[外语类试卷]专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷125及答案与解析.doc

1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 125及答案与解析 SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several 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. 0 As yo

2、u sat across the Thanksgiving table basking in the warmth of family and the aroma of chestnut stuffing, most likely you did not remember the vicious comment your Aunt Jennifer made about you a few years back. You didnt dwell on Uncle Julios unkind reference to your drinking last Christmas or what co

3、usin Duwan said about your girlfriend during that dreadful vacation at the shore. At family holidays, we tend to embrace our relatives even after months or years of not having seen one another, regardless of the quarrels we have had in the past. We may chalk up our generous forgiveness to the festiv

4、e spirit of the holiday, but the real reason has nothing to do with Thanksgiving; it is because of how we humans remember and forget. Cognitive experts tell us that forgetting is fundamental to how we make sense of the world. Forgetting helps us survive, by making sure we dont dwell in the past. In

5、the digital age, that mechanism of our humanity is under threat. We all hate when we cant remember something. We think of it as a bug of the human mind. We dont realize that by discarding most of the avalanche of details that our senses are bombarded with every day, as well as past wounds, our brain

6、 helps us focus on the important things; it lets us see the forest rather than just the trees. We may learn from our failures, but thankfully we also easily forget them. Human memories are not fixed; they are reconstructed. We remember more easily what we remember often. More important, we tend to f

7、orget memories that dont fit into our current world vision; our brains discard them as no longer important. That way, we forgive one another (and ourselves) for past transgressions. Thus our memories of most past experiences wither. Forgetting misdeeds that we deem no longer relevant is a powerful m

8、echanism; and the best part of it is that its built into us. But it also means that operation is thwarted in a world of comprehensive memory, a world in which we are constantly reminded of our past. Our ever-improving digital tools record billions of Facebook messages and more than 300 million tweet

9、s every day not to mention our private e-mail accounts, with their photos and videos. Logging our lives is becoming the norm, and having a comprehensive digital memory at our disposal is the default. Many people are concerned about what this does to privacy. I am worried about Thanksgiving the warmt

10、h and joy that may be lost when we keep being reminded of every mistake, every quarrel, every disagreement. With comprehensive digital memories all around us, forgetting one anothers offenses becomes more difficult; through our digital tools well be alerted to all we thought we had forgotten. This w

11、ill make it harder for us to forgive. In one of his short stories, author Jorge Luis Borges describes a young man who after an accident can no longer forget. He can remember perfectly all the books he has read, but he has been unable to learn anything from them, because learning involves the distill

12、ing of abstract thought from detailed memories, after which the latter fade away. Thus it, too, necessitates forgetting. In future Thanksgivings, our data glasses might identify family members through facial recognition, and within a split second, display old e-mails and images, tweets and posts, re

13、minding us in excruciating detail of their (and our) past shortcomings. Some say that well adapt by disregarding these digital memories. But it is naive to think that if so directly reminded of earlier quarrels, well be able to put the revived memory aside. Our brain is trained to remember events we

14、 thought we had forgotten when given an external stimulus. Automatically disregarding revived memories is as hard as deliberately forgetting things we cant do it. We need to appreciate and preserve forgetting as a feature of humanity. To do so may require us to adapt our digital tools. Unlike our br

15、ains, they can easily be rewired. With the help of the companies that design our online tools, we could let tweets and Facebook comments expire over time. We could choose the photos in our digital libraries we want to remember, and the e-mails we hold dear, as we let the rest slowly disappear, givin

16、g us a renewed and much-needed chance to forget. This would preserve in the digital age our ability to grow, to learn and to forgive. And it would give us a better shot at having a rancor-free family holiday. That alone would be worth it. 1 We can learn from the first two paragraphs that_. （ A） holi

17、days like Thanksgiving make people forgetful （ B） family members always poke unkind comments toward each other （ C） forgetting is important to human experiences （ D） cognitive experts tell us the meaning of the world 2 Which of the following words is used literally, NOT metaphorically? （ A） Dwell (P

18、aragraph One). （ B） Festive (Paragraph Two). （ C） Avalanche (Paragraph Four). （ D） Forest (Paragraph Four). 3 Which of the following statements can NOT be inferred from the story written by Jorge Luis Borges? （ A） Learning is a more complex process than reading. （ B） The young man cannot form detail

