1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 299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 Audience Audience is a very important concept for writing. The audience influences the content, structure
3、, style, etc of your writing. You need to analyze your audience in terms of 1. Your social relations Through writing, you are making social 【 1】 _ with other members of the society. 【 1】 _ 2. Their 【 2】 _of your subject 【 2】 _ This analysis is particularly valuable in【 3】 【 3】 _ _writing. 3. Their 【
4、 4】 _ to the subject and your 【 4】 _ position in the writing This analysis is extremely important in 【 5】 _ 【 5】 _ writing. 1)To those who agree, 【 6】 _ the importance 【 6】 _ of your position; 2 )To those who are neutral or undecided, address their 【 7】 _ as directly and fully as possible; 【 7】 _ 3)
5、To whose who disagree, try to find out why they disagree. There may be two reasons for their disagreement: lack of information personal, poetical, or 【 8】 _reasons 【 8】 _ For the former, give them relevant information as 【 9】 _as possible. 【 9】 _ For the latter, you need to show your 【 10】 _ 【 10】 _
6、 of them and address them accordingly. 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. A
7、t 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 What subject is Mr. Pitt good at? （ A） Art. （ B） French. （ C） German. （ D） Chemistry. 12 What does Mr. Pitt NOT do in his spare time? （ A） Doing a bit of acting and
8、 photography. （ B） Going to concerts frequently. （ C） Playing traditional jazz and folk music. （ D） Travelling in Europe by hitch-hiking. 13 When asked what a managers role is, Mr. Pitt sounds _. （ A） confident （ B） hesitant （ C） resolute （ D） doubtful 14 What does Mr. Pitt say he would like to be?
9、（ A） An export salesman working overseas. （ B） An accountant working in the company. （ C） A production manager in a branch. （ D） A policy maker in the company. 15 Which of the following statements about the management trainee scheme is TRUE? （ A） Trainees are required to sign contracts initially. （
10、B） Trainees performance is evaluate.d when necessary. （ C） Trainees starting salary is 870 pounds. （ D） Trainees cannot quit the management scheme. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At
11、the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. 16 What percentage of Likud voted against the Prime Ministers plan? （ A） About 60 percent. （ B） About 40 percent. （ C） About 64 percent. （ D） 75 percent. 17 How many Likud members took part in the referendum regarding A
12、riel Sharons unilateral disengagement plan? （ A） 120,000. （ B） 80,000. （ C） 100,000. （ D） 28,000. 18 What took place on Sunday? （ A） Sharon declared that he would resign. （ B） An Israeli woman and her daughters were killed by Palestinian gunmen （ C） Some Likud members refused to cast ballots because
13、 of the killing （ D） Sharon said that he would hold the referendum again despite his failure. 19 Whats Kofi Annans attitude towards the criticism of U. N. s role in the Iraq oil-for-food program? （ A） Angry. （ B） Apologetic. （ C） Surprised. （ D） Indifferent. 20 There is an allegation that_. （ A） Koj
14、o Annan benefited illegally from oil-for-food program （ B） Kofi Annan was involved in some illegal activities in oil-for-food program （ C） U. N. was not active in the oil-for-food program （ D） U. N. did not monitor effectively what was imported into Iraq under the program 20 Researchers investigatin
15、g brain size and mental ability say their work offers evidence that education protects the mind from the brains physical deterioration. It is known that the brain shrinks as the body ages, but the effects on mental ability are different from person to person. Interestingly, in a study of elderly men
16、 and women, those who had more education actually had more brain shrinkage. “That may seem like bad news,“ said study author Dr. Edward Coffey, a professor of psychiatry and of neurology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. However, he explained, the finding suggests that education allows people
17、to withstand more brain-tissue loss before their mental functioning begins to break down The study, published in the July issue of Neurology, is the first to provide biological evidence to support a concept called the “reserve“ hypothesis, according to the researchers. In recent years, investigators
