2015~2016年英语专业八级真题及详解【圣才出品】

QUESTION BOOKLETTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016)—GRADE EIGHT—TIME LIMIT：150 MINPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION ［25 MIN］SECTION A MINI—LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture，please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s）you fill in is （are）both grammatically and semantically acceptable. Y ou may use the blank sheet for note—taking。

You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap—filling task。

Now listen to the mini-lecture。

When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work。

SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview。

The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said。

2015专⼋真题2015专⼋真题TEXT A11. A the family structure12. B English working clahomes have spacious sitting rooms13. C stark14. A togetherness15. B constant pressure from the stateTEXT B16. A it further explains high-tech hubris17. B slow growth of the US economy18. A integrated the use of pa-pe-r and the digital form19. C more digital data use leads to greater pa-pe-r use20. A he review the situation from different perspectivesTEXT C21. D because Britons are still conscious of their clastatus22. D income is unimportant in determining which claone belongs to23. C Occupation and claare no longer related to each other24. C fewer types of work25. A showing modestyTEXD D26. D awkwardness27. B luxurious28. A they the couple as an object of fun29. C sweeping over the horizon, a precipice30. B the couple feel ill at easeFrom a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years 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 disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays.I had the lonely child's habit of ma-ki-ng up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literaryambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. Nevertheless the volume of serious — i.e. seriously 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.2015年专⼋真题参考答案改错部分（思版）1. grew 后加 up2. conscience 改成 consciousness3. soon 改成 sooner4. the 去掉5. disagreeing 改成 disagreeable6. imaginative 改成 imaginary7. literal 改成 literary8. in 去掉9. which 前加 in10. Therefore, 改成 Nevertheless原⽂出处：Why I Write by George OrwellFrom a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousnethat I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years 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 disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays.I had the lonely child's habit of ma-ki-ng up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. Neverthelethe volume of serious — i.e. seriously 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. I cannot remember anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had ‘chair-like teeth’ — a good enough phrase, but I fancy the poem was a plagiarism of Blake's ‘Tiger, Tiger’. At eleven, when the war or 1914-18 broke out, I wrote a patriotic poem which was printed in the local newspa-pe-r, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kitchener. From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wrote bad and usually unfinished ‘nature poems’ in the Georgian style. I also attempted a short story which was a ghastly failure. That was the total of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on pa-pe-r during all those years.However, throughout this time I did in a sense engage in literary activities. To begin with there was the made-to-order stuff which I produced quickly, easily and without much pleasure to myself. Apart from school work, I wrote vers d'occasion, semi-comic poems which I could turn out at what now seems to me astonishing speed — at fourteen I wrote a whole rhyming play, in imitation of Aristophanes, in about a week — and helped to edit a school magazines, both printed and in manuscript. These magazines were the most pitiful burlesque stuff that you could imagine, and I took far letrouble with them than I now would with the cheapest journalism. But side by side with all this, for fifteen years or more, I was carrying out a literary exercise of a quite different kind: this was the ma-ki-ng up of a continuous ‘story’ about myself, a sort of diary existing only in the mind. I believe this is a common habit of children and adolescents. As a very small child I used to imagine that I was, say, Robin Hood, and picture myself as the hero of thrilling adventures, but quite soon my ‘story’ ceased to be narcissistic in a crude way and became more and more a mere description of what I was doing and the things I saw. For minutes at a time this kind of thing would be runningthrough my head: ‘He pushed the door open and entered the room. A yellow beam of sunlight, filtering through the muslin curtains, slanted on to the table, where a match-box, half-open, lay beside the inkpot. With his right hand in his pocket he moved acroto the window. Down in the street a tortoiseshell cat was chasing a dead leaf’, etc. etc. This habit continued until I was about twenty-five, right through my non-literary years. Although I had to search, and did search, for the right words, I seemed to be ma-ki-ng this descriptive effort almost against my will, under a kind of compulsion from outside. The ‘story’ must, I suppose, have reflected the styles of the various writers I admired at different ages, but so far as I remember it always had the same meticulous descriptive quality.When I was about sixteen I suddenly discovered the joy of mere words, i.e. the sounds and associations of words. The lines from Paradise Lost —So hee with difficulty and labour hardMoved on: with difficulty and labour hee.which do not now seem to me so very wonderful, sent shivers down my backbone; and the spelling ‘hee’ for ‘he’ was an added pleasure. As for the need to describe things, I knew all about it already. So it is clear what kind of books I wanted to write, in so far as I could be said to want to write books at that time. I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their own sound. And in fact my first completed novel, Burmese Days, which I wrote when I was thirty but projected much earlier, is rather that kind of book.I give all this background information because I do not think one can assea writer's motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in — at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own — but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, in some perverse mood; but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:【2015专⼋真题】。

QUESTION BOOKLETTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016)-GRADE EIGHT—TIME LIMIT: 150 MINPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION ［25 MIN]SECTION A MINI—LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture。

You will hear the mini—lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini—lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word（s) you fill in is （are）both grammatically and semantically acceptable. Y ou may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap—filling task。

Now listen to the mini—lecture. When it is over，you will be given THREE minutes to check your work。

SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interview and the questions will be spoken ONCE ONLY。

QUESTION BOOKLETTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016)-GRADE EIGHT—TIME LIMIT: 150 MINPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION ［25 MIN]SECTION A MINI—LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture。

You will hear the mini—lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini—lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word（s) you fill in is （are）both grammatically and semantically acceptable. Y ou may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap—filling task。

Now listen to the mini—lecture. When it is over，you will be given THREE minutes to check your work。

SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interview and the questions will be spoken ONCE ONLY。

QUESTION BOOKLETTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT：150 MINPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN］SECTION A MINI—LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini—lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini—lecture，please complete the gap—filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap。

Make sure the word（s）you fill in is （are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. Y ou may use the blank sheet for note-taking。

You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap—filling task。

Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over，you will be given THREE minutes to check your work。

SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview。

The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said。

2016年英语专业八级真题及详解TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT: 150 MIN PART ⅠLISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.Models for Arguments1. ____【答案】the dialectical model【解析】细节题。

录音中提到“The first model, let’s call this the dialectical model”，所以第一种模式就是“the dialectical model”。

