1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 360及答案与解析 0 Considering how jazz is transcribed in Chinese (jueshi) , you may be misled into assuming that it is an aristocratic cultural form. Nothing could be further from the truth. It originated among black Americans at the end of the 19th century, at a time when they occupied the ver
2、y bottom of the American social heap. So how has something that was created by a once downtrodden and despised minority acquired a central place in todays American culture? Mr. Darrell A. Jenks, director of the American Center for Educational Exchange, and also a drummer in the jazz band Window, ana
3、lyses the phenomenon for us here. Perhaps the essence of America is that you could never get two Americans to agree on just what that might be. After thinking about it for a while, we might chuckle and say, “Hmm, seems like being American is a bit more complicated than we thought. “ Certainly things
4、 like individualism, success (the “American Dream“), innovation and tolerance stand out. But these things come together because of our ability to work with one another and find common purpose no matter how diverse we might be. Some, like African-American writer Ralph Ellison, believe that jazz captu
5、res the essence of America. For good reason, for in jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned above come together. The solos are a celebration of individual brilliance that cant take place without the group efforts of the rhythm section. Beyond that, though, jazz has a connection to the essence of
6、 America in a much more fundamental way. It is an expression of the African roots of American culture, a musical medium that exemplifies the culture of the Africans whose culture came to dominate much of what is American. Thats right, in many respects Americas roots are in Africa. Read Ralph Ellison
7、s perceptive description of the transformation of separate African and European cultures at the hands of the slaves: “the dancing of those slaves who, looking through the windows of a plantation manor house from the yard, imitated the steps so gravely performed by the masters within and then added t
8、o them their own special flair, burlesquing the white folks and then going on to force the steps into a choreography uniquely their own. The whites, looking out at the activity in the yard, thought that they were being flattered by imitation and were amused by the incongruity of tattered blacks danc
9、ing courtly steps, while missing completely the fact that before their eyes a European cultural form was becoming Americanized, undergoing a metamorphosis through the mocking activity of a people partially sprung from Africa. “ (Ralph Ellison, Living with Music, pp 83-84). Jazz brought together elem
10、ents from Africa and Europe, fusing them into a new culture, an expression unique to the Americans. Out of this fusion came an idea that we Americans believe central to our identity: tolerance. Both cultures represented in Ellisons passage eventually came to realize each others value. Americans ackn
11、owledge that in diversity is our strength. We learn every day that other cultures and peoples may make valuable contributions to our way of life. Jazz music is the embodiment of this ideal, combining elements from African and European cultures into a distinctly American music. Jazz reflects two cont
12、radictory facets of American life. On the one hand it is a team effort, where every musician is completely immersed in what the group does together, listening to each of the other players and building on their contributions to create a musical whole. On the other hand, the band features a soloist wh
13、o is an individual at the extreme, a genius like Charlie Parker who explores musical territory where no one has ever gone before. In the same sense, American life is also a combination of teamwork and individualism, a combination of individual brilliance with the ability to work with others. We hope
14、 that many Chinese friends can bring their own unique contributions to our music, adding their own culture to our American heritage. As Ralph Ellison said of the US, “We have the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and we have jazz. “ 1 Which of the following words in Paragraph 1 CANNOT serve to indic
15、ate the statement “Nothing could be further from the truth. “? （ A） aristocratic （ B） bottom （ C） misled （ D） heap 2 What does the first sentence of Paragraph 3 imply? （ A） Americans could hardly agree with each other. （ B） Its hard to define what is the essence of America. （ C） Never have two Ameri
16、cans agree on what is the essence of America. （ D） The essence of America might be the diversity of ideas. 3 Why do the black people imitate the dancing steps of their masters? （ A） To mock their masters. （ B） To show their respect. （ C） To learn new dance steps. （ D） To fit into a new culture. 4 Wh
