[外语类试卷]国家公共英语（五级）笔试历年真题试卷汇编8及答案与解析.doc

1、国家公共英语（五级）笔试历年真题试卷汇编 8及答案与解析 一、 Section II Use of English (15 minutes) Directions: Read the following text and fill each of the numbered spaces with ONE suitable word. Write your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. 0 Between 1852, when【 C1】 _was first established that Mount Everest was the highest mountain o

2、n earth, and 1953, when Edmund Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay finally reached the peaks summit, it was every mountaineers dream to become the first person standing on the worlds【 C2】 _point. And George Mallory was one of the most tenacious early contenders. Mallory was introduced【 C3】 _rock climbing wh

3、ile studying at Winchester College. 【 C4】 _completed his studies, he settled into a career【 C5】 _a teacher at Charterhouse School, and continued to pursue his passion【 C6】_climbing in his spare time. Mallorys【 C7】 _trip to Everest was a reconnaissance mission in 1921【 C8】_ aimed to produce the first

4、 accurate maps of the region. Two【 C9】 _visits to the mountain followed. Then, on 8 June 1924, 【 C10】 _his third attempt to reach the summit, Mallory and his partner, Andrew Irvine, disappeared. Several expeditions subsequently attempted to find the pair, and Mallorys【 C11】_was finally discovered in

5、 May, 1999, at 8, 169 metres, 600 metres【 C12】_the summit, 【 C13】 _with various items of equipment, including handwritten letters to his wife, a pocket knife, an oxygen bottle and his goggles, 【 C14】_were later donated to the Royal Geographical Society【 C15】 _Mallorys family. There is still consider

6、able debate as to【 C16】 _Mallory reached Everests summit. The【 C17】 _that his goggles were found in his pocket has led some to suggest that he was on his way down the mountain【 C18】 _ he fell. Had he been ascending in daylight, he would have been wearing the goggles to【 C19】 _snow-blindness, and giv

7、en what is known of the pairs climbing schedule, if it were【 C20】_when they fell, they must have been on their way back down. 1 【 C1】 2 【 C2】 3 【 C3】 4 【 C4】 5 【 C5】 6 【 C6】 7 【 C7】 8 【 C8】 9 【 C9】 10 【 C10】 11 【 C11】 12 【 C12】 13 【 C13】 14 【 C14】 15 【 C15】 16 【 C16】 17 【 C17】 18 【 C18】 19 【 C19】 20

8、 【 C20】 Part A Directions: Read the following texts and answer the questions which accompany them by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. 20 Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the states first ethanol * -production factory put in a r

9、equest for 400, 000 gallons a day of city water. The request by US Envirofuels would make the facility one of the citys top ten water consumers overnight, and the company plans to double its size. Florida is suffering from a prolonged drought. Rivers and lakes are at record lows and residents wonder

10、 where the extra water will come from. They are not alone. A backlash against the federally financed biofuels boom is growing around the country, and “water could be the Achilles heel“ of ethanol, said a report by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The number of ethano

11、l factories has almost tripled in the past eight years from 50 to about 140. A further 60 or so are under construction. In 2007, President George Bush signed legislation requiring a fivefold increase in biofuels production, to 36 billion gallons by 2022. This is controversial for several reasons. Th

12、ere are doubts about how green ethanol really is(some say the production process uses almost as much energy as it produces). Some argue that using farmland for ethanol pushes up food prices internationally(world wheat prices rose 25% recently, perhaps as a side-effect of Americas ethanol programme).

13、 But one of the least-known but biggest worries is ethanols extravagant use of water. A typical ethanol factory producing 50 m gallons of biofuels a year needs about 500 gallons of water a minute. Most of that goes into the boiling and cooling process, which is similar to making beer. Some water is

14、lost through evaporation in the cooling tower and in waste discharge. All this is putting a heavy burden on aquifers in some corn-growing areas. Residents went to court in Missouri to halt a $ 165 m facility being built by Gulf stream Bioflex Energy LLC which was projected to draw 1. 3 m gallons of

15、water every day from the Ozark aquifer. Projects are being challenged in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and in central Illinois, where eight ethanol facilities are situated over the Mahomet aquifer. Demand for corn is such that more land is also being ploughed up in drier regions of the Great Pla

16、ins states to the west of the corn belt, where irrigation is required, increasing water demand further. The good news is that ethanol plants are becoming more efficient. They now use about half as much water per gallon of ethanol as they did a decade ago. New technology might be able to halve the am