QUESTION BOOKLETTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT: 150 MINPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interview and the questions will be spoken ONCE ONLY. After each question there will be a ten-second pause. During the pause, you should read the four choices of A, B, C and D, and mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the questions.Now, listen to the Part One of the interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on Part One of the interview.1. A. Maggie’s university life.B. Her mom’s life at Harvard.C. Maggie’s view on studying with Mom.D. Maggie’s opinion on her mom’s major.2. A. They take exams in the same weeks.B. They have similar lecture notes.C. They apply for the same internship.D. They follow the same fashion.3. A. Having roommates.B. Practicing court trails.C. Studying together.D. Taking notes by hand.4. A. Protection.B. Imagination.C. Excitement.D. Encouragement.5. A. Thinking of ways to comfort Mom.B. Occasional interference from Mom.C. Ultimately calls when Maggie is busy.D. Frequent check on Maggie’s grades.Now, listen to the Part Two of the interview. Questions 6 to 10 are based on Part Two of the interview.6. A. Because parents need to be ready for new jobs.B. Because parents love to return to college.C. Because kids require their parents to do so.D. Because kids find it hard to adapt to college life.7. A. Real estate agent.B. Financier.C. Lawyer.D. Teacher.8. A. Delighted.B. Excited.C. Bored.D. Frustrated.9. A. How to make a cake.B. How to make omelets.C. To accept what is taught.D. To plan a future career.10. A. Unsuccessful.B. Gradual.C. Frustrating.D. Passionate.PART II READING COMPREHENSION [45 MIN] SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONSIn this section there are three passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.PASSAGE ONE(1)There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes（滑水板）over cataracts of foam. On weekends Mr. Gatsby’s Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with scrubbing-brushes and hammer and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.(2)Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York –every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb.(3)At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and e nough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre（冷盘）, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In themain hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials（加香甜酒）so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.(4)By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived– no thin five-piece affair but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.(5)The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.(6)The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath –already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the center of a group and then excited with triumph glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light.(7)Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the Folies. The party has begun.(8)I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island and somehow they ended up at Gatsby’s door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.(9)I had been actually invited. A chauffeur in a uniform crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning with a surprisingly formal note from his employer –the honor would be entirely Gatsby’s, it said, if I would attend his “little party” that night. He had seen me several times and had intended to call on me long before but a peculiar combination of circumstances had prevented it – signed Jay Gatsby in a majestic hand.(10)Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven and wandered around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know –though here and there was a face I had noticed on the commuting train. I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry and all talking in low earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans. I was sure that they were selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were, at least, agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.(11)As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table – the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone.11.It can be inferred form Para. 1 that Mr. Gatsby ______ through the summer.A.entertained guests from everywhere every weekendB.invited his guests to ride in his Rolls-Royce at weekendsC.liked to show off by letting guests ride in his vehiclesD.indulged himself in parties with people from everywhere12.In Para.4, the word “permeate” probably means ______.A.perishB.pushC.penetrateD.perpetrate13.It can be inferred form Para. 8 that ______.A.guests need to know Gatsby in order to attend his partiesB.people somehow ended up in Gatsby’s house as guestsC.Gatsby usually held garden parties for invited guestsD.guests behaved themselves in a rather formal manner14.According to Para. 10, the author felt ______ at Gatsby’s party.A.dizzyB.dreadfulC.furiousD.awkward15.What can be concluded from Para.11 about Gatsby?A.He was not expected to be present at the parties.B.He was busy receiving and entertaining guests.C.He was usually out of the house at the weekend.D.He was unwilling to meet some of the guests.PASSAGE TWO(1)The Term “CYBERSPACE” was coined by William Gibson, a science-fiction writer. He first used it in a short story in 1982, and expanded on it a couple of years later in a novel, “Neuromancer”, whose main character, Henry Dorsett Case, is a troubled computer hacker and drug addict. In the book Mr Gibson describes cyberspace as “a consensual hall ucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators” and “a graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system.”(2)His literary creation turned out to be remarkably prescient（有先见之明的）. Cyberspace has become shorthand for the computing devices, networks, fibre-optic cables, wireless links and other infrastructure that bring the internet to billions of people around the world. The myriad connections forged by these technologies have brought tremendous benefits to everyone who uses the web to tap into humanity’s collective store of knowledge every day.(3)But there is a darker side to this extraordinary invention. Data breaches are becoming ever bigger and more common. Last year over 800m records were lost, mainly through such attacks. Among the most prominent recent victims has been Target, whose chief executive, Gregg Steinhafel, stood down from his job in May, a few months after the giant American retailer revealed that online intruders had stolen millions of digital records about its customers, including credit- and debit-card details. Other well-known firms such as Adobe, a tech company, and eBay, an online marketplace, have also been hit.(4) The potential damage, though, extends well beyond such commercial incursions. Wider concerns have been raised by the revelations about the mass surveillance carried out by Western intelligence agencies made by Edward Snowden, a contractor to America’s National Security Agency (NSA), as well as by the growing numbers of cyber-warriors being recruited by countries that see cyberspace as a new domain of warfare. America’s president, Barack Obama, said in a White House press release earlier this year that cyber-threats “pose one of the gravest national-security dangers” the country is facing.(5)Securing cyberspace is hard because the architecture of the internet was designed to promote connectivity, not security. Its founders focused on getting it to work and did not worry much about threats because the network was affi liated with America’s military. As hackers turned up, layers of security, from antivirus programs to firewalls, were added to try to keep them at bay. Gartner, a research firm, reckons that last year organizations around the globe spent $67 billion on information security.(6)On the whole, these defenses have worked reasonably well. For all the talk about the risk of a “cyber 9/11”, the internet has proved remarkably resilient. Hundreds of millions of people turn on their computers every day and bank online, shop at virtual stores, swap gossip and photos with their friends on social networks and send all kinds of sensitive data over the web without ill effect. Companies and governments are shifting ever more services online.(7)But the task is becoming harder. Cyber-security, which involves protecting both data and people, is facing multiple threats, notably cybercrime and online industrial espionage, both of which are growing rapidly. A recent estimate by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), puts the annual global cost of digital crime and intellectual-property theft at $445 billion – a sum roughly equivalent to the GDP of a smallish rich European country such as Austria.(8)To add to the worries, there is also the risk of cyber-sabotage. Terrorists or agents of hostile powers could mount attacks on companies and systems that control vital parts of an economy, including power stations, electrical grids and communications networks. Such attacks are hard to pull off, but not impossible. One precedent is the destruction in 2010 of centrifuges （离心机）at a nuclear facility in Iran by a computer program known as Stuxnet.(9)But such events are rare. The biggest day-to-day threats faced by companies and government agencies come from crooks and spooks hoping to steal financial data and trade secrets. For example, smarter, better-organized hackers are making life tougher for the cyber-defenders, but the report will argue that even so a number of things can be done to keep everyone safer than they are now.(10)One is to ensure that organizations get the basics of cyber-security right. All too often breaches are caused by simple blunders, such as failing to separate systems containing sensitive data from those that do not need access to them. Companies also need to get better at anticipating where attacks may be coming from and at adapting their defences swiftly in response to new threats. Technology can help, as can industry initiatives that allow firms to share intelligence about risks with each other.(11)There is also a need to provide incentives to improve cyber-security, be they carrots or sticks. One idea is to encourage internet-service providers, or the companies that manage internet connections, to shoulder more responsibility for identifying and helping to clean up computers infected with malicious software. Another is to find ways to ensure that software developers produce code with fewer flaws in it so that hackers have fewer security holes to exploit.(12)An additional reason for getting tech companies to give a higher priority to security is that cyberspace is about to undergo another massive change. Over the next few years billions of new devices, from cars to household appliances and medical equipment, will be fitted with tiny computers that connect them to the web and make them more useful. Dubbed “the internet of things”, this is already making it possible, for example, to control home appliances using smartphone apps and to monitor medical devices remotely.(13)But unless these systems have adequate security protection, the internet of things could easily become the internet of new things to be hacked. Plenty of people are eager to take advantage of any weaknesses they may spot. Hacking used to be about geeky college kids tapping away in their bedrooms to annoy their elders. It has grown up with a vengeance.16.Cyberspace is described by William Gibson as ______.A. a function only legitimate computer operators haveB. a representation of data from the human systemC.an important element stored in the human systemD.an illusion held by the common computer users17.Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the meaning of the first fourparagraphs?A.Cyberspace has more benefits than defects.B.Cyberspace is like a double-edged sword.C.Cyberspace symbolizes technological advance.D.Cyberspace still remains a sci-fi notion.18.According to Para. 5, the designing principles of the internet and cyberspace security are______.A.controversialplimentaryC.contradictoryD.congruent19.What could be the most appropriate title for the passage?A.Cyber Crime and Its Prevention.B.The Origin of Cyber Crime.C.How to Deal with Cyber Crime.D.The Definition of Cyber Crime.PASSAGE THREE(1)You should treat skeptically the loud cries now coming from colleges and universities that the last bastion of excellence in American education is being gutted by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is, higher education is not a bastion of excellence. It is shot through with waste, lax academic standards and mediocre teaching and scholarship.(2)True, the economic pressures – from the Ivy League to state systems – are intense. Last year, nearly two-thirds of schools had to make midyear spending cuts to stay within their budgets. It is also true (as university presidents and deans argue) that relieving those pressures merely by raising tuitions and cutting courses will make matters worse. Students will pay more and get less. The university presidents and deans want to be spared from further government budget cuts. Their case is weak.(3)Higher education is a bloated enterprise. Too many professors do too little teaching to too many ill-prepared students. Costs can be cut and quality improved without reducing the number of graduates. Many colleges and universities should shrink. Some should go out of business. Consider:●Except for elite schools, admissions standards are low. About 70 percent of freshmen atfour-year colleges and universities attend their first-choice schools. Roughly 20 percent go to their second choices. Most schools have eagerly boosted enrollments to maximize revenues (tuition and state subsidies).●Dropout rates are high. Half or more of freshmen don’t get degrees. A recent study ofPhD programs at 10 major universities also found high dropout rates for doctoral candidates.●The attrition among undergraduates is particularly surprising because college standardshave apparently fallen. One study of seven top schools found widespread grade inflation.In 1963, half of the students in introductory philosophy courses got a B – or worse. By 1986, only 21 percent did. If elite schools have relaxed standards, the practice is almost surely widespread.●Faculty teaching loads have fallen steadily since the 1960s. In major universities, seniorfaculty members often do less than two hours a day of teaching. Professors are “socialized to publish, teach graduate students and spend as little time teaching (undergraduates) as possible,” concludes James Fairweather of Penn State University in a new study. Faculty pay consistently rises as undergraduate teaching loads drop.●Universities have encouraged an almost mindless explosion of graduate degrees. Since1960, the number of masters’ degrees awarded annually has risen more than fourfold to 337,000. Between 1965 and 1989, the annual number of MBAs (masters in business administration) jumped from 7,600 to 73,100.(4)Even so, our system has strengths. It boasts many top-notch schools and allows almost anyone to go to college. But mediocrity is pervasive. We push as many freshmen as possible through the door, regardless of qualifications. Because bachelors’ degrees are so common, we create more graduate degrees of dubious worth. Does anyone believe the MBA explosion has improved management?(5)You won’t hear much about this from college deans or university presidents. They created this mess and are its biggest beneficiaries. Large enrollments support large faculties. More graduate students liberate tenured faculty from undergraduate teaching to concentrate on writing and research: the source of status. Richard Huber, a former college dean, writes knowingly in a new book (“How Professors Play the Cat Guarding the Cream: Why We’re Paying More and Getting Less in Higher Education”): Presidents, deans and trustees ... call for more recognition of good teaching with prizes and salary incentives.(6)The reality is closer to the experience of Harvard University’s distinguished pal eontologist Stephen Jay Gould: “To be perfectly honest, though lip service is given to teaching, I have never seriously heard teaching considered in any meeting for promotion... Writing is the currency of prestige and promotion.”(7)About four-fifths of all students attend state-subsidized systems, from community colleges to prestige universities. How governors and state legislatures deal with their budget pressures will be decisive. Private schools will, for better or worse, be influenced by state actions. The states need to do three things.(8)First, create genuine entrance requirements. Today’s low standards tell high school students: You don’t have to work hard to go to college. States should change the message by raising tuitions sharply and coupling the increase with generous scholarships based on merit and income. To get scholarships, students would have to pass meaningful entrance exams. Ideally, the scholarships should be available for use at in-state private schools. All schools would then compete for students on the basis of academic quality and costs. Today’s system of general tuition subsidies provides aid to well-to-do families that don’t need it or to unqualified students who don’t deserve it.(8)Next, states should raise faculty teaching loads, mainly at four-year schools. (Teaching loads at community colleges are already high.) This would cut costs and reemphasize the primacy of teaching at most schools. What we need are teachers who know their fields and can communicate enthusiasm to students. Not all professors can be path-breaking scholars. The excessive emphasis on scholarship generates many unread books and mediocre articles in academic journals. “You can’t do more of one (research) without less of the other (teaching),”says Fairweather. “People are working hard – it’s just where they’re working.”(10)Finally, states should reduce or eliminate the least useful graduate programs. Journalism (now dubbed “communications”), business and education are prime candidates. A lot of what they teach can – and should – be learned on the job. If colleges and universities did a better job of teaching undergraduates, there would be less need for graduate degrees.(11)Our colleges and universities need to provide a better education to deserving students. This may mean smaller enrollments, but given today’s attrition rates, the number of graduates20.It can be concluded from Para.3 that the author was ______ towards the education.A.indifferentB.neutralC.positiveD.negative21.The following are current problems facing all American universities EXCEPT ______.A.high dropout ratesB.low admission standardsC.low undergraduate teaching loadsD.explosion of graduate degrees22.In order to ensure teaching quality, the author suggests that the states do all the followingEXCEPT ______.A.set entrance requirementsB.raise faculty teaching loadsC.increase undergraduate programsD.reduce useless graduate programs23.“Prime candidates” in Para. 10 is used as ________.A.euphemismB.metaphorC.analogyD.personification24.What is the author’s main argument in the passage?A.American education can remain excellent by ensuring state budget.B.Professors should teach more undergraduates than postgraduates.C.Academic standard are the main means to ensure educational quality.D.American education can remain excellent only by raising teaching quality. SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONSIn this section there are eight short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. Answer each question in NO more than 10 words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO.PASSAGE ONE25.From the description of the party preparation, what words can you see to depict Gatby’sparty?26.How do you summarize the party scene in Para. 6?PASSAGE TWO27.What do the cases of Target, Adobe and eBay in Para. 3 show?28.Why does the author say the task is becoming harder in Para. 7?29.What is the conclusion of the whole passage?PASSAGE THREE30.What does the author mean by saying “Their case is weak” in Para. 2?31.What does “grade inflation” in Para. 3 mean?32.What does the author mean when he quotes Richard Huber in Para. 5?PART III LANGUAGE USAGE [15 MIN]The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved. Y ou 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 blankprovided at the end of the line.For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a “∧” sign and write theword you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end ofthe line.For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash “/” and put the word in theblank provided at the end of the line.ExampleWhen∧art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) anit never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) neverthem on the wall. When a natural history museumwants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibitProofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET THREE as instructed.Translate the underlined part of the following text from Chinese into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.流逝，表现了南国人对时间最早的感觉。