17、ats the function of citing Ralph Ellisons description of the slaves dancing? （ A） To illustrate the transformation of African and European cultures. （ B） To illustrate how a strong culture conquers an underprivileged culture. （ C） To illustrate the formation of American culture. （ D） To illustrate t
18、he formation of Jazz music. 5 What characteristic in Americans is revealed in Ellisons passage? （ A） Tolerance. （ B） Individualism. （ C） The American dream. （ D） Innovation. 5 Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals. It seems un
19、likely that these animals could have detected seismic “pre-shocks“ that were missed by the sensitive vibration-detecting equipment that clutters the worlds earthquake laboratories. But it is possible. And the fact that many animal species behave strangely before other natural events such as storms,
20、and that they have the ability to detect others of their species at distances which the familiar human senses could not manage， is well established. Such observations have led some to suggest that these animals have a kind of extra-sensory perception. What is more likely, though, is that they have a
21、n extra sensea form of perception that people lack. The best guess is that they can feel and understand vibrations that are transmitted through the ground. Almost all the research done into animal signalling has been on sight, hearing and smell, because these are senses that people possess. Humans h
22、ave no sense organs designed specifically to detect terrestrial vibrations. But, according to researchers who have been meeting in Chicago at a symposium of the society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, this anthropocentric approach has meant that interactions via vibrations of the ground (a
23、means of communication known as seismic signalling) have been almost entirely over-looked. These researchers believe that such signals are far more common than biologists had realizedand that they could explain a lot of otherwise inexplicable features of animal behaviour. Until recently, the only la
24、rge mammal known to produce seismic signals was the elephant seal, a species whose notoriously aggressive bulls slug it out on beaches around the world for possession of harems of females. But Caitlin OConnell-Rodwell of Stanford University, who is one of the speakers at the symposium, suspects that
25、 a number of large terrestrial mammals, including rhinos, lions and elephants also use vibration as a means of communication. At any rate they produce loucf noises that are transmitted through both the ground and the airand that can travel farther in the first than in the second. Elephants, accordin
26、g to Dr. OConnell-Rodwell, can transmit signals through the ground this way for distances of as much as 50km when they trumpet, make mock charges or stomp their feet. A seismic sense could help to explain certain types of elephant behaviour. One is an apparent ability to detect thunderstorms well be
27、yond the range that the sound of a storm can carry. Another is the foot-lifting that many elephants display prior to the arrival of another herd. Rather than scanning the horizon with their ears, elephants tend to freeze their posture and raise and lower a single foot. This probably helps them to wo
28、rk out from which direction the vibrations are travelingrather as a person might stick a finger first in one ear and then in the other to work out the direction that a sound is coming from. In the past decade, many insects, spiders, scorpions, amphibians, reptiles and rodents, as well as large mamma
29、ls, have been shown to use vibrations for purposes as diverse as territorial defense, mate location and prey detection. Lions, for example, have vibration detectors in their paws and probably use them in the same way as scorpions use their vibration detectorsto locate meals. Dr. Hill herself spent y
30、ears trying to work out how prairie mole crickets, a highly territorial species of burrowing insect, manage to space themselves out underground. After many failed attempts to provoke a reaction by playing recordings of cricket song to them, she realized that they were actually more interested in her
31、 own footfalls than in the airborne music of their fellow crickets. This suggests that it is the seismic component of the song that the insects are picking up and using to distribute themselves. Whether any of this really has implications for such things as earthquake prediction is, of course, highl
32、y speculative. But it is a salutary reminder that the limitations of human senses can cause even competent scientists to overlook obvious lines of enquiry. Absence of evidence, it should always be remembered, is not evidence of absence. 6 What is the basic difference between animals and men in perce
33、ption? （ A） Animals can detect seismic “pre-shocks“. （ B） Animals can detect storms before they take place. （ C） Animals can sense others of their species at distances. （ D） Animals can sense vibrations transmitted through the ground. 7 Which of the following mammals is sure to use vibration as a me
