1、专业英语八级（作文）模拟试卷 90及答案与解析 一、 PART V WRITING 1 Family planning, after decades of enforcement, is to be basically changed, which may make a huge stir in our society. Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the excerpt about this is
2、sue; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Family Planning When China eased its one-child policy late last year, investors bet on a surge in de
3、mand for everything from pianos to nappies. They, and government officials, foresaw a mini-boom after long-constrained parents were allowed a second go at making babies. So far, however, it is hard to identify a bedroom productivity burst. About 270,000 couples applied for permission to have a secon
4、d child by the end of May, and 240,000 received it, according to the national family-planning commission. It means China will fall well short of the 1m -2m extra births that Wang Peian, the deputy director of the commission, had predicted. The problem is partly bureaucratic. China announced the rela
5、xation of the one-child policy in November; if at least one of two parents is a single child, the couple may have two children. Provinces began implementing the new rule only in January. Fearful of a baby boom that would overwhelm hospitals and, eventually, schools, they have made the application pr
6、ocess cumbersome. In the eastern city of Jinan, for instance, would-be parents must provide seven different documents, including statements from employers certifying their marital status. With 11m couples suddenly eligible to have a second child, some caution over easing policy may be understandable
7、. As the process is simplified, more parents will choose to go through it. Analysts expect additional new births to rise toward lm a year over the next decade or so. That is on top of todays average of 16m births a year. All the same, the government and investors have overestimated the pent-up deman
8、d for babies. As in wealthier countries, preferences in China have shifted markedly towards smaller families. The cost of raising children has soared in cities, where competition to land a good kindergarten place is fierce. Costly housing puts a premium on living space. Analysts at Credit Suisse, a
9、bank, reckon it takes roughly 25,000 yuan ( $4,030) a year to raise a young child. That is equivalent almost to the average annual income in China. The legacy of Chinas one-child policy, now over three decades old, exacerbates the problem. Grandparents are traditionally a fixture in Chinese househol
10、ds helping to raise the young. But with couples waiting till later in life to have children, some parents find that they are looking after both their elders and their newborn. As single children, they have no siblings to lighten the load. Liu Gang, a 31-year-old events organizer in Beijing, says he
11、would like a second child, but his wife now has to spend months at a time in Qingdao, her hometown, to take care of her sick father. The government is investing in both day-care centres and nursing homes, but provision is woefully short. Chinas fertility rate has fallen to an estimated 1. 5 children
12、 per couple, in line with the European average but below the 2. 1 that maintains a constant population and is more normal for a country at Chinas stage of development. With China ageing quickly, a higher birth rate is needed to underpin long-term social and economic stability. In the past, the state
13、 used harsh methods to stop its citizens having babies. In the future, it will have to find clever ways to encourage people to have babies. Other countries, not least neighbouring Japan, have struggled with that. Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 2 “Second-generation rich“, or fuerdai, has b
14、ecome a new dub for a whole generation who inherit family wealth in one way or another. They are the object of public attention and arouse a mixture of jealousy and revulsion among other people. In the following excerpt, the author presents his opinion on this topic. Read the excerpt carefully and w
15、rite your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the authors opinion; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Lif
16、estyles of the Rich and Infamous Now decades old, Chinas economic boom has brought a better life to hundreds of millions. But it has also created new problems, such as pollution and inequality. And, for the super-rich, a moral conundrum; how, wealthy parents wonder, can they raise children who do no
17、t behave like arrogant brats? China now has an estimated 1. 09m people with personal wealth of at least 10m yuan ( $ 1. 6m) , and 67, 000 super-rich ones with assets above 100m yuan, including 213 dollar billionaires. Their children, the “second-generation rich“, or fuerdai, are the object of public
18、 attention in national media and arouse a mixture of envy and revulsion among ordinary folk. They can be seen driving outrageously posh cars which, thanks to stiff import duties, can cost $ 1 m or more. Some of them post ostentatious pictures and vulgar rants about their exploits on social media. A
19、son of one of Chinas richest tycoons recently aroused a storm of criticism for posting snaps of his Alaskan husky wearing two gold Apple Watches, which worth tens of thousands of dollars useful, no doubt, if the dog ever needs to surf the Internet. In June, one national leader told at a government m
20、eeting that Chinas young rich must curb their hedonistic ways. They should be guided, he said, to think about where their wealth comes from and be patriotic, law-abiding and hard-working. A week after his remarks were made public, state media reported on a training session in the prosperous coastal
21、province of Fujian for 70 offsprings of billionaires, where they were taught traditional Chinese culture, social responsibility and business knowledge and fined 1,000 yuan if they turned up late. According to some fuerdai, all this will be an uphill battle. Wang Daqi, a 30-year-old man from a moneye
22、d family, profded several of his peers in Burden of Wealth, a book published in May. It sought to paint a more nuanced portrait of the lives the fuerdai lead, but he acknowledges that ostentation is the only value many of them know. “Its pretty pathetic, actually.“ he says. Among those who do work,
23、he adds, most choose to invest their family wealth in other businesses. “To build a new business of your own takes a lot of work, but if you just seed startups you dont have to do the hard work or carry too much responsibility. “ Another member of the fuerdai, a 26-year-old Beijing native whose fath
24、er is a self-made investment banker, says some of his friends are from politically well-connected families and probably owe some of their wealth to corrupt dealings. Others have honest family fortunes built from scratch, and many, he reckons, fall somewhere in between. “We dont talk too much among o
25、urselves about where the money comes from,“ he says, “We all understand it can be very sensitive.“ Chinas ongoing anti-corruption campaign, he thinks, is doing more than any training programme to get rich kids to tone things down at least in public. They still party hard and buy new cars every six m