18、 have developed the idea that people who are more educated have greater cognitive reserves to draw upon as the brain tissue to spare. Examining brain scans of 320 healthy men and women ages 66 to 90, researchers found that for each year of education the subjects had, there was greater shrinkage of t
19、he outer layer of the brain known as the cortex. Yet on tests of cognition and memory, all participants scored in the range indicating normal. “Everyone has some degree of brain shrinkage,“ Coffey said. “People lose (on average) 2.5 percent per decade starting at adulthood.“ There is, however, a “re
20、markable range“ of shrinkage among people who show no signs no mental decline, Coffey noted. Overall health, he said, accounts for some differences in brain size. Alcohol or drug use, as well as medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, contribute to brain-tissue loss throughout a
21、dulthood. In the absence of such medical conditions, Coffey said, education level helps explain the range of brain shrinkage exhibited among the mentally-fit elderly. The more-educated can withstand greater loss. Coffey and colleagues gauged shrinkage of the cortex by measuring the cerehrospinal flu
22、id surrounding the brain. The greater the amount of fluid, the greater the cortical shrinkage. Controlling for the health factors that contribute to brain injury, the researchers found that education was related to the severity of brain shrinkage. For each year of education from first grade on, subj
23、ects had an average of 1.77 milliliters more cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. For example, Coffeys team reported, among subjects of the same sex and similar age and skull size, those with 16 years of education had 8 percent to 10 percent more cerebrospinal fluid compared with those who had four
24、 years of schooling. Of course, achieving a particular education level is not the definitive measure of someones mental capacity. And, said Coffey, education can be “a proxy for many things“. More-educated people, he noted, are often less likely to have habits, such as smoking, that harm overall hea
25、lth. But Coffey said that his teams findings suggest that like the body, the brain benefits from exercise. “The question is whether by continuing to exercise the brain we can forestall the effects of (brain shrinkage),“ he said. “My hunch is that we can.“ According to Coffey, people should strive th
26、roughout life to keep their brains alert by exposing them- selves to new experiences. Travelling is one way to stimulate the brain, he said; a less adventuresome way is to do crossword puzzles. “A hot topic down the road,“ Coffey said, will be whether education even late in life has a protective eff
27、ect against mental decline. Just how education might affect brain cells is unknown. In their report, the researchers speculated that in people with more education, certain brain structures deeper than the cortex may stay intact to compensate for cortical shrinkage. 21 According to this passage, all
28、of the following factors could account for brain shrinkage except _. （ A） age （ B） education （ C） health （ D） exercise 22 Which of the following statements is true? （ A） The brain of an adult person shrinks 2.5% every 10 years. （ B） The cerebrospinal fluid of a person with 8 years of education may h
29、ave increased 17.7 milliliters. （ C） The cerebrospinal fluid of a person with 16 years of education may increase by 10%. （ D） The brain of an aged person shrinks 5% every 10 years. 23 According to Coffeys research, the brain may benefit from_. （ A） running （ B） playing chess （ C） swimming （ D） playi
30、ng football 24 From this passage, we can conclude that_. （ A） education is beneficial to mental development （ B） education protects the braid from shrinking （ C） education has a protective effect against mental decline （ D） education affects overall brain structures 24 Children in the UK are not rea
31、ding enough at home, favouring television and computer games instead, according to new research. The survey conducted earlier this month by Nesfl6 Box Tops for Books, which asked parents about their childrens reading habits, found that half of UK children spend less than two hours reading per week.
