可可英语专八改错练习第一期About half of the infant and maternal deaths in developing countries could be avoided if women had used family planning methods to prevent high risk ____1 pregnancies, according to a report publishing recently by the Johns Hopking University. ____2The report indicates that 5.6 million infant deaths and 2,000,000 maternal Deaths could be prevented this year if women chose to have theirs children ____3within the safest years with adequate intervals among births and limited their ____4families to moderate size.This amounts to about half of the 9.8 million infant and 370.000 maternal deaths in developing countries, excluded China, estimated for this year by ____5the United Nation’s Children’s Fund and the US Center s for Disease Control respectably. China was excluded because very few births occur in the high risk categories. ____6 The report says that evidences from around the world shows the risk of ____7maternal or infant ill and death is the highest in four specific types of ____8pregnancy; pregnancies before the mother is 18 year old; those after the ____9mother is 35 years old; pregnancies after four births; and those lesser than two years apart.____10第二期'Home, sweet home" is a phrase that express an essential attitude in the United States. Whether the reality of life in the family house is sweet or no sweet, the cherished ideal of home _____1has great importance for many people.This ideal is a vital part of the American dream. This dream, dramatized in the history of nineteenth century European settlers of American West, was to find a piece of place, build a house _____2for one's family, and started a farm. These small households were _____3portraits of independence: the entire family- mother, father, children,even grandparents-live in a small house and working together to ___4support each other. Anyone understood the life-and-death importance _____5of family cooperation and hard work. Although most people in the United States no longer live on farms, but the ideal of home ownership _____6is just as strong in the twentieth century as it was in the nineteenth. When U.S soldiers came home before World WarⅡ, for example, _____7they dreamed of buying houses and starting families. But there was _____8a tremendous boom in home building. The new houses, typically in the suburbs, were often small and more or less identical, but it satisfied _____9a deep need. Many regarded the single-family house the basis of their way of life._____10第三期We live in a society which there is a lot of talk about science, but I would say _____1that there are not 5 percent of the people who are equipped with school, including college, to understand scientific reasoning. We are more ignorant of science as people _____2with comparable education in Western Europe.There are a lot of kids who know everything about computers—how to build them, how to take them apart, and how to write programs for games. So if you ask _____3them to explain about the rinciples of physics that have gone into creating the _____4computer, you don’t have faintest idea. _____5The failure to understand science leads to such things like the neglect of human _____6creative power. It also takes rise to blurring of the distinction between science and _____7tec hnology. Lots of people don’t differ between the two. Science is the production of _____8new knowledge that can be applied or not, and technology is the application of knowledge to the production of some products, machinery or the like. The two are really different, and people who have the faculty for one very seldom have a faculty for the others. _____9Science in itself is harmless, more or less. But as soon as it can provide technology,it’s not necessarily harmful. No society has yet earned to forecast the consequences of new technology, which can be enormous._____10第四期What is a black hole? Well, it is difficult to answer the question,as the terms we would normally use to describe a scientific phenomenon __1are adequate here. Astronomers and scientists think that a black hole is __2a region of space which matter has fallen and from which nothing can __3escape—not even light. But we can’t see a black hole. A black hole __4exerts a strong gravitational pull and yet it has no matter. It is only space—or thus we think. How can this happen? __5 The theory is that some stars explode when their density increases to a particular point; they “collapse” and sometimes a supernova occurs.The collapse of a star may produce a “White Dwarf” of a “neutronstar”—a star which matter is so dense that if continually shrinks by the force of __6its own gravity. But if the star is very large, this process of shrinking may be so intense that a black hole results in. Imagine the earth reduced to the __7size of a marble, but still having the same masses and a stronger __8gravitational pull, and you have some ideas of the force of a black hole. __9And no matter near the black hole is sucked in. __10第五期The great whales are among the most fascinating creatures which __1have ever lived on the earth, and one of them, the blue whale, is the largest. People in ancient times thought whales as fearsome __2monsters of the ocean depths. So to hunt a whale, when one occasionally swam toward shore, he was high adventure. People __3found the adventure was rewarding, too, for the oil and meat from one whale alone could heat and feed a village for a whole winter.Whales resemble huge fish. They were referred by the ancients as __4“great fish,” and any whale beaching along the c oasts of England was designated “the King’s fish” because it automatically belonged to the Crown.Ever since those early times, human have felt whales a sense of __5 wonder mixed with an intense desire to capture, slaughter, and exploit. Now