1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 133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 Socia
2、l circumstances in Early Modern England mostly served to repress womens voices. Patriarchal culture and institutions constructed them as chaste, silent, obedient, and subordinate. At the beginning of the 17th century, the ideology of patriarchy, political absolutism, and gender hierarchy were reaffi
3、rmed powerfully by King James in The Trew Law of Free Monarchie and the Basilikon Doron; by that ideology the absolute power of God the supreme patriarch was seen to be imaged in the absolute monarch of the state and in the husband and father of a family. Accordingly, a womans subjection, first to h
4、er father and then to her husband, imaged the subjection of English people to their monarch, and of all Christians to God. Also, the period saw an outpouring of repressive or overtly misogynist sermons, tracts, and plays, detailing womens physical and mental defects, spiritual evils, rebelliousness,
5、 shrewishness, and natural inferiority to men. Yet some social and cultural conditions served to empower women. During the Elizabethan era (1558 1603) the culture was dominated by a powerful Queen, who provided an impressive female example though she left scant cultural space for other women. Elizab
6、ethan women writers began to produce original texts but were occupied chiefly with translation. In the 17th century, however, various circumstances enabled women to write original texts in some numbers. For one thing, some counterweight to patriarchy was provided by female communities mothers and da
7、ughters, extended kinship networks, close female friends, the separate court of Queen Anne (King James consort) and her often oppositional masques and political activities. For another, most of these women had a reasonably good education (modern languages, history, literature, religion, music, occas
8、ionally Latin) and some apparently found in romances and histories more expansive terms for imagining womens lives. Also, representation of vigorous and rebellious female characters in literature and especially on the stage no doubt helped to undermine any monolithic social construct of womens natur
9、e and role. Most important, perhaps, was the radical potential inherent in the Protestant insistence on every Christians immediate relationship with God and primary responsibility to follow his or her individual conscience. There is plenty of support in St Pauls epistles and elsewhere in the Bible f
10、or patriarchy and a wifes subjection to her husband, but some texts (notably Galatians 3:28) inscribe a very different politics, promoting womens spiritual equality: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ.
11、 “Such texts encouraged some women to claim the support of God the supreme patriarch against the various earthly patriarchs who claimed to stand toward them in his stead. There is also the gap or slippage between ideology and common experience. English women throughout the 17th century exercised a g
12、ood deal of accrual power: as managers of estates in their husbands absences at court or on military and diplomatic missions; as members of guilds; as wives and mothers who apex during the English Civil War and Interregnum (1640 1660), as the execution of the King and the attendant disruption of soc
13、ial hierarchies led many women to seize new roles as preachers, as prophetesses, as deputies for exiled royalist husbands, as writers of religious and political tracts. 1 All of the following are characteristics of Early Modern England EXCEPT that_. （ A） womens merits were extolled in publications （
14、 B） womens opinions were not asked （ C） women were subject to their husbands （ D） women were often referred to physical and mental defects 2 Elizabethan women writers began to write novel articles NOT because_. （ A） there was struggle against womens subordination （ B） they were better educated （ C）
15、they were materially independent （ D） they were inspired by heroines in literary works 3 It can be inferred from the last paragraph that in the 17th century, women_. （ A） had a hard time in striving for their equal rights （ B） made certain progress in their fight for equal rights （ C） temporarily lo
16、st confidence in fighting for equal rights （ D） triumphed over men in fighting for equal rights 4 What is the best title for this passage? （ A） Womens Position in the 17th Century （ B） Womens Subjection to Patriarchy （ C） Social Circumstances in the 17th Century （ D） Womens Rebellion in the 17th Cen
17、tury 4 Another milestone on the journey towards digital cash was passed on November 13th. That date marked the emergence from beta-testing in America of V. me, a “digital wallet“ that holds multiple payment cards in a virtual repository. Instead of providing their personal details and card numbers t