26、onths. “But now when they go out, they just take the BMW 7 Series instead of the Aston Martin.“ Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 3 How to solve the brain drain problem existing in universities in China has been a hot topic as our economy develops steadily. The following excerpt offers some
27、opinions on this issue. Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the authors opinions; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow
28、the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Every country sends out students. What makes China different is that most of these bright minds have stayed away. Only a third have come back, according to the Ministry of Education; fewer by some counts. A study this year by a scholar at America
29、s Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education found that 85% of those who gained their doctorate in America in 2006 were still there in 2011. To lure experts to Chinese universities, the government has launched a series of schemes since the mid-1990s. These have offered some combination of a one-o
30、ff bonus of up to 1 m yuan ($ 160,000) , promotion, an assured salary and a housing allowance or even a free apartment. Some of the best universities have built homes for academics to rent or buy at a discount. All are promised top-notch facilities. Many campuses, which were once spartan, now have s
31、wanky buildings. The programmes have also targeted non-Chinese. A “foreign expert thousand-talent scheme“, launched in 2011, has enticed around 200 people. Spending on universities has shot up, too; six fold in 2001 -2011. The results have been striking. In 2005 - 2012 published research articles fr
32、om higher-education institutions rose by 54%; patents granted went up eightfold. But most universities still have far to go. Only two Chinese institutions number in the top 100 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Shanghai Jiao Tong University includes only 32 institutions from m
33、ainland China among the worlds 500 best. The government frets about the failure of a Chinese scholar ever to win a Nobel Prize in science. Pulling some star scholars back from abroad will not be enough to turn China into an academic giant. Many of those who return do so on a part-time basis. Accordi
34、ng to David Zweig of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, nearly 75% of Chinese nationals who were lured by a “thousand-talent programme“ launched in 2008 did not give up tenure elsewhere. Such schemes have often bought reputation rather than better research. They typically target ful
35、l professors whose more productive, innovative years may already be behind them. (They also favour experts in science, technology and management.) Chinese universities have great difficulty fostering talent at home. The premium on foreign experience in China has created perverse incentives, says Cao
36、 Cong of Nottingham University in Britain. It sends the message to todays best and brightest students that they should still spend their most productive years abroad. More than 300,000 students leave each year. Today the signs are more encouraging. Some universities are changing the way they recruit
37、 and hence finding it easier to attract staff from abroad. At Peking University departments now hire and promote using international evaluation methods. They advertise jobs and academics apply for promotion and are rewarded according to their achievements. Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 4
38、 The social development is asking more from both parents who have to take full-time jobs. This brings us the issue of “Latchkey Children“. The following is an excerpt about this phenomenon. Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize brief
39、ly the excerpt; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Latchkey Children Knock, Knock, Is Anybody Home? In the United States the cost of living
40、has been steadily rising for the past few decades. Partly because of financial need, and partly because of career choices for personal fulfillment, mothers have been leaving the traditional role of full-time homemaker. Increasingly they have been taking salaried jobs outside of the home. Making such
41、 a significant role change affects the entire family, especially the children. Some consequences are obvious. For example, dinnertime is at a later hour. The emotional impact, on the other hand, can be more subtle. Mothers leave home in the morning, feeling guilty because they will not be home when
42、their children return from school. They suppress their guilt since they believe that their working will benefit everyone in the long run. The income will enable the family to save for college tuition, take an extended vacation, buy a new car, and so on. The emotional impact on the children can be si
43、gnificant. It is quite common for children to feel hurt and resentful. After all, they are alone several hours, and they feel that their mothers should “be there“ for them. They might need assistance with their homework or want to share the days activities. All too often, however, the mothers arrive
44、 home exhausted and face the immediate task of preparing dinner. Their priority is making the evening meal for the family, not engaging in relaxed conversation. Latchkey children range in age from six to thirteen. On a daily basis they return from school and unlock the door to their home with the ke
45、y hanging around their necks. They are now on their own, alone, in quiet, empty rooms. For some youngsters, it is a productive period of private time, while for others it is a frightening, lonely void. For reasons of safety, many parents forbid their children to go out to play or to have visitors at
46、 home. The youngsters, therefore, feel isolated. Latchkey children who were interviewed reported diverse reactions. Some latchkey children said being on their own for a few hours each day fostered a sense of independence and responsibility. They felt loved and trusted, and this feeling encouraged th
47、em to be self-confident. Some children stated that they used their unsupervised free time to perfect their athletic skills, such as playing basketball. Others read books or practiced musical instrument. These children looked upon their free time after school as an opportunity for personal developmen
48、t. It led to positive, productive, and valuable experiences. Conversely, many latchkey children expressed much bitterness, resentment, and anger for being made to live in this fashion. Many claimed that too much responsibility was placed on them at an early age; it was an overwhelming burden. They w
49、ere little people who really wanted to be protected, encouraged, and cared for through attention from their mothers. Coming home to an empty house, they were disappointed, lonely, and often frightened. They felt abandoned by their mothers. Many children turned on the television for the whole afternoon day after day, in order to diminish feelings of isolation; furthermore, the voices were comforting. Frequently, they would doze off. Because of either economic necessity or strong determination for personal fulfillment, or both, the phenomenon of latchkey children is