年专业八级真题及答案【篇一：2016英语专业八级真题参考答案】section a mini-lecture1. the dialectical model3.premises4.opposition/arguing5. arguments as performances/the rhetorical model6. participating7. convince8. how we argue9. tactics10. negotiation and collaboration11. they’re dead ends12. learning with losing13. questions14.achieve positive effects15.be self-supportedsectionbinterview1. what is the topic of the interview?答案：c. maggie’s view on studying with mom.2. which of the following indicates that they have the same study schedule?答案：a. they take exams in the same weeks.3. what do the mother and daughter have in common as students?答案：d. taking notes by hand.4. what is the biggest advantage of studying with mom? 答案：d. encouragement.5. what is the biggest disadvantage of studying with mom?答案：b. occasional interference from mom.6. why is parent and kids studying together a common case?答案：a. because parents need to be ready for new jobs.7. what would maggie’s mom like to be after college? 答案：c. lawyer.8. how does maggie’s mom feel about sitting in class afterthirty years?答案：d. frustrated.9. what is most challenging for maggie’s mom?答案：c. to accept what is taught.10. how does maggie describe the process of picking out ones career path?答案：b. gradual.partⅡ reading comprehensionsection a multiple-choice questionspassage one11. it can be learned from para. 1 that mr. gatsby ______ through the summer.答案：[a] entertained guests from everywhere every weekend 12. in para. 4, the word “permeate” probably means______. 答案：［c］penetrate13. it can be inferred from para. 8 that______.答案：［b］people somehow ended up in gatsbys house as guests14. according to para. 10, the autho r felt______at gatsby’s party.答案：［d］awkward15. what can be concluded from para. 11 about gatsby? 答案：［a］he was not expected to be present at the parties.passage twotation of data from the human system17. which of the following statements best summarizes the meaning of the first four paragraphs?答案：［b］cyberspace is like a double-edged sword.18. according to para. 5, the designing principles of the internet and cyberspace security are______.答案：［c］contradictory19. what could be the most appropriate title for the passage?答案：［a］cyber crime and its prevention.passage three20. it can be concluded from para. 3 that the authorwas______towards higher education.答案：［d］negative21. the following are current problems facing all american universities except______.答案：［b］low admission standards22. in order to ensure teaching quality, the author suggests that the states do all the following except______. 答案：［c］increase undergraduate programs23. “prime candidates” in para. 10 is used as______. 答案：［b］metaphor24. what is the authors main argument in the passage?答案：［c］academic standards are the main means to ensure educational quality.section b short-answer questions说明：这部分答案不是唯一，只要意思对了就可以。

