichord, flute, violin solo, and strings, Rubenciana, was performed for the first
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专八真题 1995 年
time in the Rubens Hoase in Antweep, on May 21, 1950.
Nyiregyhazi (ni-reh-zh-hah-ze), Erwin, Hungarian pianist; b. Budapest, Jan. 19, 1903.
He studied with Dohnanyi, Thoman, and Szekely; also with Lamond in Berlin. From
early infancy he showed n phenomenal musical ability, so that his sense of pitch and
other faculties were made the subject of study, publ. in a volume by G. Revesz, Erwin
NYiregyhazi. Psychologische Analyse eines Musikalisch hervorragenden Kindes
(Leipzig, 1916; in English as The Psychology of a Musical Prodigy, 1925). In 1930 he
came to the U. S., and settled in Hollywood as a film studio pianist.
Nysted, Knut, Norwegian composer; b. Oslo, Sept. 3, 1915. He studied organ with A.
Sandvold in Oslo and with E. White in N. Y.; composition with B. Brustad in Oslo,
and Aaron Copland in America. Works: Norge mitt land, for chorus and orch. (1946);
Spennigens Land (The Land of suspense), symph, fantasy (Oslo, Sept. 29, 1948);
violin sonata (1942); Introduzione e Passacaglia for organ (1944); vocal pieces.
PART IV TRANSLATION (60 MIN. )
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following UNDERLINED PART of the TEXT into English. Write your
translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
. 简·奥斯丁的小说写的都是三五户人家居家度日，婚恋嫁娶的小事。因此不少
中国读者不理解她何以在西方享有那么高的声誉。但一部小说开掘得深不深，
艺术和思想是否有过人之处，的确不在题材大小。有人把奥斯丁的作品比作越
嚼越有味道的橄榄。这不仅因为她的语言精彩，并曾对小说艺术的发展有创造
性贡献，也因为她的轻快活泼的叙述实际上并不那么浅白，那么透明。史密斯
夫人说过，女作家常常试图修正现存的价值秩序，改变人们对“重要”和“不
重要”的看法。也许奥斯丁的小说能教我们学会转换眼光和角度，明察到“小
事”的叙述所涉及的那些不小的问题。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
`Translate the following UNDERLINED PART of the TEXT into Chinese. Write your
translation on ANSWER SHEET :77LREE
I, by comparison, living in my overpriced city apartment, walking to work past putrid
sacks of street garbage, paying usurious taxes to local and state governments I
generally abhor, I am rated middle class. This causes me to wonder, do the
measurements make sense? Are we measuring only that which is easily measured -
the numbers on the money chart - and ignoring values more central to good life?
For my sons there is of course the rural county of fresh-grown vegetables, line-caught
fish and the shared riches of 'neighbors' orchards and gardens. There is the unpaid
baby-sitter for whose children my daughter-in-law baby-sits in return, and neighbors
who barter their skills and labor. But more than that, how do you measure serenity?
Sense of self?
I don' t want to idealize life in small places. There are times when the outside would
intrudes brutally, as when the cost of gasoline goes up or developers cast their eyes on
untouched farmland. There are cruelties, there is intolerance, there are all the many
vices and meannesses in small places that exist in large cities. Furthermore, it is
harder to ignore them when they cannot be banished psychologically to another part
of town or excused as the whims of alien groups - when they have to be
acknowledged as "part of us".
Nor do I want to belittle the opportunities for small decencies in cities - the eruptions
of one-stranger-to-another caring that always surprise and delight. But these are,
sadly, more exceptions than rules and are often overwhelmed by the awful corruptions
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and dangers that surround us.
PART V WRITING
At present, there is a heated discussion on whether the young should take care of their
parents when they grow old; or should it be the responsibility of the state.
You are to write a letter of approximately 300 words on this issue to an editor of an
evening paper.
In the first part of your letter you should present your thesis statement, and in the
second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the
last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion with a
summary.
Marks will be awarded for correct content, organization, grammar and appropriacy.
Write your response on ANWER SHEET FOUR
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TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1994)
- GRADE EIGHT -
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN. )
In Section A, B and C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and then
answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct response for each question in your
ANSWER BOOKLET.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 1 to 5 refer to the talk in this section. At the end of the talk you will be
given ONE minute to answer the following five questions. Now listen to the talk.
1. The plans of the electrical systems are prepared by the project' s
[A] designer.[B] electrician. [C] draftsman. [D] contractor.
2. Career draftsmen are often
[A] called "outside consultants". [B] architectural graduates getting training.
[C] high school graduates working as tracers. [D] graduates of junior colleges.
3. "Working drawings" in this talk refer to
[A] the architect' s rough sketches and directions. [B] the plans and details for the
actual construction.
[C] the ideas and the specifications for the project. [D] the designer' s handbooks,
tables and building codes.
4. The main idea that comes through clearly in this talk is
[A] the advantage of taking an architectural drafting course.
[B] the benefit of draftsmen working in teams.
[C] the importance of accuracy in the drawings.
[D] the necessity of having advanced drawing aids.
5. According to this talk, which of the following statements is correct?
[A] The project architect is the main member of the architectural team.
[B] Only a dozen different types of workers are involved in a project.
[C] The job of the draftsman is to provide labor and building materials.
[D] The contractor depends upon the working drawings for his work. SECTION B
CONVERSATION
Questions 6 to 10 are based on a conversation between Ann and Lyn. At the end of the
conversation you will be given One minute to answer the following five questions.
Now listen to the conversation.
6. Lyn has eventually decided to go on a
[A] fly-drive holiday. [B] car-trip. [C] two-city holiday. [D] conducted tour.
7. At the Epcot Center Lyn will
[A] see aquatic displays. [B] visit a large funfair.
[C] visit a technologically-advanced city. [D] visit a film studio.
8. When she visits the Kennedy Space Center, Lyn will be able to
[A] send messages to satellites. [B] learn something new about space.
[C] go aboard a spacecraft. [D] operate Mission Control.
9. In order to go on this holiday, Lyn ultimately had to
[A] overdraw an account. [B] borrow from her parent.
[C] work over time. [D] spend her savings.
10. From the conversation, we get the impression that Lyn is
[A] pragmatic. [B] extrovert. [C] willful. [D] calculating.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 to 12 are based on the following news from the BBC. At the end of the
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专八真题 1994 年
news item, you will be given 24 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the
news.
11. The main function of the proposed Thorp facility is to produce . -
[A] weapon-grade material. [B] nuclear fuel.
[C] plutonium. [D] spent fuel.
12. On the issue of plutonium, the U.S. feels
[A] satisfied with the current civilian use of the element.
[B] the destruction of the nuclear arms surpasses civilian production.
[C] content to export its own nuclear fuel.
[D] the current levels of production should be decreased.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the following news from the VOA. At the end of the
news item, you will be given 36 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
13. From the news, we learn a conflict exists between
[A] flight attendants and passengers.
[B] management at American and U. S. government.
[C] American Airlines and travel agents.
[D] America' s management and flight attendants.
14. According to the management at American Airlines, in 1994 flight attendants
would earn
[A] from $16,000 to $35,000. [B] around $ 21,000.
[C] from $15,000 to $ 33,000. [D] around $ 50,000.
15. American Airlines has cut back its operations because of
[A] the strike. [B] enormous losses.
[C] contingency plans. [D] rising air fares.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In 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. Your notes will not
be marked, but you will need them to complete a 15-minute gap-filling task on the
ANSWER SHEET after the mini-lecture. ANSWER SHEET SECTION D NOTE-
TAKING AND GAP-FILLING (-20 MIN. J Fill in each of the gaps with ONE
suitable word. You may refer to your notes. Make sure the word you fill in is both
grammatically and semantically acceptable.
DIET IN THE LAND OF PLENTY
A major nutritional (1) ______ in the United States is being Overweight. (1)______
There is now an abundant supply of food while at the same time
we tend to do less (2)______activity. (2)______
We fully renli7e the (3)______of being seriously overweight, and we also ?(3)______
have a strong desire to be (4) ______ in order to look attractive. As a result,
(4)______
many people in America try to lose weight by (5)______ A Gallup Poll in (5)______
the year (6)______revealed that 46% of the Americans felt that they were (6)______
overweight.
Hearings held at about that time by (7)______George McGovern disclosed
(7)______
TEM8-94-2
that there was a (8)______ billion dollar diet industry in the U. S.(8)______
Today at least 40% of adults in the United States are (9)______ their ideal (9)______
weight. (10)______can be dangerous to your health. Over weight persons (10)______
have a greater chance of dying from (11) ______disease and strokes. (11)______
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In order to control their weight, Americans are(12). ______ tricked into (12)______
trying faddish diets. Almost every magazine on the (13)______ or in the (13)______
supermarket features a diet that promises instant and painless (14) ______(14)______
Eachof these diets has its own magic (15) ______ ; a pill that will help you break
(15)______
bad eating habits; a chemical(16)______that will take place between the special
(16)______
foods (17)______and will then turn off fat. (17)______
Since there are new diets (18) ______, it is clear that none of them contains the
(18)______
right answer. In that case, what should an overweight person do? The
answer is very simple.Weight can be best controlled by eating sensibly, (19) ______
(19)______
moderately, and doing both of these for a (20) ______ (20)______
PART II PROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION(20
MINS)
The following passage contains 17 errors. Each line contains a maximum of one error
and three are free from error: In each case, only one word is involved.You should
proofread 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 provided 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.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) ∧ an
It never
╱
buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
In a competitive and fast-paced modern society, busy
business executives are so engrossing in their work (1)
that they incapably know what the word leisure means. (2)
The higher an executive' s position is on the business ladder, (3)
the more hours he spends on his work, with a view in (4)
gaining greater corporate standing or a big pay rise, (5)
he, as a rule, for exceeds over the 40-hour working week (6)
. The additional stress and tension as well as the shortage (7)
of suitable rest and recreation very often has a disastrous(8)
affect on his health. Few such executives realize that(9)
unless they learn how to relax, they will soon (10)
run of stream before they get to the top (11)
of executive ladder. A noted American authority(12)
at leisure has said that "The key to relaxation for busy (13)
executives is to prevent the types of activities that (14)._
are part or parcel of their daily work and to devote (15)
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专八真题 1994 年
themselves totally to have recreational pursuits for at least (16)
a part of each day, even it is only for half an hour. (17)
Those jobs require a great deal of contact with others can
engage in activities that are not quiet and peaceful?far from (19)
the madding crowd, far from client and business associates. (20)
PART III READING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN.)
SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN. )
In this section there are five reading passages followed by twenty multiple choice
questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers in your ANSWER SHEET.
TEXT A
Panic and Its Effects
One afternoon while she was preparing dinner in her kitchen, Anne Peters, a 32-year
old American housewife, suddenly had severe pains in her chest accompanied by the
shortness of breath. Terrified by the thought she was having a heart attack, Anne
screamed for help. Her frightened husband immediately rushed Ann to a nearby
hospital where, to her great relief, her pains were diagnosed as having been caused by
panic, and not a heart attack.
More and more Americans nowadays are having panic attacks like the one
experienced by Anne Peters. Benjamin Crocker, a psychiatrist and assistant director of
the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the University of Southern California, reveals that as
many as ten million adult Americans have already or will experience at least one
panic attack in their lifetime. Moreover, studies conducted by the National Institute of
Mental Health in the United States disclose that approximately 1.2 million adult
individuals are currently suffering from severe and recurrent panic attack.
These attacks are spontaneous and inexplicable and may last for a few minutes; some,
however, continue for several hours, not only frightening the victim but also making
him or her wholly disoriented. The symptoms of panic attack bear such remarkable
similarity to those of heart attack that many victims are convinced that they are indeed
having a heart attack.
Panic attack victims show the following symptoms: they often become easily
frightened or feel uneasy in situations where people normally would not be afraid;
they suffer shortness of breath, dizziness or lightheadedness; experience chest pains, a
quick heartbeat, tingling in the hands; a choking feeling, faintness, sudden fits of
trembling, a feeling that persons and things around them are not real; and most of all,
a fear of dying or going crazy. A person seized by a panic attack may show all or as
few as four of these symptoms.
There has been a lot of conjecture as to the cause of panic attack. Both laymen and
experts alike claim that psycho,
logical stress could be a logical cause, but as yet, no evidence has been found to
support this theory. However, studies show that more women than men experience
panic attack and people who drink a lot as well as those who take marijuana or
beverages containing a lot of caffeine are more prone to attacks.
Dr. Wayne Keaton, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of
Washington Medical School, claims that
there are at least three signs that indicate a person is suffering from panic attack rather
than a heart attack. The first is age. People between the ages of 20 and 30 are more
often victims of panic attack. The second is sex. More women suffer from recurrent
panic attacks than men, while heart attack rarely strikes women before their
menopause. The third is the multiplicity of symptoms. A panic attack victim usually
suffers at least four of the previous mentioned symptoms while a heart attack victim
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often experience only pain and shortness of breath.
It is generally concluded that panic attack does not endanger a person' s life. All the
same, it can unnecessarily disrupt a person' s life by making him or her so afraid that
he or she will have a panic attack in a public place that he or she may refuse to leave
home and may eventually become isolated from the rest of society. Dr. Crocker' s
advice to any person who thinks he is suffering from panic attack is to consult a
doctor for a medical check-up to rule out the possibilities of physical illness first.
Once it has been confirmed that he or she is, in fact, suffering from panic attack, the
victim should seek psychological and medical help.
16. According to the passage, panic attack is
[A] both frightening and fatal. [B] actually a form of heart attack.
[C] more common among women than men. [D] likely to last several hours.
17. One factor both panic and heart attacks have in common is
[A] a feeling of faintness. [B] uncontrollable movements.
[C] a horror of going mad. [D] difficulty in breathing.
18. It is indicated in the last paragraph that panic attack may
[A] make a victim reluctant to leave home any more. -
[B] threaten a victim' s physical well-being.
[C] cause serious social problems for the victim' s family.
[D] prevent a victim from enjoying sport anymore.
19. Dr. Crocker suggests that for panic attack sufferers
[A] physical fitness is not so crucial.
[B] a medical checkup is needed to confirm the illness.
[C] psychological and medical help is necessary.
[D] nutritional advice is essential to cure the disease.
TEXT B
How the Smallpox War Was Won
The world' s last known case of smallpox was reported in Somalia, the horn of Africa,
in October 1977. The victim was a young cook called Ali Maow Maalin. His case
became a landmark in medical history, for smallpox is the first communicable disease
ever to be eradicated.
The smallpox campaign to free the world of smallpox has been led by the World
Health Organization. The Horn of Africa, embracing the Ogaden region of Ethiopia
and Somalia, was one of the last few smallpox ridden areas of the world when the
WHO-sponsored Smallpox Eradication Program (SEP) got underway there in 1971.
Many of the 25 million inhabitants, mostly farmers and nomads living in a wildness
of desert, bush and mountains, already have smallpox. The problem of tracing the
disease in such formidable country was exacerbated by continuous warfare in the
area.
The program concentrated on an imaginative policy of "search and containment".
Vaccination was used to reduce the widespread incidence of the disease, but the
success of the campaign depended on the work of volunteers. There were men, paid
by the day, who walked hundreds of miles in search of "rumors" ?information about
possible smallpox cases.
Often these rumors turned out to be cases of measles, chick pox or syphilis ?but
nothing could be left to change.
the program progressed the disease was gradually brought under control. By
September 1976 the SEP made its first that no new cases had been reported. But that
first optimism was short-lived. A three:year-old girl called Amina Salat, from a dusty
village in the Ogaden in the south-east of Ethiopia, had given smallpox to a young
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nomad visitor. Leaving the village the nomad had walked across the border into
Somalia. There he infected 3,000 people, and among them had been the cook, Ali. It
was further 14 months before the elusive "target zero" ?no further cases ?was reached.
Even now, the search continues in "high risk" areas and in parts of the country
unchecked for some time. The flow of rumors has now diminished to a trickle ?but
each must still be checked by a qualified person.
Victory is in sight, but two years must pass since the "last case" be fore an
international declare that the world is entirely free from smallpox.
20. All Maow Maalin' s case is significant because he was the
[A] last person to be cured of smallpox in Somalia.
[B] last known sufferer of smallpox in the world.
[C] first smallpox victim in the Horn of Africa.
[D] first Somalian to be vaccinated for smallpox.
21. The work to stamp out smallpox was made more difficult by
[A] people' s unwillingness to report cases. [B] the lack of vaccine.
[C] the backwardness of the region. [D] the incessant local wars.
22. The volunteers mentioned were paid to
[A] find out about the reported cases of smallpox.
[B] vaccinate people in remote areas.
[C] teach people how to treat smallpox.
[D] prevent infected people from moving around.
23. Nowadays, smallpox investigations are only.carried out
[A] at regular two-yearly intervals.
[B] when news of an outbreak occurs.
[C] in those areas with previous history of the disease.
[D] by a trained professional.
TEXT C
The Form Master' s observations about punishment were by no means without their
warrant at St. James' s school. Flogging with the birch in accordance with the Eton
fashion was a great feature in its curriculum. But I am sure no Eton boy, and certainly
no Harrow boy of my day, ever received such a cruel flogging as this headmaster was
accustomed to inflict upon the little boys who were in his care and power. They
exceeded in severity anything that would be tolerated in any of the Reformatories
under the Home Office. My reading in later life has supplied me with some possible
explanations of his temperament. Two or three times a month the whole school was
marshalled in the Library, and one or more delinquents were hauled off to an
adjoining apartment by the two head boys, and there flogged until they bled freely,
while the rest sat quaking, listening to their screams...
How I hated this school, and what a life of anxiety Hived there for more than two
years. I made very little progress at my lessons, and none at all games. I counted the
days and the hours to the end of every term, when I should return home from this
hateful servitude and range my soldiers in line of battle on the nursery floor. The
greatest pleasure I had in those days was reading. When I was nine and a half my
father gave me Treasure Island and I remember the delight with which I devoured it.
My teacher saw me at once backward and precocious, reading books beyond my years
and yet at the bottom of the form. They were offended. They had large resources of
compulsion at their disposal, but I was stubborn. Where my
reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn. In
all the twelve'years I was at school no one ever succeeded in making me write a Latin
verse or learn any Greek except the alphabet. I do not at all excuse myself for this
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foolish neglect of opportunities procured at so much expense by my parents and
brought so forcibly to my attention by my preceptors. Perhaps if I had been
introduced to the ancients through their history and customs, instead of through their
grammar and syntax, I might have had abetter record.
24. Which of the following statements about flogging at St. James' s school is NOT
correct?
[A] Corporal punishment was accepted in the school:
[B] Flogging was part of the routine in the school.
[C] Flogging was more severe in schools for juvenile delinquents.
[D] The Headmaster' s motive for flogging was then rather obscure.
25. When he was back at home, the author enjoyed
[A] playing war games. [B] dressing up like a soldier.
[C] reading war stories. [D] talking to soldiers.
26. "They had large resources of compulsion at their disposal." means that the
teachers
[A] had tried to suspend him from school several times.
[B] had physically punished him quite a lot.
[C] had imposed upon him many of their ideas.
[D] had tried to force him to learn in many different ways.
27. The author failed to learn Greek because -
[A] he lacked sufficient intelligence. [B] he could not master the writing system.
[C] of his parents' attitude to the subject. [D] the wrong teaching approach was
used.
TEXT D
I HAVE A DREAM ----30 Years Ago and Now
Few issues are as clear as the one that drew a quarter-million Americans to the
Lincoln Memorial 30 years ago this August 28. "America has given the Negro people
a bad check", the nation was told. It has promised quality but delivered second-class
citizenship because of race. Few orators could define the justice as eloquently as
Martin Luther King Jr. whose words on that sweltering day remain etched in the
public consciousness: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in
a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character."
The march on Washington had been the dream of a black labor leader. A. Philip
Randolph who was a potent figure in the civil-rights movement. But it was King who
emerged as the symbol of the black people' s struggle. His "I have a dream" speech
struck such an emotional chord that recordings of it were made, sold, bootlegged and
resold within weeks of its delivery. The magic of the moment was that it gave white
America a new prospective on black America and pushed civil rights forward on the
nation' s agenda.
When the march was planned by a coalition of civil rights, union and church leaders,
nothing quite like it had ever been seen. Tens of thousands of blacks streamed into the
nation' s capital by car, bus, train and foot, an invading army of the disenfranchised
singing freedom songs and demanding rights. By their very members, they forced the
world' s greatest democracy to face an embarrassing question: How could America
continue on a course that denied so many the simple amenities of a water fountain or a
lunch counter? Or the most essential element ?of democracy the vote?
