[外语类试卷]专业英语八级（作文）模拟试卷102及答案与解析.doc

1、专业英语八级（作文）模拟试卷 102及答案与解析 一、 PART V WRITING 1 For various reasons, some college students have to pay for their tuition by student loans. Do you think its a good way to support your college life? Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize b

2、riefly the authors opinion about student loans; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Student loans are one of the top ways that students pay f

3、or college. It has become a fact of life in the American higher education system, but most borrowers dont understand the risks. Student loans can be a great way to fund a higher education, but they are also one of the worst types of debt for borrowers. If youre planning to borrow for college ( or pl

4、anning to help your students borrow for college) , you need to really understand these key fundamentals of student loan debt, and run the calculation below. This will help you make sure that student loans are good debt for you, and dont spiral into a financial nightmare for you. When Student Loans A

5、re Good Debt Student loans are good debt when they help you improve your financial future. Remember, education is an investment, and you want to make sure that youre getting a solid return on your investment. If going to college helps you earn more, it is usually a good debt. On average, getting a c

6、ollege degree will see your initial earnings jump at least 25% compared to high school graduates. The gap from high school to college graduate earnings is obvious. But it goes beyond that; its not just going to college that can boost earnings, but its also about choosing an appropriate degree. Accor

7、ding to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, engineers have the highest starting salary among college graduates, earning on average $62,062 in their first year. In contrast, humanities and social science majors have the lowest starting salary, just $37,791. Thats al

8、most a $25,000 difference between starting salaries, and it starts to paint the picture of where student loans stop being good debt. If youre going to take out student loans, the first goal should be to maximize the return on your investment. That means getting the highest salary possible for the lo

9、west amount of student loan debt. How Student Loans Become Bad Debt Failing to keep this simple equation in mind is how student loans quickly become bad debt. Remember, a student loan is a mortgage on your future earnings. When you buy a house, the collateral for the loan is the house. When you buy

10、a car, the collateral for the loan is the car. If you dont repay these loans, the lender simply takes the house or the car. But when you borrow with student loans, the collateral is your future earnings. If you dont repay your student loans, the government will take your future earnings. You may hav

11、e seen the stories of borrowers whove had their tax refunds taken to pay their student loans, or even had their social security checks taken to repay their student loans. The bottom line is, if you dont repay your student loan debt, the government will take your earnings and repay the debt for you.

12、The only way to prevent this situation is to avoid taking on too many student loans from the start. If the starting salary isnt going to be high enough, its simply not worth pursuing the degree to go into debt. While that may hurt when youre 18, it will save you from decades of financial pain later

13、in life. Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 2 Mental health problems like feeling lonely are nowadays seen quite often among college students. Although the majority of people who experience such problems can get over them or learn to live with them, the debate on the best way to combat them i

14、s never ceasing. What is your opinion on this? Read the following article carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the authors opinion; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and lang

15、uage quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. A life of booze, fags and slothfulness may be enough to earn your doctors disapproval, but there is one last hope: a repeat prescription of mates and good conversation. A circle of close friends and strong family t

16、ies can boost a persons health more than taking exercise, losing weight or quitting cigarettes and alcohol, psychologists say. Sociable people seem to reap extra rewards from their relationships by feeling less stressed, taking better care of themselves and having less risky lifestyles than those wh

17、o are more isolated, they claim. A review of studies into the impact of relationships on health found that people had a 50% better survival rate if they belonged to a wider social group, be it friends, neighbours, relatives or a mix of these. The striking impact of social connections on wellbeing ha

18、s led researchers to call on GPs and health officials to take loneliness as seriously as other health risks, such as alcoholism and smoking. “We take relationships for granted as humans.“ said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist at Brigham Young University in Utah. “That constant interaction is no

19、t only beneficial psychologically but directly to our physical health.“ Holt-Lunstads team reviewed 148 studies that tracked the social interactions and health of 308 ,849 people over an average of 7. 5 years. From these they worked out how death rates varied depending on how sociable a person was.

20、Being lonely and isolated was as bad for a persons health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic. It was as harmful as not exercising and twice as bad for the health as being obese. Holt-Lunstad said friends and family can improve ones health in numerous ways, from the help in tough ti

21、mes to finding meaning in life. “When someone is connected to a group and feels his responsibility to other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks.“ Holt-Lunstad said there was no clear figure on how many relationships are enou

22、gh to boost a persons health, but people fared better when they rarely felt lonely and were close to a group of friends, had good family contact and had someone they could rely on and confide in. Writing in the journal, the authors point out that doctors, health educators and the media take the dang

23、ers of smoking, diet and exercise seriously, and urge them to add social relationships to the list. A report by the Mental Health Foundation in May blamed technology and the pressures of modern life for widespread feelings of loneliness in all age groups across Britain. The survey of more than 2,200

24、 adults found one in ten people often felt lonely and one in three would like to move closer to their family. Andrew McCulloch, of the Mental Health Foundation, said the latest study builds on work that links isolation to poor mental and physical health. “Trends such as increasing numbers of people

