1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 263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 Going Underground Because of the【 1】 _ associations 【 1】 _ with the dark underground, living underground
3、in the future may not seem a good idea. But there are advantages to an underground living. First, the【 2】 _ would cease to be a 【 2】 _ trouble. There is no problem of keeping a 【 3】 _ temperature. So it can save much 【 3】 _ energy. We are also safe from the【 4】 _. 【 4】 _ caused by bad weather. Secon
4、d, there would be no【 5】 _ time. 【 5】 _ As the daylight is man-made, it could be【 6】 _. 【 6】 _ to meet our needs. Third, the【 7】 _ stability could be 【 7】 _ ensured. Human habitation damages the wild and【 8】 _. many species of their natural 【 8】 _ habitat. Moving underground would turn the Earths su
5、rface back to wilderness and greenery. Fourth, nature would be【 9】 _. 【 9】 _ Instead of a withdrawal from the natural world, living underground would make us easier to reach countryside than living above ground. The countryside is just a few hundred yards【 10】 _. 【 10】 _ the city. 1 【 1】 2 【 2】 3 【
6、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. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds t
7、o answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the interview. 11 Grammar school was for Students who _. （ A） were at the age of 16 （ B） failed the eleven plus exam （ C） did well in the eleven plus exam （ D） were not qualified for secondary school 12 Janet thinks that stopping dividing
8、children at the age of 11 _the old education system. （ A） does not greatly improve （ B） greatly improves （ C） does not improve （ D） is not as good as 13 One of the problems in English schools is that _. （ A） the schools are overcrowded （ B） the classrooms are not big enough （ C） there are too many s
9、tudents in a class （ D） the encouragement on students individualism is not enough 14 On the issue of adaptation to society, Janet thinks _. （ A） only the subjects that could be used in society are important for the students （ B） the subjects could be irrelevant so long as the students could enjoy th
10、em （ C） there should be more classes on social studies （ D） there should be no exams in subjects of social studies. 15 In Janets opinion, school education could be improved if the students could be encouraged _. （ A） to enjoy a subject for its own sake （ B） to be more competitive （ C） not to worry a
11、bout exams （ D） to study with a specific aim 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 How did Iraq react
12、to the American and British air raids? （ A） The public was indignant. （ B） The public was resigned. （ C） The president remained silent. （ D） The president decided to ask other countries for help. 17 Which of the following is NOT true? （ A） Two Iraqis were killed in the attacks. （ B） Twenty-four Amer
13、ican and British aircrafts were involved in the attacks. （ C） Some civilian areas near Russia were hit. （ D） Pentagon claimed that Iraqi air defenses had threatened the allied aircrafts. 18 Where were the American and British aircrafts targets? （ A） Their targets were near Pentagon. （ B） Their targe
14、ts were five miles away from Baghdad. （ C） Their targets were below the 32nd parallel. （ D） Their targets were near the parallel where Iraqi civilians are not allowed to go. 19 What did he and his wife do in the 1960s and 70s? （ A） They danced in a group. （ B） They played instruments together. （ C）
15、They sang rock-and-roll together. （ D） They sang folk song together. 20 At what age did he die? （ A） 62. （ B） 52. （ C） 42. （ D） 32. 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 M
16、ontreal. 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 enjo
17、yed a 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.