PartⅡ READING COMPREHENSIONSECTIONA MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONSPASSAGE ONE11.It canbe learned from Para. 1 that Mr. Gatsbythrough the summer.答案：[A]entertained guests from everywhere every weekend12.In Para. 4,the word “permeate” probably means.答案：［C］penetrate13.It can be inferred from Para. 8 that.答案：［B］people somehow ended up in Gatsby's house as guests14.According to Para. 10, the author feltat Gatsby’s party.答案：［D］awkward15.What can be concluded from Para. 11 about Gatsby?答案：［A］He was not expected to be present at the parties.PASSAGE TWO16.Cyberspace is described by William Gibson as.答案：［B］a representation of data from the human system17.Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the meaning of the first four paragraphs?答案：［B］Cyberspace is like a double-edged sword.18.According to Para. 5, the designing principles of the internet and cyberspace security are.答案：［C］contradictory19.What could be the most appropriate title for the passage?答案：［A］Cyber Crime and Its Prevention.PASSAGE THREE20.It can be concluded from Para. 3 that the author wastowards higher education.答案：［D］negative21.The following are currentproblems facing all American universities EXCEPT.答案：［C］low undergraduate teaching loads22.In order to ensure teaching quality, the author suggests that the states do all the following EXCEPT. 答案：［C］increase undergraduate programs23.“Prime candidates” in Para. 10 is used as.答案：［D］personification24.What is the author's main argument in the passage?答案：［C］Academic standards are the main means to ensure educational quality.SECTION B SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS说明：这部分答案不是唯一，只要意思对了就可以。

英语专业八级考试翻译部分历届试题及参考答案说明：本处提供的参考答案完全是为了教学、教育目的而制作，参考答案分别源自福州大学外国语学院英语系翻译课程小组及邹申主编的《新编高等院校英语专业八级考试指南》［2001，上海：上海外语教育出版社］（转引自松园英文书院和《中国翻译》等，供同学们学习、比较。

1995年英语专业八级考试--翻译部分参考译文C-E原文：简.奥斯丁的小说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咀嚼越有味道的橄榄。

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的贡献，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。

