1、专业英语八级模拟试卷 435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 Situation Comedy Todays lecture is about situation comedy, its history, its characteristics and some famo
3、us comedies in the western countries. A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy (1) (1)_ originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. In a daily life environment, (2) stories go on with (2)_ some recurring characters. History With situation comedy format originated o
4、n (3) in the (3)_ 1920s, Sam and Henry, the first situation comedy was up in Chicago. The first network situation comedy was Amos it has seen only 46 with frontotemporal dementia. Two of those patients interested Dr. Frisoni. One was a 68-year-old lawyer, the other a 73-year-old housewife. Both had
5、undamaged memories, but displayed the sorts of defect associated with frontotemporal dementia a diagnosis that was confirmed by brain scanning. About two years after he was first diagnosed, the lawyer, once a classical music lover who referred to pop music as “mere noise“, started listening to the I
6、talian pop band “883“. As his command of language and his emotional attachments to friends and family deteriorated, he continued to listen to the band at full volume for many hours a day. The housewife had not even had the lawyers love of classical music, having never enjoyed music of any sort in th
7、e past. But about a year after her diagnosis she became very interested in the songs that her 11-year-old granddaughter was listening to. This kind of change in musical taste was not seen in any of the Alzheimers patients, and thus appears to be specific to those with frontotemporal dementia. And ot
8、her studies have remarked on how frontotemporal dementia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities are known. And in another lapse of musical taste, one woman with the disease suddenly started composing and singing country and western songs. Dr. Frisoni spe
9、culates that the illness is causing people to develop a new attitude towards novel experiences. Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brains right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus
10、 lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music. Whether that is a gain or a loss is a different matter. As Dr. Frisoni puts it in his article, De Gustibus Non Disputandum Est. Or, in pl
11、ainer words, there is no accounting for taste. 21 For Shakespeare, old age is the “second childishness“ for they have the same （ A） favorite. （ B） memory. （ C） experience. （ D） sense. 22 Which one is NOT a symptom of Frototemporal dementia? （ A） The loss of memory. （ B） The loss of judgment. （ C） Th
12、e loss of abstract thinking. （ D） The loss of speech. 23 From the two patients mentioned in the passage, it can be concluded that （ A） their command of language has deteriorated. （ B） their emotional attachments to friends and family are being lost. （ C） Frontotemporal dementia can bring new gifts.
13、（ D） Frontotemporal dementia can cause patients to change their musical tastes. 24 From the passage, it can be inferred that （ A） the damage of the left frontal lobe may affect some specific neural circuit. （ B） the lawyer patient has the left frontal lobe damaged. （ C） the damage of the left fronta
14、l lobe decreased the appreciation of certain kinds of music. （ D） every patient has the same taste. 24 When you buy a gallon of organic milk, you expect to get tasty milk from happy cows who havent been subjected to antibiotics, hormones or pesticides. But you might also unknowingly be getting genet
15、ically modified cattle feed. Albert Straus, owner of the Straus Family Creamery in the small northern California town of Marshall, decided to test the feed that he gives his 1,600 cows last year and was alarmed to find that nearly 6% of the organic corn feed he received from suppliers was “contamina
16、ted“ by genetically modified (GM) organisms. Organic food is, by definition, supposed to be free of genetically modified material, and organic crops are required to be isolated from other crops. But as GM crops become more prevalent, there is little that an organic farmer can do to prevent a speck o
17、f GM pollen or a stray GM seed from being blown by the wind onto his land or farm equipment and, eventually, into his products. In 2006, GM crops accounted for 61% of all the corn planted in the U.S. and 89% of all the soybeans. “I feared that there werent enough safeguards,“ Straus says. So Straus
18、and five other natural food producers, including industry leader Whole Foods, announced last week that they would seek a new certification for their products, “non-GMO verified“, in the hopes that it will become a voluntary industry standard for GM-free goods. A non-profit group called the Non-GMO P