the slaughter has reached alarming proportions. __6Even though some species are protected by the regulations of the International Whaling Commission and theoretically all whale hunting is regulated, but the earth's stock of whales is still being __7depleted. In fact, some scientists worry that 100 years since now __8there may be no whales left. If this happens, mankind will be blame for removing from the earth forever a remarkable and __9awe-inspiring creature that always fed man's imagination and made the world a more exciting place__10第六期We use language every day. We live in a world of words. Hardly any moment passes with someone talking, writing or reading. Indeed, __1languages is most essential to mankind. Our lives increasingly depend on fast and successful use of language. Strangely enough, we know __2more about things around us than on ourselves. For example, language __3is species specific, that is, it is language that differs human from __4animals. However, we do not know yet how exactly we inquire language __5and how it is possible for us to perceive through language; nor we __6understand precisely the combinations between language and thought, __7language and logic, or language and culture; still less, how and when language started. One reason for this inadequate knowledge of language is that we, like language users, take too many things for granted. __8 Language comes to every normal person so naturally that a few __9of us stop to question what language is, much less do we feel the necessity to study it. Language is far more complex than most people have probably imagined and the necessity to study it is far greater than some people may have assured. Linguistic is a branch of science which takes language as its object of investigation.__10第七期Whenever you see an old film, even one made as little as ten years before, you can’t help being strucked by the __1 appearance of the women taking part. Their hair styles and make-up look date; their skirts look either too long or too short__2 ;their general appearance is, in fact, slightly ludicrous.The men taking part, on other hand, are clearly recognizable. __3There is nothing about their appearance to suggest that they belong to an entire different age. This illusion is created __4by changing fashions. Over the years, the great minority of men __5have successfully resisted all attempts to make it change their __6style of dress. The same cannot be said for women. Each year,a fewer so-called top designers in Paris and London lay down __7on the law and women around the world run to obey. The __8decrees of the designers are unpredictable anddictatorial.Sometime they decide arbitrarily, that skirts will be short and __9waists will be height; hips are in and buttons are out. __10 第八期Demographic indicators show that Americans in the post war period were more eager than ever to establish families. They quickly brought down the age at marriage for both men and women and brought the birth rate to a twentieth century height __1after more than a hundred years of a steady decline, producing the "baby boom." __2These young adults established a trend of early marriage and relatively large families that went for more than two decades and caused a major but temporary __3reversal of long-term demographic patterns. From the 1940s through the early 1960s, Americans married at a high rate and at a ounger age than their __4Europe counterparts. __5Less noted but equally more significant, the men and women who formed__6families between 1940 and 1960 nevertheless reduced the divorce rate after a __7postwar peak; their marriages remained intact to a greater extent than did that of __8couples who married in earlier as well as later decades. Since the United States __9maintained its dubious distinction of having the highest divorce rate in the world,the temporary decline in divorce did not occur in the same extent in Europe. __10 Contrary to fears of the experts, the role of breadwinner and homemaker was not abandoned.第九期When you start talking about good and bad manners you immediately startmeeting difficulties. Many people just cannot agree what they mean. We asked alady, who replied that she thought you could tell a well-mannered person on the __1way they occupied the space around them—for example, when such a personwalks down a street he or she is constantly unaware of others. Such people never __2bump into other people.However, a second person thought that this was more a question ofcivilized behavior as good manners. Instead, this other person told us a story, __3it he said was quite well-known, about an American who had been invited __4 to an Arab meal at one of the countries of the Middle East. The American __5hasn't been told very much about the kind of food he might expect. If he had __6known about American food, he might have behaved better. __7Immediately before him was a very flat piece of bread that looked, tohim, very much as a napkin. Picking it up, he put it into his collar, so that __8it falls across his shirt. His Arab host, who had been watching, __9said of nothing, but immediately copied the action of his guest. __10And that, said this second person, was a fine example of good manners.