Three decades later, we still wrestle with questions of black and white, but now they
are confused by shades of gray. The gap persists between the quality of black life and
white. The urban underclass has grown more entrenched. Bias remains. And the
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nation is jarred from time to time by sensational cases stemming from racial hate. But
the clarity of the 1963 issue is gone. No longer do governors stand in schoolhouse
doors. Nor do signs bar blacks from restaurants or theaters; It is illegal to deny
African-Americans the vote. There are 7,500 black elected officials, including 338
mayors and 40 members of Congress, plus a large black middle class. And we are past
the point when white American must look to one eloquent leader to answer the
question "What does the Negro want ?"
The change is reflected in the variety of causes on the wish list of this year' s
anniversary march on Washington. Health care reform. Job training. Religious
freedom for American Indians. Statehood for the District of Columbia. Head Start for
young people. Security for the disabled. And an end to racism. The compelling issue
of 1963 ?discrimination ?today is more a matter of dark hearts than evil laws. And the
legislative agenda of modern?day marchers is American, not black.
28. According to the passage, the recording of King' s speech became a best-seller
largely because
[A] the march was a dream of the black people in U. S..
[B] it presented a new way of looking at Afro ?Americans.
[C] tens of thousands of people listened to the speech.
[D] the speech was basically dressed to the black people.
29. From the passage we learn that the original march on Washington
[A] highlighted the hypocrisy of America' s democratic system.
[B] was made up of one particular segment of black society.
[C] reflected previous demonstrations.
[D] was also attended by white people.
30. "Three decades later we still wrestle with questions of black and white, but now
they are confused by shades of gray". The underlined part means that
[A] the questions now concern American Indians.
[B] racial hate in the U.S. is diminishing.
[C] the future is promising for the issue of human rights.
[D] the clarity between the black and white is gone.
31. It is implied at the end of the passage that
[A] color discrimination is no longer a problem.
[B] existing laws against racial discrimination need amending.
[C] present-day causes of protest are more diversified than before.
[D] all black Americans have become better off.
TEXT E
Bandwagon
Ever hear of the small, rat 條 ike animal called the lemming? Lemmings are arctic
rodents with a very odd habit: periodically, for reasons no one entirely knows, they
mass together in large herd and commit suicide by rushing into deep water and
drowning themselves. They all run in together, blindly, and not one of them ever
seems to stop and ask, "Why am I doing this? Is this really what I want to do?" and
thus save itself from destruction. Obviously, lemmings are driven to perform their
strange suicide rites by common instinct. People choose to "follow the herd" for more
complex reasons, yet we are still too often the unwilling victims of the bandwagon
appeal.
Essentially, the bandwagon urges us to an action or an opinion because it is popular?
because "everyone else is doing it". This call to "get on the bandwagon" appeals to the
strong desire in most of us to be one of the crowd, not to be left out or alone.
Advertising makes extensive use of the bandwagon appeal ("join the Pepsi people"),
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but so do politicians ("Let us join together in this great cause"). Senator Yakalot uses
the bandwagon appeal when he says that "More and more citizens are rallying to my
cause every day," and asks his audience to "join them ?and me in ?our fight for
America."
One of the ways we can see the bandwagon appeal at work is in the overwhelming
success of various fashions and trends which capture the interest (and the money) of
thousands of people for a short time, then disappear suddenly and completely. For a
year or two in the fifties every child in North America wanted a coonskin cap so that
they could be like Davy Crockett; no one wanted to be left out. After that there was
the hula hoop craze that helped to dislocate thousands of Americans. More recently,
what made millions of people rush out to buy their very own "pet rocks"?
The problem here is obvious, just because everyone' s doing it doesn' t mean that we
should too. Group approval does not approve that something is true or is worth doing.
Large numbers of people have supported actions we now condemn. Just a generation
ago, Hitler and Mussolini rose to absolute and catastrophically repressive rule in two
of the most sophisticated and cultured countries of Europe. When they came into
power they were welled up by massive popular 'support from millions of people who
didn' t want to be "left out" at a great historical moment.
Once the mass begins to move ?on the bandwagon ?it becomes harder and harder to
perceive the leader riding the bandwagon. So don' t be a lemming, rushing blindly on
to destruction because "everyone else is doing it". Stop and ask, "Where is this
bandwagon headed? Never mind about everyone else, is this what is best for me?..."
As we have seen, propaganda can appeal to us by arousing our emotions or distracting
our attention from the real issues at hand. But there' s a third was that propaganda can
be put to work against us ?by the use of faulty logic. This approach is really more
subtle, than the other two because it gives the appearance of reasonable, fair
argument. It is only when we look more closely that the holes in the logic fibre show
up.
32. The writer cites the mass suicide of lemmings in order to
[A] raise public awareness. [B] support his point of view.
[C] justify bandwagon appeal. [D] discredit their habit.
33. In the passage, bandwagon appeal refers to
[A] a mass consensus among young people.
[B] a universal way of thinking.
[C] the pursuit of a moral code of behavior.
[D] the desire to support a popular course of action.
34. Which of the following is NOT given by the writer to show bandwagon appeal at
work?
[A] Fighting for America. [B] Advertising.
[C] Political campaigning. [D] Following fashion.
35. In the writer' s opinion, propaganda can cause more harm by
[A] arousing our emotions. [B] distracting our attention.
[C] using false reasoning. [D] presenting popular issues.
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN. )
In this section, there are seven passages followed by ten multiple!' choice questions.
Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers in your ANSWER
BOOKLET
TEXT F
First read the following question. 36. In the passage, the writer
[A] elaborates on the three arguments.
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[B] develops the three arguments.
[C] opposes the three arguments.
[D] modifies the three arguments. Now go through TEXT F quickly and answer
question 36.
BRAINS VERSUS COMPUTERS
In science fictions there is to be found the recurrent theme of omniscient computer
which ultimately takes over the
arings of human life and affairs. Is this possible? I believe it is not; but I also believe
that the arguments commonly idvanced to refute this possibility are the wrong ones.
First, it is often said that computers "do not really think". This, I submit, is nonsense;
if computers do not think, nor do human beings. For how do I detect the process of
thinking? I present ".data say, an examination paper ?to a student, which he scans with
a photoelectric organ we call an "eye"; the computer scans its data with a
photoelectric organ we call a "tape recorder". There is then a period when nothing
obvious happens, though electrical changes can be demonstrated on the monitor-tube
of a computer or on the corresponding device ?an electroencephalogram ?for the
student. Lastly, information based on the data is transcribed by means of a mechanical
organ called a "hand" by the student and a " teleprinter" by the computer. In other
words, the actions of man and machine differ only in the appliances they use.
Secondly, it is said that computers "only do what they are told", that they have to be
programmed for every computation they undertake. But I do not believe that I was
born with an innate ability to solve equations or to identify common members of the
British flora; I, too, had to be programmed for these activities, but I happened to call
my programmers by different names, such as "schoolteacher," "lecture" or
"professor".
Lastly, we were told that computers, unlike human beings, cannot interpret their own
results. But interpretation is always of one set of information in the light of another set
of information; it consists simply of finding the joint pattern in two sets of data. The
mathematics of doing this is cumbersome, but well known; the computer would be
perfectly willing to do the job if asked.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
37. The author of the article intends to
[A] complain about that the electricity bill is more than the New Yorkers can afford.
[B] show that the federal government should grant favors to private companies.
[C] raise a protest with the government for ignoring Senator Boxer' s suggested
solution.
[D] inform the public that the federal government is spending the taxpayers' money
irrationally.
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question 37.
In New York City, customers pay as much as 12 cents a kilowatt hour for their power.
But some lucky Westerners can leave the lights on all night without worrying, since
Uncle Sam is footing part of the bill. The government hydroelectric program, whose
power comes from dams built with public money, is an example of irrationality in our
federal government. We all pay, but only selected people benefit.
The Western Area Power Administration "wholesales" the electricity it produces to
customers in 15 central western
states. Surprisingly, the taxpayer subsidy benefits profit-making utilities as well as
municipalities. The result: private
companies pay only a small amount of money for federal electricity. "We get about
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eight percent of our electricity from the
Western Power Administration via the Colorado River Commission," says a
spokesman from the Nevada Power Com-
pany, one of several utilities getting the cheap federal electricity. "We pay less than
two cents for kilowatt. Our own power
costs us almost three cents to produce. "Nevada power then "makes up" the electricity
and sells it to their customers,
including Las Vegas casinos. So the next time you go to Vegas and stroll the gaily
lighted Strip, remember that you are about
to lose twice. Once at the slots, and the second time when you realize it' s your
electricity that' s helping light up the night.
Ten years ago, the then ?Rep. Barbara Boxer suggested a solution: the government
should auction off
taxpayeri' financed power at market rates. Now a Senator, Boxer should put on her
gloves to fight for the idea again. The
money could pay off some of the $10 billion in subsidized loans that the five federal
power administrations still owe the
U. S. Treasury ?and the U.S. taxpayer. TEXT H
First read the following question.
38. One factor, repeatedly emphasized in the passage, is that the Cobuild Dictionary
[A] is different from other dictionaries in many aspects.
[B] shares many similarities with other dictionaries.
[C] is suitable for advanced learners of English.
[D] is compiled with the help of the latest computer technology.
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question 38.
The Cobuild Dictionary
This dictionary is for people who want to use modern English. It offers more and
more accurate information on the way modern English is used than any previous
dictionary. It is a useful guide to writing and speaking English as well as an aid to
reading and understanding.
This dictionary looks rather like most others if you don' t look so closely. Actually it is
quite new and different. The techniques used to compile it are new and use advanced
computer technology. For the user the kind of information is different, the quality of
information is different, and the presentation of the information is different.
For the first time, a dictionary has been compiled by the thorough examination of a
representative group of English texts, spoken and written, running to many millions of
words. This means that in addition to all the tools of conventional dictionary makers ?
wide reading and experience' of English, other dictionaries and of course eyes and
ears ?this dictionary is based on hard, measurable evidence. No major uses are
missed, and the number of times a use occurs has a strong influence on the way the
entries are organized. Equally, the large group of texts, called the corpus, gives us
reasonable grounds for omitting many uses and word-forms that do not occur in it. It
is difficult for a conventional dictionary, in the absence of evidence, to decide what to
leave out, and a lot of quite misleading information is thus preserved in the tradition
of lexicography.
This dictionary makes a break with such traditions. We have gone back to basics and
collected many millions of words, and put them into a very large computer. The words
came from books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, leaflets, conversations, radio
and television broadcasts. The aim was to provide a fair representation of
contemporary English.
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No sets of texts, however large, can be fully relied on; all the same the information
from the texts has been analyzed and appraised by a team of lexicographers, whose
professional knowledge has also been used wherever there is only a small amount of
evidence of the usage of a word of phrase.
