1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 173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) I
2、t would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare. Let me imagine, since facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say. (2) Shakes
3、peare himself went, very probably his mother was an heiress to the grammar school, where he may have learnt Latin Ovid, Virgil and Horace and the elements of grammar and logic. He was, it is well known, a wild boy who poached rabbits, perhaps shot a deer, and had, rather sooner than he should have d
4、one, to marry a woman in the neighborhood, who bore him a child rather quicker than was right. That escapade sent him to seek his fortune in London. He had, it seemed, a taste for the theatre; he began by holding horses at the stage door. Very soon he got work in the theatre, became a successful act
5、or, and lived at the hub of the universe, meeting everybody, knowing everybody, practising his art on the boards, exercising his wits in the streets, and even getting access to the palace of the queen. (3) Meanwhile his extraordinarily gifted sister, let us suppose, remained at home. She was as adve
6、nturous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone of reading Horace and Virgil. She picked up a book now and then, one of her brothers perhaps, and read a few pages. But then her parents came in and
7、 told her to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon about with books and papers. They would have spoken sharply but kindly, for they were substantial people who knew the conditions of life for a woman and loved their daughter indeed, more likely than not she was the apple of her fathers ey
8、e. Perhaps she scribbled some pages up in an apple loft on the sly, but was careful to hide them or set fire to them. Soon, however, before she was out of her teens, she was to be betrothed to the son of a neighboring wool-stapler. She cried out that marriage was hateful to her, and for that she was
9、 severely beaten by her father. Then he ceased to scold her. He begged her instead not to hurt him, not to shame him in this matter of her marriage. He would give her a chain of beads or a fine petticoat, he said; and there were tears in his eyes. How could she disobey him? How could she break his h
10、eart? (4) The force of her own gift alone drove her to it. She made up a small parcel of her belongings, let herself down by a rope one summers night and took the road to London. She was not seventeen. The birds that sang in the hedge were not more musical than she was. She had the quickest fancy, a
11、 gift like her brothers, for the tune of words. Like him, she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door; she wanted to act, she said. Men laughed in her face. The manager a fat, loose-lipped man guffawed. He bellowed something about poodles dancing and women acting no woman, he said,
12、could possibly be an actress. He hinted you can imagine what. She could get no training in her craft. Could she even seek her dinner in a tavern or roam the streets at midnight? Yet her genius was for fiction and lusted to feed abundantly upon the lives of men and women and the study of their ways.
13、At last for she was very young, oddly like Shakespeare the poet in her face, with the same grey eyes and rounded brows Nick Greene the actor-manager took pity on her; she found herself with child by that gentleman and so who shall measure the heat and violence of the poets heart when caught and tang
14、led in a womans body? killed herself one winters night and lies buried at some crossroads where the omnibuses now stop outside the Elephant and Castle. (5) That, more or less, is how the story would run, I think, if a woman in Shakespeares day had had Shakespeares genius. 1 The word “escapade“ in th
15、e second paragraph probably means_. （ A） the act of getting away （ B） an unconventional act （ C） a punishment （ D） an ignorant mistake 2 In Shakespeares time, we can infer from the third paragraph that women were supposed to do all of the following EXCEPT_. （ A） doing housework （ B） being underrated
16、 （ C） being given arranged marriages （ D） killing time at home 3 The author aims to_. （ A） mock the difference between Shakespeare and his sister （ B） exaggerate the death of Shakespeares imaginary gifted sister （ C） identify with women in Shakespeares time （ D） ridicule the unfair treatment of wome
17、n in Shakespeares time 4 Which category of writing does the passage belong to? （ A） Description. （ B） Argumentation. （ C） Exposition. （ D） Narration. 4 (1) On Wednesday, the Treasury Department released more details of its plan to stress-test the nations 19 largest banks to see just how short of cap
18、ital they would be if the recession worsened. (2) Conceptually, the test makes sense. Since many of the banks have been deemed too big to fail, it is important for the government to know in advance how much capital they may need in order to absorb losses and sustain lending. Under the rules of the t
19、est, a bank that could not cover a projected shortfall by raising money from private investors would have to accept it from the government. In exchange, the government would take a potentially large ownership stake. (3) In practice, however, the test could be yet one more step toward what is turning
20、 out to be a seemingly endless string of bailouts that do not stop the bleeding, stabilize the banks or adequately protect taxpayers. (4) For starters, the tests worst-case assumptions may not be dire enough. They assume that the economy will contract this year by 3.3 percent and remain flat in 2010
21、, that unemployment will hit 8.9 percent this year and 10.3 percent next year, and that house prices will fall an additional 22 percent this year. That would all be very bad. But given that the economy contracted by 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and that virtually all other economic indi
22、cators are flashing red, it is hardly the worst that the government should plan for. (5) Even if the assumptions prove correct, there is no guarantee that the testing will be rigorous. The tests will be supervised by the government but carried out by the banks. Since a capital infusion by the govern
23、ment would be costly to a bank and pose risks to its existing shareholders, the banks will have an incentive to arrive at the lowest possible capital shortfall. (6) The result could be a situation much like the present one with Citigroup, in which one bailout follows another, with mounting costs and
24、 risks for taxpayers and with investors, borrowers and consumers left to wonder when the banking system will be reliably functional again. (7) Worse still, even if the tests accurately gauge the banks conditions and the government provides adequate capital, taxpayers could still lose big. The govern
25、ment will increase a troubled banks capital by purchasing preferred stock that pays a 9 percent dividend. If a bank cant pay the dividend, it can convert the preferred shares into common stock. (8) The problem is that a bank is likely to convert the shares only if its condition continues to deterior
26、ate, which would stick the taxpayer with stock falling in value. If the banks prospects for recovery are good and it pays back the government within two years, all of the stocks future gains go to existing common shareholders. The system would be preserved, but by enriching private investors at taxp
