1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 374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 Improving Your Conversation Skills Some common mistakes we have made in our conversations and the corresp
3、onding solutions. 1.【 1】 . Solutions: 1) Learn to listen to peoples words; 2) Avoid【 2】 type of questions; 3) Prod a little further if someone says something like“Oh, I dott know. “ 2. Tightening up. Solutions : 1) Read the newspaper before leaving home and talk about the 【 3】 ; 2) Talk about someth
4、ing in your surroundings, comment on the aquarium at the party, costumes, etc. 3. Feeling ill at ease when meeting others for the first time. The solution: Assume【 4】 . Procedures: 1) Imagine how you feel when meeting one of your best friends; 2) Dont overdo it. 4. Poor delivery. Solutions: 1) Slowi
5、ng down; 2)【 5】 ; 3) Speaking clearly; 4) Using【 6】 ; 5) Improving the body language, e. g. how to hold your drinks, etc. ; 6) Finding a balance between【 7】 . 5. Having to be right. The solution: Avoid arguing and having to be right about【 8】 6. Being【 9】 The solution: End a subject when people are
6、bored. 7. Conclusions: 1) Choose【 10】 things in need of improving; 2) Work on them every day for three to four weeks; 3) Notice the differences. SECTION B INTERVIEW Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1
7、 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 Which is the correct information about the Best 361 Colleges survey carried out by the Princeton Review? （ A） They have reached up
8、 to 3,500 students to put best 361 colleges this year. （ B） The results are based on the feedback of the college students and their teachers. （ C） Its a qualitative survey of the students experience both academically, as well as outside the classroom. （ D） They have taken the advice of many experts
9、in higher education. 12 Which school ranks No. 1 in the list? （ A） Harvard （ B） Reed College （ C） Princeton （ D） Yale 13 Which of the following statements about Reed College is correct? （ A） It enjoys greatest national reputations. （ B） It has 13,000 students. （ C） The student to faculty ratio is ab
10、out ten to one. （ D） The professors were great inside the classroom, though they are not as great outside the classroom. 14 Why are students the happiest with their financial aid packages in Princeton University? （ A） Because it is the least expensive private school. （ B） Because it is matching any
11、aid that the student needs, once they have been admitted to the university. （ C） Because it is a super competitive school. （ D） Because it has a beautiful campus, great food, great dorms, great library, overall quality of lif 15 Which school tops the list based on reaching out to the gay community?
12、（ A） New College of Florida, （ B） University of Florida. （ C） University of Wisconsin. （ D） Ohio University. 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
13、given 10 seconds to answer the questions. 16 Exchange students must have the following qualifications EXCEPT （ A） over 11/12 years of education. （ B） speaking English well. （ C） a good record in school. （ D） being 15 to 18 years old. 17 _of students have found a job by now. （ A） One-fifth （ B） Four-
14、fifth （ C） 0.27 （ D） 0.73 18 The advantages Of counselors include all the following EXCEPT （ A） helping students with job applications and preparing for interviews. （ B） letting students know about job openings and job recruitment fairs. （ C） helping students get experience in a position. （ D） helpi
15、ng first-year students decide what to study. 19 How long has India been the first large country to send students to study in America? （ A） Seven years. （ B） Two years. （ C） Eight years. （ D） Nine years. 20 According to the news item, which of the following statements is TRUE? （ A） China has sent mor
16、e than 100,000 students to American schools. （ B） The number of Chinese students increased 9% to 75,000. （ C） Canada was the only non-Asian country in the top five. （ D） The most popular subject for international students is engineering. 20 All over the world, more boys are born than girls. Evolutio
17、nary biologists believe that this is because boys are more likely to die at a given age than are their female contemporaries. The imbalance at birth thus means that the sex ratio balances at the age when people are reproducing. But for decades there has been a puzzling trend in the boy. girl ratio.
