1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 244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 National Parks In American【 1】 , priority is given to the amusement of the public. But for the National P
3、arks, the priority is【 2】 The first national park called Yellowstone was founded in Wyoming in【 3】 . Every year, 2.5 million people visit this park. American national parks are kept【 4】 No tree-felling is allowed. Sometimes, even natural forest【 5】 are allowed to burn themselves out. American nation
4、al parks are run by the【 6】 , who are not only conservationists, but also guides. They answer visitors questions on the plants, animals and【 7】 of the parks. They are also trained policemen. They must be ready to handle【 8】 of all kinds. In the mountains and forests of the northwestern states, there
5、 is a most ferocious carnivore in the world-【 9】 . But this kind of carnivore is now protected. If a policeman in the park has to shoot one in the case of danger, they use【 10】 instead of bullets. 1 【 1】 2 【 2】 3 【 3】 4 【 4】 5 【 5】 6 【 6】 7 【 7】 8 【 8】 9 【 9】 10 【 10】 SECTION B INTERVIEW Directions:
6、 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 questions. Now listen to the interview. 11 Why do
7、es Chris enjoy driving a taxi? （ A） Because he can do something which helps people. （ B） Because he is able to decide exactly what he does. （ C） Because he can travel to different parts of the city. （ D） Because he can earn a lot of money. 12 What does he need to do as a taxi driver? （ A） To give tr
8、avel information to passengers. （ B） To know his way around the city very well. （ C） To spend a lot of time waiting at stations. （ D） To predict where he will find work. 13 What does he find about most of his passengers? （ A） They are happy to chat to him. （ B） They only give one-word answers. （ C）
9、They have interesting stories to tell. （ D） They dislike taxi drivers. 14 According to Chris, when do some people get annoyed? （ A） They have a long wait for the taxi. （ B） The taxi fare is high. （ C） The driver talks too much. （ D） The journey takes longer than usual. 15 Why does he feel he is well
10、-suited to his job? （ A） Because he grew up wanting to be a taxi driver. （ B） Because he likes being friendly for short periods. （ C） Because he was once a shop assistant. （ D） Because he enjoys driving long distances. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONC
11、E 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 Which of the following words can best describe this years celebration? （ A） Extravagant. （ B） Formal. （ C） Dull. （ D） Toned-down. 17 Which of the
12、 following categories was voted online? （ A） Favorite motion picture actress. （ B） Favorite new TV series. （ C） Favorite comedy drama. （ D） Favorite new drama. 18 Faith Hill was _. （ A） a named favorite musician （ B） the favorite motion picture actor （ C） the favorite dramatic actor （ D） the favorit
13、e comic actor 19 Where was the prison located? （ A） In the southern state of Tumailimo. （ B） In the mining town of Tumailimo. （ C） In the jungles southeast of Caracas. （ D） To kilometers southeast of Caracas. 20 According to the news, which of the following is TRUE? （ A） The injured people have been
14、 taken to the prison hospital for medical treatment. （ B） The clash broke out when the prisoners were eating breakfast. （ C） The riot was caused by rivalry between inmates and police. （ D） Dozens of people have been killed or wounded in the riot. 20 It was the English scientist-philosopher Francis B
15、acon who said, “Knowledge itself is power. “This is an important dictum, but it has never been so true as today, with the advent of the Information Age. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a countrys comparative advantage depended largely on the natural resources it was endowed by Nature.
16、 People had to learn rudimentary skills when they joined manufacturing industries. They were called blue-collar workers, and they formed the majority, directed by a minority of managers. After World War II, the invention and increasing use of the microchip brought about great changes in the structur
17、e of mans social production. While the primary industry (agriculture) and the secondary industry (manufacturing) remain to be important, there have been rapid advances in the tertiary industry (services). And there is now talk of a fourth industry, the information industry. In the industrialized wor
18、ld, that is, in the US, Europe and Japan, about two thirds of jobs are now in the service sector, and the number is on the rise. Of course, there are roughly two different groups of job-holders in the service sector itself. The jobs in the first group, such as retail sales, food services, trucking a
19、nd janitorial services, which are unskilled occupations, are low-wage, while in the second group are high-paid investment banker, computer programmers, high technicians, etc. , who are able to solve complicated problems by applying information. And the second group of service job-holders represent t
20、he future in economic development. It is argued that in future people should no longer be classified as white collar or blue collar, but rather as knowledge workers and non-knowledge workers. The knowledge workers cannot only read and write and perform rote tasks, they must meet the basic requiremen
21、t of computer literacy and constantly think up new ways to meet the changing demands of increasing productivity. More and more people are learning to be competent in using personal computers, digital communications and factory robots. Breakthroughs in bio-engineering, artificial intelligence, new ma
22、terials, and still unimagined fields of technology and management will greatly advance productivity. It is people with the most advanced knowledge who will take the lead. Systems analysts, computer scientists and programmers, management analysts and inventors and developers are in most demand in the
23、 industrialized countries. In manufacturing itself, for example, there is a move away from standardized production and toward more flexible, customized manufacturing. Hence the growth of a large number of small factories, which are owned by a few multi-skilled and ever-retrained worker-engineer-mana
24、gers, and equipped with precision, reset table machines working special materials like stainless steel and titanium. They are able to produce new-designed precision turned parts at the bidding of customers, often bigger factories, and their managers work with their hands and brains at the same time.