18、o pay for stuff online, customers just enter a username and a password. The service is provided by Visa, a giant card-payment network whose headquarters is in the heart of Silicon Valley, close to a host of technology firms which would love to get their hands on a chunk of the global payments busine
19、ss. In the short term new technology is actually boosting usage of plastic. Smartphone apps often require users to enter their card details to pay for services. Firms such as Square and PayPal have developed tiny card readers that plug into smartphones and allow small traders using their software to
20、 accept payments cheaply. Ed McLaughlin, who oversees emerging payments technologies at MasterCard, reckons such developments have added 1. 2m new businesses over the past 12 months to the card firms list of merchants. But even if plastic cards eventually go the way of vinyl records, card networks s
21、hould still prosper because they too are investing heavily in new technology and have several built-in advantages. Visa is betting its member banks can help it to narrow the gap with rivals like PayPal, for instance, which is part of eBay and has grown to 117m active users thanks in part to its use
22、on the auction site. Over 50 financial institutions are supporting the launch of V. me, which accepts non-Visa cards in its wallet, too. MasterCard and others are also touting digital wallets, some of which can hold digital coupons and tickets as well as card details. Before long all of these wallet
23、s are likely to end up on mobile phones, which can be used to buy things in stores and other places. This is where firms such as Square, which has developed its own elegant and easy-to-use mobile wallet, and Google have been focusing plenty of energy. Jennifer Schulz, Visas global head of e-commerce
24、, predicts there will be a shake-out that leaves only a few wallet providers standing. Thanks to their trusted brands, big budgets and payments savvy, one or more card companies will be among them. Card networks are also taking stakes in innovative firms to keep an eye on potentially disruptive tech
25、nologies. Visa owns part of Square, which recently struck a deal with Starbucks to make its mobile-payment service available in 7,000 of the coffee chains outlets in America. Visa has also invested in Monitise, a mobile-banking specialist. American Express, for its part, has set up a $100m digital-c
26、ommerce fund, one of whose investments is in iZettle, a Square-like firm based in Sweden. So far few have tried to create new payments systems from scratch. Those that have toyed with the idea, such as ISIS, a consortium of telecoms companies in America, have concluded it is far too costly and painf
27、ul to deal with regulators, set up anti-fraud systems and so forth. Fears about the security of new-fangled payment systems also play into the hands of established card firms. Still, they cannot relax. Bryan Keane, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, points out that rival digital wallets could promote alte
28、rnatives to credit and debit cards, including stored-value cards and direct bank-account-to-bank-account payments. Big retailers in America have clubbed together to create their own digital wallet and are likely to prompt users to choose the payment options that are cheapest for the chains, by offer
29、ing them incentives like coupons. Jack Dorsey, the boss of Square and a co-founder of Twitter, agrees that digital wallets will make the trade-offs between various payment options clearer to consumers and reckons this will force card networks to up their game. “They had a major innovation 60 years a
30、go“ he says, “and there have been very, very few innovations since. “ Some in the payments world might quibble with that but one thing they can all agree on is that the spread of mobile payments will bring many more customers. MasterCards Mr. McLaughlin claims that 85% of commerce still involves cas
31、h and cheques. As mobile purchases take off, more of this activity will move online. The biggest prize of all lies in emerging markets, where a lack of financial infrastructure is hastening the rise of phone-based payments systems such as M-Pesa, which serves Kenya and several other markets. Visa ha
32、s snapped up Fundamo, which specialises in payment services for the unbanked and underbanked in emerging markets; MasterCard has set up a joint venture called Wanda with Telef6nica, a Spanish telecoms firm, which aims to boost mobile payments across Latin America. The payments world is changing fast
33、 but the card firms are not about to let rivals swipe their business. 5 Which of the following is NOT a feature of “digital wallet“? (Paragraph One) （ A） It has already emerged in the developed countries by V. me. （ B） Although it is virtual, it has the same functions with payment cards. （ C） It onl