参考译文：However, subject matter is indeed not the decisive factor by which we judge a novel of its depth as well as (of ) its artistic appeal and ideological content (or: as to whether a novel digs deep or not or whether it excels in artistic appeal and ideological content). Some people compare Austen’s works to olives: the more you chew them, the more tasty (the tastier) they become. This comparison is based not only on (This is not only because of ) her expressive language and her creative contribution to the development of novel writing as an art, but also on (because of ) the fact that what hides behind her light and lively narrative is something implicit and opaque (not so explicit and transparent). Mrs. Smith once observed, women writers often sought (made attempts) to rectify the existing value concepts (orders) by changing people’s opinions on what is “important”and what is not.E-C原文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 measurement make sense? Are we measuring only that which is easily measured--- the numbers on the money chart --- and ignoring values more central to the good life?For my sons there is of course the rural bounty of fresh-grown vegetables, line-caught fish and the shared riches of neighbours’orchards and gardens. There is the unpaid baby-sitter for whose children my daughter-in-law baby-sits in return, and neighbours who barter their skills and labour. But more than that, how do you measure serenity? Sense if self?I don’t want to idealize life in small places. There are times when the outside world 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 smalldecencies 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 and dangers that surround us.参考译文：对我的几个儿子来说，乡村当然有充足的新鲜蔬菜，垂钓来的鱼，邻里菜园和果园里可供分享的丰盛瓜果。

Do It, but with Love and SincerityThe year 2014 witnessed the birth and boom of an activity online and offline both at home and abroad: the ice bucket challenge. Originally designed to attract public attention to the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the practice has aroused a heated debate during its development. There exist opposing views on this matter. Proponents, represented by the ALS Association, claim that it is beneficial and praiseworthy, for it substantially increased donations for sufferers of the disease. Opponents, however, argue that it wastes water, does harm to one’s body and risks becoming a form of entertainment or commercial advertisement.Personally, I deem that both sides have an element of truth in their arguments and the issue should not be addressed in a simple and crude way.On the one hand, no one can deny the fact that the practice has benefited patients of ALS. Many people have not only donated money but also begun to learn about the disease and pay more attention to it.On the other hand, however, the activity does seem to have deviated from its original purpose. As we have heeded, quite a number of the attendants got involved to attract eyeballs to themselves, rather than the disease. Most remain ignorant about the disease though bombarded by pictures of celebrities soaked in iced water that went viral online.In the final analysis, I should say that the activity is a two-edged sword. But we should not give up eating for fear of beingchoked. The best policy, as I see it, is to take measures to avoid the harm done by it. For instance, a campaign should be launched at the same time to provide people with more knowledge about the disease, and encourage them to help those in need with love and integrity. Besides, the activity can well take a different form in drought-stricken regions.。

2015年专业英语八级真题试卷(题后含答案及解析)题型有： 1. LISTENING COMPREHENSION 2. READING COMPREHENSION 3. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 4. PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION 5. TRANSLATION 6. WRITINGPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)SECTION A MINI-LECTUREDirections: 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.听力原文：Understanding Academic Lectures Good morning, everybody. Now, at the university, you, as students, are often called on to perform many types of listening tasks, listening in a group discussion, listening to a teacher on a one-to-one basis, and listening to academic lectures. So, what I’m going to talk about today is what a listener needs to be able to do in order to comprehend an academic lecture efficiently. OK. What do you need to do in order to understand the lecture? Now, there are four things that I’m going to talk about. (1)The first thing is that you need to be aware of all of the parts of the language that carry meaning. You all know that words carry meaning. So you’ve got to be aware of the vocabulary of the language.(2)But there are some other features. For one thing, you need to be aware of stress. Let me give you an example: I went to the bar. I went to the bar. It makes a difference. In the second example, I’m stressing the fact that it was me and not someone else. So that this means stress has some meaning. Now the next thing you might want to listen for is intonation. For example, if I say “He came. ““He came?” There are two different meanings. One is a statement: the other one is a question.(3)And another thing you need to listen for is rhythm. For instance, “Can you see, Mary?” versus “Can you see Mary?” da-da-Da-da-da, da-da-da-Da-da. Those two mean something different. In the first one, they’re talking directly to Mary while the second one means “Can you see Mary, over there?”Now the next thing you must do when you listen is that you need to add information that the lecturer expects you to add. All lecturers assume that they share some information with their audience and that their audience does not need them to explain every word.(4/5/6)And listeners have an ability to add this information due to two sources of information, that is, one, their knowledge of a particular subject, and two, their knowledge or experience of the world. So remember, listening is not a matter of just absorbing the speaker’s words. The listener has to do more than that. The listener is not a tape recorder absorbing the speaker’s words and putting them into his or her brain.(7)Rather, listening involves hearing the speaker’s words and reinterpreting them. Adding information if necessary.So the meaning is not in the word alone. Rather, it is in the person who uses it or responds to it. So that the second dung that a listener must do: add information that the lecturer assumes that they share. OK.(8)The third thing mat a listener needs to do, and this is to me the most important thing of all, and that’s to predict as you listen. Now let me give you two reasons why you have to predict. For one thing, if you predict, it helps you overcome noise. What do I mean by noise? Maybe there’s noise outside and you can’t hear me. Maybe you’re in the back of the room and you can’t hear all that well. Maybe the microphone doesn’t work. Maybe there’s noise inside your head. By that I mean maybe you’re thinking of something else and men all of a sudden you’ll remember, “Oh! I’ve got to listen!” By being able to predict during me lecture you can just keep listening to me lecture and not lose the idea of what’s going on. So predicting is important to help you overcome outside noise and inside noise. And another reason that predicting is important is because it saves you time. Now when you listen, you need time to think about the information, relate it to old ideas, take notes. And if you’re only keeping up with what I’m saying or what the lecturer’s saying, you have no time to do that. And I’ll bet a lot of you are having that problem right now. Because it’s so hard just to follow everything I’m saying that you don’t have time to note down ideas. So predicting saves you time. If you can guess what I’m going to say, you’re able to take notes, you are able to think, you have more time. OK?(9)And there are two types of predictions that you can make: predictions of content and predictions of organization. Let me give you an example in terms of content. If you hear the words “because he loved to cook, his favorite room was...”What would you expect? Kitchen. You can guess this because you know people cook in the kitchen. OK? And you can also predict organization. So if I was going to tell you a story, you’d expect me to tell you why the story is important. If you are setting for the story, so you have expectations of what the speaker is going to talk about and how the speaker will organize his or her words. Now, let’s come to the last thing a listener must do: the listener must evaluate as he or she is listening, decide what’s important, what’s not, decide how something relates to something else. OK? There are again two reasons for this.(10)The first one is evaluating helps you to decide what to take notes about, what’s important to write down, what’s not important to write down. And the second reason is that evaluating helps you to keep information. Studies have shown that we retain more information if ideas are connected to one another, rather than just individually remembered. So for example, if I give you five ideas that are not related to one another, that’s much more difficult to remember than five ideas that are related. So you can see, evaluating helps you to remember information better because it connects ideas to one another. OK, from what I’ve said so far, you can see there’s a lot involved in listening to lectures—language awareness, adding information, making predictions and evaluations. I hope these will be useful to you in lecture comprehension.Understanding Academic Lectures Listening to academic lectures is an important task for university students. Then, how can we comprehend a lecture efficiently?I. Understanding all【B1】______【B1】______A. wordsB.【B2】______【B2】______ —stress —intonation —【B3】______【B3】______II.Adding informationA. lecturers: sharing information with audienceB. listeners:【B4】______【B4】______C. sources of information—knowledge of【B5】______【B5】______—【B6】______of the world【B6】______D. listening involving three steps: —hearing—【B7】______【B7】______—adding III.【B8】______【B8】______A. reasons:—overcome noise —save timeB.【B9】______【B9】______—content—organization IV. Evaluating while listeningA. helps to decide the【B10】______of notes【B10】______B. helps to remember information1．【B1】正确答案：parts of language解析：细节理解题。

