1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 80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)One
2、 school night this month I sidled up to Alexander, my 15-year-old son, and stroked his cheek in a manner I hoped would seem casual. Alex knew better, sensing by my touch, which lingered just a moment too long, that I was sneaking a touch of the stubble that had begun to sprout near his ears. A year
3、ago he would have ignored this intrusion and returned my gesture with a squeeze. But now he recoiled, retreating stormily to his computer screen. That, and a peevish roll of his eyes, told me more forcefully than words, Mom, you are so busted! (2)I had committed the ultimate folly: invading my teena
4、gers personal space. “The average teenager has pretty strong feelings about his privacy,“ Lara Fox, a recent young acquaintance, told me with an assurance that brooked no debate. Her friend Hilary Frankel chimed in: “What Alex is saying is: “This is my body changing. Its not yours.“ Intruding, howev
5、er discreetly, risked making him feel babied “at a time when feeling like an adult is very important to him,“ she added. (3)O.K., score one for the two of you. These young women, after all, are experts. Ms. Frankel and Ms. Fox, both 17, are the authors of Breaking the Code(New American Library), a n
6、ew book that seeks to bridge the generational divide between parents and adolescents. It is being promoted by its publisher as the first self-help guide by teenagers for their parents, a kind of Kids Are From Mars, Parents Are From Venus that demystifies the language and actions of teenagers. The gi
7、rls tackled issues including curfews, money, school pressures, smoking and sibling rivalry. (4)Personally, I welcomed insights into teenagers from any qualified experts, and that included the authors. The most common missteps in interacting with teenagers, they instructed me, stem from the turf war
8、between parents asserting their right to know what goes on under their roof and teenagers zealously guarding their privacy. When a child is younger, they write, every decision revolves around the parents. But now, as Ms. Fox told me, “often your teenager is in this bubble that doesnt include you.“ (
9、5)Ms. Fox and Ms. Frankel acknowledge that they and their peers can be quick to interpret their parents remarks as dismissive or condescending and respond with hostility that masks their vulnerability. “What we want above all is your approval,“ they write. “Dont forget, no matter how much we act as
10、if we dont care what you say, we believe the things you say about us.“ (6)Nancy Samalin, a New York child-rearing expert and the author of Loving Without Spoiling(McGraw-Hill, 2003), said she didnt agree with everything the authors suggested but found their arguments reasonable. “When your kids are
11、saying, You dont get it, and you never will, there are lots of ways to respond so that they will listen,“ she said, “and thats what the writers point out.“ (7)As for my teenager, Alex, Ms. Fox and Ms. Frankel told me I would have done better to back off or to have asked “Is your skin feeling rougher
12、 these days?“ (8)A more successful approach, the authors suggest in their book, would have been for the mother to offer, as Ms. Foxs own parents did, a later curfew once a month, along with an explanation of her concerns. “My parents helped me see,“ Ms. Fox told me, “mat even though they used to sta
13、y out late and ride their bicycles to school, times have changed. These days there is a major fear factor in bringing up kids. Parents worry about their child crossing me street.“ (9)The writers said they hoped simply to shed light on teenage thinking. For their parents it did. Reminded by Ms. Fox t
14、hat teenagers can be quite territorial, her father, Steven Fox, a dentist, said, “These days Im better about knocking on the door when I want to come into Laras room.“ “I try to talk to her in a more respectful way, more as an adultish type of teenager rather than a childish type of teenager,“ he ad
15、ded. 1 The book Kids Are From Mars, Parents Are From Venus is mentioned in the third paragraph because _. （ A） it has the same theme of the book written by the two girls （ B） it has the opposite opinion to the book written by the two girls （ C） it has ranked first on the list of best sellers for sev
16、eral times （ D） it is another book that the two girls have ever written 2 As to the views mentioned in the two girls book, the author believes that _. （ A） they provide some approaches to her child-rearing （ B） they revealed thought patterns of teenagers and parents （ C） they have obtained unanimous
17、 support from the public （ D） they have overestimated the rights of teenagers 3 Which of the following words best describes teenagers as seen by the two girls? （ A） Independent. （ B） Arrogant. （ C） Sensitive. （ D） Isolated. 3 (1)Whom can you trust these days? It is a question posed by David Halpern
18、of Cambridge University, and the researchers at the Downing Street Strategy Unit who take an interest in “social capital“. At intervals they go around asking people in assorted nations the question: “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted?“ (2)The results are fascinating.