The quality of information in this dictionary is different from others. With our textual
evidence it is possible to be precise about the shape of phrases and the extent of their
variation; the relative importance of different senses of a word; and the typical
environment in which a word or phrase is used. Even when statements like this are
already familiar, they are made with a different kind of authority in this book.
TEXT I
First read the following question.
39. The general tone of the letter can be described as
[A] informal and outraged. [B] polite but clearly angry.
[C] formal but mild. [D] unsympathetic.
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer question 39.
754 West End Avenue Round valley, N.Y.
December 31, 1993.
Manager
Anyder' s Department Store
New York 5, N.Y.
Dear Sir,
For a number of years my wife and I have been dealing with Snyder' s and have
bought several home appliances as well as other merchandise. I have a Snyder' s
charge account, which I have used a great deal, as your records will show. My son
runs in Snyder' s sneakers; my small daughters run in and out of Snyder' s rompers.
My walls are painted with Snyder' s One-Coat Satin Paint. My lawn is mowed with a
Snyder' s gas-powered motor; my clothes washed in a Snyder' s Handy Spindri; my
hamburgers done in the backyard in summer on a Snyder' s mobile barbecue pit. In
short, much of what I have has been yours.
Until now the service on all this stuff has been, if somewhat grumpy here and there, at
least adequate. That is why I am shocked and hurt at the treatment. We have been
receiving recently at the rather heavy hands of your installation men, who, frankly,
have been beating the stuffing out of the gas range I bought two weeks ago. The
installation ?or lack of it ?has been based on incompetence or both. Apparently none
of the "service" men seems to know or care very much about getting the range in
properly or taking the necessary safety precautions ?with the result that much of the
work that ought to have been done by Snyder' s has been thrust off on the Town
Service people, who, I can assure you, are getting weary of adjusting a range sold by a
competitor. There have been gas bubbles and outright leaks, and this morning, after
another so-called repair visit by one of your men, the house was filled with gas
fumes ?to the fatigue of my mother-in-law, not to mention the kindergarten canary
that is boarding with us during Easter vacation. We were saved only through the
fortunate presence of a house painter, who shut off the main inlet because "I didn' t
want the house to go to heaven and me not get paid."
If this negligence had been the work of an arrogant fly-by- night outfit doing me a
"favor", I could make an extra charge to experience and forget it, but when a reliable
organization like Snyder' s bills me for an installation which never seems finished and
causes me great inconveniences and near grief, something is remiss somewhere.
Living as I do on the psychic reward which at my company passes for a salary, I can
ill afford it. I thought that as manager you would' want to know all this.
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Sincerely yours, Robert Crumbleton
TEXT J
First read the following questions.
40. The country that is providing most of the money for the project is
[A] Switzerland. [B] Uganda. [C] France. [D] The Netherlands.
41. How many years' of relevant professional experience is the applicant expected to
have?
[A] Two years. [B] Three years. [C] Ten years. [D] Six years.
Now go through TEXT J quickly and answer questions 40 and 41.
IUCN
The World Conversation Union
Technical Advisor
Uganda National Wetlands
Conservation
Management Program
IUCN is providing technical support to the Department of Environment (DEP) of the
Ministry of Natural Resources, Uganda is implementing an innovative and multi ?
disciplinary program to promote the long ?term conservation and sustainable use of
Uganda' s wetland resources. The second three ?year phase of the program
commenced in July 1992 with funding from the Government of the Netherlands. A
major goal of IUCN' s support is to build the capacity of the DEP Wetlands Unit to
coordinate wetlands conservation and management initiatives and to promote
effective policies and planning for wetlands management. Activities initiated to date
include, amongst others, establishment of wetlands inventory capabilities,
development and dissemination of a natural policy framework and awareness and
training.
Due to the departure of the previous incumbent, we are now looking for a technical
advisor to continue the process of transferring wetland management skills to the head
of the DEP Wetlands Unit (the program leader) and his team of motivated professional
staff. Based in Kampala, the Advisor will provide technical expertise in wetlands
management with particular emphasis on community participation, sustainable
development, district planning, training at district level, and awareness. The
successful applicant will hold a postgraduate degree in environmental science and at
least ten years professional experience relating to wetland management, preferably in
Africa. He/she should have a broad understanding of related fields particularly rural
development, community extension work, tropical agriculture, and remote sensing
techniques. Management experience, good interpersonal skills, and an ability to
organize and motivate others will be essential attributes.
Applicants should submit their curriculum vitae, Uganda Country Office, P.O. Box
10950,
Kampala, Uganda, Fax: 256-41-242298, by November 12, 1993 (extended from
October 30). Alternatively, applicants may be sent to the Coordinator, IUCN,
Wetlands Program, Rue Mauvemey 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland. Further
information on project goals, job responsibilities, duration of appointment and terms
and conditions of employment will be sent to suitably qualified candidates only.
TEXT K
First read the following questions.
42. Kennedy made it clear his support for the Peace Corps in.
[A] Michigan. [B] Washington. [C] New York. [D] San Francisco.
43. The Peace Corps was created on
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[A] February 6, 1961. [B] March 1, 1961.
[C] August 30, 1961. [D] January 21, 1961.
Now go through TEXT K quickly and answer questions 42 and 43.
PEACE CORPS HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY
January 14, 1960 Congressman Henry Reuss introduces a bill calling for study of a
"Point Four Youth Corps"
plan. It was passed.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
June 15, 1960 Senator Hubert Humphrey introduces a bill calling for establishment
of a "Peace Corps". Bill
was defeated.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
October 14, 1960President candidate John F. Kennedy addresses students at the
University of Michigan in a 2:00 p. m.impromptu speech challenging them to give
two years of their lives to help people in countries of the developing world. Inspired
by the speech students form "Americans Committed to World Responsibility" and
organize petition asking for the establishment of such a program; within weeks a
thousand Michigan students had signed it.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
November 2, 1960 One week before election, Kennedy makes formal commitment to
a "Peace Corps" ?if elected ?in a speech at the Cow Palace auditorium, in San
Francisco.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
January 20, 1961 President Kennedy includes what becomes basic Peace Corps
philosophy in his Inaugural Address:
"To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the
bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves."
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
January 21, 1961 Kennedy appoints Sargent Shriver as head of a task force to study
the feasibility of a Peace Corps.
Shriver enlists the help of Harris Wofford. Together they draw up plans and invite
suggestions from various quarters.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
February 6, 1961 Shriver receives copy of "Towering Task" on the proposed Peace
Corps from Warren Wiggins. He
recommends that the Peace Corps be established immediately and on a large scale.
February 24, 1961 Shriver delivers to Kennedy the task force' s report on the Peace
Corps stressing speed, independence, originality and size.
_____________________________________________________________________
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_____________________
March 1,1961 President Kennedy issued Executive Order creating the Peace Corps.
Three days later, Sargent
Shriver is appointed its first director.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
August 30, 1961 President Kennedy hosts ceremony at the WhiteHouse Rose Garden
in honor of the first group of
Peace Corps Volunteers departing for service in Ghana. The 51 Volunteers serve in
secondary school education programs.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
September 12, 1961 Tom Livingston of Wood Dale, Illinois, is the first Volunteer on
duty ?an English teacher at Ghana Secondary school, Dowdowa, Ghana.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________
September 22, 1961 Congress approves legislation formally authorizing Peace Corps
with the mandate to "promote worldpeace and friendship" through the following
objectives: (1) To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their
needs for trained manpower; (2) To help promote a better understanding of Americans
on the part of the people served; and (3) To help promote a better understanding of
other peoples on the part of Americans.
TEXT L
First read the following questions.
44. When did Britain begin her offshore gas production?
[A] In 1960. [B] In 1965. [C] In 1967. [D] In 1973.
45. In 1982 ?83 the British Gas Corporation and its subsidiary companies netted a
profit of
[A] ?188 million.[B] ?4,200 million.
[C] ?,326 million[D] ?,958 million.
Now go through TEXT L quickly and answer questions 44 and 45.
GAS
Public supply of manufactured gas in Britain began in the early nineteenth century in
Westminster in central London.
For many years gas was produced from coal but during the 1960s, when growing
supplies of oil were being imported, there was a switch to producing town gas from
oil-based feedstocks. However, a more significant change began in the late 1960' s
following the first commercial natural gas discovery in UKCS in 1965 and the start of
offshore gas production in 1967. Supplies of offshore natural gas grew rapidly and
natural gas has now replaced town gas in the public supply system in Great Britain.
Originally used exclusively for lighting, gas is now used for domestic cooking and
beating and for industrial and commercial purposes.
The 1948 Gas Act brought the industry in Great Britain under public ownership and
control in 1949. As a result of the change to natural gas necessitating more centralized
control of production and transmission, the British Gas Corporation was set up in
1973 under the 1972 Gag Act to replace the Gas Council and area gas boards. The
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1982 Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Act gives power to permit the disposal of assets held by
the Corporation, and curtails the Corporation' s statutory monopoly in the supply of
gas for fuel purposes so as to permit private companies to compete in this supply.
In 1982- 83 the turnover of the Corporation and its subsidiary companies amounted to
Z5,958 million, of which sales of gas accounted for ?,326 million pounds. After
interest payments and taxation there was a profit of ?188 million. Recently the
Corporation has been wholly selffinancing. It has repaid all its long; ?term debt to the
Government. The Corporation has a large investment program, amounting to ?,200
million (at current prices) in the five years from 198287, a large part of which is
accounted for by investment in the Gough and Morecamble fields. The Corporation
has about 101,000 employees.
Natural gas is not available in Northern Ireland and the industry there, which is
controlled by nine municipal undertakings and four private sector companies, uses
town gas produced from oil feedstocks. However, the Government of Britain and the
Irish Republic have negotiated an agreement under which natural gas from the latter' s
offshore Kinsale field will be supplied to Northern Ireland through a pipeline
extension to be built between Dublin and Belfast.
PART IV TRANSLATION(60 MIN. )
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following underlined part of the TEXT into English. Write your
translation on ANSWER HEET THREE.
