1、2008年专业英语八级真题试卷及答案与解析 SECTION A MINI-LECTURE Directions: In this section you sill hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture
2、. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Use the blank sheet for note-taking. 1 The Popularity of English . Present status of English A. English as a native/first language B. English a
3、s a lingua franca: a language for communication among people whose 【 1】 are different C. Number of people speaking English as a first or a second language: 320380 million native speakers 250 【 2】 million speakers of English as a second Language . Reasons for the popular use of English A. 【 3】 reason
4、s the Pilgrim Fathers brought the language to America; British settlers brought the language to Australia; English was used as a means of control in 【 4】 B. Economic reasons spread of 【 5】 language of communication in the international business community C. 【 6】 in international travel use of Englis
5、h in travel and tourism signs in airports language of announcement language of 【 7】 D. Information exchange use of English in the academic world language of 【 8】 or journal articles E. Popular culture pop music on 【 9】 films from the USA . Questions to think about A. Status of English in the future
6、B. 【 10】 of distinct varieties of English 1 【 1】 2 【 2】 3 【 3】 4 【 4】 5 【 5】 6 【 6】 7 【 7】 8 【 8】 9 【 9】 10 【 10】 SECTION B INTERVIEW Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview
7、. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the interview. 11 Mary doesnt seem to favour the idea of a new airport because _. （ A） the existing airports are to be wasted. （ B） more people will be encouraged to travel. （ C）
8、more oil will be consumed. （ D） more airplanes will be purchased. 12 Which of the following is NOT mentioned by Mary as a potential disadvantage? （ A） More people in the area. （ B） Noise and motorways. （ C） Waste of land. （ D） Unnecessary travel. 13 Freddy has cited the following advantages for a ne
9、w airport EXCEPT _. （ A） more job opportunities. （ B） vitality to the local economy. （ C） road construction. （ D） presence of aircrew in the area. 14 Mary thinks that people dont need to do much travel nowadays as a result of _. （ A） less emphasis on personal contact. （ B） advances in modern telecom
10、munications. （ C） recent changes in peoples concepts. （ D） more potential damage to the area. 15 We learn from the conversation that Freddy is _ Marys ideas. （ A） strongly in favour of （ B） mildly in favour of （ C） strongly against （ D） mildly against SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST Directions: In this sec
11、tion you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. 16 What is the main idea of the news item? （ A） A new government was formed after Sundays elections. （ B） The new g
12、overnment intends to change the welfare system. （ C） The Social Democratic Party founded the welfare system. （ D） The Social Democratic Party was responsible for high unemployment. 17 The tapes of the Apollo 11 mission were first stored in _. （ A） a U. S. government archives warehouse. （ B） a NASA g
13、round tracking station. （ C） the Goddard Space Flight Centre. （ D） none of the above places. 18 What does the news item say about Richard Nafzger? （ A） He is assigned the task to look for the tapes. （ B） He believes that the tapes are probably lost. （ C） He works in a NASA ground receiving site. （ D
14、） He had asked for the tapes in the 1970s. 19 The example in the news item is cited mainly to show _. （ A） that doctors are sometimes professionally incompetent. （ B） that in cases like that hospitals have to pay huge compensations. （ C） that language barriers might lower the quality of treatment. （
15、 D） that language barriers can result in fatal consequences. 20 According to Dr. Flores, hospitals and clinics _. （ A） have seen the need for hiring trained interpreters. （ B） have realized the problems of language barriers. （ C） have begun training their staff to be bilinguals. （ D） have taken step
16、s to provide accurate diagnosis. 21 At the age of 16, Lee Hyuk Joons life is a living hell. The South Korean 10th grader gets up at 6 in the morning to go to school, and studies most of the day until returning home at 6 p. m. After dinner, its time to hit the books againat one of Seouls many so-call
17、ed cram schools. Lee gets back home at 1 in the morning, sleeps less than five hours, then repeats the routinefive days a week. Its a grueling schedule, but Lee worries that it may not be good enough to get him into a top university. Some of his classmates study even harder. South Koreas education s
18、ystem has long been highly competitive. But for Lee and the other 700,000 high-school sophomores in the country, high-school studies have gotten even more intense. Thats because South Korea has conceived a new college-entrance system, which will be implemented in 2008. This years 10th graders will b