第十期A great many cities are experiencing difficulties which are nothing new in the history of cities, except in their scale. Some cities have lost their original purpose and have not found new one. And any large or rich city is __1going to attract poor immigrants, who flood in, filling with hopes of __2prosperity which are then often disappointing. There are backward towns on the edge of Bombay or Brasilia, just as though there were on the edge of __3seventeenth-century London or early nineteenth-century Paris. This is new is __4the scale. Descriptions written by eighteenth-century travelers of the poor of Mexico City, and the enormous contrasts that was to be found there, are very __5 dissimilar to descriptions of Mexico City today—the poor can still be numbered __6in millions.The whole monstrous growth rests on economic prosperity, but behind it lies __7two myths; the myth of the city as a promised land, that attracts immigrants __8from rural poverty and brings it flooding into city centers, and the myth of the __9country as a Garden of Eden, which, a few generations late, sends them flood __10-ing out again to the suburbs.第十一期Artists use caricature to distort the human face or figure for comic affect__1while at the same time capturing an identifiable likeness and suggests the essence __2of the personality or character beneath the surface. The humor lies in the fact __3the caricature is recognizable, and yet exaggerated.From their origin in Europe as witty sketches, caricature grew through __4the eighteenth and nineteenth century, becoming enormously popular in __5the United States early in this century. In 1920s and 1930s especially, this lively form of illustration was appeared in newspapers and __6magazines throughout the country. The caricaturists in this era drew his __7portraits of important figures primary to entertain. In spirit their work was __8close to the humor of the fast-developing comic strip and gag cartoon than to the __9string of political satire. Their subjects were more often amusing than offended __10by amiable attacks.第十二期Most people would describe water like a colorless liquid. They __1would know that in very cold conditions it becomes a solid calledice and that when heating on a fire it becomes a vapor called steam. __2However, water, they would say, is a liquid. We have learned thatwater consists of molecules composed with two atoms of hydrogen __3and one atom of oxygen, which we describe by the formula H2O.This is equally true of the solid called ice and the gas called steam.Chemically there is no difference between the gas, the liquid, andthe solid, all of which is made up of molecules with the formula H2O. __4This is true of other chemical substances; most of them can exist asgases or as liquids or as solids. We may normally think of iron as asolid, but if we will heat it in a furnace, it will melt and become a __5liquid, and at very high temperatures it will become a gas. Nothingvery permanent occurs when a gas changes into a liquid or a solid.Everyone knows that ice, which has been made by freezing water,can be melted again by warmed and that steam can be condensed __6on a cold surface to become liquid water. In fact, it is only becausewater is so a familiar substance that different names are used for __7the solid, liquid and gas. Most substances are only familiar with __8us in one state, because the temperatures requiring to turn them __9into gases are very high, or the temperatures necessary to turn theminto solids are so low. Water is an exception in this respect, whichis another reason why its three states have given three different names. __10第十三期Classic Intention MovementIn social situations, the classic Intention Movement is “the chair-grasp”. Host and guest have been talking for some time, but now the host has an ppointment to keep and can get away. His urge __1to go is held in cheek by his desire not be rude to his guest. If he did __2not care of his guest’s feelings he would simply get up out of his chair __3and to announce his departure. This is what his body wants to do, __4therefore his politeness glues his body to the chair and refuses to let him __5raise. It is at this point that he performs the chair-grasp Intention __6Movement. He continues to talk to the guest and listen to him, but leans forward and grasps the arms of the chair as about to push himself upwards. __7This is the first act he would make if he were rising. If he were not __8hesitating, it would only last the fraction of the second. He would lean, __9push, rise, and be up. But now, instead, it lasts much longer. He holds his “readiness-to-rise” post and keeps on holding it. It is as if his __10body had frozen at the get-ready moment.第十四期The hunter-gatherer tribes that today live as our prehistoric human __1ancestors consume primarily a vegetable diet supplementing with animal foods __2An analysis of 58 societies of modern hunter-gatherers, including the Kung of southern Africa, revealed thatone-half emphasize gathering plants foods,one-third concentrate on fishing, and only one-sixth are primarily hunters,Overall, two-thirds and more of the hunter-gatherer’s calories come from __3plants. Detailed studies of the Kung by the food scientists at the University of London, showed that gathering is a more productive source of food than is hunting. An hour of hunting yields in average about 100 edible __4 calories, as an hour of gathering produces 240. __5Plant foods provide for 60 percent to 80 percent of the Kung diet, and no __6one goes hungry when the hunt fails. Interestingly, if they escape fatal infections or accidents, these contemporary aborigines live to old ages despite of the absence __7of medical care. They experience no obesity, no middle-aged spread, little dental decay, no high blood pressure, no heart disease, and their blood cholesterol levels are very low (about half of the average American adult). __8If no one is suggesting that we return to an aboriginal life style, we certainly __9could use their eating habits as a model for healthier diet. __10第十五期There are great impediments to the general use of a standard in pronun-ciation comparable to that existing in spelling (orthography). One is the fact that pronunciation is learnt ‘naturally’ and unconsciously, and orthography __1is learnt deliberately and