1、专业英语八级-阅读理解(十七)及答案解析 (总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、BREADING COMPREH(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、BTEXT A/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Are the days of the nasty split over? For the sake of the kids, some exes spend holidays together and bring along their new partners. Pass the tolerance, please.Randy and Susan, of Lake Charles, La,
2、 divorced in 2008, but they are far from sworn enemies. Theyre among a fast growing number of divorced morns and dads who spend holidays together so the kids dont have to choose between parents or shuttles back and forth.In a dramatic change from the traditional bitterness of divorce, many parted pa
3、rents are doing their best to be cordial, even warm, especially on the most important days of the year. Americans have come to view divorce as a natural experience. With mediation instead of litigation now available or required in 37 states, more couples than ever are splitting up without acrimony.
4、Its a sea change, says Raoul Felder, a New York divorce attorney who took part in many of the most high profile and nasty breakups of the 1980s and 1990s. In the past, says Felder, divorce was about anger and revenge. Now, he says, a divorce is more likely to involve appraisers than private investig
5、ators.Experts say that by coming together, divorced parents provide a more stable and healthy environment for their kids. A decade ago the lingering animosity between Anne Browning and her ex-husband nearly ruined the holidays. The children would spend Christmas morning with Dad in Arizona, then cat
6、ch a flight to Chicago for dinner with Morn. It was hard, says Molly Mackin, the middle child, now 29. Times have changed. This year Molly and her husband, John, hosted Thanksgiving at their home near Sacramento, Calif, for everyone: her parents, her dads wife and her moms husband. The anger was gon
7、e. Browning, 54, says of her ex: He was a different person then, and so was I.Such displays of gallantry were far rarer before 1969, when California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the nations first taw permitting no-fault divorce. No-fault which allows parents to split up without having to declare war ha
8、s become the norm rather than the exception. Mediation has also been on the rise: 13 states require it for divorces involving children, and 24 others allow judges to order it in almost any case they see fit.Plenty of parents already know firsthand whats at stake for their kids, especially Gen-Xers,
9、who grew up in a society where one out of every two marriages ended in divorce. They remember the restraining orders and midnight screaming matches that marred their own childhoods, and vow to spare their children similar turmoil. Watching my parents go to war gave me a great model of what not to fo
10、llow, says Jeff Thomas, 41, an organization consultant in Arizona.Another big change is the greater role played by todays dads in the raising of their kids. Fathers who share in the parenting during marriage expect nothing less after divorce. It never would have occurred to me to not parent my daugh
11、ter says Guy Regal, 39, an art and antiques dealer in Manhattan who sees his 6-year-old five days a week.Although researchers like Ahrons have known for years that how parents divorce matters even more than the divorce itself, some parents still have trouble not putting their children in the middle
12、of conflict.Even when parents set aside their negative emotions to give their children a happy holiday, it isnt always easy. There is still no cure-all medicine for the pain of divorce. Randy admits that on more than one occasion after he and Susan first split, he slipped away from the table to have
13、 a good cry alone in the bedroom, grieving for the irreparable fissure in his family. You dont long for the other person; he says. Its about belonging to a whole family. You long for the completeness. Even for amicably divorced people like Randy and Susan, the ghosts of dashed dreams linger.（分数：25.0
14、0）(1).By saying Pass the tolerance, please. (Para.1), the author means A. divorced parents should be tolerant. B. exes should spare their children the quarrels. C. kids with divorced morns and dads should be tolerant. D. children should understand their parted parents.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).The exampl
15、e of Randy and Susan is to show A. divorce is no longer bitter among many American couples. B. children in disrupted families dont have to choose between their morns and dads. C. more and more parents split up peacefully and spend holidays together with their children. D. breakups of the 1980s and t
16、he 1990s were full of anger and revenge.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).Which of the following statements does NOT contain a metaphor? A. Its a sea change. (Para.3) B. Now, he says, a divorce is more likely to involve appraisers than private investigators. (Para.3) C. There is still no cure-all medicine for th