32、A further one in 10 had not read a book in the past month, and of those who do read regularly, one in four avoid non-fiction titles. More than half of the parents surveyed believed their children should read more non-fiction books. “It is essential that young children read at least one book a week a
33、nd, in particular, educational books,“ said family counsellor Jenni Trent Hughes. But others believe such a stern approach to reading may not help children. “We can turn children off it by simply saying its something they must be doing,“ said Amelia Foster, who runs Reading Connects for the National
34、 Literacy Trust, an organisation that encourages reading for pleasure to enhance classroom achievement. Ms Foster said the survey results might not give children enough credit. Previous studies have found that 75% of 11 to 18-year-olds enjoyed reading, and 83% read in their spare time. Past reading
35、surveys have found distinct differences in the reading habits of boys and girls. Girls tend to be more enthusiastic about reading in general, but particularly fiction (perhaps helping to explain why Jaequeline Wilson, author of Sleepovers and Bad Girls, is the most borrowed author from public librar
36、ies), while boys are drawn to books about a place, subject, or hobby that interests them. Nicola Davies, author of Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable, said while working with underachieving boys she found they responded to non-fiction better than fiction. “You can get them to write poetry b
37、ut they won t read it,“ she said. Ms Davies would like to see childrens non-fiction take off in the way adult non-fiction has in recent years, thanks largely to rifles like Longitude that employ strong narratives. This may encourage boys to read more, she said. “Theres a lot of really crap non-ficti
38、on out there. Its absolute paint by numbers, pile them high, and sell them cheap. But its not really addressing the issue. Non-fiction as it is cutting off a whole route into reading, especially for boys,“ added Ms Davies. But the consequences of these trends may run deeper. Some worry that steering
39、 clear of non-fiction may effect the development of a childs imagination, even going so far as to impact their future career choices. Nicola Jones credits her choice of studying zoology at university to her childhood Encyclopedia Britannica. “There was this fantastic bit in the back on transparencie
40、s of human bodies, and it absolutely fired my imagination about the workings of the human body. Childrens imagination needs all sorts of fuel. And thats whats going to drive them, give them intrinsic motivation. Its what makes your intellectual cars go.“ For this reason Ms Jones is planning a confer
41、ence next year that will address how non-fiction can be transformed into something more children will want to read. 25 Which of the following belongs to non-fiction? （ A） Encyclopedia. （ B） Novel. （ C） Poetry. （ D） Short story. 26 Whats the difference between girls and boys in their reading habits?
42、（ A） Girls read extensively while boys focus on books of particular topics. （ B） Girls have better reading habits than boys. （ C） Girls are reading for enriching knowledge while boys are reading for fun. （ D） Girls are more interested in fiction than boys. 27 What does Ms. Davies mean by saying “Non
43、-fiction as it is cutting off a whole route into reading, especiaily for boys.“? （ A） Young people, especially boys cant easily get access to good books of non-fiction. （ B） A lot of good non-fiction books are coming out into the market. （ C） Such kind of non-fiction are eroding into the reading hab
44、its of young people especially boys. （ D） Non-fiction books have been isolated from our reading experience. 28 Whats the aim of Nicola Jones by quoting her personal experience in the last paragraph? （ A） She emphasized the importance of imagination for children. （ B） She wants to prove that reading
45、Encyclopedia is important for children. （ C） She wants to tell people how to stimulate childrens motivation. （ D） She proves that non-fiction can also fire the imagination of children. 29 Which of the following statements is true according to this passage? （ A） Most of the parents under survey think
46、 children should read more non-fiction than fiction. （ B） National Literacy Trust encourages children to treat reading as a labor of love. （ C） The stares-quo of books of non-fiction in the market is satisfying. （ D） Non-fiction contributes more than fiction to the development of childrens intellect
47、. 29 Since about 1950, public transportation in the U.S. has had to struggle to survive. The growth of private automobile ownership, the change in cities with accelerated urban sprawl, and the immense highway construction program have added to transit problems. Moreover, changes in life-style have c
48、ontributed to reduced transit use, which has resulted in lower revenues from fares at a time when costs for operations have increased greatly. As private transit systems were taken over by local government and the cost of operations continued to increase, pressure was exerted for federal participati
49、on in urban public transportation. The 1964 Urban Mass Transportation Act established this commitment. The legislation limited federal assistance to g0 percent of the capital expenditure for buses, rail cars, and fixed facilities. In 1974 the federal government added operating assistance to its program. Because passenger fares account for only about one-third of the average syste