19、ed memories from the books hes read. （ C） Forgetting involves discarding most detailed memories. （ D） It would be a painful experience if we were unable to forget. 4 In the last two paragraphs of the passage, the author_. （ A） concludes the problem and puts forward some suggestions （ B） restates the

20、 topic and raises his/her doubts （ C） summarizes the causes for the problem and its effects （ D） summarizes his/her argument and invites further discussion 4 As a Floridian whos weathered his share of hurricanes, I can more than sympathize with my northeastern countrymen as they begin the lousy task

21、 of cleaning up after Sandy. But theres one commonality that stands out for me as a parent. Just as “Frankenstorm“ struck days before Halloween, so did Hurricane Wilma wreck South Florida seven years ago this week. My kids were teens then (remember Harry Potter costumes?) and I have a piece of advic

22、e now for the parents of trick-or-treaters from Virginia to Maine: Dont cancel Halloween, as Im seeing so many towns up there announcing theyll do. Postpone it. Delay it. But as soon as you can, have it. That might sound like fairly trivial counsel given the deadly havoc the Northeast is dealing wit

23、h at this moment. But that grim situation and the impact Ive personally seen it have on children is precisely the reason Im offering it. During times like this, one crucial thing kids need is a reassuring sign or two of normalcy. Whats more, if youre going to have a hurricane hit you during a holida

24、y, Halloween is the best when it comes to children; For all its lighthearted revelry of costumes and candy, this delightfully gothic autumn festival also manages to teach kids something about confronting lifes darker side. Wilma tore across Florida a week before Halloween in 2005, on Oct. 24, litter

25、ing the peninsulas southern half with uprooted trees, exploded rooftops and glass shards from high-rise condominium windows. Almost 40 people were killed; more than 3 million of us were without power for weeks, and the damage topped $20 billion. I remember interviewing a group of shell-shocked eleme

26、ntary school kids whod been having a “hurricane sleepover“ in a Miami Beach high-rise when the Category 2 winds destroyed the apartment and almost blew them into Biscayne Bay. Many people considered shutting Halloween down amid that mess. Still, when I looked up long enough from my own aggravating c

27、leanup work, or from my deadline stories about the disaster, I could see the dispiriting effect that the prospect of ditching Halloween was having on my children, then aged 10 and 8. It wasnt just that they were losing out on the fun. Halloween by then had also become a comforting part of their chil

28、drens almanac. Not having it would have left a hole that only compounded the hurricane trauma they were trying to absorb all around them. I might not have been so tuned in to their funk had I not covered Miamis Elian Gonzdlez debacle five years earlier. The one thing the child psychiatrists I interv

29、iewed then kept telling me was that Elidn, like any kid that age, needed structure returned to his life, especially after the horrifying experience of watching his mother drown in the Atlantic Ocean. I remembered that wisdom after Wilma, and it made me and a number of other parents in our community

30、resolve to forge ahead with a proper Halloween. Not just the trick-or-treating but a party afterward with ghost stories, bobbing for apples and limbo dancing. Observing Oct. 31 , damn the mess, helped the kids forget Oct. 24 for a while, and Id be willing to bet they remember it as one of their best

31、 Halloweens. And maybe, in retrospect, one of the more meaningful. Halloween doesnt just help kids forget their cares; it invites them to face their fears. Ive never understood parents who boycott Halloween because they believe it introduces children to the occult or even Satan worship. As far as Im

32、 concerned, it does just the opposite. Halloween doesnt embrace death it mocks it. (I would also remind conservative Christians that while its a secular holiday today, “Halloween“ traditionally means “All Hallows Eve,“ the night before All Saints Day on the Roman Catholic calendar.) In that sense it

33、s a lot like Mexicos Day of the Dead, which unfolds every Nov. 2 in all its skeletons-and-marigolds splendor. I call the Day of the Dead the Mexican Halloween because it serves much the same harvest-season purpose; to make us less scared of death by letting us party with it for a moment. That kind o