PartⅡ READING COMPREHENSIONSECTIONA MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONSPASSAGE ONE11.It canbe learned from Para. 1 that Mr. Gatsbythrough the summer.答案：[A]entertained guests from everywhere every weekend12.In Para. 4,the word “permeate” probably means.答案：［C］penetrate13.It can be inferred from Para. 8 that.答案：［B］people somehow ended up in Gatsby's house as guests14.According to Para. 10, the author feltat Gatsby’s party.答案：［D］awkward15.What can be concluded from Para. 11 about Gatsby?答案：［A］He was not expected to be present at the parties.PASSAGE TWO16.Cyberspace is described by William Gibson as.答案：［B］a representation of data from the human system17.Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the meaning of the first four paragraphs?答案：［B］Cyberspace is like a double-edged sword.18.According to Para. 5, the designing principles of the internet and cyberspace security are.答案：［C］contradictory19.What could be the most appropriate title for the passage?答案：［A］Cyber Crime and Its Prevention.PASSAGE THREE20.It can be concluded from Para. 3 that the author wastowards higher education.答案：［D］negative21.The following are currentproblems facing all American universities EXCEPT.答案：［C］low undergraduate teaching loads22.In order to ensure teaching quality, the author suggests that the states do all the following EXCEPT. 答案：［C］increase undergraduate programs23.“Prime candidates” in Para. 10 is used as.答案：［D］personification24.What is the author's main argument in the passage?答案：［C］Academic standards are the main means to ensure educational quality.SECTION B SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS说明：这部分答案不是唯一，只要意思对了就可以。

