1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 180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) M
2、rs. Sowerberry burst into a flood of tears. This flood of tears left Mr. Sowerberry no alternative. (2) If he had hesitated for one instant to punish Oliver most severely, it must be quite clear to every experienced reader that he would have been, according to all precedents in disputes of matrimony
3、 established, a brute, an unnatural husband, an insulting creature, a base imitation of a man, and various other agreeable characters too numerous for recital within the limits of this chapter. To do him justice, he was, as far as his power went it was not very extensive indly disposed towards the b
4、oy; perhaps, because it was his interest to be so; perhaps, because his wife disliked him. The flood of tears, however, left him no resource; so he at once gave him a drubbing, which satisfied even Mrs. Sowerberry herself, and rendered Mr. Bumbles subsequent application of the parochial (教区的 ) cane,
5、 rather unnecessary. For the rest of the day, he was shut up in the back kitchen, in company with a pump and a slice of bread; and at night, Mrs. Sowerberry, after making various remarks outside the door, by no means complimentary to the memory of his mother, looked into the room, and, amidst the je
6、ers and pointings of Noah and Charlotte, ordered him upstairs to his dismal bed. (3) It was not until he was left alone in the silence and stillness of the gloomy workshop of the undertaker (殡仪员 ), that Oliver gave way to the feelings which the days treatment may be supposed likely to have awakened
7、in a mere child. He had listened to their taunts with a look of contempt; he had borne the lash without a cry: for he felt that pride swelling in his heart which would have kept down a shriek to the last, though they had roasted him alive. But now, when there were none to see or hear him, he fell up
8、on his knees on the floor; and, hiding his face in his hands, wept such tears as, God send for the credit of our nature, few so young may ever have cause to pour out before him! (4) For a long time, Oliver remained motionless in this attitude. The candle was burning low in the socket when he rose to
9、 his feet. Having gazed cautiously round him, and listened intently, he gently undid the fastenings of the door, and looked abroad. (5) It was a cold, dark night. The stars seemed, to the boys eyes, farther from the earth than he had ever seen them before; there was no wind; and the sombre shadows t
10、hrown by the trees upon the ground, looked sepulchral and death-like, from being so still. He softly reclosed the door. Having availed himself of the expiring light of the candle to tie up in a handkerchief the few articles of wearing apparel he had, sat himself down upon a bench, to wait for mornin
11、g. (6) With the first ray of light that struggled through the crevices in the shutters, Oliver arose, and again unbarred the door. One timid look around one moments pause of hesitation he had closed it behind him, and was in the open street. (7) He looked to the right and to the left, uncertain whit
12、her to fly. He remembered to have seen the waggons, as they went out, toiling up the hill. He took the same route; and arriving at a footpath across the fields: which he knew, after some distance, led out again into the road; struck into it, and walked quickly on. (8) Along this same footpath, Olive
13、r well-remembered he had trotted beside Mr. Bumble, when he first carried him to the workhouse (济贫院 ) from the farm. His way lay directly in front of the cottage. His heart beat quickly when he bethought himself of this; and he half resolved to turn back. He had come a long way though, and should lo
14、se a great deal of time by doing so. Besides, it was so early that there was very little fear of his being seen; so he walked on. (9) He reached the house. There was no appearance of its inmates stirring at that early hour. Oliver stopped, and peeped into the garden. A child was weeding one of the l
15、ittle beds; as he stopped, he raised his pale face and disclosed the features of one of his former companions. Oliver felt glad to see him, before he went; for, though younger than himself, he had been his little friend and playmate. They had been beaten, and starved, and shut up together, many and
16、many a time. (10) “Hush, Dick!“ said Oliver, as the boy ran to the gate, and thrust his thin arm between the rails to greet him. “Is any one up?“ (11) “Nobody but me,“ replied the child. (12) “You mustnt say you saw me, Dick,“ said Oliver. “I am running away. They beat and ill-use me, Dick; and I am
17、 going to seek my fortune, some long way off. I dont know where. How pale you are!“ (13) “I heard the doctor tell them I was dying,“ replied the child with a faint smile. “I am very glad to see you, dear; but dont stop, dont stop!“ (14) “Yes, yes, I will, to say good-bye to you,“ replied Oliver. “I