17、e pain of divorce. (Para.9) D. Even for amicably divorced people like Randy and Susan, the ghosts of dashed dreams linger. (Para.9)（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).According to the passage, whats the biggest change? A. Divorce is no longer as painful and nasty as before. B. No-fault divorces are legalized. C. M
18、ediation is gaining increasing popularity. D. Dads play a greater role in raising their kids than before.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).It can be inferred from the last two paragraphs that A. some parents cannot help but putting their negative emotions on their children. B. divorced parents exert greater infl
19、uences on their children. C. even for peacefully divorced couples, their breakups still have many negative effects. D. divorced men sometimes can be very emotional.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.三、BTEXT B/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)One of the unresolved and rather bitter disputes in evolutionary biology is between the cree
20、ps and the jerks. The creeps (so dubbed by the jerks) think that evolutionary change is gradual. The jerks (so dubbed by the creeps) think it happens in sudden jumps that are separated by long periods of stasis.Probably, both are lame. Work done a couple of years ago by Mark Pagel of Reading Univers
21、ity, in England, suggests that about a fifth of evolutionary change happens jerkily at around the time new species form. The rest creeps in gradually over the millennia.Species, however, are not the only things that evolve. Languages do too. And in the current edition of Science, Dr.Pagel and his co
22、lleagues publish evidence that they do so in a way which looks intriguingly similar to what happens in species.There was already some historical evidence for this. The English of Geoffrey Chaucer (born in the 14th century), for example, is incomprehensible to modem laymen, whereas that of William Sh
23、akespeare (born in the 16th) is not only comprehensible but held by some to be a model. Dr.Pagel, however, wanted to examine the question systematically and to include languages with no literary history in his analysis.To do so he looked at three well-studied parts of the linguistic family tree: the
24、 Banut languages of Africa, the Indo-European group from Eurasia and the Austronesians of the Pacific. In all three cases it is pretty clear how the branches connect up, even if it is not always obvious when particular splits occurred.Dr.Pagel did not, however, need to know that. He only needed to k
25、now the shape of the tree. That was because his hypothesis was that if linguistic evolution is jerky, the jerks will happen at the points where languages split the equivalent of species splits in biological evolution. The way to test that is to track back along the branches leading from each existin
26、g language, and count the number of splits on each path before you get to the common ancestor of all.His hypothesis turned out to be correct. Languages are formed not, it seems, by a gradual drifting apart of two groups who no longer talk to each other, but by violent rupture. Around a third of the
27、vocabulary differences between modem Bantu speakers arose this way, around a fifth of the differences between speakers of Indo-European languages, and around a tenth of the Austronesians. That compares with around a fifth for biological species.All this suggests that the formation of both languages
28、and species is an active process. For species, adaptations to novel environments and the need to avoid crossbreeding with those on the other side of the split are both plausible hypotheses. For languages, the explanation may be a cultural rather than biological need to distinguish populations. As No
29、ah Webster, the compiler of the first American dictionary put it: as an independent nation, our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as government. In other words, if you dont speak proper, you arent one of us.（分数：25.00）(1).According to the first three paragraphs, we kn
30、ow that A. most evolutionary changes happen jerkily. B. languages evolve gradually over the millennia. C. languages evolve both jerkily and creepily. D. both the creeps and the jerks are right.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).The role of the fourth paragraph in the development of the topic is A. to compare the
31、English of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. B. to show that language also evolve by drawing on an example. C. to provide a contrast to the previous paragraph and introduce the next one. D. to offer evidence to the previous paragraph and introduce the next one.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).The goal o
32、f Dr.Pagels study was to A. examine the languages with no literary history. B. find out the ancestor of all languages studied. C. sketch the shape of the linguistic family tree. D. study language evolution systematically.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).What do we learn about Dr.Pagel and his study, according t
