1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 83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)Des
2、pite Denmarks manifest virtues, Danes never talk about how proud they are to be Danes. This would sound weird in Danish. When Danes talk to foreigners about Denmark, they always begin by commenting on its tininess, its unimportance, the difficulty of its language, the general small-mindedness and se
3、lf-indulgence of their countrymen and the high taxes. No Dane would look you in the eye and say, “Denmark is a great country.“ Youre supposed to figure this out for yourself. (2)It is the land of the silk safety net, where almost half the national budget goes toward smoothing out lifes inequalities,
4、 and there is plenty of money for schools, day care, retraining programmes, job seminars Danes love seminars: three days at a study center hearing about waste management is almost as good as a ski trip. It is a culture bombarded by English, in advertising, pop music, the Internet, and despite all th
5、e English that Danish absorbs there is no Danish Academy to defend against it old dialects persist in Jutland that can barely be understood by Copenhageners. It is the land where, as the saying goes, “Few have too much and fewer have too little,“ and a foreigner is struck by the sweet egalitarianism
6、 that prevails, where the lowliest clerk gives you a level gaze, where Sir and Madame have disappeared from common usage, even Mr. and Mrs. Its a nation of recyclers about 55% of Danish garbage gets made into something new and no nuclear power plants. Its a nation of tireless planners. Trains run on
7、 time. Things operate well in general. (3)Such a nation of overachievers. A brochure from the Ministry of Business and Industry says, “Denmark is one of the worlds cleanest and most organized countries, with virtually no pollution, crime, or poverty. Denmark is the most corruption-free society in th
8、e Northern Hemisphere.“ So, of course, ones heart lifts at any sighting of Danish sleaze: skinhead graffiti on buildings(“Foreigners Out of Denmark!“), broken beer bottles in the gutters, drunken teenagers slumped in the park. (4)Nonetheless, it is an orderly land. You drive through a Danish town, i
9、t comes to an end at a stone wall, and on the other side is a field of barley, a nice clean line: town here, country there. It is not a nation of jaywalkers. People stand on the curb and wait for the red light to change, even if its 2 a.m. and theres not a car in sight. However, Danes dont think of
10、themselves as a waiting-at-2-a.m.-for-the-green-light people thats how they see Swedes and Germans. Danes see themselves as jazzy people, improvisers, more free spirited than Swedes, but the truth is(though one should not say it)that Danes are very much like Germans and Swedes. Orderliness is a main
11、 selling point. Denmark has few natural resources, limited manufacturing capability; its future in Europe will be as a broker, banker, and distributor of goods. You send your goods by container ship to Copenhagen, and these bright, young, English-speaking, utterly honest, highly disciplined people w
12、ill get your goods around to Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and Russia. Airports, seaports, highways, and rail lines are ultramodern and well-maintained. (5)The orderliness of the society doesnt mean that Danish lives are less messy or lonely than yours or mine, and no Dane would tell you so. You c
13、an hear plenty about bitter family feuds and the sorrows of alcoholism and about perfectly sensible people who went off one day and killed themselves. An orderly society cannot exempt its members from the hazards of life. (6)But there is a sense of entitlement and security that Danes grow up with. C
14、ertain things are yours by virtue of citizenship, and you shouldnt feel bad for taking what youre entitled to, youre as good as anyone else. The rules of the welfare system are clear to everyone, me benefits you get if you lose your job, the steps you take to get a new one; and the orderliness of th
15、e system makes it possible for the country to weather high unemployment and social unrest without a sense of crisis. 1 The author thinks that Danes adopt a_attitude towards their country. （ A） boastful （ B） modest （ C） deprecating （ D） mysterious 2 Which of the following is NOT a Danish characterist
16、ic cited in the passage? （ A） Fondness of foreign culture. （ B） Equality in society. （ C） Linguistic tolerance. （ D） Persistent planning. 3 According to the passage, Danish orderliness_. （ A） sets the people apart from Germans and Swedes （ B） spares Danes social troubles besetting other peoples （ C）
17、 is considered economically essential to the country （ D） prevents Danes from acknowledging existing troubles 4 At the end of the passage the author states all the following EXCEPT that_. （ A） Danes are clearly informed of their social benefits （ B） Danes take for granted what is given to them （ C）