19、e the first group evaluated by the new admissions standard, which places more emphasis on grades in the three years of high school and less on nationwide SAT-style and other selection tests, which have traditionally determined which students go to the elite colleges. The change was made mostly to re
20、duce what the government says is a growing education gap in the country: wealthy students go to the best colleges and get the best jobs, keeping the children of poorer families on the social margins. The aim is to reduce the importance of costly tutors and cram schools, partly to help students enjoy
21、 a more normal high-school life. But the new system has had the opposite effect. Before, students didnt worry too much about their grade-point averages; the big challenge was beating the standardized tests as high-school seniors. Now students are competing against one another over a three-year perio
22、d, and every midterm and final test is crucial. Fretful parents are relying even more heavily on tutors and cram schools to help their children succeed. Parents and kids have sent thousands of angry online letters to the Education Ministry complaining that the new admissions standard is setting stud
23、ents against each other. “One can succeed only when others fail,“ as one parent said. Education experts say that South Koreas public secondary-school system is foundering, while private education is thriving. According to critics, the countrys high schools are almost uniformly mediocrethe result of
24、an egalitarian government education policy. With the number of elite schools strictly controlled by the government, even the brightest students typically have to settle for ordinary schools in their neighbourhoods, where the curriculum is centred on average students. To make up for the mediocrity, z
25、ealous parents send their kids to the expensive cram schools. Students in affluent southern Seoul neighbourhoods complain that the new system will hurt them the most. Nearly all Korean high schools will be weighted equally in the college-entrance process, and relatively weak students in provincial s
26、chools, who may not score well on standardized tests, often compile good grade-point averages. Some universities, particularly prestigious ones, openly complain that they cannot select the best students under the new system because it eliminates differences among high schools. Theyve asked for more
27、discretion in picking students by giving more weight to such screening tools as essay writing or interviews. President Roh Moo Hyun doesnt like how some colleges are trying to circumvent the new system. He recently criticized “greedy“ universities that focus more on finding the best students than tr
28、ying to “nurture good students“. But amid the crossfire between the government and universities, the countrys 10th graders are feeling the stress. On online protest sites, some are calling themselves a “cursed generation“ and “mice in a lab experiment“. It all seems a touch melodramatic, but thats t
29、he South Korean school system. 21 According to the passage, the new college-entrance system is designed to _. （ A） require students to sit for more college-entrance tests. （ B） reduce the weight of college-entrance tests. （ C） select students on their high school grades only. （ D） reduce the number
30、of prospective college applicants. 22 What seems to be the effect of introducing the new system? （ A） The system has given equal opportunities to students. （ B） The system has reduced the number of cram schools. （ C） The system has intensified competition among schools. （ D） The system has increased
31、 students study load. 23 According to critics, the popularity of private education is mainly the result of _. （ A） the governments egalitarian policy. （ B） insufficient number of schools. （ C） curriculums of average quality. （ D） low cost of private education. 24 According to the passage, there seem
32、s to be disagreement over the adoption of the new system between the following groups EXCEPT _. （ A） between universities and the government. （ B） between school experts and the government. （ C） between parents and schools. （ D） between parents and the government. 25 Which of the following adjective
33、s best describes the authors treatment of the topic? （ A） Objective. （ B） Positive. （ C） Negative. （ D） Biased. 26 Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was a teenager before he saw his first cow in his first field. Born in Jamaica, the 47-year-old grew up in inner-city Birmingham before making a career as a telev
34、ision producer and launching his own marketing agency. But deep down he always nurtured every true Englishmans dream of a rustic life, a dream that his entrepreneurial wealth has allowed him to satisfy. These days hes the owner of a thriving 12-hectare farm in deepest Devon with cattle, sheep and pi
