1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 116及答案与解析 SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple-choice questions. For each multiple-choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A , B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer. 0 (1)Kh
2、alidas father says shes 9 or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer cant keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the family cant keep her much longer. K
3、halidas father has spent much of his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains. Its the only reliable cash crop most of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by: traffickers
4、 may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. Now hes losing far more than money. “I never imagined Id have to pay for growing opium by giving up my daughter,“ says Shah. (2)The familys heartbreak began when Shah borrowed $2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 ki
5、los of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest, a government crop-eradication team appeared at the familys little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shahs entire two and a half acres of poppies. Unable to meet his debt, Shah fled with his family to Jalalabad, the cap
6、ital of neighboring Nangarhar province. The trafficker found them anyway and demanded his opium. So Shah took his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency. Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marria
7、ge. Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-old drug runner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible. “Its my fate,“ the child says. (3)Afghans disparagingly call them “loan brides“ daughters given in marriage by fathers who have no othe
8、r way out of debt. The practice began with the dowry a bridegrooms family traditionally pays to the brides father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to $8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistans No. 1 opium-growing provi
9、nce. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation: “I call on the people(not to)give
10、their daughters for money; they shouldnt give them to old men, and they shouldnt give them in forced marriages.“ (4)All the same, local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the worlds heroin a
11、nd other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default. “This will be our darkest year since 2000,“ says Baz Mohammad, 65, a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar. “Even more daughters will be sold this
12、year.“ The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing. “Lenders never show any mercy,“ the old man says. Local farmers say more than one debtor has been bound hand and foot, then locked into a small w
13、indowless room with a smoldering fire, slowly choking to death. (5)Efforts to promote other crops have failed. Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of dr
14、ought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no government-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops. The borrower merely agrees to repay the cash with so many kilos of opium, at a price stipulated by the lender often 40 percent or mo
15、re below market value. Islam forbids charging interest on a loan, but moneylenders in poppy country elude the ban by packaging the deal as a crop-futures transaction and never mind mat the rate of return is tantamount to usury. 1 Which of the following is NOT true about “debt marriage“ in the third
16、paragraph? （ A） It forces the girls to marry old men. （ B） It is a shame for the girls and their family. （ C） It enables the girls to pay off their debts. （ D） The girls family can get much money from it. 2 The relationship between the first and second paragraphs is that_. （ A） both present the acti
17、ons taken by the Afghan government （ B） the second is the logical result of the first （ C） the second offers me main reason of the first （ D） each presents the good side of the Afghan society 3 The farmers like to grow poppies in their countries NOT because _. （ A） poppies are more reliable and suit
18、able to grow in this place （ B） traffickers can make great money from the poppies （ C） no government funded credit was offered for small farmers （ D） growing poppies can earn more money than other crops 4 What is mainly discussed in this passage? （ A） The Afghan farmers. （ B） Best place for heroin.
19、（ C） The government policy. （ D） Loan marriage. 4 (1)The European Union has been plunged into chaos after the rejection of its latest treaty by Irish voters. EU leaders must now decide if the Lisbon treaty is dead or can be salvaged in some form even if the cost is pushing Ireland to the fringes of
20、the European project. Though strongly pro-European, early tallies on Friday June 13th showed Irish voters rejecting the new treaty by a hefty margin. During voting on Thursday, both supporters and opponents complained that they did not understand the highly technical text-many chose to “play safe“ a
21、nd say no. (2)The Lisbon treaty is complex. It offers sweeping changes to me way the union runs creating a new full-time “president“ to represent member states, and a foreign-policy chief to speak for Europe round the world. It also sweeps away national vetoes in some important areas of policy, such
22、 as cross-border policing and justice. Many Irish no voters voiced suspicions mat the treaty would, in reality, rob their small state of clout at the EUs top tables. (3)Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Angela Merkel of Germany are set to issue a joint response as soon as a final result is announced on
23、Friday, calling for leaders to debate a way forwards for Lisbon at a long-planned summit in Brussels next Thursday and Friday. France takes over the rotating presidency of the EU on July 1st for a six-month stint, and is desperate not to lose a carefully planned agenda of projects on things like cli
24、mate change, immigration and beefing up EU defence co-operation. Both leaders will call for sticking to that French programme: whether that is realistic remains to be seen. (4)Expect some EU politicians to demand that the Irish vote a second time on the treaty(and this time get their vote “right“).