18、the open system helps to tide the country over （ D） orderliness has alleviated unemployment 4 (1)“Twenty years ago, Blackpool turned its back on the sea and tried to make itself into an entertainment centre,“ says Robin Wood, a local official. “Now the thinking is that we should try to refocus on th
19、e sea and make Blackpool a family destination again.“ To say that Blackpool neglected the sea is to put it mildly. In 1976 the European Community, as it then was called, instructed member nations to make their beaches conform to certain minimum standards of cleanliness within ten years. Britain, rat
20、her than complying, took the novel strategy of contending that many of its most popular beaches were not swimming beaches at all. Because of Britains climate the sea-bathing season is short, and most people dont go in above their knees anyway and hence cant really be said to be swimming. By averagin
21、g out the number of people actually swimming across 365 days of the year, the government was able to persuade itself, if no one else, that Britain had hardly any real swimming beaches. (2)As one environmentalist put it to me: “You had the ludicrous situation in which Luxembourg had more listed publi
22、c bathing beaches than the whole of the United Kingdom. It was preposterous.“ (3)Meanwhile, Blackpool continued to discharge raw sewage straight into the sea. Finally, after much pressure from both environmental groups and the European Union, the local water authority built a new waste-treatment fac
23、ility for the whole of Blackpool and neighbouring communities. The facility came online in June 1996. For the first time since the industrial revolution Blackpools waters are safe to swim in. (4)That done, the town is now turning its attention to making the sea-front more visually attractive. The pr
24、omenade, once a rather elegant place to stroll, had become increasingly tatty and neglected. “It was built in Victorian times and needed a thorough overhaul anyway,“ says Wood, “so we decided to make aesthetic improvements at the same time, to try to draw people back to it.“ Blackpool recently spent
25、 about $1.4 million building new kiosks for vendors and improving seating around the Central Pier and plans to spend a further $15 million on various amenity projects. (5)The most striking thing about Blackpool these days compared with 20 years ago is how empty its beaches are. When the tide is out,
26、 Blackpools beaches are a vast plain of beckoning sand. They look spacious enough to accommodate comfortably the entire populace of northern England. Ken Welsby remembers days when, as he puts it, “you couldnt lay down a handkerchief on this beach, it was that crowded.“ (6)Welsby comes from Preston,
27、 20 miles down the road, and has been visiting Blackpool all his life. Now retired, he had come for the day with his wife, Kitty, and their three young grandchildren, who were gravely absorbed in building a sandcastle. “Two hundred thousand people theyd have on this beach sometimes,“ Welsby said. “Y
28、ou cant imagine it now, can you?“ (7)Indeed I could not. Though it was a bright sunny day in the middle of summer, I counted just 13 people scattered along a half mile or so of open sand. Except for those rare times when hot weather and a public holiday coincide, it is like this nearly always now. (
29、8)“You cant imagine how exciting it was to come here for the day when we were young,“ Kitty said. “Even from Preston, it was a big treat. Now children dont want the beach. They want arcade games and rides in helicopters and goodness knows what else.“ She stared out over the glittery water. “Well nev
30、er see those days again. Its sad really.“ (9)“But your grandchildren seem to be enjoying it,“ I pointed out. (10)“For the moment,“ Ken said. “For the moment.“ (11)Afterward I went for a long walk along the empty beach, then went back to the town centre and treated myself to a large portion of fish-a
31、nd-chips wrapped in paper. The way they cook it in Blackpool, it isnt so much a meal as an invitation to a heart attack, but it was delicious. Far out over the sea the sun was setting with such splendor that I would almost have sworn I could hear the water hiss where it touched. (12)Behind me the li
32、ghts of Blackpool Tower were just twinkling on, and the streets were beginning to fill with happy evening throngs. In the purply light of dusk the town looked peaceful and happy enchanting even and there was an engaging air of expectancy, of fun about to happen. Somewhat to my surprise, I realized t
33、hat this place was beginning to grow on me. 5 At the beginning, the passage seems to suggest that Blackpool _. （ A） will continue to remain as an entertainment centre （ B） complied with ECs standards of cleanliness （ C） had no swimming beaches all along （ D） is planning to revive its former attracti