27、ayers expense. That raw deal is improved somewhat if repayment occurs after two years. Unfortunately, chances that a bank would return to health after years on government life support do not seem especially good. (9) The administration has never adequately explained why rescuing the weakest banks sh
28、ould involve rescuing their shareholders, and by extension, their executives and managers, whose wealth is likely to be concentrated in the stock of the bank. Instead, they have staked out a seemingly arbitrary position, insisting the government should not assume control of perilously weak big banks
29、, even if only to restructure their finances. (10) Before the stress test results are in and acted upon, taxpayers deserve an explanation. 5 We can learn from the first two paragraphs that_. （ A） the test has been carried out to check the financial conditions of 19 largest banks （ B） large banks are
30、 not in short of capital for the time being （ C） the government intends to make profits from this plan （ D） the test plan is meant to make preparations for potential danger of further recession 6 According to the passage, which of the following is INCORRECT? （ A） The stress-test plan is over-optimis
31、tic about the prospect of American economy. （ B） The stress-tests are likely to reveal the real conditions since they will be carried out under the supervision of the government. （ C） Taxpayers could still lose even if the government saves the banks from falling by providing the capital they need. （
32、 D） The government will take the large ownership stake from the bank in return for the capital it gives to the bank. 7 The stress-test plan will benefit the following parts EXCEPT_. （ A） American economy （ B） high-rank officials of the banks （ C） the shareholders of the banks （ D） taxpayers 8 Whats
33、the authors attitude towards the stress-test plan? （ A） Approving. （ B） Sarcastic. （ C） Indifferent. （ D） Doubtful. 8 (1) When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the final cuts to an already pain-peppered California budget in July, one of the most shocking indications of how dire things had become
34、 was the decision to close more than a third of the states parks. Fort Ross State Historic Park, 80 miles north of San Francisco, is among those that would have been closed. It was founded in 1812 as the southernmost Russian settlement in North America. Demonstrators outside the State Capitol in Sac
35、ramento last summer hung photos to share memories of their park visits. (2) On Friday, though, Mr. Schwarzeneggers office said sufficient alternative savings had been found within the California Department of Parks and Recreation to avoid any closings at all, at least in this fiscal year. The saving
36、s, which the department had been unable to identify during months of budget wrangling, were suddenly realized with the help of Schwarzenegger administration finance experts looking over the shoulders of parks officials. (3) In the two months since the July announcement, Mr. Schwarzeneggers threat to
37、 close 100 parks had landed in a budget soft spot created by bipartisan outrage among lawmakers, their constituents and lobbyists, and by a growing sense in the administration that closing parks would do little to burnish the governors reputation as a public figure committed to the environment. (4)
38、Though few will rue the preservation of the park system, the 11th-inning save does underscore how even in the worst fiscal conditions, the threat of vast cuts is sometimes false, fueling skepticism among lawmakers and voters about ominous budget pronouncements and the ballot measures that often ensu
39、e to address them. “The budget process is so complicated and confusing to people to begin with, and there is so much distrust in government, that when people hear about changes in spending cuts, they are left questioning whether or not real revenues are really needed,“ said Mark Baldassare, presiden
40、t of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group based in San Francisco. (5) A plan to cut $175 million from a health insurance program was also recently reversed, but that program was spared by bipartisan legislation that replaced one tax for another and used federal sti
41、mulus money to fill the gaps. The parks department situation is different, because it is essentially a re-do. The departments budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, was dealt a reduction of 10 percent, or $ 14.2 million. As a result, the state said in July, 100 of Californias 279 pa
42、rks were to close at least temporarily unless donations or private partnerships materialized. But in the last week, amid a growing outcry and a leaked parks department memorandum suggesting that closing state parks could result in breach-of-contract lawsuits by the parks vendors, the administration
43、began to back away. The backpedaling was apparently made complete with Fridays announcement by the governors office, which said the savings would instead be realized with steps like cutting back on maintenance, delaying the purchase of equipment and reducing days of operation in some parks, hours of
44、 operation in others. (6) The announcement described these savings as one-time, suggesting that the cost of running the parks would have to be addressed again in the budget for the next fiscal year. Roy Stearns, a spokesman for the parks department, said the earlier budget negotiations, which lasted
45、 months, had perhaps not offered sufficient time to find the cuts that will now come to pass. Others attributed the impetus to political pressure from parks advocates and from lawmakers representing districts where businesses profit from the parks presence. Mindful that Fridays rescue would nonethel
46、ess mean reduced hours for the parks, among other steps, Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation, said: “They still have a $ 14.2 million budget cut. The governor found a clever way to find some political cover on this issue, but its not clear that the plan wont actua
47、lly leave Californians with just as limited an access to their state parks as if they were fully closed. “ (7) The foundation and other conservation groups hope to place a measure on the November 2010 ballot that would increase vehicle license fees by $ 15 a year to finance the parks, a move that wo
48、uld double their budget and free it from the states general fund. In exchange, California drivers would get free admission to all state parks. The governor rejected a similar measure proposed by lawmakers during the legislative session. 9 Which of the following words in Para. 5 is used metaphoricall
49、y? （ A） Reversed. （ B） Stimulus. （ C） Gaps. （ D） Reduction. 10 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a possible approach to keep the parks open? （ A） Raising fund from the public. （ B） Collecting money from drivers. （ C） Shortening the opening hours. （ D） Getting help from the park officials. 11 We can learn from Para. 6 and Para. 7 that_. （ A） keeping the parks open can benefit the economy better （ B） drivers should bear the responsibility of helping the parks （ C） the problem of the parks is