18、shall see you again, Dick. I know I shall! You will be well and happy!“ (15) “I hope so,“ replied the child. “After I am dead, but not before. I know the doctor must be right, Oliver, because I dream so much of Heaven, and Angels, and kind faces that I never see when I am awake. Kiss me,“ said the c
19、hild, climbing up the low gate, and flinging his little arms round Olivers neck. “Good-bye, dear! God bless you!“ (16) The blessing was from a young childs lips, but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head; and through the struggles and sufferings, and troubles and changes,
20、 of his after life, he never once forgot it. 1 Which of the following statements about Mr. Sowerberry is TRUE? （ A） He was masculine in his wifes eyes. （ B） He was the head of his family. （ C） He was a hen-pecked husband. （ D） He was kind to Oliver in reality. 2 According to Para. 3, mistreated Oliv
21、er didnt cry for the reason that_. （ A） he had been accustomed to the abuse （ B） he thought cry was of no help （ C） he feared more terrible torture （ D） he tried to stand on his dignity 3 It can be inferred from the passage that Oliver was_on the matter of escape. （ A） optimistic （ B） determined （ C
22、） hesitant （ D） numb 4 It can be inferred from Para. 15 that Dick was_. （ A） scared of death （ B） eager for death （ C） indifferent to death （ D） ignorant about death 4 (1) “ One million jobs to vanish in 10 years,“ shout the Monday morning headlines just to get the week off to a good start. But its
23、not another scary intervention in the referendum debate by a pro-European or a Brexiter. Its more serious man mat. (2) The culprit on tins occasion is me British Retail Consortium (BRC), the people who speak for shops of many sizes and employ one in six of British workers, about 3 million people. Th
24、ey think that 900,000 of them (not quite me million of me FTs headline) will disappear in the next decade, more in smaller businesses and poorer areas. (3) Why so? This is an upgrade of an old story, the impact of disruptive technologies on existing patterns of employment, bigger and smarter compute
25、rs, more online sales. But since George Osborne decided to become the workers friend and raise the minimum wage to a “national living“ variety (NLW), albeit slowly, its also a political story. Higher wages imposed by government will put low-paid shop workers jobs in danger, says the BRC. (4) Dont be
26、 smug, Mr. Lawyer, Ms Doctor, Sir Financial Adviser. Tech is starting to eat good middle-class jobs, much as automated production lines ate so many well-paid working-class jobs a generation ago. We know about this in journalism because our business was one of the first white-collar industries in the
27、 queue. Facebook and Google are busy eating our lunch; if we arent nimble enough, well be pudding. (5) Nothing too new there either. It was Keynes who first spoke of “technological unemployment“. But its getting faster, as it did for handloom (手摇纺织机 ) weavers around 1800. The result for all such bus
28、inesses, so the conventional scenario goes, is the pear-shaped labour market, which sees huge rewards for a tiny elite at the top and a lot (though not enough) insecure ones for millennials working in the gig economy. (6) The BRC warning (it comes a month before the minimum wage rises to 7.20 for th
29、e over-25s, a 9ph NLW by 2020) couples this development which it supports, in theory with rising business rates, price deflation (bad for profits, good for customers) and the online shopping effect, to say its going to get worse for jobs. The chancellor hasnt quite realised what hes done, though the
30、res an important clue in the fact that he has done something. More on that later. (7) In the tech jungle, nimble firms will move fast to adapt and survive. Retail banking, as useless at tech as the NHS, is finally moving at your semi-automated local branch. So, more ponderously, is the NHS. Amazon a
31、nd Morrisons have announced a hook-up, and didnt Sainsburys eat Argos the other day? The Mirror Group is launching New Day, a mid-market newspaper to challenge the Daily Mail and the Express. Good luck all. (8) Gloom, gloom, gloom. But is it all true? Martin Fords 2015 book, The Rise of the Robots a
32、nd Jerry Kaplans Humans Need Not Apply was a techno-pessimists vision, one in which a jobless future looms for millions (probably). (9) It assumes that rapid technological change will continue at the pace it has sustained since the late 18th century in Britain, a little later in most of Europe and t
33、he US, in Asia in the 20th century. Living standards barely rose for 1,000 years after the fall of the western Roman empire, along with a life of drudgery for most people. Steam power and the internal combustion engine (内燃机 ) , trains, electricity, proper medicine, good food and flush toilets, cars
