1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 176 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 Money in America Money is used to buy goods or services and【 1】 _ debts. 【 1】_ In America, money supply
3、consists of【 2】 _ (paper 【 2】_ money), coins, and demand deposits 【 3】 _. 【 3】_ In a modern credit economy, money must possess two most important attributes: acceptability and【 4】 _. It also 【 4】_ has two legal attributes: legal tender and【 5】 _ 【 5】_ Money performs four main functions: a. standard
4、of value; b.【 6】 _; 【 6】_ c. store of value; d. standard of deferred payment. There are three partially conflicting theories of value for explaining the 【 7】 _ in the value of American money, 【 7】 _ namely the commodity, quantity and income theories. Coins are credit money or【 8】 _ money whereas 【 8
5、】_ paper money consists of Federal Reserve notes. Demand deposits are supplied depending on a banks total【 9】 _ 【 9】_ reserves. The Federal Reserve, or Fed, as a central bank,【 10】 _ and 【 10】_ controls the nations money supply and credit. 1 【 1】 2 【 2】 3 【 3】 4 【 4】 5 【 5】 6 【 6】 7 【 7】 8 【 8】 9 【
6、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. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questi
7、ons. Now listen to the interview. 11 Diane Larsen-Freeman was a_ major when she was an undergraduate student. （ A） sociology （ B） psychology （ C） philosophy （ D） anthropology 12 Diane Larsen-Freeman advises new teachers to focus on_. （ A） the students （ B） class preparation （ C） class atmosphere （ D
8、） class interaction 13 Diane Larsen-Freeman refrains from saying that some teachers are doing wrong because_ （ A） she wants to sound polite （ B） she thinks language teaching is not a right-or-wrong matter （ C） she thinks they are doing their best （ D） she believes no teaching is perfect 14 Diane Lar
9、sen-Freeman is fond of using low-tech things in class for all the following reasons EXCEPT that_. （ A） she wants to be interactive （ B） they are convenient （ C） they help to focus the learners attention （ D） she is afraid of technology 15 Diane Larsen-Freemans sons consider _to be a privilege. （ A）
10、world travel （ B） education （ C） knowledge of the world （ D） service 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
11、. 16 There are new concerns about the _ of the U.S. economic expansion. （ A） duration （ B） momentum （ C） prospect （ D） future 17 In the past _ years, the economy has been growing owing to tax cuts and Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. （ A） 2 （ B） 3 （ C） 4 （ D） 5 18 There seems to be _ the consumer
12、 spending drops. （ A） general pessimism about （ B） some doubt about （ C） different interpretations of （ D） much optimism about 19 According to the report, the contest will last _ days. （ A） one （ B） two （ C） four （ D） six 20 The chief purpose of the contest is to _. （ A） make computer users aware of
13、 hacking （ B） train hacking experts （ C） enlighten people on how to prevent computer attacks （ D） display the harms of hacking 20 The first time I saw Stephen Leacock at close quarters he came swinging into a classroom in Moyse Hall, the serenely ugly old Arts Building of McGill University in Montre
14、al. The room was packed with undergraduates like me who had come with huge curiosity to listen to their first lecture on political science by a man whose humorous writing had rocked the English-speaking world with laughter, but who was a campus character for very different reasons. Leacock enjoyed a
15、 reputation for eccentricity and for an impish individualism that expressed itself in blunt speech on every subject. Naturally we looked him over carefully. What we saw was a shock of graying hair crowning a rugged face that wore a friendly smile, emphasized by crinkles of mirth about the eyes. I re
16、member thinking, “He could use a haircut.“ His necktie had slipped its moorings, and his tweedy suit looked slept-in. Across his vest his watch chain had come apart in the middle and had been put together with a safety pin, The effect was of a man who gave no thought to his appearance. But his manne
17、r was far too buoyant to suggest the absent-minded professor. His apparel was topped by one of those loose, black gowns professors wore in those days. Leacocks had been acquired about the time he received his Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1903. Even though the garment was showing signs of
18、 wear in 1914, it was still one of the essential properties of his play-acting. At least a dozen times during every lecture it would slip off his shoulders and seize him by the crook of his elbows. Without pause in the flow of talk and motionhe was a walking lecturera great shrug of the shoulders wo
19、uld hoist the gown part way into place. Leacock was tremendously proud of his Chicago Ph. D., but it was inescapably in character that he must spoof it. “The meaning of this degree,“ he quipped in a lecture, “is that the recipient has been examined for the last time in his life and pronounced full.