18、In Britain, as well as in the United States and Canada, the proportion of boys being born is dropping. No one knows why, although it has been suggested, somewhat controversially, that the trend is due to chemical pollutants that are mimicking the effects of sex hormones. And yet there is another rec
19、ent trend that may have something to do with it. During the same period, the proportion of single mothers has been increasing. The reasons or this are less puzzling, but as the Italian nominee to the European commission, Rocco Battalions, found out when he apparently suggested that single mothers we
20、re not very good as parents, it is no less controversial. The question is, could the two trends be linked? Can household arrangements affect the human sex ratio? According to Karen Norberg, of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they can Dr. Norberg found that the c
21、hance a woman giving birth to a boy rather than a girl is higher if she has been living with a man before the child was conceived. To be specific, for parents who were living together, boys were born 51. 50% of the time, while when the parents were not cohabiting only 49. 90% of births were male. Th
22、is difference may seem small, but statistically it is highly significant, which suggests it is the result of evolution. Actually, as with so much else in biology, Charles Darwin got there first. In “The Descent of Man“, he referred to studies showing that among children born out of wedlock there wer
23、e more girls than boys. Dr. Nordbergs work reinforces the point, and also shows that it is not formal marriage, but actual cohabitation, that is the decisive factor. What neither Darwins nor Dr. Nordbergs work shows, though, is why. There are some clues. In work on other mammals, researchers have fo
24、und an association between hormones, the frequency of copulation, and the sex of the of fspring. In other words, there is a way the body might “know“ if it is cohabiting with someone by the amount of sex it is getting. It is also known that a womans hormonal motivation to have sex is highest on the
25、day of ovulation, and that sex on that day is more likely to result in a girl. Couples who live apart, and therefore probably have intercourse less often, may be more likely to do so when the motivation is highestresulting in a girl. This chain of reasoning, though, provides only what workers in the
26、 field call a proximate cause. What is needed for a complete explanation is an ultimateevolutionarycause. It is easy to speculate. Perhaps same-sex children are easier for a lone parent to rear. Perhaps parents pass on different kinds of benefits to same-sex offspring and opposite-sex offspring. Per
27、haps a father helps his son to learn sex-specific skills. Perhaps boys are simply more costly to raise than girls, and would thus overtax the resources of a lone parent. However, a more controversial possibility is thatin a Darwinian sense only Mr. Battalion is right that two parents are sometimes b
28、etter than one. It is well established, in both humans and other species, that successful males have lots of offspring, while unsuccessful ones have few or none. Females, by contrast, show a smaller range of reproductive output, with most having some offspring, but none having as many as the most su
29、ccessful males. The upshot is that it makes evolutionary sense to have sons when circumstances favour them becoming big, strong, clever and handsome (and therefore attractive to women), but -when they do not, it is better for a woman to have daughters, most of whom will find a mate even in tough tim
30、es. In the case of humans, circumstances favoring the raising of strong, healthy children could include having two parents around, since humans are unusual among mammals in that fathers are often involved in parental care. Of course, even if this evolutionary explanation of Dr. Nordbergs result does
31、 turn out to be correct, it probably does not carry any lessons for the modern world. Such biological patterns would have been established hundreds of thousandsor possibly millionsof years ago. Bringing up children alone in a rich, industrialized society is a rather different proposition from bringi
32、ng them up in a hunter-gatherer band, and there is no reason to suppose they would he at a disadvantage now. Except, perhaps, that with a surplus of women around, it will he even harder than it is today for a girl to find a suitable husband when she grows up. 21 The author seems to_ that chemical po
33、llutants cause the changes of boy: girl ratio at birth. （ A） agree （ B） deny （ C） doubt （ D） believe 22 It can be inferred from the passage that （ A） Rocco Buttigliones point has provoked little controversy. （ B） married couples tend to bear more boys than the unmarried. （ C） Karen Nordberg is a wor