25、living alone and the advent of new technologies, are changing the way in which we interact and are leading both the young and old to experience loneliness. It is important that individuals and policymakers take notice of emerging evidence and of the potential health problems associated with loneline

26、ss.“ Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 3 Some Chinese universities are now opening to the public. However, whether university libraries should be open to the public is still a controversial issue. Whats your opinion? Read the excerpts carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in

27、which you should: 1. summarize briefly the different opinions about this issue; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. The media The Beijing New

28、s: Its great for university libraries to offer free entry to the public. But at the same time, it will make the management work more difficult and the limited book and space resources in university libraries might be further squeezed. Thus, the government may consider offering some subsidies to univ

29、ersities as incentives to encourage more libraries to join the library alliance. However, only depending on universities and the government will not ensure the sustainable development of the free entry policy. Therefore, its necessary to absorb some social institutions and welfare organizations. For

30、 example, its a good idea to set up a community club that brings together resources of nearby universities and even middle schools. Local residents can use these resources as long as they pay a small sum of money to be members of this club. Community residents should also have the opportunity to ser

31、ve as volunteers in university libraries. Guangming Daily: When university libraries offer free entry, it does not mean that readers can enter these libraries without any certificates. People must at least show their ID cards to enter university libraries. On campus, even for students and teachers i

32、n universities, they still need things like student certificates to enter their university libraries. Without basic requirements, university libraries will fall into kind of mess in many aspects. When the public is provided with free entry to university libraries, one striking problem is that they w

33、ill surely compete with university students and teachers for the already limited books and space. In this sense, it requires the government to increase inputs in university libraries so that the free entry policy can be well implemented. If libraries find it impossible to satisfy both students and t

34、he publics demands, students should be put first. After all, in China, the purpose of university libraries is to serve students and teachers for their learning, teaching and academic research. The general public Donald: If resources in university libraries are not fully utilized, it will be a big wa

35、ste. Some people worry that free entry to these libraries will lead to overcrowded libraries on campus, but this is not certain. Maybe not a single outsider would go to visit university libraries. Nowadays, fewer and fewer people in China are interested in reading books. For example, you can always

36、see people playing games on their cellphones, instead of reading. Thus, opening university libraries to the public is actually a way to encourage more people to pick up books. Daniel: To offer the public free entry to university libraries is now a mainstream idea. The question now is how to realize

37、the openness. Nowadays, libraries resources are kept in the form of databases. The traditional way of borrowing and lending books needs manpower and capital input. I think the most effective way is to open these databases to the public. Yang: Libraries openness to the public needs those universities

38、 proper arrangement. Its necessary to avoid any conflict between students use of libraries and that of the public. It needs a balance between ensuring the service to students and teachers and providing service to outsiders. Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 4 The educational system around th

39、e world has been using standardized tests to evaluate the performance of students. However, there has been an ongoing debate among scholars, parents, and teachers on the effectiveness of these tests. What are your views on standardized tests? Read the following excerpts carefully and write your resp

40、onse in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the different opinions; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Peter The mult

41、iple-choice format that is used on standardized tests is an inadequate assessment tool. It encourages a simplistic way of thinking in which there are only right and wrong answers, which doesnt apply in real-world situations. The format is also biased toward male students, who, studies have shown, ad

42、apt more easily to the game-like point scoring of multiple-choice questions. Richard Teacher-graded assessments are inadequate alternatives to standardized tests because they are subjectively scored and unreliable. Most teachers are not trained in testing and measurement, and research has shown many

43、 teachers consider non-cognitive outcomes, including student class participation, perceived effort, and progress over the period of the course, which are irrelevant to subject-matter mastery. Ruth The multiple-choice format used on standardized tests produces accurate information necessary to assess

44、 and improve American schools. According to the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, multiple-choice questions can provide highly reliable test scores and an objective measurement of student achievement. Todays multiple-choice tests are more sophisticated

45、 than their predecessors. The Center for Public Education, a national public school advocacy group, says many multiple-choice tests now require considerable thought, even notes and calculations, before choosing a bubble. Charles While our understanding of the brain and how people learn and think has

46、 progressed enormously, standardized tests have remained the same. Test makers still assume that knowledge can be broken into separate bits and that people learn by absorbing these individual parts. Today, cognitive and developmental psychologists understand that knowledge is not separable bits and

47、that people (including children) learn by connecting what they already know with what they are trying to learn. If they cannot actively make meaning out of what they are doing, they do not learn or remember. Valerie Standardized tests measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful.

48、According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness,

49、 courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity. Sam China has a long tradition of standardized testing and leads the world in educational achievement. China displaced Finland as number one in reading, math, and science when Shanghai debuted on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings in 2009. Despite calls for a reduction in standardized testing, Chinas testing regimen remains firm in place. Chester E. Finn, Jr., Chairman of the Hoover Institutions Koret Task Force on K-12 Edu