34、y requires the users to enter a username and a password. （ D） Its service is only provided by Visa, a card-payment network. 6 What can be inferred from the prediction of Jennifer Schulz? （ A） The future market will be a mixture of digital wallet firms and card companies. （ B） Mobile wallets will dom
35、inate the payments world after market shocks. （ C） Though some cards companies survive, they will be replaced at last. （ D） Mobile wallet firms finally win only because they have more convenient functions. 7 What conclusion can be drawn from the description of ISIS? （ A） The benefit that the card fi
36、rms got from the failure of ISIS was temporary. （ B） The expensive cost of new payments systems made ISIS go bankrupt. （ C） As a consortium, it is hard to cooperate with regulators and other aspects. （ D） The failure of ISIS speeds the replacement of all payment cards. 8 Which of the following best
37、explains the competition between digital wallet and payment card? （ A） Most commerce still involves cash and cheques, so payment cards are hard to remove. （ B） Phone-based payments systems such as M-pesa will spread throughout the world. （ C） The joint ventures combined the innovative firms with car
38、d firms will occupy the market all over the world. （ D） Though mobile payment will cover all over the world, the card firms are not easy to give up the market. 8 My cars gear lever does more than dispense transmission rations. It panders to me. It cajoles and beckons. It wears out its chrome heart t
39、o make my life easier, for as its manufacturers are quick to claim the company devotes hundreds of man-hours to testing and retesting each possible design and configuration to see which does the job best. Which shape fits most naturally into a human hand? Which covering is most pleasing? And which o
40、verall look makes your fingers tremble with anticipation? This curious pursuit, reputedly espoused by and entrenched within all of todays major manufacturing firms, is called ergonomics, defined as “the degree to which the system has been developed with the human user in mind“. Personally, I like th
41、e sound of the word. I wish only that the results lived up to the hype. Recently, for example, I purchased a rowing machine for home exercise. Within minutes of unwrapping my booty, I realized the unit I was so cautiously dissecting did not in any way match the color picture on the box. The assembly
42、 instructions hinted darkly that putting the contraption together would be only slightly less complex than building a nuclear reactor. Perseverance paid off, however. After applying equal amounts of time and luck, I was finally able to make my rower. But the only cogent ergonomic thought that went i
43、nto the design of this product was the shape of the cardboard container it was packed in. Thats ergonomics in the real world. Take videocassette recorders: VCRs are like snowflakes no two are quite alike. While all are intended to do more or less the same things play, record now, record later the ac
44、tual designs are about as consistent and predictable as a roulette wheel. If you lose or misplace the manual, you end up with little more than a digital clock. And then there is the ubiquitous microwave oven. What do those “low“, “medium“ and “high“ settings really hint at? Show me a consumer suffic
45、iently schooled in the effect of microwave transmissions on food molecules to properly and intuitively select the optimal setting! Only small children, bless then, seem to know how to make these machines bend to their wills. “Put it on high and blast it,“ says my nine-year-old niece. I do. It works.
46、 Can anyone truly say the modern car is designed with the human user in mind? Recall the last time you plopped behind the wheel of your neighbors new vehicle. How quickly did you find the knob that popped open the bonnet or the hood? Were you able to adjust the left-side mirror without adjusting the
47、 right-side mirror, activating the headlight washers or wipers, or possibly lowering the convertible top? Did you know which lever to push or pull to slide the seat forward without simultaneously upsetting the angle of the seat back or exploding the pneumatically pressured back-support? As with most
48、 of todays products, the only thing we really know about car seats is that, given the correct incentive, they will move. Beyond that, you and your ergonomically inspired intuition are completely on your own. 9 According to the passage, the authors attitude to ergonomics is_. （ A） apprehensive （ B） b
49、emused （ C） affectionate （ D） fervent 10 It can be inferred from the third paragraph that_. （ A） ergonomics is nothing but an illusion （ B） the philosophy of ergonomics is not practiced faithfully （ C） the rowing machine is carefully designed into a desirable shape （ D） the writer likes assembling parts of a rowing machine 11 What disturbs the writer about video-recorders? （ A） They are easily damaged. （ B） It is difficult to operate them. （ C） They vary for no obvious reasons. （ D） They are complex. 11