25、 The only way to greater knowledge is through education and training. Knowledge, as much as capital, material resources and sweat, has become an essential factor of production. The educational system of a society ought to enable its members to make a rapid transition to the above-described knowledge
26、-based work. Otherwise, that society will inevitably lag behind. It has been the way of developed countries to automate out of existence low-productivity factories and jobs; or transfer them to a country where costs are lower. In other words, the developed countries have been trying to keep higher w
27、age jobs, while moving lower wage jobs to the developing countries. However, in the great worldwide movement to the Information Age, if a developed country should fail to bring up-to date its system of education and training, it may not be able to continue growing richer. So now we come to understan
28、d Bacons dictum better. Knowledge itself is power. The challenge facing every country is to resuscitate its investment and training. If the intellectual capacity is not there, the investments wont come. And the raw materials of the new economy-information and knowledge-will be of a nations own makin
29、g. 21 A trend in the secondary industry is that_. （ A） there will be no more large factories （ B） mass-manufacturing will be shifted into tailored manufacturing （ C） there will be no differences among workers, engineers and managers （ D） standardized production will become under-standardized product
30、ion 22 Which of the following is a common practice in such developed countries as the US? （ A） Substituting the tertiary industry for the secondary industry. （ B） Electing people with the most advanced knowledge as their leader. （ C） Replacing the first group of service job-holders by the second gro
31、up. （ D） Keeping knowledge-intensive jobs while moving labour-intensive ones to the developing countries. 23 According to the passage, in the Information Age, a nation will develop faster than the others if it has （ A） an abundance of natural resources （ B） a highly-developed service industry （ C） a
32、 better-adjusted educational system （ D） many higher wage jobs 24 A conclusion can be drawn from the passage that_. （ A） a nation should rely on itself to boost the new economy （ B） developing countries need investment to boost the new economy （ C） developed countries will always take advantage of t
33、he developing ones （ D） natural resources will no longer be needed as raw materials in the new economy 24 There are two types of risk related to investment. The obvious risk is that the company you invest in will fold and you will lose everything. The other type of risk is how much the value of your
34、 investment can change. Some investments swing wildly: one month they are worth four times what you put in, the next month they are worth only one quarter of the money you put in. If you have to take your money out at the wrong time, you lose lots. Low-risk investments Classic low-risk investments a
35、re government stocks and bank deposits. The institutions arent likely to go out of existence. And the investments are “capital guaranteed“, meaning your balance can never drop below the amount you put in. But even these classic low-risk investments carry the risk that interest rates will rise and yo
36、u will be stuck with your money tied up at the lower interest rates at which you first invested. And not every fixed-interest investments is with a rock-solid organization. Some providers may offer capital “guaranteed“ products where in fact no third party is guaranteeing the continuing financial vi
37、ability of the provider of the product. The warning is that investors must check that the guarantee and the person or institution offering the guarantee are both good and strong. Any guarantee is only as good as those offering it. High-risk investments The classic high-risk investment is in shares i
38、n a small company which is perhaps newly listed on the stock exchange. Such a small company could quite easily collapse. On the other hand, the share price might soar. If an investor wants to up the ante, they borrow money to buy the shares. Through whats known as leverage or gearing, investors hope
39、 to make a huge return not only on their own money, but also on someone elses. If the company collapses, they not only lose their investment, but must also repay their debt. Numerous studies have shown that, on average, high-risk investors make more than low-risk ones. Over time, the stock market re
40、wards them for sticking their necks out, and sometimes getting them chopped off. Even during the 1980s, the decade of the stock market crash, one study shows that over the whole of the ten years shares outperformed lower-risk fixed interest and property investments. This brings us to the first basic
41、 rule relating to risk: high risk equals high return. If you want to maximize your savings, take some risk with at least some of your money. Keep in mind, though, the second rule relating to risk., diversify your investment. This is partly so you wont be hurt too badly if one company falls over. In
42、short, youre mad not to spread your money around. All the big financial institutions do, This means dividing it among: different types of investments-some in shares, some in property, some in bonds and so on; different investments within each group-shares in lots of different companies, several prop
43、erties, a variety of fixed-interest investments different countries-not only China, the US or Japan but in Europe or South-East Asia. If its all starting to sound impossible for one person to manage, it probably is. Fortunately several investment products are designed to diversifying for you. For ex
44、ample, one unit trust can hold a much wider range of local and overseas investments than an individual could dream of. Take care, though. Putting all you money in just one diversified unit trust still exposes you to the risk that the trust will be badly damaged. Perhaps using two or three trusts or
45、other diversified investments would be the answer. 25 As far as guarantee is concerned, in low-risk investments,_. （ A） there is no real guarantee （ B） only rock-solid organisations can offer a guarantee （ C） one needs a third party to offer a guarantee （ D） one is guaranteed to profit 26 If you wan
46、t to have a high return, you will_. （ A） avoid any risk investment （ B） try low-risk investments only and avoid high-risk ones （ C） try high-risk investments only and avoid low-risk ones （ D） try both high-risk investments and low-risk ones 27 Which of the following idioms may be used by the author
47、as a suggestion for minimizing risks? （ A） More haste, less speed. （ B） Dont put all your eggs into one basket. （ C） Dont count your chickens before they are hatched. （ D） Look before you leap. 27 The digital age may only just have dawned, but last night a group of eminent institutions issued a warn
48、ing that large swaths of digital heritage risk being lost forever without urgent action to preserve them. While the average website or e-mail would hardly qualify to be described as vital cultural artifacts, electronic information and communications are now so vital to every aspect of daily life tha
49、t future generations could find an enormous “black hole in peoples collective memory“ if important digital material is allowed to disappear, according to the Digital Preservation Coalition: At risk. is everything from government records, which would previously have been published on paper but which now exist only in electronic form, to scientific data, computer games and personal websites, representatives of the coalition-made up of 17 British libraries, museums, archiving organisations and academic bodies-hold a meeting