历年专业八级真题及答案汇总（免费）2000年英语专业八级考试全真试卷听力Part ⅠListening Comprehension (40 min)SECTION A TALKQuestions 1 to 5 refer to the talk in this section .At the end of the talk you w ill 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 legislatureB. the librarianC. John HarvardD. the faculty members2. The earliest public library was also called a subscription library bec ause books ___.A. could be lent to everyoneB. could be lent by book storesC. were lent to students and the facultyD. were lent on a membership basis3. Which of the following is NOT stated as one of the purposes of free pu blic libraries?A. To provide readers with comfortable reading rooms.B. To provide adults with opportunities of further education.C. To serve t he 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 i n ___.A. readershipB. contentC. serviceD.function5. The main purpose of the talk is ___.A. to introduce categories of books in US librariesB. to demonstrate the importance of US librariesC. to explain the roles of different US librariesD. to define the circulation system of US librariesSECTION B INTERVIEWQuestions 6 to 10 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you wil l 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 carB. she drove wellC. she liked drivers? uniformsD. it was her childhood dream7. According to her, what was the most difficult about becoming a taxi dr iver?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.9. It can be inferred from the interview that Nancy in a(n) ___ moth er.A. uncaringB. strictC. affectionateD. perm issive10. The people Nancy meets areA. rather difficult to pleaseB. rude to women driversC. talkative and generous with tipsD. different in personalitySECTION C NEWS BROADCASTQuestion 11 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you wil l 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 advertisingB. to impose penalties on tobacco companiesC. to start a national anti-smoking campaignD. to ensure the health of American childrenQuestions 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 JapanB. stimulating Japanese businesses in FranceC. helping boost the Japanese economyD. launching a film festival in Japan13. This is Jacques Chirac?s ___ visit to Japan.A. secondB. fourteenthC. fortiethD. forty-firstQuestions 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 pathsB. the Taliban have destroyed existing food stocksC. the Taliban are hindering food deliveriesD. an emergency air-lift of food was cancelled15. people in Afghanistan are facing starvation.A. 160,000B. 16,000C. 1,000,000D. 100 ,000SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLINGFill 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.On Public SpeakingWhen 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 (1)___ 1.___ that people are usually engaged in. Public s peaking is a way for a speaker to (2)___ his thoughts with the audience. Moreover, the speaker is free 2.___ to decide on the (3)___ of his speech. 3.___ Two key points to achieve success in public speaking: —(4)___ of the subject matter. 4.___ —good preparation of the speech. To facilitate their understanding, inform your audience beforehand of the (5)___ of your speech,and end it with a summary. 5.___ Other key points to bear in mind: —be aware of your audience through eye contact. —vary the speed of (6)___ 6.___ —use the microphone skillfully to (7)___ yourself in speech. 7.___ —be brief in speech; always try to make your message (8)___ 8.___ Example: the best remembered inaugural speeches of the US presidents are the (9)___ ones.9.___ Therefore, brevity is essential to the (10)___ of a speech. 10.___ 改错Part ⅡProofreading and Error Correction (15 min)The following passage contains TEN errors. Each 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 wri te 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.ExampleWhen∧art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) anit never／buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never them on the wall. When a natural history museumwants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibitThe grammatical words which play so large a part in English grammar are for the most part sharply and obviously different 1.___from the lexical words. A rough and ready difference which mayseem the most obvious is that grammatical wordshave“ lessmeaning”, but in fact some grammarians have called them 2.___“empty” words as opposed in the “full” words of vocabulary. 3.___But this is a rather misled way of expressing the distinction.4.___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 5.___differen ce in meaning between “man is vile and” “the man isvile”, yet the is the single vehicle of this difference in meaning. 6.___Moreover, grammatical words differ considerably amongthemselves as the amount of meaning they have, even in the 7.___lexical sense. Another name for the grammatical words has been“little words”. But size is by no mean a good criterion for8.___distinguishing the grammatical words of English, when we consider that we have lexical words as go, man, say, car. Apart 9.___from this, however, there is a good deal of truth in what some people say: we certainly do create a great number of obscurity 10.___when we omit them. This is illustrated not only in the poetry ofRobert Browning but in the prose of telegrams and newspaper headlines.阅读理解APart ⅢReading Comprehension (40 min)SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 min)In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages 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-indulgen ce of their countrymen and the high taxes. No Dane would look you in the eye and say, “Denmark is a great country.” You?re suppo sed to figure this out for yo urself.It is the land of the silk safety net, where almost half the national budg et goes toward smoothing out l ife?s inequalities, and there is plenty of money f or schools, day care, retraining programmes, job seminars-Danes love seminars: t hree 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 barel y be understood by C openhageners. It is the land where, as the saying goes,“ Fe w have too much and fewer have too little, ”and a foreigner is struck by the swe e t egalitarianism that prevails, where the low liest clerk gives you a level gaze, where Sir and Madame have disappeared from common usage, even Mr. and Mrs. It? s anation of recyclers—about 55 % of Danish garbage gets made into something new—and no nuclear power plants. It?s a nation of tireless pl anner. Trains run on time. Things operate well in general.Such a nation of overachievers —a brochure from the Ministry of Busines s and Industrysays, “Denmark is one of the world?s cleanest and most organize d countries, with virtually no pollution, crime, or poverty. Denmark is the most c orruption-free society in the Northern Hemisphere. ”So, of course, one?s heart l ifts at any sighting of Danish sleaze: skinhead graffiti on buildings(“Foreigne r s Out of Denmark! ”), broken beer bottles in the gutters, drunken teenagers slu mped in the park.Nonetheless, it is an orderly land. You drive through a Danish town, it co mes to an end at a stone wall, and on the other side is a field of barley, a nic e clean line: town here, country there. It is not a nation of jay-walkers. Peopl e stand on the curb and wait for the red light to change, even if it?s 2 a.m. a n d there?s not a car in sight. However, Danes don? t think of themselves as a w ai nting-at-2-a.m.-for-the-green-light people——that?s how they see Swedes and Ge r mans. 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 n atural 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,highways, and rail lines are ultramodern and well-maintained.The orderliness of the society doesn?t mean that Danish lives are less me s sy or lonely than yours or mine, and no Dane would tell you so. You can hear ple nty 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 c an 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 f o r taking what you?re entitled to, you?re as good as anyone else. The rules of th e welfare system are clear to everyone, the benefits you get if you lose your jo b, 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 witho ut a sense of crisis.16. The author thinks that Danes adopt a ___ attitude towards their country.A. boastfulB. modestC. deprecatingD. mysterious17. Which of the following is NOT a Danish characteristic cited in the pa ssage?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 a nd Industry is ___.A. disapprovingB. approvingC. noncommittalD. doubtful19. According to the passage, Danish orderliness ___.A. sets the people apart from Germans and SwedesB. spares Danes social troubles besetting other peopleC. is considered economically essential to the countryD. prevents Danes from acknowledging existing troubles20. At the end of the passage the author states all the following EXCEPT that ___.A. Danes are clearly informed of their social benefitsB. Danes take for granted what is given to themC. the open system helps to tide the country overD. orderliness has alleviated unemploymentTEXT BBut if language habits do not represent classes, a social str atification in to something as bygone as “aristocracy” and “commons”, they do still of cour se s erve 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, lang uage is used as a badge or a barrier depending on which way we look at it. The n ew boy at school feels out of it at first because he does not know the fight wor ds for things, and awe-inspiring pundits of six or seven look down on him for no t being awa re that racksy means “dilapidated”, or hairy “out first ball”. Th e mi ner takes a certain pride in being “one up on the visitor or novice who calls t h e cage a “lift” or who thinks that men working in a warm seam are in their “u nde rpants” when anyone ought to know that the garments are called hoggers. The “i ns ider” is seldom displeased that his languagedistinguishes him from the “outsi der”.Quite apart from specialized terms of this kind in groups, trades and profe ssions, 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 invi te irritation or downright condemnation. On the other hand, we know that other k inds convey some kind of prestige and bear a welcome cachet.In relation to the social aspects of language, it may well be suggested tha t 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” an d “status”, and who therefore do not feel they need worry much about their use o f English. Their education and occupation make them confident of speaking an uni mpeachable form of English: no fear of being criticized or corrected is likely t o cross their minds, and this gives their speech that characteristically unself c onscious and easy flow which is often envied.At the other end of the scale, we have an equally imperturbable band, speak ing 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, a nd if we happened not to like the/r ways of saying things, well, we “can lump i t ”. That is their attitude. Curiously enough, writers are inclined to represent t he speech of both these extreme parties with -in? for ing. On the one hand, “w e?re goin? huntin?, my dear sir”; on the other, “we?re goin? racin? , ma te.”In between, according to this view, we have a far lessfortunate group, th e anxious. These actively try to suppress what they believe to be bad English an d assiduously cultivate what they hope to be good English. They live their lives in some degree of nervousness over their grammar, their pronunciation, and thei r choice of words: sensitive, and fearful of betraying themselves. Keeping up wi th the Joneses is measured not only in houses, furniture, refrigerators, cars, a nd clothes, but also in speech.And the misfortune of the “anxious” does not end with their inner anxiet y. 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 t hus 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 grea te r the pity, then, if a disproportionate amount of their energy goes into what Mr Sharpless called“ this shabby obsession” with variant forms of English—espe ci ally if the net result is(as so often)merely to sound affected and ridicul ous. “ Here”, according to Bacon, “is the first distemper of learning, when men study w ords and not matter …. It seems to me that Pygmalion? s frenzy is a good emble m …of this vanity: for words axe but the images of matter; and except they have l ife 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. criticalB. anxiousC. self-consciousD. nonchalant22. The anxious are considered a less fortunate group because ___.A. they feel they are socially looked down uponB. they suffer from internal anxiety and external attackC. they are inherently nervous and anxious peopleD. they are unable to meet standards of correctness23. The author thinks that the efforts made by the anxious to cultivate w hat they believe is good English are ___.A. worthwhileB. meaninglessC. praiseworthyD. irrationalTEXT CFred 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 Bla c kpool grammar styles himself more grandly as Alastair Cooke, broadcaster extraor dinaire. 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 disguis ing 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 ma tter for congratulation.Cooke has made a fortune out of his love affair with America, entrancing l isteners with a weekly monologue that has won Radio 4 many devoted adherents. Pa rt of the pull is the developed drawl. This is the man who ga ve the world “midatlantic”, t he 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 e ven 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 Ch arlie Chaplin and briefly becoming his friend. He told Cooke he could turn him i nto 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 admir e d her good looks. But he found bringing up baby difficult and left her for the w ife of his landlord. Women listeners were unimpressed when, in 1996, he declared on air that th e fact that 4% of women in the American armed forces were raped showed remarkabl e self-restraint on the part of Uncle Sam?s soldiers. His arrogance in not allo w ing 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 1930svalues he had acquired and somewhat dubiously went on to cite “gallantry” as chief a mo ng them. Cooke?s raconteur style encouraged a whole generation of BBC men to th i nk of themselves as more important than the story. His treacly tones were the mo del for the regular World Service reports From Our Own Correspondent, known as F OOCs 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 originsB. Cooke?s broadcastin g styleC. Cooke?s Ameri can citizenshipD. Cooke?s fondness of America25. The following adjectives can be suitably applied to Cooke EXCEPT ___.A. old-fashionedB. sincereC. arrogantD. popular 26. The writer comments o n Cooke?s life and career in a slightly ___ tone.A. ironicB. detachedC. scathingD. indifferentTEXT DMr 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! Th e 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 stom ach. Not merely had she degraded herself, she had degraded him. His soul?s comp a nion! He thought of the hobbling wretches whom he had seen carrying cans and bot tles to be filled by the barman. Just God, what an end! Evidently she had been u nfit to live, withoutany strength of purpose, an easy prey to habits, one of th e 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 ev er 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 tou ched his. The shock which had first attacked his stomach was now attacking his n erves. 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 pu blic 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 e s tate 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 o r 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 swish ing 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. He could not have lived with her openly. He had done what seemed to him best. How washe to blame? Now that s he was gone he understood how lonely her life must have been, sitting night afte r night alone in that room. His life would be lonely too until he, too, died, ce ased to exist, became a memory-if anyone remembered him.27. Mr Duffy?s immediate reaction to the report of the woman?s death wa s that of ___.A. disgustB. guiltC. griefD. compassion28. It can be inferred from the passage that the reporter wrote about the woman?s death in a ___ manner.A. detailedB. provocativeC. discreetD. sens ational29. We can infer from the last paragraph that Mr Duffy was in a(n) ___ mood.A. angryB. fretfulC. irritableD. remorseful30. 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.阅读理解BSECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING ( 10 min)In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple -choice q uestions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on the Colour ed Answer Sheet.TEXT EFirst read the following question.31. In the passage Bill Gates mainly discusses ___.A. a person?s opportunity of a lifetimeB. the success of the computer industryC. the importance of educationD. high school education in the USNow go through TEXT E quickly and answer question 31.Hundreds of students send me e-mail each year asking for advice about educa tion. They want to know what to study, or whether i t?s OK to drop out of colleg e 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 M icrosoft, but I was at H a rvard for three years before dropping out-and I?d love to have the time to go b a 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 successfu l ones.In my company?s early years we had a bright part-time programmer who threa tened 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 wediscourage droppin g out.College is n?t the only place where information exist. You can learn in a l i brary. But somebody handing you a book doesn?t automatically foster learning. Y o u want to learn with other people, ask questions, try out ideas and have a way t o 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 t he computer. ”He got an A in Web site design, but other grades were sinking, sh e said.This boy is making a mistake. High school and college offer you the best ch ance to learn broadly-math, history, various sciences-and to do projects with ot her kids that teach you firsthand about group dynamics. It?s fine to take a dee p interest in computers, dance, language or any other discipline, but not if it j eopardizes breadth.In college it?s appropriate to think about specialization. Getting real e x pertise in an area of interest can lead to success. Graduate school is one way t o get specialized knowledge. Choosing a specialty isn?t something high school s t udents s hould worry about. They should worry about getting a strong academic sta rt.There?s not a perfect correlation between attitudes in high school and su c cess in later l ife, of course. But it?s a real mistake not to take the opportun i ty to learn a hu ge range of subjects,to learn to work with people in high schoo l, and to get the grades that will help you get into a good college.TEXT FFirst read the following question.32. The passage focuses on ___.A. the history and future of LondonB. London?s manufacturing skillsC. London?s status as a financial centrerD. the past and present roles of LondonNow go through T ext 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 bomba rdments 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 liveliboods h ad 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 easi l y 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; almos t any item you can name was manufactured in London during the days of its prosper ity. In 1851, 13.75 percent of the manufacturing work-force of GreatBritain was based in London. By 1961, this had dramatically。

