xxxx学院学年学期
英语专业级《高级英语（下）》试卷（D）
I. Directions: Explain in English the meaning of the underlined words or expressions in each sentence. (10%)
1. I knew they were good eggs and did not like to pitch them out.
2. Afloat on the pond, he looked almost like a swan, with his tall, thin white neck and his cooked-up white tail---a real dandy, full of pompous thoughts and surly gestures.
3. The old fellow confined his attentions to one of the two young geese and let the other alone.
4. They exchanged wary smiles.
5. I am clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsensuous.
6. They dodge cops, survive rainstorms.
7. While some New Yorkers become morose with rain, others prefer it, like to walk in it.
8. And at night, in emergency, there was the pomp, the longevity of the stars to deflate a surgeon’s
ego.
9. To glance up from our work and see the lovely cattle about theirs, calmed the frenzy of the most
temperamental of prima donnas.
10. At his wrist, a mouse skitters, stops, then darts away.
II. Directions: Among the four choices, choose the one that is the closest in meaning to the italicized word. (10%)
1. His apparel showed him to be a successful man.
a. clothing
b. confidence
c. answer
d. manner
2. He was greatly vexed by the new and unexpected development.
a. astonished
b. annoyed
c. enlightened
d. contented
3. Since he had never been in such a situation before, his apprehension was understandable.
a. eagerness
b. fear
c. hesitation
d. excitement
4. The orchid is an exotic plant to see blooming in most North American Gardens.
a. a common
b. a colorful
c. a beautiful
d. an unusual
5. The hunter carefully stalked the deer.
a. shot
b. tracked
c. aimed
d. skinned
6. The zephyr-like music
a. loud
b. funny
c. western
d. gentle
7. To defer his departure
a. disregard
b. delay
c. regret
d. permit
8. A dour look
a. angry, bitter
b. stern, gloomy
c. ugly
d. spiteful
9. A candid reply
a. foolish
b. misleading
c. confident
d. frank
10. Nebulous plans
a. hazy
b. treacherous
c. ambitious
d. explicit
III. Paraphrase (20%)
1. Geese are friends with no one, they badmouth everybody and everything.
2. I have never come to this place without seeing that dreadful headless choir of gas tanks.
3. With this tongue, we others are not conversant.
4. He must have a damned easy conscience.
5. Damned if he’d spend his life humoring her.
6. Oh, he could tell that to his great-grandmother.
7. It was a blot on the landscape to her.
8. I had an uneasy feeling that my three little charges might be dead within the hour, victims of a
grief-crazed old fool. I decided to go slow.
9. Each day the tattooists go pecking away over acres of anatomy.
10. More often than not, the doormen are big, slightly Gothic in design, ….
IV. Reading Comprehension (30%)
Passage A
When television is good, nothing--not the theatre, not the magazines, or newspapers--nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, or any- thing else to distract you and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, more violence, sadism, murder, Western badmen, Western
goodmen, private eyes, gangsters, still more violence, and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials that scream and cajole and offend. And most of all, boredom. True, you will see a few things you will
enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, try it.
Is there no room on television to teach, to inform, to uplift, to stretch, to enlarge the capacities of our children? Is there no room for programs to deepen the children's understanding of children in other lands? Is there no room for a children's news show explaining something about the world for them at their level of understanding? Is there no room for reading the great literature of the past, teaching them the great traditions of freedom? There are some fine children's shows, but they are drowned out in the massive doses of cartoons, violence, and more violence. Must these be your trademarks? Search your conscience and see whether you cannot offer more to your young beneficiaries whose future you guard so many hours each and every day.
There are many people in this great country, and you must serve all of us. You will get no argument from me if you say that, given a choice between a Western and a symphony, more people will watch the Western. I like Westerns and private eyes, too--but a steady diet for the whole country is obviously not in the public interest. We all know that people would mere often prefer to be entertained than stimulated or informed. But your obligations are not satisfied if you look only to popularity as a test of what to broadcast. You are not only in show business: you are free to communicate ideas as well as to give relaxation. You must provide a wider range of choices, more diversity, more alternatives. It is not enough to cater to the nation's whims--you must also serve the nation's needs. The people own the air. They own it as much in prime evening time as they do at 6 o'clock in the morning. For every hour that the people give you--you owe them something. I intend to see that your debt is paid with service.