人是一个非常复杂的矛盾体。为了不受干扰地工作，常常要逃避世俗的热闹，
可一旦长期陷入孤境，又感到痛苦，感到难以忍受。一般情况，我喜欢孤独。
我的最大爱好是深思默想。我可以一个人长时间地独处而感到愉快。独享欢乐
是一种愉快，独自忧伤也是一种愉快。孤独的时候，精神不会是一片纯粹的空
白，它热染是一个丰富多才的世界。情绪上的大欢乐和大悲痛往往都在孤独中
产生。孤独中，思维可以不依照逻辑进行。孤独更多地产生人生的诗情——激
昂的和伤感的。孤独可以使人的思想向更遥远更深邃的地方伸展，也恩能够使
你 对 自 己 或 环 境 作 更 透 彻 的 认 识 和 检 讨 。
当然，孤独常常叫人感到无以名状的忧伤。而这忧伤有时又是很美丽的。我
喜欢孤独。但我也很惧怕孤独。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the TEXT Into Chinese. Write your
translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
Michael Jordan, a basketball player in whom commentators have discerned qualities
and supernatural powers, has etired from the game that made him one of the world' s
best known and best paid sportsmen, earning a reputed $36 a year.
Last week' s announcement was premature by most people' s measurement 桱 ordan is
30 and at the height of his laying and earning power ?but it was not, by his own
account, taken hastily, rashly or under any duress. "This is," he aid, with a rare
stumble, "the perfect timing for me to walk away."
After three championships with the Chicago Bulls, a second gold medal with the US
team at the 1992 Olympics, and 1 the accolades the game can bestow, Jordan felt his
motivation sli-Dping away. "I' m at the pinnacle," he told a thronged -ess conference.
"I iust feel I don' t have anything else to prove."
But this explanation may appear too simple to satisfy the sceptics, who have recently
discovered that Jordan does not lead an untroubled private life. First came allegations
that he gambled ?in a country where gambling is mostly illegal ?and that his gambling
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was out of Control. Then his father was shot dead on July 23.
The most lurid speculation suggests these facts are linked. If Jordan could lose $1
million to one of his golf partners, as has been alleged, could he not have run up a
more substantial debt to a more substantial organization, one that employs a lot of
men with vowels at the end of their names and bulges in their jackets?
PART V WRITING (60 MIN. )
Personal Appearance: Looks Really Count
Or do they? Looks aren' t everything, the saying goes. Write a passage of about 300
words agreeing or disagreeing with the topic. In the first part of your writing you
should present your thesis and in the second part you should support the thesis
statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have
written to a natural conclusion with a summary or suggestion.
Marks will be awarded for organization as well as for synthetic variety and
appropriate word choice. Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
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专八真题 1993 年
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1993)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (30 min)
PAPERONE
In this part of the test you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and
then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct response for each question in
your ANSWER BOOKLET
SECTION A CONVERSATION
Questions 1 to 5 refer to the conversation in this section.
1. Janet is not happy about Paul' s arrangement because
A. Paul hasn' t told her about the invitation B. the au pair girl will stay at home
C. their children cannot stay at their friend' s home D. Saturday is a bad day for her
2. According to the conversation, we know that Sam Urwin is
A. a man in charge of charity in town B. a businessman
C. a schoolmate of Janet' s D. a neighbour of theirs in Canada
3. The following statements about Sam are true except
A. Sam is very fond of duck and goes out shooting ducks a lot
B. Sam likes golf better than shooting
C. Sam is Janet' s favourite back in Canada
D. Sam pays much attention to his figure
4. Paul will buy the wine at
A. a pubB. a shop where drinks are sold to take away
C. Downes' D. a supermarket near his office
5. The conversation takes place
A. in the course of their dinner B. in the kitchen before supper
C. in the sitting room after supper D. late in the afternoon
SECTION B TALK
Questions 6 to ID refer to the talk in this section.
6. One specific difference between animal brain and human brain is
A. the division of sides B. the controlling functions
C. the cross-over effect D. the verbal abilities
7. People got to know things like the specialized abilities of the human brain
A. during the last decade B. early this century
C. through Dr Rogers Barry D. after many experiments
8. The 'Split Brain Experiments' were considered
A. a surgical experiment with the nerve
B. a help to the patients' recovery
C. a further proof of what had been known before
D. a great step in brain research
9. The right hand was still able to write after the splitting of the brain, because
A. verbal ability is located in the left hemisphere
B. the left hemisphere has a logic function
C. the right hemisphere can recognize and remember
D. information is going through the left hemisphere
10. This talk is mainly about
r-Ak the different functions of the two hemispheres
B. the Split Brain Experiments in California
" ?C. the synthesizing ability of the hemispheres D. the different ways of information
handling
SECTION C INTERVIEW
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Questions 11 to 15 refer to the interview in this section.
11. The woman said that TV is a medium that
A. gives kids a lot of good information
B. teaches kids to be passive
C. teaches kids something that they cannot learn from books
D. gets kids so excited that they literally come out of their chairs
12. The woman pointed out that teachers are forced into the role of having to compete
with
A. the exciting films that kids are shown in school
B. the kinds of things kids learn from their parents at home
C. the kinds of programmes kids watch on TV
D. the good acting of the actors and actresses in films
13. The woman said that she uses a number of educational films in a class she teaches
on
A. minorities B. history
C. ancient, civilizations D. Black Americans
14. According to the woman, when she shows films in class, the kids always seem to
A. miss the really important points
B. appreciate the really important points
C. catch the really important points
D. understand the really important points
15. The woman said that the fact that kids audibly and visibly react the way they do to
certain violent scenes in these films is
A. pessimistic B. understandable
C. very surprising D. sad
SECTION D NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 16 to 20 refer to the news broadcast in this section.
16. The news from Luxemburg tells us that the EC ministers
A. are trying to help make peace
B. came to visit Luxemburg
C. are involved in Yugoslavia' s ethnic conflict
D. have made a successful cease-fire
17. The information concerning President Bush is about
A. his attitude towards developing countries
B. his opinions of some former USSR republics
C. the US action following other countries
D. the US recognition of Lithuania
TEM8-93-2
18. The tropical storm in Southern India
A. was caused by cyclones
B. would have had more serious casualties but for cyclone shelters
C. was brought about by the landslides
D. loosened top soil in Sri Lanka
19. The number of the female senators in the 102nd Congress was
A.3 B.2 C.6 D.4
20. Before she became the first Black woman senator, Miss Carol Moseley Braun
A. worked in a country club of men
B. served as an aide in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
C. was the Recorder of Deeds in Illinois
D. was on the Judiciary Committee in California
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PART II LISTENING & NOTE-TAKING
Fill each of gaps with ONE word. You may refer to your notes. Make sure the word
you fill in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable. ?
The Cinema
The first moving pictures, developed by an (1)______ in the 1890' s were (1)______
different from what we know about cinema today. Because the sound and pictures
(2)______
were not (2)______in addition to the smallness of the screens, the (3) ______ (3)
______
which his system was called, was only popularized in its (4)______form. (4)
The Frenchmen developed the same principle and succeeded in exporting their
(5)______. Cinematographe, to Europe, India, Australia and Japan. But the films
(5)______
were still (6)______and (4)______. After that, great advances were made in cinema.
(6) ______
In 1903, with the use of (7)______ cameras, an improvement on the (13) ______ (7)
______
cameras, The Great Train Robbery, which lasted (8)______minutes, was made.
(8)______
In the following years, films were longer and the (9)______became larger and other
(9)______
refinements were introduced. In the early (10)______, with the development
(10)______
of effective (11)______system, the major problem of (11)______
sound and picture (12)______was solved. But oddly enough, for a few (12)______
years, the cameras had to be (13)______again to reduce the (13)______
(14)______of their mechanism. The development of(14)______
(15)______was the last important change in cinema. Though early films (15)______
were generally black and white, people thought they were more (16) ______
(16)______
In 1922, a two-colour system, was used in the first real (15)______films. By using
three
main colours, (17)______was improved in 1932. Because of the unstable quality,
(17) ______
the scenes, sometimes (18)______, and high cost, it took longer for (15) (18)______
to be accepted. For all the improvements in the (19) ______ of cinema and the
changes in the (19)______
style of (20)______, the basics--moving pictures, colour and sound-remain the same.
(20)______
PART II PROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION(20
MINS)
The following passage contains 17errors. Each line contains a ,naxinurrn of one
error and three are free from error. In each case, only one word is involved.
For
a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in
the blank provided 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
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专八真题 1993 年
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.
EXAMPLE
When art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) ∧ an
It never
╱
buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum (3)
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (4) exhibit
en build it.
PART III PROOFREADING (15 min)
The following passage contains 17 errors. Each line contains a maximum of one error,
and three are free from error. In each case only one word is involved. You should
passage and correct it.
What is a drug? Most of people probable think there' s a 1.
perfectly simple answer to this question. In fact, if one 2.
carries a quick survey on any street corner, one finds that, 3.
according to vast majority of people, there are two groups of 4.
drugs: those prescribed by doctors and those people take for 5.
non-medical use. As medicine and the medical profession are 6.
generally self-respectful, there aren' t any objections to the 7.
use of prescribing drugs. What most people don' t realize is 8.
that when prescribed drugs are usually beneficial, they can 9.
also represent a serious problem. There were many people 10.
addicted by tranquillizers before doctors began to prescribe 11.
them: now there being literally millions who depend on them. 12.
An acceptance of the use of drugs for non-medical reasons is 13.
largely a matter of a culture. Some Eastern people think the 14.
use of alcohol with horror, mainly as a result of religious15.
upbringing. However, these similar people freely use marijuana 16.
without a second thought, and this, in turn isn' t accepted17.
in Western culture which accepts alcohol. In most Western 18.
societies, the tea-or coffee-break' s now a part of the life, and19.
huge quantifies of these drinks are eaten daily. 20.
PART III READING COMPREHENSION (40 min)
Read TEXT A, an extract from a book on economic psychology, and answer questions
41 to 44.
TEXT A
A scientist who does research in economic psychology and who wants to predict the
way in which consumers will spend their money must study consumer behaviour. He
must obtain data both on the resources of consumers and on the motives that tend to
encourage or discourage money spending.
If an economist were asked which of three groups borrow most 梡 eople with rising
incomes, stable incomes, or declining incomes 梙 e would probably answer: those
with declining incomes. Actually, in the years 1947-1950, the answer was: people
with rising incomes. People with declining incomes were next and people with stable
incomes borrowed the least. This shows us that traditional assumptions about earning
and spending are not always reliable. Mother traditional assumption is that if people
who have money expect prices to go up, they will hasten to buy. If they expect prices
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专八真题 1993 年
to go down, they will postpone buying. But research surveys have shown that this is
not always true. The expectations of price increases may not stimulate buying. One
typical attitude was expressed by the wife of a mechanic in an interview at a time of
rising prices. "In a few months, she said, "we'll have to pay more for meat and milk;
we'll have less to spend on other things. "Her family had been planning to buy a new
car but they postponed this purchase. Furthermore, the rise in prices that has already
taken place may be resented add buyer' s resistance may be evoked. This is shown by
the following typical comment: "I just don' t pay these prices; they are too high. "
Traditional assumptions should be investigated carefully, and factors of time and
place should be considered. The investigations mentioned above were carried out in
America. Investigations conducted at the same time in Great Britain, however, yielded
results that were more in agreement with traditional assumptions about saving and
spending patterns. The condition most conductive to spending appears to be price
stability. If prices have been stable and people have become accustomed to consider
them "right" and expect them to remain stable, they are likely to buy. Thus, it appears
that the common business policy of maintaining stable prices with occasional sales or
discounts is based on a correct understanding of consumer psychology.