34、ld-famous biologist in the USA. （ D） Charles Darwin contributed to many biological explanations. 23 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a possible reason? （ A） Its easier for a single mother to provide for a daughter. （ B） A lone parent takes fewer pains to bring up a same-sex child. （ C） A l
35、one parent may be more considerate of a same-sex child. （ D） A single parent teaches a same-sex child some particular skills. 24 The word “upshot“ in the last but one paragraph probably means （ A） outcome. （ B） dilemma. （ C） question. （ D） response. 25 What is the main idea of the passage? （ A） The
36、proportion of boys being born is dropping. （ B） Single mothers are more likely to have daughters. （ C） Cohabitation is the decisive factor for newborns sex. （ D） Both mothers and fathers are involved in parental care. 25 More than any other country, America defines itself by a collective dream: the
37、dream of economic opportunity and upward mobility. Its proudest boast is that it offers a chance of the good life to everybody who is willing to work hard and play by the rules. This ideal has made the United States the worlds strongest magnet for immigrants; it has also reconciled ordinary American
38、s to the rough side of a dynamic economy, with all its inequalities and insecurities. Who cares if the boss earns 300 times more than the average working staff, if the staff knows be can become the boss? Look around the world and the supremacy of “the American model“ might seem assured. No other ric
39、h country has so successfully harnessed the modern juggernauts of technology and globalization The hallmarks of American capitalisma willingness to take risks, a light regulatory touch and sharp competitionhave spawned enormous wealth. “This economy is powerful, productive and prosperous,“ George Bu
40、sh once boasted, and by many yardsticks he was right. Growth was fast, unemployment was low and profits were fat. It was hardly surprising that so many other governments were trying to “Americanize“ their economieswhether through the European Unions Lisbon Agenda or Japans reforms. Yet many people f
41、eel unhappy about the American modelnot least in the United States. Only one in four Americans believes the economy is in good shape. While firms profits have soared, wages for the typical worker have barely budged. The middle classadmittedly a vague term in Americafeels squeezed. A college degree i
42、s no longer a passport to ever-higher pay. Now politicians are playing on these fears. Populists complain about Mr. Osamas plutocratic friends exporting jobs abroad; nativists howl about immigrants wrecking the system. The debate about the American model echoes far beyond the nations shores. Europea
43、ns have long held that America does not look after its poora prejudice reinforced by the ghastly scenes after Hurricane Katrina. The sharp decline in Americas image abroad has much to do with foreign policy, but Americanization has also become synonymous with globalization, Across the rich world, gl
44、obal competition is forcing economies to become more flexible, often increasing inequality; Japan is one example. The logic of many non-Americans is that if globalization makes their economy more like Americas, and the American model is defective, then free trade and open markets must be bad. This d
45、ebate mixes up three argumentsabout inequality, meritocracy and immigration. The word that America should worry about most is the one you hear leastmeritocracy. Begin with inequality. The flip-side of Americas economic dynamism is that it has become more unequalbut in a more complex way than first a
46、ppears. Americas rich have been pulling away from the rest of the population, as the returns for talent and capital in a global market have increased. Even if American business stopped at the waters edge, Bill Gates and the partners of Goldman Sachs would still be wealthy people; but since software
47、and investment banking are global industries, Mr. Gates is worth $ 50 billion and the average pay-and-benefits package for Goldmans 22,400 employees is above $ 500,000. On the other hand, the current wave of globalization may not be widening the gap between the poor and the rest. Indeed, the headwin
48、ds of the global economy are being felt less by Americans at the bottom than by those in the middle. The jobs threatened by outsourcingdata-processing, accounting and so onare white-collar jobs; the jobs done by the poorcleaning and table-waiting, for examplecould never be done from Bangalore. Those
49、 at the bottom have different fears, immigration high among them. Their jobs cannot be exported to rival countries perhaps, but rival workers can and are being imported to America. Yet there is surprisingly little evidence that the arrival of low-skilled workers has pulled poor Americans wages down. And it has certainly provided a far better life for new arrivals than the one they left behind. 26 American employees dont envy the boss who earns much more because （ A） they resign themselves to their fate. （ B） they have a st