1. The wasteland referred to describes
A. Western badmen and Western goodmen
B. average television programs
C. the morning shows
D. children's programs s
2. The National Association of Broadcasters probably accepted Minow's remarks with
A. considerable enthusiasm
B. absolute rejection
C. complete agreement
D. some disagreement
3. Concerning programs for children, Minow believes that programs should
A. eliminate cartoons
B. provide culture
C. not deal with the West
D. eliminate commercials
4. The statement that "the people own the air" implies that
A. citizens have the right to insist on worthwhile television programs
B. television should be socialized
C. the government may build above present structures
D. since air is worthless, the people own nothing
5. It can be inferred from the passage in regard to television programming that the author believes
A. the broadcasters are trying to do the right thing but are failing
B. foreign countries are going to pattern their programs after ours
C. there is a great deal that is worthwhile in present programs
D. the listeners do not necessarily know what is good for them.
Passage B
There is also a confused notion in the minds of many persons, that the gathering of the property of the poor into the hands of the rich does no ultimate harm, since, in whosesoever hands it may be, it must be spent at last, and thus, they think:, return to the poor~ again. This fallacy has been again and again exposed; but granting the plea true, the same apology may, of course, be made for blackmail, or any other form of robbery. It might be (though practically it never is) as advantageous for' the notion that the robber should have the spending of the money he extorts, as that the person robbed should have spent it. But this is no excuse for the theft. If I were to put a turnpike on the road where it passes my own gate, and endeavour to exact a shilling from every passenger, the public Would soon do away with my gate, without listening to any pleas on my part that it was as advantageous to them, in the end, that I should spend their shillings, as that they' themselves should. But if, instead of outfacing them with a turnpike, I can only persuade them to come in and buy stones, or old iron, or any other useless thing out of my ground, I may rob them to the same extent, and be, moreover, thanked as a public benefactor and promoter of commercial prosperity. And this main question for the poor of England--for the poor of all countries—is wholly omitted in every treatise on the subject of wealth. Even by the laborers themselves, the operation of capital is regarded only in its effect on their immediate interests, never in the far more terrific power of its appointment of the kind and the object of labor. It matters little, ultimately, how much a laborer is paid for making anything but it matters fearfully what the thing is, which he is compelled to make. If his labor is so ordered as to produce food, and fresh air, and fresh water, no matter that his wages are low--the food and the fresh air and water will be at last there, and he will at last get them. But if he is paid to destroy food and fresh air, or to produce iron bars instead of them, — the food and air will finally not be there, and he will not get them, to his great and final inconvenience, so that, conclusively, in political as in household economy, the great question is, not so much what money you have in your pocket, as what you will buy with it and do with it.
6. It can be inferred that the author favors
A. capitalism
B. totalitarianism
C. socialism
D. anarchism
7. The passage implies that
A. “a stitch in time saves nine”
B. “it is better late than never”
C. “he who steals my purse steals trash”
D. “there are two sides to every story”
8. According to the passage, the individual should be particularly concerned with
A. how much wealth he can accumulate
B. the acquisition of land property rather than' money
C. charging the customer a fair price
D. the quality of goods which he purchases with his funds
9. It can be inferred that in regard to the accumulation of wealth the author
A. equates the rich with the thief
B. indicates that there is no truly honest businessman
C. condones some dishonesty in business dealings
D. believes destruction of property is good because it creates consumer demand
10. The passage does NOT indicate that
A. stealing is sometimes pardonable
B, there are legal ways to rob the public
C. the poor are being abused
D. a worker's wages are of little concern to the nation-at- large
Passage C
It is not easy to write a familiar style. Many people mistake a familiar for a vulgar style, and suppose that to write without affectation is to write at random. On the contrary, there is nothing that requires more precision, and, if I may so say purity of expression, than the style I am speaking of. It utterly rejects not only all unmeaning pomp, but all low cant phrases, and loose, unconnected slipshod allusions. It is to take the first word that offers, but the best word in common use: it is not to throw words together in any combinations we please, but to follow and avail ourselves of the true idiom of the language. To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perpetuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes. Or, to give another illustration, to Write naturally is the same thing in regard to common conversation as to read naturally is in regard to common speech. It does not follow that it is an easy thing to give the true accent and inflection to the words you utter, because you do not attempt to rise above the level of ordinary life and colloquial speaking. You do not assume, indeed, the solemnity of the pulpit, or the tone of stage declamation; neither are you at liberty to gabble on at a venture, without emphasis or discretion, or to resort to vulgar dialect or clownish pronunciation. You must steer a middle course. You are tied down to a given appropriate articulation, which is determined by the habitual associations between sense and sound, and which you can only hit by entering into the author's meaning, as you must find the proper words and style to express yourself by fixing your thoughts on the subject you have to write about. Anyone may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but which is scarcely perceptible, but decisive.
11. According to the passage,
A. one should be permitted to speak in any way he wishes to
B. getting on stilts should aid one in speaking more effectively
C. it is easier to write pompously than simply
D. the preacher is a model of good speech
12. When the writer says, “You must steer a middle course,” he means that
A. you should speak neither too loudly nor too softly
B. you should speak neither too formally nor too colloquially
C. you: should write as well as speak
D. you should not come to any definite conclusion about what is proper or not proper
13. By “cant phrases” is meant
A. a type of language which is peculiar to a particular class
B. a singsong type of speech
C. expressions which consistently indicate refusal to do another's bidding
D. obscene language
14. The author mentions all of the following as important to good speech EXCEPT:
A. a good command of English vocabulary
B. the careful selection of words used
C. the use of allusions and metaphors
D. straightforward and precise delivery
15. The author
A. is critical of the person who converses in a manner which is easy to understand
B. implies that foreigners do not speak well
C. feels that there is no relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning
D. criticizes pomposity of style more than vulgarity of style
V. Translate the following into English. Write your answer on ANSWER SHEET. (15%)
为了看日出，我常常早起。那时天还没有大亮，周围非常清静，船上只有机器的响声。天空还是一片浅蓝，颜色很浅。转眼间天边出现了一道红霞，慢慢地在扩大它的范围，加强它的亮光。我知道太阳要从天边升起来了，便目不转睛地望着那里。果然过了一会儿，在那个地方出现了太阳的小半边脸．红是真红，却没有亮光。这个太阳好像负着重荷似地一步一步、慢慢地努力上升．到了最后，终于冲破了云霞，完全跳出了海面，颜色红得非常可爱。
VI. Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your answer on ANSWER SHEET. (15%)
None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save of the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up ill points like rocks.
Many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea. These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem in small boat navigation.
The cook squatted in the bottom and looked with both eyes at the six inches of gunwale which separated him from the ocean. His sleeves were rolled over his fat forearms, and the two flaps of his unbuttoned vest dangled as he bent to bail out the boat. Often he said: "Gawd! That was a narrow clip." As he remarked it he invariably gazed eastward over the broken sea.
The oilier, steering with one of the two oars in the boat, sometimes raised himself suddenly to keep clear of water that swirled in over the stern. It was a thin little oar and it seemed often ready to snap.