34、and aircraft, the list from the first industrial revolution amounted to a staggering transformation, even before we touch on the current, third and digital one. The transformation is both wonderful and scary. (10) But is it overstated? Is the Apple and Facebook world as transformative as the flush l
35、oo, the plane, the lightbulb and washing machine? Are fast-slowing productivity rates in most industrial countries a sign that the age of peak growth the “30 glorious years“ of postwar France is over for us, soon for China too, as Taiwanese mega-manufacturer of iPads etc., Foxconn, shifts output tow
36、ards cheaper India? (11) In other words, after an aberrant few decades, do we face a return to the historic norm in a medieval sense, stagnation and no steady rise in incomes for most people, great wealth for a few? Thats what French economist, Thomas Pikketty warned against in Capital, last years i
37、mprobable bestseller. (12) That was reflected in Tyler Cowans thesis in The Great Stagnation (2011). It is shared by Robert Gordons The Rise and Fall of American Growth (2016) heres fellow economist Paul Krugmans review (paywall), which asks if Gordon is right and replies with “a definite maybe“. (1
38、3) Against which we should set optimists such as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfees The Second Machine Age (2014), which sees new technology as opening up more time for leisure, less time for drudgery in a world of ever greater abundance. Its reviewed in a very thoughtful way by the novelist John
39、Lanchester, along with Average is Over, by Tyler Cowan, another protagonist in the war into which the British Retail Consortiums report stumbles. (14) Robert Gordon and Cowan seem to belong to a third group I am indebted to the FTs US commentator, Edward Luce, for an excellent overview (paywall) who
40、 say optimists and pessimists may exaggerate an uncertain future about which we, the public, and assorted experts know less than we all think. Just look how silly many never allpast predictions of the future, gloomy and upbeat, have proved to be. In any case, as Lanchester points out, it took more t
41、han 100 years before the first working steam engine (1712) became the first serious working train, Stephensons Rocket of 1829. (15) Thats a picture we can all recognise, cant we? Our high streets are full of banks, estate agents, pawnbrokers of one kind or another, and we all seem to be trying to ch
42、arge each other for services such as parking, which were once free. Finance has got too big, governments know it and promise to “rebalance“ the economy. (16) It isnt easy, but it is always worth trying. So UK retailers are right to warn of challenges ahead, but Chancellor Osborne is also right to pu
43、sh, even slightly against, the spiral of lower wages, albeit at the risk of job losses. Society cant be passive in the face of high finance and high tech. 5 “Facebook and Google are busy eating our lunch“ in Para. 4 is used as a(n) _. （ A） euphemism （ B） metaphor （ C） analogy （ D） personification 6
44、In Para. 6, the following are factors contributing to worse unemployment EXCEPT_. （ A） high business rates （ B） severe deflation problems （ C） more online consumption （ D） weaker economic situation 7 According to Para. 10, which of the following statements is INCORRECT? （ A） The flush loo has brough
45、t huge changes to human beings. （ B） French economy experienced rapid development after World War II. （ C） China will keep continued economic growth in decades ahead. （ D） Foxconn prefers to produce iPads etc. in India. 8 With regard to the risk caused by high tech, which of the following statements
46、 is CORRECT? （ A） Paul Krugman didnt agree with Tyler Cowan. （ B） John Lanchesters point of view cohered with Tyler Cowans. （ C） Robert Gordon and Tyler Cowan hold completely different opinions. （ D） Edward Luce was on Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfees side. 9 It can be concluded from the passage
47、 that the author was_towards the challenge of high tech. （ A） indifferent （ B） neutral （ C） positive （ D） negative 9 (1) If your teenager is talking about taking a year away from the classroom between high school and college, you may have Malia Obama to thank for that. But if theyre not yet talking
48、about whether to follow her lead, they should be. (2) Taking time off between high school and college or sometime during the undergraduate years, as Malia Obama is doing before she attends Harvard University, has plenty of appeal for high school graduates who dont know what they want out of college
49、or seek to work, travel or volunteer on the sort of schedule mat an academic calendar does not allow. (3) Parents, however, often worry memselves sick over such talk. While no one wants to drop a six-figure sum on a teenager who doesnt want to be in school, there are often nagging doubts over whether students who stop for a bit will ultimately get back on track. (4) Twenty-five years ago, my friend Colin Hall and I tried to dispel those concerns by finding and interviewing as many
