1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 173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. 0 As we know, there are two kinds of elephants: the African and the Asian elephants, which are the largest【
3、 1】 _animals in the world. They 【 1】 _ are similar in many ways. Firstly, both animals have long noses, called trunks. Elephants some- times use their trunks like a【 2】 _hand. 【 2】 _ Secondly, both kinds of elephants use their trunks to pick up very small objects and very large, heavy objects. Third
4、ly, both of them have very largev ears, although the【 3】 _elephants ears are 【 3】 _ much larger. Fourthly, both animals are thought to be【 4】 _because they can be trained to do 【 4】 _ heavy work for people and do tricks to 【 5】 _ people. In addition, there is one big【 5】 _ similarity between the two
5、 animals-they are both fascinating and enormous animals. However, the African and Asian elephants are also quite different. The Asian elephant is smaller and lighter than the African elephant. The average weight differences between the two kinds of elephants range from 2,000 to【 6】 _pounds. 【 6】 _ A
6、part from another major difference in the size of the ears, the teeth of the two animals are different, too. The African elephant has two very large teeth called【 7】 _. The Asian elephant sometimes 【 7】 _ does not have any tusks at all. The two animals differ in【 8】 _, too. The last difference betwe
7、en 【 8】 _ the two elephants is their【 9】 _. The 【 9】 _ Asian elephant is tamer than the African elephant. Thats why the elephants you see in the circus are probably【 10】 _ elephants. 【 10】 _ 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 th
8、is 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. 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 Where will t
9、his special straw probably be most useful? （ A） In restaurants. （ B） On car trips. （ C） In science laboratories. （ D） On camping trips. 12 How does the man describe the water purifier? （ A） Small and lightweight. （ B） Solid and heavy. （ C） Bulky but weightless. （ D） Large but necessary. 13 According
10、 to the man, what does the water purifier remove from the water? （ A） Minerals. （ B） Chemical pollutants. （ C） Salt. （ D） Germs. 14 According to the man, what sort of safety feature is used on the filters7 （ A） They become clogged before losing effectiveness. （ B） Theyre equipped with built-in measu
11、ring devices. （ C） Their safety, limits are clearly marked. （ D） They change color when no longer effective. 15 The filter discussed in this conversation would probably best clean water obtained from which of the following? （ A） Inland seas. （ B） Factories. （ C） Drug companies. （ D） Mountain streams
12、. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST Directions: In this section 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 Yasser Arafats next stop is _. （ A） Sweden （ B） Israel （ C） Ca
13、nada （ D） France 17 Yasser Arafat visited America for the purpose of_. （ A） securing financial aid （ B） persuading U.S. to compel Israel to withdraw its troops from the occupied territory （ C） gaining U.S. recognition of the right of self-determination （ D） asking U.S. permission to establish sovere
14、ign state of Palestinians after May 4 18 According to the news, the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong live in_. （ A） beats （ B） havens （ C） holiday camps （ D） horrible conditions 19 The total number of victims in the fire was_. （ A） 118 （ B） 18 （ C） 100 （ D） 200 20 One of the consequences of the fire
15、 is that （ A） there will be no more fights among Vietnamese refugees （ B） conditions at the camp will be improved （ C） the camp residents will be divided （ D） new fire safety measures will be introduced 20 Americas most relentless examiner, the Educational Testing Service, has developed computer sof
16、tware, known as E-rater, to evaluate essays on the Graduate Management Admission Test. Administered to 200,000 business school applicants each year, the GMAT includes two 30- minute essays that test takers type straight into a computer. In the past, those essays were graded on a six-point scale by t
17、wo readers. This month, the computer will replace one of the readers with the proviso that a second reader will be consulted if the computer and human-reader scores differ by more than a point. Its one thing for a machine to determine whether a bubble has been correctly filled in, but can it read ou
18、tside the lines, so to speak? Well, yes and no. E-Rater “learns“ what constitutes good and bad answers from a sample of pregraded essays. Using that information, it breaks the essay down to its syntax, organization and contents. The software checks basics like subject-verb agreement and recognizes p