20、After this, no new ideas can be imparted to him.“ In similar vein, after returning from a holiday abroad he told his class, “I was sitting quietly in my cabin when a steward knocked and, after making sure I am called Doctor, asked if I would come and look at the stewardesss knee. I was off tike a sh
21、ot, but another fellow got there ahead of me. He was a Doctor of Divinity.“ What came through to me, even in the first lecture, was Leacoeks warmth and humanness. I knew I was listening to a man who loved young people and was determined to give them as much wisdom as he could. His teaching methods w
22、ere unconventional. He couldnt resist the temptation to explore bypaths. In discussing the days of Queen Victoria, he mentioned Disraeli, and this Set him off to talk about the man rather than the Prime Ministerhis way of living, his quick mind, his dilettantism, his great love affair with his wife.
23、 The digression lifted the great statesman into a framework of his own and, When Leacock returned to the main line of his subject, the listener understood, in a way no textbook could inform him, how such a man could bring off the coup which gave Britain control of the Suez Canal and made the Empire
24、impregnable for decades to come. 21 Stephen Leacock could be described as all the following EXCEPT _. （ A） careless about his appearance （ B） witty and eloquent （ C） an inspiring professor （ D） an absent-minded person 22 Leacocks account of being summoned to look at a stewardesss knee _. （ A） tells
25、us that he was always ready to help others （ B） indicates that he was an incompetent doctor （ C） reveals that he was very proud of his degree （ D） shows that he could be playful sometimes 23 Speaking of Disraeli, a conventional professor would probably have _. （ A） focused on his accomplishments as
26、a statesman （ B） talked about his family life （ C） explored the little-known aspects of the person （ D） looked at him from a fresh perspective 23 How to live to 100 A growing body of research suggests that chronic illness is not an inevitable consequence of aging, but more often the result of lifest
27、yle choices. “People used to say, who would want to be 100?“ says Dr. Thomas Perls, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and director of the New England Centenarian Study. “Now they re realizing it s an opportunity.“ High-tech medicine isnt likely to change the outlook dramatically; drugs and sur
28、gery can do only so much to sustain a body once it sr. arts to fail. But there is no question we can lengthen our lives while shortening our deaths. The tools already exist, and theyre within virtually everyones reach. Life expectancy in the United States has nearly doubled since a century agofrom 4
29、7 years to 76 years. And though centenarians are still rare, they now constitute the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. Their ranks have increased 16-fold over the past six decadesfrom 3,700 in 1940 to roughly 61,000 today. The Census Bureau projects that 1 in 9 baby boomers (9 million
30、of the 80 million people born between 1946 and 1964) will survive into their late 90s, and that1 in 26 (or 3 million) will reach 100. “A century ago, the odds of living that long were about one in 500,“ says Lynn Adler, founder of the National Centenarian Awareness Project and the author of “Centena
31、rians: The Bonus Years.“ “Thats how far weve come.“ If decrepitude were an inevitable part of aging, these burgeoning numbers would spell trouble. But the evidence suggests that Americans are living better, as well as longer. The disability rate among people older than 65 has fallen steadily since t
32、he early 1980s, according to Duke University demographer Kenneth Manton, and a shrinking percentage of seniors are plagued by hypertension, arteriosclerosis and dementia. Moreover, researchers have found that the oldest of the old often enjoy better health than people in their 70s. The 79 centenaria
33、ns in Perlss New England study have all lived independently through their early 90s, taking an average of just one medication. And when the time comes for these hearty souls to die, they dont linger. In a 1995 study, James Lubitz of the Health Care Financing Administration calculated that medical ex
34、penditures for the last two years of lifestatistically the most expensiveaverage 22,600 for people who die at 70, but just 8,300 for those who make it past 100. These insights have spawned a revolution in the science of aging. “Until recently, there was so much preoccupation with diseases that littl