34、f positive ritual comes in handy when children are trying to make sense of tragedy. When I look at the 2005 Halloween photos of our neighborhood kids today, I see more than youngsters laughing at their fantasy frights. I also sense children who might be coping a bit better with the real mayhem theyd

35、 just witnessed. So in spite of this weeks catastrophe, let the kids put on a Frankenstein costume because it might help them put away their nightmares of Frankenstorm. 5 We can infer from the second paragraph that_. （ A） to observe Halloween is a suggestion not worth considering at a disaster time

36、（ B） children tend to suffer less during a hurricane than adults （ C） some holidays help lessen the horrifying effects of a disaster （ D） having joyful festivals will brighten peoples life to a large extent 6 It can be learned from Elian Gonzalezs case in Paragraph Five that_. （ A） the author is not

37、 concerned about Elians emotional problems （ B） Elians case is an extraordinary one and cannot represent the other children （ C） there is hardly any order in a kids everyday life （ D） the author took more focus on that Halloween in order to help children reconstruct their life 7 Which of the followi

38、ng statements about Halloween is INCORRECT according to the passage? （ A） Its often connected with costumes and candy. （ B） Its role of leading people to ghost worship is being reexamined by the society. （ C） Its an autumn festival which has its origin in western religions. （ D） It exposes people to

39、 lifes darker side by mocking death. 8 Which of the following best describes the authors development of writing? （ A） Relating a current event with an earlier one raising a suggestionswitching to the past eventrestating some reasons for the suggestion. （ B） Posing a problemanalyzing th e situationpu

40、tting forward some solutions. （ C） Revealing a problem switching to similar ones in the pastanalyzing the similarities between past and present. （ D） Narrating a storycommenting on the storyinviting an open discussion. 8 Frank Lloyd Wright is best known as a revolutionary American architect. A hallm

41、ark of his work is sensitivity to the natural environment Fallingwater, the house he built over a waterfall, is a prime example. But Mr. Wright had a second career as a collector of and dealer in Japanese block prints, continuing this business until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. At times, he m

42、ade more money selling prints than he did from architecture. A small but insightful exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, comprising prints, architectural drawings from Mr. Wrights studio and archival objects, highlights the Japans deep influence on his work. Mr. Wright was first captivated by

43、 Japanese art in 1893, when he saw Japans pavilions at the sprawling world fair in Chicago. His interest in Japans art and culture blossomed during several trips there starting in 1905. He opened an office in Japan in 1915 and lived there for a few years while building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. “

44、At last I had found one country on earth where simplicity, as nature, is supreme,“ he wrote. He returned from his first trip to Japan with hundreds of ukiyoe prints, planning to sell them in America. Mr. Wright often sold his clients art to hang on the walls he had built, explaining that they comple

45、mented his streamlined interiors. Japanese prints, especially traditional bird and flower images, had easily understandable motifs. The prints were a commercial hit but Mr. Wright was also personally enthralled by them. “A Japanese artist grasps form always by reaching underneath for its geometry, n

46、ever losing sight of its spiritual efficacy,“ he wrote in The Japanese Print, a slim, 35-page book published in 1912. “These simple coloured engravings are indeed a language whose purpose is absolute beauty.“ According to Janice Katz, associate curator of Japanese art at the Art Institute of Chicago

47、, Mr. Wright favoured prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Japanese artist who emphasized environment over human structures. Prints such as Mr. Hiroshiges Goyu: Women Stopping Travellers show buildings from a wide perspective. The flattened space and naturalistic detail of prints influenced architectural

48、drawings in Mr. Wrights studio. For instance, a vertical scroll-like drawing called Perspective of Frank Lloyd Wrights Thomas P. Hardy House, Racine, Wisconsin leaves most of the brown page blank except the top right corner where a house perches precariously. A flowering branch, like those in bird a

49、nd flower prints, pokes into the blank space. The draft was made by Marion Mahony Griffin, who worked for Mr. Wright. An architect in her own right, Ms Griffin later incorporated elements of Japonism in own work. Another drawing, Perspective View of Marion Mahony Griffin and Walter Burley Griffins Rock Crest/Rock Glen, Mason City, Iowa, shows clouds and buildings nestled among lush foliage. It is rendered in gouache on a horizontal slice of pale green satin with two side panels t