35、gs. His latest business venture: pushing his brand of Black Farmer gourmet sausages and barbecue sauces. “My background may be very urban,“ says Emmanuel-Jones. “But it has given me a good idea of what other urbanites want.“ And of how to sell it. Emmanuel-Jones joins a herd of wealthy fugitives fro
36、m city life who are bringing a new commercial know-how to British farming. Britains burgeoning farmers marketsnumbers have doubled to at least 500 in the last five yearsswarm with specialty cheesemakers, beekeepers or organic smallholders who are redeploying the business skills they learned in the c
37、ity. “Everyone in the rural community has to come to terms with the fact that things have changed.“ Says Emmanuel-Jones. “You can produce the best food in the world, but if you dont know how to market it, you are wasting your time. We are helping the traditionalists to move on.“ The emergence of the
38、 new class of superpeasants reflects some old yearnings. If the British were the first nation to industrialize, they were also the first to head back to the land. “There is this romantic image of the countryside that is particularly English,“ says Alun Howkins of the University of Sussex, who reckon
39、s the population of rural England has been rising since 1911. Migration into rural areas is now running at about 100,000 a year, and the hunger for a taste of the rural life has kept land prices buoyant even as agricultural incomes tumble. About 40 percent of all farmland is now sold to “lifestyle b
40、uyers“ rather than the dwindling number of traditional farmers, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Whats new about the latest returnees is their affluence and zeal for the business of producing quality foods, if only at a micro-level. A healthy economy and surging London hous
41、e prices have helped to ease the escape of the would-be rustics. The media recognize and feed the fantasy. One of the big TV hits of recent years, the “River Cottage“ series, chronicled the attempts of a London chef to run his own Dorset farm. Naturally, the newcomers cant hope to match their City s
42、alaries, but many are happy to trade any loss of income for the extra job satisfaction. Who cares if theres no six-figure annual bonus when the land offers other incalculable compensations? Besides, the specialist producers can at least depend on a burgeoning market for their products. Todays eco-aw
43、are generation loves to seek out authentic ingredients. “People like me may be making a difference in a small way,“ Jan McCourt, a onetime investment banker now running his own 40-hectare spread in the English Midlands stocked with rare breeds. Optimists see signs of far-reaching change: Britain isn
44、t catching up with mainland Europe; its leading the way. “Unlike most other countries, where artisanal food production is being eroded, here it is being recovered,“ says food writer Matthew Fort. “It may be the mark of the next stage of civilization that we rediscover the desirability of being a pea
45、sant.“ And not an investment banker. 26 Which of the following details of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is INCORRECT? （ A） He was born and brought up in Birmingham. （ B） He used to work in the television industry. （ C） He is wealthy, adventurous and aspiring. （ D） He is now selling his own quality foods. 2
46、7 Most importantly, people like Wilfred have brought to traditional British farming _. （ A） knowledge of farming. （ B） knowledge of brand names. （ C） knowledge of lifestyle. （ D） knowledge of marketing. 28 Which of the following does NOT contribute to the emergence of a new class of farmers? （ A） St
47、rong desire for country life. （ B） Longing for greater wealth. （ C） Influence of TV productions. （ D） Enthusiasm for quality food business. 29 What is seen as their additional source of new income? （ A） Modern tendency to buy natural foods. （ B） Increase in the value of land property. （ C） Raising a
48、nd selling rare live stock. （ D） Publicity as a result of media coverage. 30 The sentence in the last paragraph “. Britain isnt catching up with mainland Europe; its leading the way“ implies that _. （ A） Britain has taken a different path to boost economy. （ B） more authentic foods are being produce
49、d in Britain. （ C） the British are heading back to the countryside. （ D） the Europeans are showing great interest in country life. 31 In Barcelona the Catalonians call them castells, but these arent stereotypical castles in Spain. These castles are made up of human beings, not stone. The people who perform this agile feat of acrobatics are called castellers, and to see their towers take shape is to observe a marvel of human cooperat