35、e work was done on the characteristics that permit people to do well,“ says Dr. John Rowe, the New York geriatrician who heads the MacArthur Foundations Research Network on Successful Aging. Research confirms the old saying that it pays to choose your parents well. But the way we age depends less on
36、 who we are than on how we livewhat we eat, how much we exercise and how we employ our minds. 24 The author seems to suggest that _. （ A） the aged should not go to the nursing home （ B） we can lengthen our lives through high-tech medicine （ C） centenarians die faster than those who are younger （ D）
37、the ever-growing segment of centenarians has caused concern 25 As can be gathered from the passage, people past 100 can be described as the following EXCEPT _. （ A） many of them had lived independently until their early 90s （ B） they enjoy better health than people in their 70s （ C） their longevity
38、could be attributed to heredity （ D） their medical expenditures are surprisingly low 26 A century ago, how many lived to, or past 100, within a population of 5 million? （ A） 5,000,000. （ B） 10,000. （ C） 50,000. （ D） 1,000. 26 STRUGGLING TO END CRIME “YOUTHS Claim Boredom Is Main Cause of Juvenile Cr
39、ime, declared a headline in a leading British newspaper. “Home Strife Blamed for Rising Crime,“ said another. And a third stated: “Addictions Prompt Thousands of Crimes. “ The magazine Philippine Panorama estimated that 75 percent of all violent crimes in Manila were committed by drug abusers. Other
40、 factors may also contribute to sparking criminal behavior. “Poverty in juxtaposition to great wealth“ is one that was referred to by the Nigerian inspector-general of police. Peer pressure and poor job prospects, the absence of strong legal deterrents, the general breakdown in family values, the la
41、ck of respect for authority and law, and the excessive violence in films and videos are also cited. Another factor is that many people no longer believe that crime does not pay. A sociologist at Bologna University in Italy observed that over a period of many years, the number of thefts reported and
42、the number of persons convicted for them have followed opposite trends. ” He noted that “the number of convictions in proportion to the total number of reported thefts has plummeted from 50 to 0.7 percent. “ Sad but true are the words of The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Increasing crime appears to
43、 be a feature of all modern industrialized societies, and no developments in law, or penology can be shown to have had a significant impact on the problem . For modern urbanized society, in which economic growth and personal success are dominant values, there is no reason to suppose that crime rates
44、 will not continue to increase.“ IS THIS VIEW TOO NEGATIVE? Is the situation really all that bad? Do not some localities report crime, decreases? True, some do, but statistics can be misleading. For example, it was repotted that crime in the Philippines decreased by 20 percent after a gun ban was in
45、troduced. But Asiaweek explained that one official believes that car thieves and bank robbers had stopped stealing cars and robbing banks and had “switched to kidnapping.“ Fewer bank robberies and car thefts caused a drop in total cases of crime, but this decrease lost much of its significance in vi
46、ew of the fourfold increase in kidnappings ! Reporting on Hungary, the magazine BVG wrote: “Compared with the first half of 1993, crime figures are down by 6.2 percent. What the police forgot to mention.is that the decrease . is mainly due to administrative changes.“ The monetary level at which case
47、s of theft, fraud, or vandalism were previously registered was raised by 250 percent. So property crimes involving values below this level are no longer registered. Since crimes involving property account for three fourths of all crime in the country, the decrease was hardly genuine. Arriving at acc
48、urate crime figures is admittedly difficult. One reason is that many crimes perhaps up to 90 percent in certain categories go unreported. But arguing whether crime has decreased or increased is actually beside the point. People yearn for crime to be eliminated, not just reduced. 27 The number about reported thefts and convictions is used to illustrate that_. （ A） thefts have decreased considerably （ B） crime does not pay （ C） crime rate has risen （ D） legal deterrents are not strong 28 The author