19、hrases and sentence structures that are likely to be found in high- scoring essays. Of course, the machine cannot “get“ a clever turn of phrase or an unusual analogy. “If Im unique, I might not fall under the scoring instructions,“ concedes Frederic McHale, a vice president at the GMAT Council. On t
20、he other hand, E-Rater is mercilessly objective and never tired halfway through a stack of essays. The upshot: in pretrial tests, E-Rater and a human reader were just as likely to agree as were two readers. “Its not intended to judge a persons creativity,“ says Darrell Laham, co-developer of the Int
21、elligent Essay Assessor, a computer grading system similar to E-Rater. “Its to give students a chance to construct a response instead of just pointing at a bubble.“ That wont reassure traditionalists, who argue that writing simply cant be reduced to rigid adjective plus subject plus verb formulation
22、s. “Writing is a human act, with aesthetic dimensions that computers can only begin to understand,“ says David Sehaafsman, professor of English education at Teachers Colleges of Columbia University. The Kaplan course, a leader in test prep, has taken a more pragmatic approach: it has issued a list o
23、f strategies for “the age of the computerized essay.“ One of its tips: use transitional phrases like “therefore,“ and the computer just might think you re Dickens. 21 E-Rater is described as _. （ A） a substitute for GMAT （ B） Americas most relentless examiner （ C） a machine to grade bubble-filling p
24、apers （ D） a computer-grading system 22 In Paragraph 2 the expression “read outside the lines“ refers to the ability to _. （ A） understand student essays （ B） report scores （ C） recognize a wrong bubble （ D） judge a persons creativity 23 Frederic McHale implies that if the test taker is unique, he w
25、ould _. （ A） get a top grade （ B） get an average grade （ C） be at an advantage （ D） be at a disadvantage 24 It seems that Professor Schaafsman agrees with _. （ A） traditionalists （ B） Darrell Laham （ C） supporters of E-Rater （ D） the Kaplan course designers 24 What is the future for cities? Why does
26、 one inner-city neighborhood become a slum and another a high-class district? Why does one city attract new shoppers and visitors while another languishes? Camden, New Jersey, displays the strong contrasts that characterize American urban areas. The central city of Camden houses an isolated undercla
27、ss, while suburban Camden County prospers. The population of the city of Camden has declined from 117,000 in 1960 to less than 80,000 today. Nearly 85 percent of the citys residents are black and Hispanic, while the white population has declined from 90,000 in 1960 to 10,000 today. Only 1 percent of
28、 the households remaining have annual incomes of more than $ 50,000, compared with 20 percent in the rest of the country and 10 percent among all black h6useholds. More than 40 percent of Camdens residents are under eighteen, closer to the level found in developing countries than to the rest of the
29、United States. Job prospects are not promising for these young people, because more than half have left school without obtaining a high-school diploma. In the past, Camdens youths could find jobs in factories that produced Campbells soups, Esterbrook pens, and RCA Victor records, radios, and televis
30、ions, but the city has lost 90 percent of its industrial jobs. The Esterbrook and Campbell factories in Camden are closed, though Campbells corporate offices remain; General Electric now operates the former RCA factory but with a labor force at only 15 percent of the level during the 1960s. Camden s
31、 unemployment rate is more than twice the national average. As Camdens population and industries decline, few shops have enough customers to remain open. The city once had thirteen movie theaters, but none are left. The murder rate soared after gangs carved up the city into districts during the mid-
32、1980s to control cocaine trafficking. Meanwhile, Camden County - excluding the city - has grown from 275,000 in 1960 to more than 400,000 today. Cherry Hill has more than 75,000 residents today, compared to less than 10,000 in 1960, and will surpass Camden as the largest city in the county before th
33、e end of the decade. About 85 percent of Cherry Hills high-school graduates go on to college. Cherry Hill has attracted so many new jobs that the major obstacle to further economic growth is a shortage of qualified workers. Camden s mismatch between the locations of people, jobs, resources, and serv