19、roject runs the program, and the testing is conducted by an outside lab called Genetic ID. In a few weeks, Straus expects to become the first food manufacturer in the country to carry the label in addition to his “organic“ one. With Whole Foods in the ring, the rest of the industry will soon be unde
20、r competitive pressure to follow. Earning the non-GMO label, at least initially, requires nearly as much effort as getting certified organic. To root out the genetically modified corn, Straus spent several months and about $10,000 testing, re-testing and tracing back his products: from his own dairy
21、s milk, to other dairies that supply some of his milk, to the brokers who sell them feed, to their mills that grind the corn, to farmers who grow it. To put the GM-free label on his ice cream, Straus will have to trace the chickens that provided the egg yolks, the grain used in the alcohol that carr
22、ies his vanilla extract and the soy lecithin used as an emulsifier for his chocolate chips. So why bother? The organic and natural foods industry sees a huge opportunity in telling consumers even more about whats in their food. Few consumers would think about the pesticides and hormones in conventio
23、nal foods without the organic alternative to remind them. Similarly, genetically modified crops have become so prevalent in the U.S. that chances are youve been buying and eating them for years. You just wouldnt know it from the label: the U.S. Department of Agriculture, unlike agencies in Europe an
24、d Japan, do not require GM foods to be labeled. While scientists have not identified any specific health risks from eating GM foods, anti-GM activists say there is not enough research yet into their long-term risks or impact on biodiversity. By telling consumers loud and clear which products are GM-
25、free, organic-food producers will give them one more reason to choose organic. Says Jeffrey Smith, a longtime activist against genetically modified food: “The people served by the organic industry are very sensitive to GMO.“ And, the industry hopes, willing to pay to avoid it. 25 Faced with the prev
26、alence of GM crops, organic farmers （ A） have sought new certifications for their GM-free products. （ B） can do nothing to stop their crops from being polluted by GM factors. （ C） can get huge profits by selling their GM-free goods. （ D） have done a lot to safeguard their GM-free goods. 26 Whats the
27、 real meaning of the phrase “in the ring“ (Line 6, Para. 3)? （ A） Getting the ring as a symbol of the non-GMO label. （ B） Fighting with other companies in a boxing ring. （ C） Calling other other companies to apply for the non-GMO certification. （ D） Competing with other companies for the non-GMO cer
28、tification. 27 The author quotes the example of Straus in Para. 4 to show （ A） the whole process of applying for the non-GMO certification. （ B） the great efforts for getting the certified non-GMO certification. （ C） the efforts Straus making to earn the non-GMO label. （ D） the great efforts Straus
29、making to get certified organic. 28 Which of the following is true according to the last paragraph? （ A） Organic producers bother their customers with the non-GMO label. （ B） Organic food may remind customers of whats in conventional foods. （ C） It is well known that GM foods have negative effect on
30、 biodiversity. （ D） The U.S. Department of Agriculture encourages the prevalence of GM crops. 29 Which of the following best describes the development of the passage? （ A） Introducing the issuedescribing the actual statusciting ways to deal with the issue offering reasons. （ B） Describing the actual
31、 statusintroducing the issueciting ways to deal with the issue offering reasons. （ C） Introducing the issueciting ways to deal with the issuedescribing the actual statusoffering reasons. （ D） Describing the actual statusoffering reasonsintroducing the issueciting ways to deal with the issue. 29 Mark
32、 Twains instructions were quite clear: his autobiography was to remain unpublished until 100 years after his death. You couldnt imagine a writer doing something like that these days. Who could resist a pay cheque in the here and now for deferred immortality in the hereafter? More to the point, could
33、 any modern writer be certain their lives would still be interesting to anyone so long after their death? Hubris never came into Twains calculations. He was the American writer, the rags-to-riches embodiment of the American dream, and it never seems to have occurred to him that his popularity would
34、fade. Nor has it. He is still the writer before whom everyone from Faulkner to Mailer has knelt. And even though his literary executors might not have followed his instructions to the letter various chunks of his autobiography have been published over the years this years publication of the first of