21. The best title of the passage is
A. Consumer' s Purchasing Power
B. Relationship between Income and Purchasing Power
C. Traditional Assumptions
D. Studies in Consumer Behaviour
22. The example of the mechanic' s wife is intended to show that in times of rising
prices
A. people with declining income tend to buy less
B. people with stable income tend to borrow less
C. people with increasing income tend to buy more
D. people with money also tend to buy less
23. Findings in investigations in Britain are mentioned to show
A. factors of time and place should be taken into consideration
B. people in Britain behave in the same way as those in America
C. maintaining stable prices is based on a correct understanding of consumer
psychology
D. occasional discounts and sales are necessary
24. According to the passage people tend to buy more when
A. prices are expected to go up
B. prices are expected to go down
C. prices don' t fluctuate
D. the business policy remains unchanged
Read TEXT B, an extract from a popular science book, and answer questions 25 to
28.
TEXT B
Weed Communities
In an intact plant community, undisturbed by human intervention, the composition of
a community is mainly a function of the climate and the type of soil. Today' , such
original communities are very rare 梩 hey are practically limited to national parks and
reservations.
Civilization has progressively transformed the conditions determining the
composition of plant communities. For several thousand years vast areas of arable
land have been hoed, ploughed, harrowed and grassland has been cut or grazed.
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During the last decades the use of chemical substances, such as fertilizers and most
recently of weed killers (herbicides) has greatly influenced the composition of weed
communities in farm land.
All selective herbicides have specific ranges of activity. They control the most
important weeds but not all the plants of a community. The latter profit fronithe new
free space and from the fertilizer as much as the crop does; hence they often spread
rapidly and become problem weeds unless another herbicide for their eradication is
found.
The soil contains enormous quantities of seeds of numerous species 梪 p to half a
million per m' according to scientific literature 梩 hat retain their ability to germinate
for decades. Thus it may occur that weeds that were hardly noticed before emerge in
masses after the elimination of their competitors. Hence, the knowledge of the
composition of weed communities before selective weed killers are applied is not only
of scientific interest since the plant species present in the soil in the form of seeds
must be considered as potential weeds. For efficient control the identification of
weeds at the seedling stage, i.e. at a time when they can still be controlled, is
particularly necessary; for the choice of the appropriate herbicides depends on the
composition of the weed community.
25. The composition of a plant community -
A. depends on climate and soil type in a virgin environment undamaged by human
beings
B. was greatly affected by human beings before they started using chemical
substances on the soil
C. was radically transformed by uncivilized human beings
D. refers to plants, trees, climate, type of soil and the ecological environment
26. Why are there problem weeds?
A. Because they are the weeds that cannot be eradicated by herbicides.
B. Because all selective herbicides can encourage the growth of previously
unimportant weeds by eliminating their competitors.
C. Because they were hardly considered before so that their seeds were not prevented
from germinating.
D. Because they benefit greatly from the fertilizer applied to the farm land.
27. A knowledge of the composition of a weed community
A. is essential to the efficient control of weeds
B. may lead us to be aware of the fact that the soil contains enormous quantities of
seeds of numerous species
C. helps us to have a good idea of why seeds can lie dormant for years
D. provides us with the means to identify weeds at the seedling stage
28. The best alternative title for the passage will be
A. A study of Weed Communities
B. The Importance of Studying How Plants Live in Communities
C. How Herbicides May Affect Farm Land
D. Weed Control by Means of Herbicides
Read TEXT C, an extract from a novel, and answer questions 29 to 31.
TEXT C
Raju and His Father’s Shop
My mother told me a story every evening while we waited for Father to close the shop
and come home. The shop remained open till midnight. Bullock-carts in long caravans
arrived late in the evening from distant villages, loaded with coconut, rice, and other
commodities for the market. The animals were unyoked under the big tamarind tree
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专八真题 1993 年
for the night, and the cartmen drifted in twos and threes to the shop, for a chat or to
ask for things to eat or smoke. How my father loved to discuss with them the price of
grain, rainfall, harvest, and the state of irrigation channels. Or they talked about old
litigations. One heard repeated references to magistrates, affidavits, witnesses in the
case, and appeals, punctuated with roars of laughter 梡 ossibly the memory of some
absurd legality or loophole tickled them.
My father ignored food and sleep when he had company. My mother sent me out
several times to see if he could be made to turn in. He was a man of uncertain temper
and one could not really guess how he would react to interruptions, and so my mother
coached me to go up, watch his mood, and gently remind him of food and florae. I
stood under the shop- awning, coughing and clearing my throat, hoping to catch his
eye. But the talk was all-absorbing and he would not glance in my direction, and I got
absorbed in their talk, although I did not understand a word of it.
After a while my mother' s voice came gently on the night air, calling, Raju, Raju,'
and my father interrupted his activities to look at me and say, Tell your mother not to
wait for me. Tell her to place a handful of rice and buttermilk in a bowl, with just one
piece of lime pickle, and keep it in the oven for me. I' 11 come in later. It was almost a
formula with him five days in a week. He always added, Not that I' m really hungry
tonight. ' And then I believe he went on to discuss health problems with his cronies.
But I didn' t stop to hear further. I made a quick dash back home. There was a dark
patch between the light from the shop and the dim lantern shedding its light on our
threshold, ,a matter of about ten yards,-I suppose, but the passage through it gave me
a cold sweat. I expected wild animals and supernatural creatures to emerge and grab
me. My mother waited on the doorstep to receive me and said. Not hungry, I suppose!
That'll give him an excuse to talk to the village folk all night, and then come in for an
hour' s sleep and get up with the crowing of that foolish cock somewhere. He will
spoil his health.
I followed her into the kitchen. She placed my plate and hers side by side on the floor,
drew the rice-pot within reach, and served me and herself simultaneously, and we
finished our dinner by the sooty tin lamp, stuck on a nail in the wall. She unrolled a
mat for me in the front room, and I lay down to sleep. She sat at my side, awaiting
Father' s return. Her presence gave me a feeling of inexplicable cosiness. I felt I ought
to put her proximity to good use, and complained, Something is bothering my hair, ?
and she ran her fingers through my hair, and scratched the nape of my neck. And then
I commanded, A story.'
Immediately she began, Once upon a time there was a man called Devaka' I heard his
name mentioned almost every night. He was a hero, saint, or something of the kind. I
never learned fully what he did or why, sleep overcoming me before my mother was
through even the preamble.
29. Which of the following was NOT what we can infer from the conversation
between Father and the cartmen?
A. Sometimes during lawsuits, one side or the other tricked the law, probably by
finding faults in the legal code which were favourable to themselves.
B. There were times when the courts came to foolish decisions.
C. Matters related to farming were of great interest to them.
D. The magistrates were ludicrous.
30. Which of the following occurred before Raju went to sleep?
A. He felt uncomfortable to lie on the mat prepared by his mother and complained
that there was something itching.
B. After he lay down to sleep he wanted his mother to move as close to him as
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专八真题 1993 年
possible.
C. He learned a lot about the legendary hero Devaka from the story which his mother
told him before he went to sleep.
D. His father returned soon after he and his mother fell asleep.
31:yibich of the following did NOT happen when his father stayed on at the shop after
closing time?
A:His father returned home very late from the shop and ate what had been set aside
for him.
B. His mother sent him several times to the shop to see if he could call his father
home.
C. Around midnight, his father came home and ate the night time meal with him and
his mother.
D. His father slept for a short while before he got up when the cock crowed.
Read TEXT D, an extract from a book on short-term memory, and answer questions
32 to 35.
TEXT D
Psychologists study memory and learning with both animal and human subjects. The
two experiments reviewed here show how short-term memory has been studied.
Hunter studied short-term memory in rats. He used a special apparatus which had a
cage for the rat and three doors. There was a light in each door. First the rat was
placed in the closed cage. Next one of the lights was turned on and then off. %. There
was food for the rat only at this door. After the light was turned off, the rat had to wait
a short time before it was released from its cage. Then, if k went to the correct door, it
was rewarded with the food that was there. Hunter did this experiment many times.
He always turned on the lights in a random order. The rat had to wait different
intervals before it was released from the cage. Hunter found that if the rat had to. wait
more than ten seconds, it could not remember the correct door. Hunter' s results show
that rats have a short-term memory of about ten seconds.
Henning studies how students who learning English as a second language remember
vocabulary. The subjects in his experiment were 75 students at the University of
California in Los Angeles. They represented all levels of ability in English. beginning,
intermediate, advanced; and native-speaking students.
To begin, the subjects listened to a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph
in English. Following the recording, the subjects took a 15-question test to see which
words they remembered. Each question had four choices. The subjects had to circle
the word they had heard in the recording. Some of the questions had four choices that
sound alike. For example, weather, whether, wither, and wetter are four words that
sound alike. Some of the questions had four choices that have the same meaning.
Method, way, manner, and system would be four words with the same meaning. Some
of them had four unrelated choices. For instance, weather, method, love, result could
be used as four unrelated words. Finally the subjects took a language proficiency test.
Henning found that students with a lower proficiency in English made more of their
mistakes on words that sound alike; students with a higher proficiency made more of
their mistakes on words that have the same meaning. Henning' s results suggest that
beginning students hold the sound of words in their short-term memory, and advanced
students hold the meaning of words in their short-term memory.
32. In Hunter' s experiment, the rat had to remember
A. where the food was B. how to leave the cage
C. how big the cage was D. which light was turned on
33. Hunter found that rats
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A. can remember only where their food is
B. cannot learn to go to the correct door
C. have a short-term memory of one-sixth a minute
D. have no short-term memory
34. Henning tested the students' memory of
A. words copied several times B. words explained
C. words heard D. words seen
35. Henning-concluded that beginning and advanced students
A. have no difficulty holding words in their short-term memory
B. have much difficulty holding words in their short-term memory
C. differ in the way they retain words
D. hold words in their short-term memory in the same way
Read TEXT E, a book review, and answer questions 36 to 40.