17、ount of water again, says Mike Fatigati, vice president of Delta-T Corp, a Virginia company which has designed a system that does not discharge any waste water. But others are sceptical. “There are things you can close loop(i. e. recycle efficiently)and things you cant, “ says Paul Greene, a senior

18、director for biofuels with Siemens Water Technologies, designers of the water-purification technology used in ethanol factories. Perhaps ethanol just isnt as bio-friendly as it looks. * ethanol = alcohol fuel 21 US Envirofuels （ A） is a local company which plans to double its size. （ B） is one of Ta

19、mpas top ten water consumers. （ C） is responsible for Tampas water shortage. （ D） is going to become the largest fuel supplier in Tampa. 22 What does the word “backlash“(line 1, para. 2)mean? （ A） A quick backward movement. （ B） A strong backup action. （ C） A powerful counterattack. （ D） A strong ne

20、gative reaction. 23 What have most people failed to realize about biofuels? （ A） The huge consumption of wheat. （ B） The huge consumption of water. （ C） The amount of waste discharged. （ D） The amount of energy consumed. 24 Which of the following statements is true? （ A） A biofuel factory in Missour

21、i was demanded to reduce its water use. （ B） A big biofuel factory is under construction in Missouri. （ C） The ethanol plants face the challenge of farmland shortage. （ D） The ethanol plants are challenged to move to other regions. 25 What is the authors attitude towards biofuels? （ A） Optimistic. （

22、 B） Neutral. （ C） Encouraging. （ D） Doubtful. 25 In popular discussions of emissions-rights trading systems, it is common to mistake the smokestacks for the trees. For example, the wealthy oil enclave of Abu Dhabi brags that it has planted more than 130 million trees each of which does its duty in a

23、bsorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, this artificial forest in the desert also consumes huge quantities of irrigation water produced, or recycled, from expensive desalination plants. The trees may allow its leaders to wear a halo at international meetings, but the rude fact is that

24、they are an energy-intensive beauty strip, like most of so-called green capitalism. And, while were at it, lets just ask: What if the buying and selling of carbon credits and pollution offsets fails to reduce global warming? What exactly will motivate governments and global industries then to join h

25、ands in a crusade to reduce emissions through regulation and taxation? Kyoto-type climate diplomacy assumes that all the major actors will recognize an overriding common interest in gaining harness over the runaway greenhouse effect. But global warming is not War of the Worlds, where invading Martia

26、ns are dedicated to annihilating all of humanity without distinction. Climate change, instead, will initially produce dramatically unequal impacts across regions and social classes. It will reinforce, not diminish, geopolitical inequality and conflict. As the UNDP emphasized in its report last year,

27、 global warming is above all a threat to the poor and the unborn, the “two parties with little or no political voice“. Coordinated global action on their behalf thus presupposes either their revolutionary empowerment or the transformation of the self-interest of rich countries and classes into an en

28、lightened “solidarity“ without precedent in history. From a rational perspective, the latter outcome only seems realistic if it can be shown that privileged groups possess no preferential “exit“ option, that internationalist public opinion drives policymaking in key countries, and that greenhouse ga

29、s reduction could be achieved without major sacrifices in upscale Northern Hemispheric standards of living none of which seems highly likely. And what if growing environmental and social turbulence, instead of stimulating heroic innovation and international cooperation, simply drives elite publics i

30、nto even more frenzied attempts to wall themselves off from the rest of humanity? Global intervention, in this unexplored but not improbable scenario, would be silently abandoned(as, to some extent, it already has been)in favor of accelerated investment in selective adaptation for Earths first-class

31、 passengers. Were talking here of the prospect of creating green and gated oases of permanent affluence on an otherwise stricken planet. Of course, there will still be treaties, carbon credits, famine relief, humanitarian acrobatics, and perhaps, the full-scale conversion of some European cities and

32、 small countries to alternative energy. But the shift to low-, or zero-emission lifestyles would be almost unimaginably expensive. And this will certainly become even more unimaginable after perhaps 2030, when the combined impacts of climate change, peak oil, peak water, and an additional 1. 5 billi

33、on people on the planet may begin to seriously threaten growth. 26 The author gives the example of Abu Dhabi in order to illustrate that （ A） artificial forests can be a solution to environmental problems. （ B） what Abu Dhabi has done has won international recognition. （ C） planting trees in huge-nu