34、ices exemplifies the urban crisis throughout the United States, as well as in other countries. Geographers help us to understand why these patterns arise, and what can be done about them. 25 Which of the following is NOT true? （ A） Camden County is larger than the city of Camden. （ B） Cherry Hills e
35、conomy is sluggish. （ C） The white people have moved to the suburbs. （ D） General Electric now employs less workers than it used to. 26 What is the author most likely to do in the section that follows this passage? （ A） Elaborating on geographical patterns of other areas. （ B） Quoting government pol
36、icies in favour of her view. （ C） Highlighting statistics in support of her argument. （ D） Proposing possible solutions to the problems. 26 For a long time we have worked hard at isolating the individual family. This has increased the mobility of individuals; and by encouraging young families to bre
37、ak away from the older generation and the home community, we have been able to speed up the acceptance of change and the rapid spread of innovative behavior. But at the same time we have burdened every small family with tremendous responsibilities once shared within three generations and among a lar
38、ge number of people - the nurturing of small children, the initiation of adolescents into adulthood, and care of the sick and disabled and the protection of the aged. What we have failed to realize is that even as we have separated the single family from the larger society, we have expected each cou
39、ple to take on a range of obligations that traditionally have been shared within a family and a wider community. So all over the world there are millions of families left alone, as it were, each in its own boxparents faced with the specter of what may happen if either one gets sick, children fearful
40、 that their parents may end their quarrels with divorce, and empty-handed old people without any role in the life of the next generation. Then, having reduced little by little to almost nothing the relationship between families and the community, when families get into trouble because they cannot ac
41、complish the impossible, we turn their problems over to impersonal social agencies, which can act only in a fragmented way because they are limited to patchwork programs that often are too late to accomplish what is most needed. Individuals and families do get some kind of help, but what they learn
42、and what those who work hard within the framework of social agencies convey, even as they try to help, is that families should be able to care for themselves. 27 According to the author, when young families are isolated,_. （ A） old people can easily accept the change （ B） people can move from place
43、to place （ C） individuals can hardly become innovative （ D） economy develops at high speed 28 What is said to be the major problem facing young couples?_. （ A） They need to fulfill more duties. （ B） They are incapable of balancing the budget. （ C） They have their children spoiled and overindulged. （
44、 D） They get empty-handed after divorce. 29 The author implies that _. （ A） social agencies in America can be very helpful （ B） the help to American families from social agencies is limited （ C） the government should do more to improve patchwork programs （ D） the fragmentary nature of the American f
45、amily is unique 29 Most people think of lions as strictly African beasts, but only because theyve been killed off almost everywhere else. Ten thousand years ago lions spanned vast sections of the globe, and so did people, who-as they multiplied and organizedput pressure on competitors at the top of
46、the food chain. Now lions hold only a small fraction of their former habitat, and Asiatic lions, a subspecies that split from African lions perhaps 100,000 years ago, hang on to an almost impossibly small slice of their former domain. India is the proud steward of these 300 or so lions, which live p
47、rimarily in a 560-square-mile (1,450-square-kilometer) sanctuary. It took me a year and a half to get a permit to explore the entire Gir Forestand no time at all to see why these lions became symbols of royalty and greatness. A tiger will slink through the forest unseen, but a lion stands its ground
48、, curious and unafraidlionhearted. Though they told me in subtle ways when I got too close, Girs lions allowed me unique glimpses into their lives during my three months in the forest. Its odd to think that they are threatened by extinction; Gir has as many lions as it can holdtoo many, in fact. With territory in short supply, lions prowl the periphery of the forest and even leave it altogether, often clashing with people. Thats one reason India is creating a second sanctuary. There are other pressing reasons: outbreaks of dise