TEXTE
Goal Trimmer
TITLE: THE END OF EQUALITY
AUTHOR: MICKEY KAUS
PUBLISHER: BASIC BOOKS; 293 PAGES; $25
THE BOTTOM LINE: Let the American rich get richer, says Kaus, and the poor get
respects. That' s a plan for the Democrats?
By RICHARD LACAYO
UTIOPIAS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE dreams of the future. But the American Utopia?
Lately it' s a dream that was, a twilit memory of the Golden Age between V-J day and
OPEC, when even a blue-collar paycheck bought a place in the middle class. The
promise of paradise regained has become a key to the Democratic party pitch. Mickey
Kaus, a senior editor of the New Republic, says the Democrats are wasting their time.
As the U. S. enters a world where only the highly skilled and well educated will make
a decent living, the gap between rich and poor is going to keep growing. No fiddling
with the tax code, retreat to protectionism or job training for jobs that aren' t there is
going to stop it. Income equality is a hopeless cause in the U. S.
"Liberalism would be less depressing if it had a more attainable end. Kaus writes, "a
goal short of money equality. "Liberal Democrats should embrace an aim he calls
civic equality. If government can' t bring everyone into the middle class, let it expand
the areas of life in which everyone, regardless of income, receives the same treatment.
National health care, improved public schools, universal national service and
government financing of nearly all election campaigns, which would freeze out
special-interest money 梩 here are the unobjectionable components of his enlarged
public sphere.
Kaus is right to fear the hardening of class lines, but wrong to think the stresses can be
relieved without a continuing effort to boost income for the bottom half. "No, we can'
t tell them they' 11 be rich, "he admits. "Or even comfortably well- off. But we can
offer them at least a material minimum and a good shot at climbing up the ladder. And
we can offer them respect. " And what might they offer back? The Bronx had a rude
cheer for it. A good chunk of the Democratic core constituency would probably peel
off.
At the center of Kaus' book is a thoughtful but no less risky proposal to dynamite
welfare.
He rightly understands how fear and loathing of the chronically unemployed
underclass have encouraged middle- income Americans to flee from everyone below
them on the class scale. The only way to eliminate welfare dependency, Kaus
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maintains, is by cutting off checks for all able- bodied recipients, including single
mothers with children. He would have government provide them instead with jobs
that pay slightly less than the minimum wage, earned-income tax credits to nudge
them over the poverty line, drug counselling, job training and, if necessary, day care
for their children.
Kaus doesn' t sell this as social policy on the cheap. He expects it would cost up to $
59 billion a year more than the $ 23 billion already spent annually on welfare in the U.
S. And he knows it would be politically perilous, because he suggests paying for the
plan by raiding Social Security funds and trimming benefits for upper-income retirees.
Yet he considers it money well spent if it would undo the knot of chronic poverty and
help foster class rapprochement. And it would be too. But one advantage of being an
author is that you only ask people to listen to you, not to vote for you.
36. According to Mickey Kaus, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Methods like evading income tax or providing more chances for job training might
help reduce the existing inequality.
B. The Democratic Party is spreading propaganda that they could regain the lost
paradise.
C. Americans once had a period of time when they could obtain middle-class status
easily.
D. Income inequality results from the fact that society needs more and more workers
who have a high skill and a good education.
37. In Kaus' opinion
A. the government should strive to realize equality in everybody' s income
B. the government should do its best to bring every American into the middle class
C. the goal will be easier to attain if we change it from money equality to civic
equality
D. it' s almost impossible for the government to provide such things as national health
care, improved public schools, universal national service, etc.
38. Kaus has realized that
A. real equality cannot be achieved if the poor cannot increase their income
B. his idea will probably meet with disapproval from the supporters of the Democratic
Party
C. only the Bronx might cheer for his theory
D. the division of social strata has become increasingly conspicuous
39. The proposal as offered by Kaus
A. will increase the fear and loathing of the unemployed underclass by cutting off
checks for all able-bodied recipients
B. will. drastically increase the income taxes for taxpayers
C. is supposed to help establish reconciliation between the poor and the rich though
the gap may be unbridgeable
D. is too costly to be carried out
40. The title of the review suggests
A. giving the poor more financial aid and more job opportunities
B. a fundamental Change in the goal which the Democratic Party uses to appeal to
Americans
C. the elimination of the unfair distribution of social wealth among Americans
D. a modification of the objective to make it more securable
PART V SPEED READING (10min)
In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions.
Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on the Coloured Answer
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Sheet.
TEXT F is a newspaper article. Skim it quickly to answer question 41.
41. The most appropriate headline for this newspaper article would be
A. Unemployment and sharing of jobs
B. Job sharing 梐 n innovation in employment
C. Advantages and disadvantages of job sharing
D. Work-sharing: half a job is better than none
What exactly is job-sharing? The Equal Opportunities Commission defines as "a form
of part- time employment
whereby two people voluntarily share the responsibility of one full-time position.
"Salary and fringe benefits are divided
between the two sharers. Each person' s terms and conditions of employment are pro-
rata those of a full-timer. If each
works at least 15 hours a week then they enjoy certain employment rights that
ordinary part-time workers do not have.
Part-timers usually earn less per hour than a full-timer, have fewer fringe benefits and
less job security. They have virtually no career prospects. Employers often think that
working part-time means that a person has no ambitions and so offer no chance of
promotion.
But job-sharing bridges that gap and offers the chance of interesting work to people
who can only work part-time and that does not mean just married women. As
Adrienne Broyle of "New Ways to Work"梖 ormerly the London Job-sharing Project
梡 oints out: "There are various reasons why people decide they want to job-share and
so have more free time. "A growing number of men want to job-share so that they can
play an active role in bringing up their children. It allows people to study at home in
their free time, and means that disabled people or those who otherwise stay at home to
look after them, can work. Job-sharing is also an ideal way for people to ease into
retirement. "
Many employers are wary of new work schemes, but a survey carried out by the EOC
shows that they can profit in various ways from sharing. If one sharer is away sick, at
least half the job continues to be done. Skilled workers who cannot work full-time can
bring years of experience to a job.
One job-sharer in the EOC survey said "Both I and my job-sharer do at least one and a
half times the hours of work we are paid for. Half-timers have to work flat out without
a tea break. "Another attraction is that two people bring to one job twice as much
experience, sets of ideas and discussion. At best, two workers can complement one
another' s skills.
But there are financial drawbacks for the job-sharer.
If you become unemployed you should be eligible for Unemployment Benefit. But
you have to sign, on as being available for full-time work. So those who chose to job-
share because they could not work full-time cannot claim the benefit unless they are
prepared to sign on for full-time employment.
Pensions are a big stumbling block. Many job-sharers may be ineligible to join
company pension schemes. The EOC paper points out that the Local Government
Superannuation Scheme excludes people who work under 30 hours a week.
For those who are attracted to job-sharing as a way of easing into retirement, beware.
Most occupational pension schemes are based either on the average annual earnings
during membership of the scheme, or on the employee' s final salary.
In the latter case, it could mean that a person who has worked for 15 years full-time,
and job- share for the next five years for the same firm, will receive a very much
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smaller pension than if she or he had worked those last five years full-time.
TEXT G is an article from a newspaper. Skim it quickly to answer questions 42 to 43.
42: People in Britain were furious at the discovery that
A. Blunt retired as Queen Elizabeth' s art curator
B. members of Parliament did not know Blunt was a former Soviet spy
C. Blunt was allowed to work for British intelligence during World War it
D. Blunt had gone unpunished for years
43. Anthony Blunt packed his belongings and left his fashionable flat because
A. had been stripped of knighthood
B. had been informed of the disclosure beforehand
C. had passed British secrets to Russia
D. had once served as Queen Elizabeth' s art curator
Britons are fuming over the disclosure that its government knowingly let a former
Soviet spy live for years at the upper level of London society.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Parliament on November 15 that Sir Anthony
Blunt, 72, had passed British secrets to Russia during World War II but received
immunity from prosecution in 1964 in return for his confession and a pledge to
cooperate with security authorities. He retired only last year as Queen Elizabeth' s art
curator. Even Lord Home, who was Prime Minister when Blunt confessed, claimed to
be startled by the news. Members of Parliament demanded to know how such
information could be denied not just to the public but also the Britain' s leaders.
Blunt' s unmasking followed publication of a book about three Britons who led to
Russia after spying for the Soviets 朑 uy Burgess, Donald Maclean and K. Phillby.
The book reported a "fourth man" in the spy ring but stopped shortly identifying him
because of Britain' s strict libel laws.
Citizens were outraged that Blunt had gone unpunished for so long. Said London' s
Daily Mail: "The stench of hypocrisy and of establishment cover-up is overpowering.
"
The Tunes said Blunt never should have been allowed to work for Britain intelligence
during Would War u because "he was well known to be both a Marxist and a
homosexual, both of which characteristics are normally regarded as grounds of
unsuitability for such work ' A day before Thatcher revealed his secret and the Queen
stripped him of knighthood, Blunt packed his bags and left his stylish apartment.
Many Britons were convinced he had fled after being tipped off by an "old- boy
network" of civil servants.
TEXT H is an advertisement. Skim it quickly to answer question 44.
44. what is advertised for sale?
A. Houses. B. Seatbelts.
C. Accident insurance. D. Cars.
You enjoy
We reinforce the value of our cars with bodies that are protective as well as attractive.
And you enjoy peace of mind. Not just you, as a driver. But you, as a member of a
society that is increasingly concerned about safety issues. Because we share that
concern, we are committed to responsible product qualities.
In the new Bluebird, for example, responsible performance means predictable
response and handling. To improve active safety by helping you avoid accidents.
Responsible comfort takes the form of ergonomically correct interiors. To improve
active safety by reducing driver fatigue. And, as a part of responsible aesthetics, there
are refined body structures. To improve passive safety by helping you escape injury if
an accident does occur. Which means that, underneath the Bluebird' s beautifully
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styled exterior, you have beautifully engineered protection.
A rigid, monocoque frame that guards you. A highly stable body that surrounds you.
Front and rear crushable zones that cushion impact. Side-door reinforcement beams
that fend off broadside collisions. Not to mention other features like adjustable
shoulder-strap anchors and Emergency Locking Retractor seatbelts.
Enhancing not only your safety. But also our view that true beauty reflects inner
strength as well as outward appeal.
TEXT I is a letter to editor of The Economist. Skim it quickly to answer question 45.