34、mbers is harmful to desert environment. （ D） environmentally-friendly attempts may damage the environment. 27 What does the word “runaway“(line 2, para.2)mean? （ A） Uncontrolled. （ B） Unpredicted. （ C） Immeasurable. （ D） Growing. 28 What is NOT a fundamental concern for the concerted action of rich

35、countries? （ A） The spirit of worldwide coordination should play a part in decision-making. （ B） The disadvantaged interest groups should be taken into consideration. （ C） Countries and regions should be treated indiscriminately. （ D） No countries should suffer any change in terms of life quality. 2

36、9 According to the author, which of the following statements is true? （ A） International cooperation can help curb environmental and social crisis. （ B） Innovation and cooperation in environmental issues are unlikely to happen. （ C） Rich countries will possibly seclude themselves from the rest of th

37、e world. （ D） Investment in environmental conservation will largely increase in selected areas. 30 What is the authors attitude towards the shift to low-emission lifestyles? （ A） Doubtful. （ B） Supportive. （ C） Ambiguous. （ D） Encouraging. 30 Few writers are as revered as Jane Austen. According to a

38、 poll in March, Pride and Prejudice a romance without a single kiss is the book Britons love most. Austen adaptations abound: the BBC is filming a new version of Sense and Sensibility written by Andrew Davies, whose 1995 Pride and Prejudice was a global success, and ITV has just shown three of her o

39、ther five novels. But Janeites, as the authors most avid devotees style themselves, have few relics to worship. Most of her letters were burned on her death, and a single sketch by her sister, Cassandra, showing her purse-lipped and in her night-cap, is the only generally acknowledged image of her f

40、ace. That picture, now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in London, depicts a woman so plain that it is often reworked for book covers. That is perhaps why there has been so much interest in a portrait by Ozias Humphrey, a minor society artist of the 18th century, which was auctioned in New Y

41、ork on April 19th by Christies. According to its owner, Henry Rice, a sixth-generation descendant of Miss Austens brother Edward, it shows Jane at about 14, and was commissioned by a great-uncle to help her marriage prospects. Not everyone is convinced that the picture is in fact of Miss Austen. The

42、 National Portrait Gallery has repeatedly declined to purchase it, citing supposed anachronisms in the subjects costume and a tax stamp on the canvas. Its pre-auction valuation reflected this uncertainty: although $400, 000-800, 000 is far more than any of Mr. Humphreys works has achieved before now

43、, a buyer who believed he was looking at Miss Austen would surely be prepared to pay more. The doubts expressed in London are one reason why the portrait was sold in New York. Another is that Americans are as keen on Miss Austen as Britons are. The BBCs Pride and Prejudice was co-produced by A&E, an

44、 American cable channel, and another such channel, HBO, co-financed ITVs adaptations. Versions of her books for the big screen have relied on American cash and not a few American actors. At the heart of each of the novels is a heroine and a marriage. But unlike her heroines, Miss Austen remained sin

45、gle, and some wonder whether that sour-faced sketch by her sister tells us why. Becoming Jane, a recent Hollywood production, presents a different, highly speculative, explanation: a beautiful girl has her heart broken by a flighty Irishman and turns to writing for solace. Miss Austen herself rated

46、her heroines other attributes more highly than their looks, on which she rarely spends more than a few unspecific words. The rest are devoted to what these women think and say, which is also what matters most about Jane Austen. 31 Which of the following statements is true? （ A） Britons do not enjoy

47、stories with lots of romantic details. （ B） Davies wrote a novel of the same title with one of Austens. （ C） Austen has been highly respected in Britain. （ D） Sense and Sensibility produced by BBC was an instant hit. 32 What can be said about the portrait of Austen in the National Portrait Gallery i

48、n London? （ A） It was done by Austens sister and was poorly painted. （ B） It is the only portrait of Austen that is known to the public. （ C） Copies of it have been made for use on book covers. （ D） Austen was presented by her sister as an unattractive woman. 33 What can be known about the portrait

49、of Austen drawn by Ozias Humphrey? （ A） It could be worth more if the subject in it had been Austen herself. （ B） The National Portrait Gallery did not want the portrait damaged by a tax stamp on the canvas. （ C） Humphrey was asked to do the job because of his talent in making the subject pretty. （ D） It could be sold at a higher price in New York than in London. 34 How are the heroines treated in Austens works? （ A） They are both pretty and witty.