18、 I remember 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
19、manner 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 sig
20、ns of 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 motion he was a walking lecturer a great shrug of the shoul
21、ders would 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
22、 full. 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 li
23、ke a shot, 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 Leacocks 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 me
24、thods were 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 Minister his way of living, his quick mind, his dilettantism, his great love affair with h
25、is wife. 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
26、 Empire impregnable for decades to come. 21 The student were eager to see Leacock because he was _. （ A） an eccentric character （ B） an unconventional teacher （ C） a renowned political scientist （ D） all of the above 22 Stephen Leacock could be described as all of the following EXCEPT _. （ A） carele
27、ss about his appearance （ B） witty and eloquent （ C） an inspiring professor （ D） an absent-minded person 23 Leacocks account of being summoned to look at a stewardesss knee _. （ A） tells us that he was always ready to help others （ B） indicates that he was an incompetent doctor （ C） reveals that he
28、was very proud of his degree （ D） shows that he could be playful sometimes 24 Speaking of Disraeli, a conventional professor would probably have _. （ A） focused on his accomplishments as a statesman （ B） talked about his family life （ C） explored the little-known aspects of the person （ D） looked at
29、 him from a fresh perspective 24 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 lifestyle choices. “People used to say, who would want to be 1007TM says Dr. Thomas Peris, an instructor at Harvard Med
30、ical School and director of the New England Centenarian Study. “Now theyre realizing its an opportunity.“ High-tech medicine isnt likely to change the outlook dramatically; drugs and surgery can do only so much to sustain a body once it starts to fail. But there is no question we can lengthen our li
31、ves 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 ago from 47 years to 76 years. And though centenarians are still rare, they now constitute the fastest-growing segment of the
32、 U.S. population. Their ranks have increased 16-fold over the past six decades from 3,700 in 1940 to roughly 61,000 today. The Census Bureau projects that 1 in 9 baby boomers (9 million of the 80 million people born between 1946 and 1964) will survive into their late 90s, and that 1 in 26 (or 3 mill
33、ion) 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 “Centenarians: The Bonus Years.“ “thats how far weve come.“ If decrepitude were an inevitable part of aging, these burgeo
34、ning 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 the early 1980s, according to Duke University demographer Kenneth Manton, and a shrinking percentage of seniors ar
35、e 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 centenarians in Perlss New England study have all lived independently through their early 90s, taking an average of just on
36、e 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 expenditures for the last two years of life statistically the most expensive average 22, 600 for people who die at
37、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 little work was done on the characteristics that permit people to do well.“ says Dr. John Rowe, the New York geriat
38、rician 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 who we are than on how we live what we eat, how much we exercise and how we employ our minds. 25 The author s
39、eems 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 arc younger （ D） the ever-growing segment of centenarians has caused concern 26 People past 100 can be described as all of the
40、 following EXCEPT that _. （ A） many of them had lived independently until their early 90s （ B） they enjoy better health than people in their 70s （ C） their longevity could be attributed to heredity （ D） their medical expenditures are surprisingly low 27 A century ago, how many lived to, or past 100,
41、 within a population of 5 million? （ A） 5,000,000. （ B） 10,000. （ C） 50,000. （ D） 1,000. 27 Last years economy should have won the Oscar for best picture. Growth in gross domestic product was 4.1 percent; profits soared; exports flourished; and inflation stayed around 3 percent for the third year. S
42、o why did so many Americans give the picture a lousy B rating? The answer is jobs. The macroeconomic situation was good, but the microeconomic numbers were not. Yes, 3 million new jobs were there, but not enough of them were permanent, good jobs paying enough to support a family. Job insecurity was
43、rampant. Even as they announced higher sales and profits, corporations acted as if they were in a tailspin, cutting 516,069 jobs in 1994 alone, almost as many as in the recession year of 1991. Yes, unemployment went down. But over 1 million workers were so discouraged they left the labor force. More
44、 than 6 million who wanted fun-time work were only partially employed; and another large group was either overqualified or sheltered behind the euphemism of self-employment. We lost a million good manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 1995, continuing the trend that has reduced the blue-collar work fo
45、rce from about 30 percent in the 1950s to about half that today. White-collar workers found out they were no longer immune. For the first time, they were let go in numbers virtually equal to those for blue-collar workers. Many resorted to temporary work with lower pay, fewer benefits and less status
46、. All this in a country where people meeting for the first time say, “What do you do?“ Then there is the matter of remuneration. Whatever happened to wage gains four years into a recovery? The Labor Department recently reported that real wages fell 2.3 percent in the 12-month period ending this Marc
47、h. Since 1973, wages adjusted for inflation have declined by about a quarter for high school dropouts, by a sixth for high school graduates and by about 7 percent for those with some college education. Only the wages of college graduates are up, by 5 percent, and recently starting salaries, even for
48、 this group, have not kept up with inflation. While the top 5 percent of the population was setting new income records almost every year, poverty rates rose from 11 percent to 15 percent. No wonder this is beginning to be called the Silent Depression. What is going on here? In previous business cycl
49、es, companies with rising productivity raised wages to keep labor. Is the historical link between productivity improvements and income growth severed? Of all the reasons given for the wage squeeze international competition, technology, deregulation, the decline of unions and defense cuts technology is probably the