45. The main purpose of the letter is to express the writer' s
A. sympathy for Germany which accepts refugees in large numbers
B. condemnation of Britain' s negative attitude towards refugees
C. concern for refugees who have been massacred or detained
D. demand that Britain accept its share in taking in refugees
Sir_The Economist has often championed the cause of refugees, and argued that they
can be assets to the countries that give them shelter.
Today Germany is being overwhelmed with refugees from the east; over 500, 000 this
year. Obviously many of these refugees are leaving their own countries for economic
reasons, but many more are fleeing for justified fear of persecution and even death, as
reports of massacres of Serb Muslims by both Croatian and Serbian troops make all
too clear. The current inflow of refugees is a common European problem. At present,
Germany absorbs them, and Britain rejects them, sending back even the pitiful
handful of Bosnians who have managed to get to its shores.
Some 6,000 Bosnian detainees are being held in camps in unspeakable conditions
because there is nowhere for them to go. The European Community has so far failed
to find any peaceful way to stop the horrors of "ethnic cleansing", and has been
unwilling to intervene militarily.
Surely the most elementary considerations of humanity demand that Britain, as
president of the EC, should convene a Community meeting to allocate these refugees
among its members, with Britain accepting its share.
Cambridge, Shirley
Massachusetts Williams
TEXT J is a science report. Skim it quickly to answer question 46.
46. The most appropriate title for this article would be
A. The Striking Features of Japanese Macaques
B. The Functional Role of Japanese Macaques
C. The Social Order of Japanese Macaques
D. The Aggressive Behaviour of Japanese Macaques
Among Japanese macaques are these striking features: a few males dominate the
troop, several old females attack others of their sex without retaliation and many adult
females threaten and chase males. There is clearly a rigid dominance hierarchy
analogous to a pecking order.
Aggressiveness is not important in determining rank. The higher a monkey' s status,
the fewer the attacks made on him. (Dominance rank is basically linear but there are
occasional reversals. )By the same token, high rank does not necessarily entail highly
aggtessive behaviour.
Having attained his position, the leader, secureand confident, does not need to attack
others as much as lower-ranking males.
Nor does size play a vital role. One leader observed was small, had no canine teeth
and only one eye. Yet there was never any challenge to his authority.
Ethologists believe an animal' s dominance rank is closely correlated with its mother'
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s. Sons of high-ranking females may remain at the centre of the troop while others are
driven to the periphery. Probably the mother' s influence carries over and this is seen
in many macaques fights which turn out to be bluffing matches. Here, as usual, the
deciding factor is the monkey' s status. Presumably. the higher the rank of the
combatant' s mother, the more self-confident he is and the more certain of victory.
Also important in determining the social order is the functional role of each animal,
ranging from watching for predators to rearing a family.
The study of such primate societies may help us to better understand human social
behaviour.
TEXT K is an article from a book Scan it for the information you need to answer
questions 47 to 48.
47. How many years are necessary to double the world' s population at present?
A. 37. B. 200. C. 80. D. 50.
48. How many people died of smog in London in 19527
A. About 2000. B. About 4000.
C. 120. D. 60.
The Population Bomb
I TOO MANY PEOPLE
Figures and numerous facts prove that there are already, and certainly that there will
be, too many people. Simply calculating the lengths of time necessary to double the
world' s population is enlightening. Impressively, the time required grows even
Shorter: 6, 000 years before Chirst, 1, 000, 000 years were necessary to double the
population; then about 1, 650 years after Christ only 1, 000; round the 1850' s 200
yea's; in 1930 80 years. Currently, the world' s population doubles every 37 years.
What would happen if the population were to continue doubling in volume every 37
years?
According to recent calculations, maintaining such a rhythm of growth would result in
60 million billion people on the earth in 900 years, which represents 120 inhabitants
per square meter.
Optimists believe and often assert that science will indeed fmd solutions to the
problem of overcrowding, namely by providing the means to immigrate to other
planets. But this solution is totally utopian. In effect, even if it should become
possible, 50 years would be sufficient for the 60 million billion persons to multiply to
the point of populating Venus, Mercury, Mars, the Moon and the satellites of Jupiter
and Saturn with a density equal to that of the Earth.
II A DYING PLANET
The world' s population explosion is the source of a whole series of environmental
deteriorations, which in time can have disastrous consequences.
Because the population-food imbalance necessitates ' at any price' a growth of
agricultural production, methods often harmful to the environment are used without
judgment. Examples abound. The construction of colossal dams to irrigate hundreds
of thousands of acres can in fact provoke catastrophes. Thus, the Aswan Dam
currently prevents the deposit of fertile silts brought each year by the flooding of the
Nile. The result will obviously be a decrease in the fertility of the Delta lands.
Damming the Mekong risks the same consequences for Vietman and neighbouring
countries.
Fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, DDT can be devastating, transforming complex
ecosystems, necessary for the conservation of the environment, into simple
ecosystems. Monocultures are a case of such mutation.
Certain situations are perceived as ' dangerous only when they become critical enough
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to cause numerous deaths. Smog is an example. In London in 1952 it caused some 4,
000 deaths. This incident provoked an awakening of conscience and resulted in
decisions which have proven efficacious. But smog presents still other dangers:
namely, it destroys plants which offer little resistance, and whose oxygen production
is indisensable to us, and it changes the earth' s thermal equilibrium.
TEXT L is a description of Boston. Scan it to get the information you need to answer
questions 49 to 50.
49. When did the Pilgrims settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts?
A. In 1620. B. In 1630. C. In 1690. D. in 1775.
50. What is Cape Cod?
A. A renowned university.
B. A charming seacoast town.
C. A picturesque and historic town.
D. A famous ocean resort.
Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, as well as the largest city and the cultural and
commercial certre of New England. The city was founded in 1630, 10 years after the
Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. It has been called the "Athens of America" because of
its renown as a centre of learning and intellectual activity (more than 60 colleges and
universities are located in the metropolitan area).
Many museums' , concert halls, and theatres provide cultural and entertainment
options 梖 rom the internationally acclaimed Museum of Fine Arts to the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and Bost Pops to an abundant local and pre- Broadway. theatre
scene. Seasonally, sports events feature the Boston Celtics (basketball), the Boston
Red Sox (baseball), and the New England Patriots (football). On Patriots' Day
(officially April 19th, but celebrated on the third Monday in April) thousands of
runners from all over the world compete in the Boston Marathon, the nation' s oldest
road race, which first took place in 1897.
Prominent among Boston' s many tourist attractions is the Freedom Trail, a walking
tour through historic Boston that encompasses 16 of the most treasured sites in
American history. The Freedom Trail is an actual red line painted on the sidewalks
and streets of Boston. Besides guiding a visitor to the historic sites found along the
Trail, it is an excellent way to tour the city, as the Trail winds through many of the
city' s diverse neighborhoods.
In the downtown section of the city is Boston Common, the nation' s oldest public
park. Early in the city' s history, in 1534, this piece of land was set aside as a military
training field and a public cattle pasture. (Many of the streets in downtown Boston are
narrow and winding, said to be so because they began as cow paths.) In the late 1600s
women who were found guilty of witchcraft were hanged in the Common, and in his
boyhood Benjamin Franklin grazed his family' s cow there. Next to the Common is
Boston' s formal Public Garden, where, in the spring and summer, people enjoy riding
in the graceful swan boats on the Garden' s scenic pond.
Just across the Charles River from Boston is Cambridge, home of Harvard University
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard' s museums are world famous;
its Widener Library, with about six million books, is the world' s largest university
library. Cambridge also had a part in the American Revolution. It was under an elm
tree in the Cambridge Common that George Washington took command of the
Continental army on July 3, 1775. South of Boston is historic Plymouth, where the
Pilgrims settled in 1620, and Cape Cod, the region' s most famous ocean resort 梐
hook-shaped peninsula with 300 miles of long, sandy beaches.
West of Boston are the picturesque and historic towns of Lexington and Concord. It
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was on Lexington Green in the early morning hours of April 19, 1775 that the captain
of the Colonial Militia announced, "Don' t fire unless fired on. But if they mean to
have war, let it begin here' - words which, with the battle that followed, changed the
course of history. Lexington is called the birthplace of American liberty. "In Concord
one can see the Minute Man Historical Park (commemorating the "minutemen" 梒
olonists who remained ready to act as soldiers at a minute' s notice) and the homes of
authors Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nearby
is Walden Pond, made famous by Henry David Thoreau.
North of Boston are the historic and charming seacoast towns of Salem, Gloucester,
and Rockport. At Salem, famous for the witchcraft hysteria in 1690, the visitor can
see the Witch Museum, as well as the House of the Seven Gables, made famous by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Gloucester, a bronze statue of the Gloucester Fisherman
overlooks the ocean in memory of the more than 10, 000 fishermen who lost their
lives at sea. Rockport is best known for its artists' colony and picturesque scenery.
Whale-watching expeditions are popular in both Rockport and Gloucester.
PAPERTWO
PART IV TRANSLATION (60 min)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the following text into English. Write your translation in the ANSWER
BOOKLET.
徐霞客一生周游了十六个省，足迹几乎遍及全国。他在考察的过程中，从来不
盲目迷信书本上的结论。他发现前人研究地理的记载有许多很不可靠的地方。
为了进行真实细致的考察，他很少乘车坐船，几乎全靠双脚翻山越岭，长途跋
涉；为了弄清大自然的真相，他总是挑选道路艰险的山区，人迹稀少的森林进
行考察，发现了许多奇山秀景；他常常选择不同的时间和季节，多次重游各地
名山，反复观察变换的奇景。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation in the ANSWER
BOOKLET
The thirty-second day out of Bombay began inauspiciously. In the morning a sea
smashed one of the galley doors. We dashed in through lots of steam and found the
cook very wet and indignant with the ship: She' s getting worse every day. She' s
trying to drown me in front of my own stove!' He was very angry. We pacified him,
and the carpenter, though
away twice from there, managed to repair the door. Through that accident our dinner
was not ready till late, but it ,4,-,4:2c, ?
t matter in the end because Knowles, who went to fetch it, got knocked down by a sea
and the dinner went over the
Captain Allistoun, looking more hard and thin-lipped than ever, hung on to full
topsails and foresails, and would not 'notice that the ship, asked to do too much,
appeared to lose heart altogether for the first time since we knew her.
PART V WRITING (45 min)
While some people claim that a person' s essential qualities are inherited at birth,
others insist that the circumstances in which a person grows up are principally
responsible for the kind of person he/she becomes. Which view do you agree with and
why? Requirement:
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement and in the
second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. Marks
will be awarded for organization as well as for syntactic variety and appropriate work
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choice.
Length:
Not less than 250 words.
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