33、o the passage? A. He studied languages without literary history. B. Three understudied languages were involved in his study. C. He only knew the shape of the linguistic family tree. D. The hypothesis of the study was overthrown.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).According to the passage, the formation of language
34、s is for A. the adaptation to the new environments. B. the need to avoid crossbreeding. C. the biological need to distinguish populations. D. the cultural need to distinguish populations.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.四、BTEXT C/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Yamato, the ancient name of Japan, essentially means big harmony. To
35、achieve such balance, Japanese society has refined a plethora of cultural traits: humility, loyalty, respect and consensus. In the field of business, however, this often results in a lack of leaders who are willing to stand out from the crowd, promote themselves and act decisively. The nail that sti
36、cks up gets hammered down is a common Japanese refrain; the hawk with talent hides his talons is another. Whereas American and European bosses like to appear on the covers of global business magazines, their Japanese counterparts are comfortable in their obscurity. Business in Japan is generally run
37、 as a group endeavour.Such democratic virtues served the country well in the post-war period. But today they hold too many Japanese firms back. Japan boasts some of the best companies in the world: Toyota, Canon and Nintendo are the envy of their industries. But they operate on a global scale and ha
38、ve tentatively embraced some unconsensual American methods. In much of the Japanese economy especially its huge domestic services sector managers are in something of a funk. Firms do not give promising youngsters responsibility early on, but allocate jobs by age. Unnecessarily long working hours are
39、 the norm, sapping productivity. And there are few women and foreigners in senior roles, which narrows the talent pool.So how pleasing it is to be able to report the success of a business leader who breaks the mould. Young, dynamic and clever, he is not afraid to push aside old, conservative know-no
40、things. He disdains corporate politics and promotes people based on merit rather than seniority. He can make mistakes (he got involved in a questionable takeover-defence scheme), but he is wildly popular with salarymen: his every move is chronicled weekly. In June he was given the top job at one of
41、Japans biggest firms. Kosaku Shima of Hatsushiba Goyo Holdings has only one serious shortcoming: he is not a real person, but a manga, or cartoon, character. For many critics of Japan, that says it all: Mr Shima could exist only in fiction. In fact there is room for the countrys managers and even it
42、s politicians to learn from him.Most of the lessons are for Japans managers. At present, bosses rarely say what they think because it might disrupt the harmony, or be seen as immodest. Their subordinates are reluctant to challenge ideas because that would cause the boss to lose face. So daft strateg
43、ies fester rather than getting culled quickly. There is little risk-taking or initiative. The crux of the problem is Japanese companies culture of consensus-based decision-making. Called nemawashi (literally, going around the roots) or ringi (bottom-up decisions), it helped to establish an egalitari
44、an workplace. In the 1980s Western management consultants cooed that it was the source of Japans competitive strength. Sometimes it can be, as in periods of crisis when an entire firm needs to accept new marching orders quickly. But most of the time it strangles a company.Relying on consensus means
45、that decisions are made slowly, if at all. With so many people to please, the result is often a mediocre morass of compromises. And with so many hands involved, there is no accountability; no reason for individuals to excel; no sanction against bad decisions so that there are fewer of them in future
46、. Of course, sometimes the consensus of the Japanese workplace is just a veneer and decisions are still made from on high. But then why persist with the pretence, particularly if it drains a companys efficiency?If the onus is on Japanese managers to change, then it is fair to say that the government
47、 does not make it very easy for them to do so. The biggest problems lie in the labour market. Change jobs in mid-career and you risk losing your pension. The rigid seniority system also discriminates against women: if they get off the ladder to have children, they cannot get back on. And although th
48、ere is no law against closing down loss-making businesses, most bosses and politicians act as if there were. If Japans leaders decide their country needs more people like Mr Shima and it surely does then they might reflect on all the ways that they prevent him from becoming a reality.（分数：25.00）(1).What is the passage mainly about? A. Aims of the Japanese governments policies. B. Creation of a Japanese car