35、 three planned collections of Twains full autobiographical writings to coincide with the centenary of his death has still been one of the literary events of the year. They are about the abstract. Such as religion. “There are some extracts, including one in which he confuses the Virgin birth and the
36、Immaculate Conception, in which he declares his religious scepticism robustly, about which Twain was extremely nervous,“ says Smith. “He was so worried he would be ostracised and shunned for this by God-fearing Americans that he actually set a publication date of 2406 for those sections.“ Imagine. A
37、 man so protective and nervous of his own reputation that he sought to keep some of the ideas he thought might alienate his public silent for 500 years. Yet equally a man so sure of his reputation that he had no doubts people would still want to read him 500 years after his death. There, in essence,
38、 is Twains ambivalence between the public and the private, between truth and spin. Needless to say, his executors didnt adhere to the 500-year diktat and the American public continue to adore him regardless. Then Twain being Twain, hed have hardly expected anything less. 30 Which of the following is
39、 true about Mark Twains autobiography? （ A） It follows the chronological order in narration. （ B） It has never been published before. （ C） It holds no interest for modern readers. （ D） It crosses out some sensitive passages. 31 Dickens is mentioned in the third paragraph to （ A） illustrate Mark Twai
40、ns equivalent status in American literature. （ B） compare the differences between English and American literature. （ C） assess the influence of Dickens works on modern literature. （ D） show Mark Twains comparable productivity. 32 The greatness of Mark Twain lies in all the following EXCEPT that （ A）
41、 hes able to arouse sympathy in readers. （ B） hes able to bring fun to the most boring topics. （ C） hes able to make literature heard as well as seen. （ D） he is able to judge the world objectively. 33 What does Claire Tomalin think of Mark Twains autobiography? （ A） Objective. （ B） Positive. （ C） I
42、ncomplete. （ D） Optimistic. 34 Which of the following statements is true, according to Blake Morrison? （ A） The author has to ask for permission before writing about others privacy. （ B） The reader should believe what the author has to say in his autobiography. （ C） The author may feel tortured in w
43、riting privacies. （ D） The reader should be critical in reading others works. 35 Why would Mark Twain postpone publishing his scepticism on religion? （ A） He is not sure hes justified in criticizing the religion. （ B） He is curious about his reputation after 500 years. （ C） He worried the public wou
44、ld not accept his criticism about religion. （ D） He is forbidden from publishing it for his hostility to authority. 35 Imagine youre an employer, looking to hire me for a job. You subscribe to a Web site that gives you background information, and this is what you find. Jessica Rose Bennett, 29, spen
45、ds 30 hours a week on social-networking sites while at work. She is an excessive drinker, a drug user, and sexually promiscuous. She swears a lot, and spends way beyond her means shopping online. Her writing ability? Superior. Cost to hire? Cheap. In reality, only part of this is true: yes, I like a
46、 good bourbon. But drugs? That conies from my reporting projects and one in particular that took me to a pot farm in California. The promiscuity? My boyfriend of five years would beg to differ on that, but I did once write a story about polyamory. I do spend hours on social-networking sites, but its
47、 part of my job. And Im not nearly as cheap to hire as the Web would have you believe. (Take note, future employers!) The irony, of course, is that if this were a real job search, none of this would matter Id have already lost the job. But this is the kind of information surmisable to anybody with a
48、 Web connection and a bit of background data, who wants to take the time to compile it all. For this particular experiment, we asked ReputationDefender, a company that works to keep information like this private, to do a scrub of the Web, with nothing but my (very common) name and e-mail address to
49、go on. Three Silicon Valley engineers, several decades of experience, and access to publicly available databases like Spokeo, Facebook, and LinkedIn (no, they didnt do any hacking)and voila. Within 30 minutes, the company had my Social Security number; in two hours, they knew where I lived, my body type, my hometown, and my health status. (Note: this isnt part of Reputation Defenders service; they did the search and accompanying graphic exclusively for Newsweek, to show how much about a perso