consciously. Large numbers of us, in fact, remain throughout our lives quite unconscious with what our speech sounds __2like when we speak out, and it often comes as a shock when we __3firstly hear a recording of ourselves. It is not a voice we recognize at once, __4whereas our own handwriting is something which we almost always know. We __5begin the "natural" learning of pronunciation long before we start learning to read or write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously imitating and __6practicing the pronunciation of those around us for many more hours per every __7day than we ever have to spend learning even our difficult English spelling.This is "natural", therefore, that our speech-sounds should be those of our im- __8mediate circle; after all, as we have seen, speech operates a means of holding a community and to give a sense of "belonging". We learn quite early to recognize a __9 "stranger", someone who speaks with an accent of a different community—perhaps only a few miles far. __10 第十六期Sporting activities are essentially modified forms of hunting behavior.Viewing biologically, the modern footballer is revealed as a member of a disguised __1hunting pack. His killing weapon has turned into a harmless football and his prey into a goal-mouth. If his aim is inaccurate and he scores a goal, __2enjoys the hunter’s triumph of killing his prey. __3To understand how this transformation has taken place we must briefly look up at our ancient ancestors. They spent over a million __4year evolving as co-operative hunters. Their very survival depended on success __5in the hunting-field. Under this pressure their whole way of life, even if their __6bodies, became radically changed. They became chasers, runners, jumpers, aimers, throwers and prey-killers. They co-operate as skillful male-group __7attackers.Then, about ten thousand years ago, when this immensely long formative __8period of hunting for food, they became farmers. Their improved intelligence,so vital to their old hunting life, were put to a new use—that of penning, __9controlling and domesticating their prey. The food was there on the farms,awaiting their needs. The risks and uncertainties of farming were no longer __10essential for survival.第十七期In addition to learn how to cope with daily__1work, I've also know to handle study sessions for__2big tests. My all-night study sessions in high school are experiment in self-torture. Around __32:00A.M., My mind, as a soaked sponge, simply__4 stopped absorb things. Now, I space out exam__5study sessions over several days. That way, the night before can be devoted to a overall review__6rather than raw memorizing. Most important,though, I've changed my attitude toward tests. In high school, I thought tests were mysterious things with completely predictable questions. Now, I ask __7teachers the kinds of questions that will be on the __8 exam, and I try to "psych out" which areas or facts teachers are like to ask about. These practices really__9work, and for me they've taken many of the __10fear and mystery out of tests第十八期For the last fifteen or twenty years the fashion in criticism or appreciation of the arts have been to deny the existence of any valid criteria and to make the __1__ words “good” or “bad” irrelevant, immaterial, and inapplicable. There is no such thing, we are told, like a set of standards first acquired through experience and __2__ knowledge and late imposed on the subject under discussion. This has been a __3__popular approach, for it relieves the critic of the responsibility of judgment and the public by the necessity of knowledge. It pleases those resentful of disciplines, it __4__flatters the empty-minded by calling him open-minded, it comforts the __5__confused. Under the banner of democracy and the kind of quality which our forefathers did no mean, it says, in effect, “Who are you to tell us what is good or bad?” This is same cry used so long and so effectively by the producers of mass __6__media who insist that it is the public, not they, who decide what it wants to hear __7__and to see, and that for a critic to say that this program is bad and that program is good is pure a reflection of personal taste. Nobody recently has expressed this __8__ philosophy most succinctly than Dr. Frank Stanton, the highly intelligent __9__president of CBS television. At a hearing before the Federal Communications Commission, this phrase escaped from him under questioning: “One man’s mediocrity __10__is another man’s good program”.第二十期The grammatical words which play so large a part in English grammar are for the most part sharply and obviously different from the lexical words. A rough and ready difference which may seem the most obvious is that grammatical __1__words have “less meaning”, but in fact some grammarians have called them __2__“empty”words as opposed in the “full”words of vocabulary. But this is a rather __3__misled way of expressing the distinction. Although a word like the is not the name __4__of something as man is, it is very far away from being meaningless; there is a __5__sharp difference in meaning between “man is vile”and “the man is vile”, yet the is the single vehicle of this difference in meaning. Moreover, grammatical words __6__differ considerably among themselves as the amount of meaning they have even in __7__the lexical sense. Another name for the grammatical words has been “little words.”But size is by no mean a good criterion for distinguishing the grammatical words.”__8__of English, when we consider that we have lexical words as go, man, say, car. __9__Apart from this, however, there is a good deal of truth in what some people say:we certainly do create a great number of obscurity when we omit them. This is __10__illustrated not only in the poetry of Robert Browning but in the prose of telegrams and newspaper headlines.