19、The conclusion that leaps from the figures and into sensational headlines is that social dislocation, religious decline, public scandals, family fragmentation and the fear of crime have made us less trusting. Comparative surveys over 40 years suggest that British trustfulness has halved: in the 1950
20、s 60 percent of us answered “yes, most people can be trusted“, in the 1980s 44 percent, today only 29 percent. Trust levels also continue to fall in Ireland and the US meanwhile, the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Dutch express tremendous confidence in one anothers probity: levels are actually rising
21、. And the Palme dOr for paranoid mutual suspicion goes to the Brazilians with less than 3 percent replying “yes“ and the Turks with 6.5 percent. The French, apparently, never trusted one another and still dont. So we become less Scandinavian and more French(or Turkish)every year. (3)Regarding Britai
22、n, the obvious conclusions are being drawn. Mr. Halpern and others cite reasons why we appear less trustful: the demise of the job-for-life culture, rising divorce, physical mobility, higher immigration, an aggressive commercial ethic and the new isolation of mass media. (4)This is useful research,
23、but there are a few caveats. The trouble is that you may not get a very thoughtful answer if you merely ask as they did last year whether “generally speaking, most people can be trusted“. For the British like to think of themselves as canny, savvy, nobodys fools, we have a powerful culture of satire
24、 and a hypercritical media which gleefully splash news of every private and public betrayal, however trivial. In our fantasy life we court paranoia, lapping up crime thrillers and spy novels. We are fascinated by rogues, from Chaucers Pardoner to Del Boy. We are bad at risk-assessment, and repeated
25、surveys show that we fear crime far more than is justified. (5)So we are conditioned to claim that we dont trust people much. A Scandinavian or Dutchman is proud to express trust and affection for his fellow-man. Our national preference is to purse the lips, shake the head and affect an air of judic
26、ious canniness. (6)But if you look at the actual daily workings of British society there is an astonishing degree of unquestioning trust of strangers, simply because we are a technological society. These respondents who tell the researchers that “generally speaking, people cannot be trusted“ are in
27、fact blithely trusting distant strangers all day long. For example, every time you get on a train or plane you put your life into the hands of unseen engineers and designers, drivers, pilots and traffic controllers. The list of our trustful ways goes on and on. Twenty minutes contemplation of the si
28、mple scams uncovered by the BBC Watchdog should suggest that rather than living in a state of constant suspicion, in many areas of life we are relaxed to the point of gullibility. (7)But ask the bald question, and we think immediately about those who publicly let us down: politicians who broke elect
29、ion promises, pension funds that jeopardized our future while their directors swanned off with bonuses, stars who turned sleazy. This is not entirely healthy. What we say will, in the end, become what we think. US evidence is denser than ours, but broadly speaking it is clear mat trust is linked to
30、“social capital“ networks, alliances, local societies, anything that takes people out into common places. (8)Mr. Halperns book will come to more informed conclusions than I can; but my own instinct, from the research and from observation, is to draw only two. Firstly, were not quite as cynical as we
31、 say we are, and nothing like as cynical as our media. Secondly, the worst crisis of trust is not actually between citizens, but between citizens and their government and institutions. The remedy for that is in the hands of politicians, who ought to police their own ambition and greed and that of th
32、eir corporate friends. Interference from the top is a lousy idea. Example from the top would be much better. 4 The British have lowered trustfulness NOT because of_. （ A） strained relations in the family （ B） the increasing social crimes （ C） infamous deeds of celebrities （ D） the society in a state
33、 of disorder 5 The authors attitude towards Halperns research is that of_. （ A） blanket approval （ B） slight antipathy （ C） strong disapproval （ D） slight disapproval 6 The following statements about Scandinavians or Britons are true EXCEPT _. （ A） Scandinavians are generally frank and open （ B） Bri
34、tons are very fond of satirical art （ C） Scandinavians pretend to be shrewd （ D） Britons might underestimate the hazard 6 (1)The exasperated helpline caller said she couldnt get her new Dell Computer to turn on. A Dell Computer Corp technician made sure the computer was plugged in and then asked the