25、That has been done before: me Irish were asked to vote again after they rejected the Nice treaty in 2001, and obliged with a yes vote me following year. Federalist types will demand to know why a small country on the far-western fringes of Europe, with less than 1% of the EU population, should be al
26、lowed to deny Lisbon to 26 other states. Others, including Britain, will continue with their own ratification procedures for Lisbon, but will resist any attempt to “punish“ Ireland. (5)A second Irish referendum would be harder to pull off this time. An economic slowdown after a long boom hung over t
27、his weeks referendum. Irelands economy will be in still worse shape in a few months time, when any second vote might be organised. (6)More important, the Lisbon Treatys claims to democratic legitimacy are already threadbare. The Lisbon text is a reworking of an earlier attempt to create a constituti
28、on for the EU. That grandiose project was killed off by votes against it in twin referendums in 2005, in France and the Netherlands. It was no accident that Lisbon was a hard text to read EU leaders were to be heard crowing last year that they had made it “unintelligible“ in order to smuggle it past
29、 voters. The Lisbon treaty was specifically designed to be passed by the less risky route of parliamentary votes. (7)Unfortunately for its fans, Ireland has to hold referendums on any treaty that amends its constitution. In the end, it was the only country in the block to hold a popular vote on the
30、text. (8)The yes camp amounted to the entire Irish political establishment: the only parliamentary party to oppose Lisbon was the nationalists of Sinn Fein. Disgusted yes campaigners accused Sinn Fein and a motley collection of other anti-Lisbon groups of spreading lies about the treaty, including c
31、laims that it would impose higher taxes on Ireland, force the country to legalise abortion and undermine Irish neutrality. Lies were told, but the big parties waged a terrible, half-hearted campaign. In the face of punchy anti-treaty slogans like “Lisbon: Itll cost you“, the main messages from the y
32、es camp included such bland generalities as: “Europe: lets be at the heart of it“. (9)Ireland now faces a fight to remain at the heart of Europe, amid calls for its marginalisation. That would be outrageous hypocrisy, of course: Ireland only had to vote on the Lisbon treaty because the French and Du
33、tch had already voted no to the constitution. But the EU has been wounded today: do not be surprised if some of its leaders lash out. 5 The Lisbon treaty is meant to _. （ A） make an attempt to punish Ireland （ B） choose a new part-time president （ C） change the way the union operates （ D） issue a jo
34、int response as soon as possible 6 France takes over the rotating presidency of EU to deal with the following projects EXCEPT _. （ A） defense co-operation （ B） immigration issues （ C） climate change （ D） population explosion 7 The most important reason for Irish voters rejection of the Lisbon treaty
35、 is _. （ A） having no chance of being president （ B） having thin population （ C） suffering economic recession （ D） having an unintelligible text 8 Which of the following actions was NOT taken by the yes camp of the Lisbon treaty? （ A） Voicing the slogans. （ B） Telling treaty lies. （ C） Accusing Sinn
36、 Fein. （ D） Waging horrible campaign. 8 (1)Some people learned everything they know about Kazakhstan from Borat, the buffoonish journalist played by Sacha Baron Cohen in the 2006 film “Borat“ Those whove heard a bit more will think of Kazakhstan as a remote land still run by a Soviet-era strongman,
37、who is now building a new capital as a bizarre monument to himself. So travelers who actually venture to the former Soviet republic in Central Asia may be surprised by what they find. (2)Since Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, its standard of living has risen dramatically
38、, and tourists have begun to take note of its cosmopolitan cities, striking natural landscape and steadily improving Western-standard comforts. Whether youre looking for Silk Road exoticism, great steppes ecotourism or oil-wealth extravagance, Kazakhstan is slowly emerging from underneath its Soviet
39、-era shroud to beckon the adventurous and the hedonistic alike. “The changes are gigantic,“ says Beth Jones, U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan from 1995 to 1998, when “there were no streetlights or curbs on the road and people were having a very difficult time making ends meet. Its a completely differen
40、t country now.“ (3)Thats thanks mainly to oil. The largest landlocked nation in the world, Kazakhstan sits on more than 3 percent of the worlds oil reserves. It was the first nation in the Caspian region to privatize its energy industry and open up to Western businesses. Since independence, it has r
41、eceived more than $30 billion in direct foreign investment. “Oil money is a very important asset,“ says Zhanbolat Ussenov, assistant to the Kazakhstan ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. “Its a tool for building up the economy.“ (4)And it shows. The tourist infrastructure is beginnin
42、g to bloom. In the old capital city of Almaty, BMWs and Mercedeses cruise up and down the streets, with well-dressed customers patronizing bustling cafes, bars and nightclubs. Guest accommodations have drastically improved; among the new hotels mat have opened in the past few years are the Intercont
43、inental, opposite the presidential palace, and Central Asias first five-star hotel, the Hyatt Regency Almaty, where the Regency Suite King with two balconies, a separate dining room and a marble bath goes for a whopping 5,800 per night. Indeed, unlike other newly developed countries, Kazakhstan is n
44、ot cheap; with its eye on wealthy oil executives, it has become the most expensive destination in Central Asia. Ethnic restaurants feature sophisticated Russian, Swedish and Japanese cuisine. For pampering, the Luxor Wellness Club, located in an Egyptian-style building, offers hydrotherapy and ozone
45、 therapy at its beauty spa. The traditional Central Public Baths, called Arasan Banya, also draws tourists. (5)But perhaps Kazakhstans greatest attraction is its natural beauty stunning landscapes of diverse and largely unspoiled terrain. Tourists can hike into the countryside, past yurts, the tradi
46、tional tentlike structures made of wooden frames and covered with wool that Central Asian nomads use as homes, and glimpse their ancient rock drawingsknown as petroglyphs in the steppes. Skiers will find spectacular conditions and slopes much less crowded than those in Western Europe. Chimbulak, a 2
47、,200-meter-high site in the mountains above Almaty, was once the training site for the Soviet Olympic ski team. It features modern lifts and excellent powder. In 1997 Warren Miller, the cult producer of extreme-skiing movies, shot scenes from “Snowriders 2“ there. “The skiing is much better than the
48、 Alps,“ says Jones. The Talgar Pass above Chimbulak peaks at 3,163 meters and offers spectacular views. Ice skaters can enjoy Medeo, the worlds largest outdoor rink, built by the Soviets right outside Almaty. (6)Tourists are catching on fast to Kazakhstans charms. During the last nine months of last
49、 year, the number of visitors to Kazakhstan increased by more than 31 percent. Last October, BMI launched direct flights from London to Almaty. In November “A Hedonists Guide to Almaty and Astana“ was released, putting Kazakhstan on the map not just as a cultural experience and sportsmans paradise but as a party destination. It recommends that travelers to Astana check out Che Guevara, a “pre-party cafe“ that attracts a crowd of local architects, journalists and designers and hosts a Wednesday-night radio