34、ans of communication? （ A） Elephant seal. （ B） Elephant. （ C） Rhino. （ D） Lion. 8 Why does an elephant raise and lower a single foot before another herd arrives? （ A） To detect the direction of the sound. （ B） To detect the direction of the vibrations. （ C） To hear more clearly. （ D） To better sense
35、 the vibration. 9 Vibration is used to serve all of the following purposes EXCEPT_. （ A） to detect changes in the environment （ B） to find their partners （ C） to locate their preys （ D） to protect themselves 10 What conclusion can be drawn from the passage? （ A） Earthquake prediction is highly possi
36、ble. （ B） The limitations of human sense will lead to the limitations of humans ability. （ C） Some scientists have overlooked some hidden abilities in human. （ D） Being lacking in evidence doesnt mean its absence. TEXT C 10 Early in the film “A Beautiful Mind“, the mathematician John Nash is seen si
37、tting in a Princeton courtyard, hunched over a playing board covered with small black and white pieces that look like pebbles. He was playing Go, an ancient Asian game. Frustration at losing that game inspired the real Nash to pursue the mathematics of game theory, research for which he eventually w
38、as awarded a Nobel Prize. In recent years, computer experts, particularly those specializing in artificial intelligence, have felt the same fascination and frustration. Programming other board games has been a relative snap. Even chess has succumbed to the power of the processor. Five years ago, a c
39、hess-playing computer called Deep Blue not only beat but thoroughly humbled Garry Kasparov, the world champion at that time. That is because chess, while highly complex, can be reduced to a matter of brute force computation. Go is different. Deceptively easy to learn, either for a computer or a huma
40、n, it is a game of such depth and complexity that it can take years for a person to become a strong player. To date, no computer has been able to achieve a skill level beyond that of the casual player. The game is played on a board divided into a grid of 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines. Black an
41、d white pieces called stones are placed one at a time on the grids intersections. The object is to acquire and defend territory by surrounding it with stones. Programmers working on Go see it as more accurate than chess in reflecting the ways the human mind works. The challenge of programming a comp
42、uter to mimic that process goes to the core of artificial intelligence, which involves the study of learning and decision-making, strategic thinking, knowledge representation, pattern recognition and perhaps most intriguingly, intuition. Along with intuition, pattern recognition is a large part of t
43、he game. While computers are good at crunching numbers, people are naturally good at matching patterns. Humans can recognize an acquaintance at a glance, even from the back. Daniel Bump, a mathematics professor at Stanford, works on a program called GNU Go in his spare time. “You can very quickly lo
44、ok at a chess game and see if theres some major issue,“ he said. But to make a decision in Go, he said, players must learn to combine their pattern-matching abilities with the logic and knowledge they have accrued in years of playing. “Part of the challenge has to do with processing speed. The typic
45、al chess program can evaluate about 300,000 positions in a second, and Deep Blue was able to evaluate some 200 million positions in a second. By mid-game, most Go programs can evaluate only a couple of dozen positions each second,“ said Anders Kierulf, who wrote a program called SmartGo. In the cour
46、se of a chess game, a player has an average of 25 to 35 moves available. In Go, on the other hand, a player can choose from an average of 240 moves. A Go-playing computer would need about 30,000 years to look as far ahead as Deep Blue can with chess in three seconds, said Michael Reiss, a computer s
47、cientist in London. But the obstacles go deeper than processing power. Not only do Go programs have trouble evaluating positions quickly; they have trouble evaluating them correctly. Nonetheless, the allure of computer Go increases as the difficulties it poses encourage programmers to advance basic
48、work in artificial intelligence. For that reason, Fotland said, “writing a strong Go program will teach us more about making computers think like people than writing a strong chess program. “ 11 What does the sentence “Programming other board games has been a relative snap. “ (Paragraph 2) indicate?
49、 （ A） Programming other board games has been relatively easy. （ B） Programming other board games has been relatively difficult. （ C） Programming other board games has been relatively complicated. （ D） Programming other board games has been relatively predictable. 12 Which information about Go can NOT be inferred from the passage? （ A） On the board there is a grid with 361 intersections. （ B） The goal of the game is to defend ones territory. （ C） Playing Go involves more calculation than playing chess. （ D） Playing Go involves intuition. 13 Which of the fo