35、 woman what happened when she pushed the power button. “Ive pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens,“ the woman replied. “Foot pedal?“ the technician asked. “Yes,“ the woman said, “this little white foot pedal with the on switch.“ The “foot pedal“, it turned out, was the computers m
36、ouse, a hand-operated device that helps to control the computers operations. (2)Personal computer makers are discovering that its still a low-tech world out there. While they are finally having great success selling PCs to households, they now have to deal with people to whom monitors and disk drive
37、rs are as foreign as another language. (3)“It is rather mystifying to get this nice, beautiful machine and not know anything about it,“ says a technician who helps field consumer calls at Dells headquarters here. “Its going into unfamiliar territory. People are looking for a comfort level.“ (4)Only
38、two years ago, most calls to PC helplines came from techniques needing help on complex problems. But now, with computer sales to homes exploding as new “multimedia“ functions gain mass appeal, PC makers say that as many as 70% of their calls come from rank novices. Partly because of the volume of ca
39、lls, some computer companies have started charging helpline users. (5)The questions are often so basic that they could have been asked by opening the manual that comes with every machine. One woman called Dells toll-free line to ask how to install batteries in her laptop. When told that the directio
40、ns were on the first page of the manual, the woman replied angrily. “I just spent $2,000 for this damn thing, and Im not going to read a book.“ (6)Indeed, it seems that these buyers barely refer to a manual when a phone is at hand. If there is a book and a phone and theyre side by side, the phone wi
41、ns time after time. Its a phenomenon of people wanting to talk to people. (7)And so they ever. Compaqs help center in Houston, Texas, is inundated by some 8,000 consumer calls a day, with unbelievable inquiries like this one: A frustrated customer called, who said her brand new Compaq would not work
42、. She had unpacked the unit, plugged it in, opened it up and, sat there for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked, “What power switch?“ (8)Seemingly simple computer features baffle some users. So many people have called to ask where the “any“ key
43、is when “Press Any Key“ flashes on the screen that Compaq is considering changing the command to “Press Return Key“. (9)Some people cant figure out the mouse. One consumer complained that her mouse was hard to control with the “dust“ cover on. The cover turned out to be the plastic bag the mouse was
44、 packaged in. Another consumer held the mouse and pointed it at the screen, all the while clicking madly. He got no response because the mouse works if its moved over a flat surface. Disk drivers are another bugaboo. (10)A customer dutifully complied with a technicians request that she send in a cop
45、y of defective floppy disk. A letter from the customer arrived a few days later, along with a Xerox copy of the floppy. (11)And at Dell, a technician advised his customer to put his troubled floppy back in the drive and “close the door“. Asking the technician to “hold on“, me customer put the phone
46、down and was heard walking over to shut the door to his room. The technician meant the door to his floppy drive. (12)The software inside the computer can be equally befuddling. A Dell customer called to say he couldnt get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of troubleshooting, the technic
47、ian discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the “send“ key. (13)Not realizing how fragile computers can be, some people end up damaging parts beyond repair. A Dell customer called to complain mat his keyboard no longer worked. He
48、 had cleaned it, he said, filling up his tub with soap and water and soaking his keyboard for a day, and then removing all the keys and washing them individually. (14)Computers make some people paranoid. A Dell technician, Morgan Vergara, says he once calmed a man who became enraged because “his com
49、puter had told him he was bad and an invalid“; Mr. Vergara patiently explained mat the computers “bad“ and “invalid“ responses shouldnt be taken personally. 7 The woman at first took_ as the power button. （ A） the plug （ B） the keyboard （ C） the mouse （ D） the foot pedal 8 The user did all of the following funny things EXCEPT that_. （ A） the user didnt know how to switch on the computer （ B） the user regarded the keyboard as a remote control （ C） the user spent much time looking for a key （ D） t