第二十一期More people die of tuberculosis than of any other disease caused by a single agent. This has probably been the case in quite a while. During the __1__early stages of the industrial revolution, perhaps one in every seventh __2__deaths in Europe’s crowded cities were caused by the disease. From __3__now on, though, western eyes, missing the global picture, saw the trouble __4__going into decline. With occasional breaks for war, the rates of death and infection in the Europe and America dropped steadily through the 19th and __5__20th centuries. In the 1950s, the introduction of antibiotics strengthened the trend in rich countries, and the antibiotics were allowed to be imported to __6__ poor countries. Medical researchers declared victory and withdrew.They are wrong. In the mid1980s the frequency of infections and deaths __7__started to pick up again around the world. Where tuberculosis vanished, it came __8__back; in many places where it had never been away, it grew better. The World __9__Health Organization estimates that 1.7 billion people (a third of the earth’s population)suffer from tuberculosis. Even when the infection rate was falling,population growth kept the number of clinical cases more or less constantly at 8 __10__million a year. Around 3 million of those people died, nearly all of them in poor countries.tuberculosis n.肺结核antibiotics n.抗生素, 抗生学第二十二期One of America’s most important export is her modern music. __1__American popular music is playing all over the world. It is enjoyed __2__by people of all ages in all countries. Because the lyrics are English, __3__nevertheless people not speaking English enjoy it. The reasons for its popularity are its fast pace and rhythmic beat.The music has many origins in the United States. Country music,coming from the suburban areas in the southern United States, is one __4__source. Country music features simple themes and melodies describing day-to-day situations and the feelings of country people. Many people appreciate this music because the emotions expressed by country __5__ music songs. A second origin of American popular music is the blues. It depicted __6__mostly sad feelings reflecting the difficult lives of American blacks. It is usually played and sung by black musicians, but it is not popular with __7__all Americans.Rock music is a newer form of music. This music style, featuring fast and repetitious rhythms, was influenced by the blues and country music. It is first known as rock-and- roll in the 1950’s. Since then there __8__ have been many forms of rock music, hard rock, soft rock, punk rock,disco music and others. Many performers of popular rock music are young musicians.American popular music is marketed to a demanding audience.Now popular songs are heard on the radio several times a day. Some songs become popular all over the world. People hear these songs sing __9__in their original English or sometimes translated into other languages.The words may coincide but the enjoyment of the music is universal. __10__第二十三期Cities can be frightened places. The majority of __1__the population live in noisy massive tower blocks. The sense of belonging to a community tends to appear __2__ when you live thirty floors up in a skyscraper. Strange __3__enough, whereas in the past the inhabitants of one street all knew each other, nowadays people on the same floor in tower blocks even say hello to each __4__other.Country life, on the other hand, differs from this kind of isolated existence in that a sense of community generally keep the inhabitants of a small village together. __5__People have the advantage of knowing that there is always someone to turn to when they need help. So __6__ country life has disadvantages too. For example, shopping becomes a major problem and for anything slightly out of the ordinary you have to go for an expe- dition__7__to the nearest large town. The country has the advantage of peaceful and quiet, but suffers from the __8__isadvantages of being cut off. The city has noise and population which do harm to human health. But one of their main advantages is that you are at the centre of __9__things and that life doesn’t come to an end even at ten at night. Some people have found a compromise be-tween the two: they expressed their preference for the quiet life by leaving for the city and moving to the __10__ country within commuting distance of the large city.第二十四期Planning is a very important activity in our lives. It can give pleasure, even excitement, and it can cause quite severe headaches. __1The most significant the task ahead, the more careful the planning __2required. Getting to school or to work on time is a task requiring few __3or no planning, it is almost routine. A month’s touring holiday abroad,or better still, getting married, is a different matter altogether. If the matter involve a church wedding, a reception, a honeymoon in Venice, __4and returning a new home, this requires even more planning to make __5sure that it is successful. Planning is our way of trying to ensure success and of avoiding costly failures we can not suffer. It is equally essential __6to individual nations and families; the scale may be vary, but the degree __7of importance does not. In the essence, a nation planning its resources __8and needs do not differ from the familiar weekly shopping or monthly __9household budget. Both are designed to ensure an adequate supply of essentials, and if improperly carried out, will avoid shortages, wastage __10and over-expenditure.第二十五期Tracing missing persons can take much patient detective work. But a special kind of "private eye" can trace the missing ancestors of whole peoples by studying the clues。