QUESTION BOOKLETTEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016) -GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT: 150 MINPART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION[25 MIN]SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.SECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interview and the questions will be spoken ONCE ONLY. After each question there will be a ten-second pause. During the pause, you should read the four choices of A, B, C and D, and mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the questions.Now, listen to the Part One of the interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on Part One of the interview.1. A. Maggie ’s university life.B. Her mom ’s life at Harvard.试卷用后随即销毁。

TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2015)GRADE EIGHTTIME LIMIT：195 MIN PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 MIN)SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture．You will hear the lecture ONCE ONL Y. 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 LecturesListening to academic lectures is an important task for university students. Then, how can we comprehend a lecture efficiently?I.Understand all (1)A.wordsB. (2)—stress—intonation—(3)II.Adding informationA.lectures:Sharing information with audienceB.listeners: (4)C.sources of information—knowledge of (5)—(6) of the worldD.listening involving three steps:—hearing—(7)—addingIII. (8)A.reasons—overcome noise—save timeB. (9)—content—organizationIV.Evaluating while listeningA.help tp decide the (10) of notesB.help to remember informationSECTION B INTERVIEWIn this section you will hear everything ONCE ONL Y. 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. 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 pupils2. 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 choices4. 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 topicsSECTION C NEWS BROADCASTIn this section you will hear everything ONCE ONL Y．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 16. 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 27. 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[D] bought in drug storesNews Item 39. 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 countriesPART 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 AIn 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 forethought12. 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 BMy 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 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 daughters—what 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 loyal16. According to the passage, all the following are Twist's characteristics EXCEPT____.[A]resignation[B]patience[C]forgiveness[D]tenacity17. According to the context, the meaning of the word "square"is closest to____.[A]fast[B]blindly[C]straight[D]stubbornly18.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 up19. 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 CMost 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 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 downa very old vehicleunable to travel the distance[D] a dangerous vehicleWhich 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 interesting23. All the following words in the last but one paragraph describe the lorry as a human EXCEPT .tremblingspoutingshudderingcrept24. We can infer from the passage that the author was ________.bored by the appearance of the grasslands aheadreluctant to do any walking in so hot a climateunfriendly towards the local driver and boysa little surprised to have to help drive the lorry25. A suitable title for the passage would be _______.A journey that scared meA journey to rememberThe wild West African lorryA comic journey in West AfricaText DHave 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 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 placethrough 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 thesimilarity 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 walls28. 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 willprobably .[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 design30. According to the passage, future landscaping designs will rely more on . .[A] human assumptions[B] field work[C] scientific estimation[D] laboratory work。

2015年英语专业八级真题及详解TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2015)-GRADE EIGHT-TIME LIMIT: 150 MIN PART ⅠLISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.Understanding Academic LecturesListening to academic lectures is an important task for university students. Then, how can we comprehend a lecture efficiently?1. ____【答案】carriers of meaning/ that carry meaning/ carrying meaning【解析】细节题。