34、on 6 We can learn from the passage that Blackpool used to _. （ A） have as many beaches as Luxembourg （ B） have seriously polluted drinking water （ C） boast some imposing seafront sights （ D） attract few domestic holiday makers 7 What Blackpools beaches strike visitors most is their _. （ A） emptiness
35、 （ B） cleanliness （ C） modernity （ D） monotony 8 It can be inferred at the end of the passage that the author _. （ A） took a fancy to Blackpool （ B） felt exhausted after a day trip （ C） was surprised by the meal （ D） felt isolated in Blackpool 8 (1)The European Union has been operating in 20 officia
36、l languages since ten new member states joined the legislative body last year. With annual translation costs set to rise to 1.3 billion dollars(U.S.), some people question whether EU institutions are becoming overburdened by multilingualism. Brussels, Belgium, the European Unions headquarters city,
37、is fast getting a reputation as the new Babel. Parliamentary sessions are conducted 20 languages simultaneously. With further countries soon to join the EU, some analysts fear the effectiveness of its institutions could be getting lost in translation. (2)The European Parliament requires some 60 inte
38、rpreters to help elected politicians from the 25 member states understand each other. These interpreters work in soundproofed booths, translating the words of European members of Parliament(MEPs). Even so, unfamiliar words or phrases can leave interpreters lost for words, says Struan Stevenson, a Br
39、itish MEP. Comic misunderstandings can arise that become part of Brussels lore. For instance, during an agricultural working group session, “frozen semen“ was translated into French as “frozen seamen“. Another MEP recalls how the expression “out of sight, out of mind“ became “invisible lunatic“ afte
40、r a computer-aided translation. (3)The European Commission(EC), the legislative body of the European Union, says its essential that legislation is published in the official languages of all member states, because EU citizens cant be expected to comply with laws they dont understand. However, the res
41、ulting translation workload has meant problems for both the EC and individual member states. For instance, Estonias government this month reported major difficulties in ratifying some European legislation because of poor translation of EU laws. The EC also admits to difficulties in finding sufficien
42、t numbers of qualified translators in languages such as Maltese, which is spoken by only about 370,000 people. (4)Most EC translators also have access to a powerful computer application called Translators Workbench, which stores all previous work. “The translator faced with a new assignment feeds it
43、 into the system and gets back a text in which the memory suggests translations of phrases, sentences, or even whole paragraphs that have been translated in the past,“ Rowe, spokesperson for the ECs Directorate-General for Translation, said. “We always recycle previous work wherever possible.“ He ad
44、ds that internal EC work is conducted largely in just three languages English, French, and German for reasons of efficiency and economy. In the longer term, such an approach may be the way forward throughout the EU, according to Giles Chichester, a British MEP. “In practice, the institutions are try
45、ing to move towards one dominant language, with one or two other working languages,“ he said. “Let nature take its course.“ (5)Unofficially, English is the language of choice within the EU. It is now used for drafting around 60 percent of all paperwork. English is also widely spoken as a second lang
46、uage in Europe, especially in Scandinavian and Eastern European countries. In Malta, the vast majority of residents understand English. Officially, however, an EU dominated by English would be unacceptable politically. The French are particularly sensitive to its increased use, while multilingualism
47、 is considered a vital cornerstone of the European Parliament. (6)“Members are elected and represent the public because of their political stances, not their language skills,“ said Rowe, the EC translation-services spokesman. “So in the interests of democracy and transparency, the service provided t
48、o them has to be much more multilingual.“ (7)In fact, the amount of translation and interpretation work could multiply further if various political groups get their way. Catalan is spoken by some seven million Europeans, mostly in Spain. Yet it doesnt have official status within the EU. Similarly, t
49、he Irish and Welsh are lobbying for official recognition of their native Celtic tongues. For the European Union to work as one, “Eurobabble“ may be the price it has to pay. 9 The third paragraph does NOT imply that _. （ A） mastering foreign languages can not be forcefully required in EU （ B） minor languages will suffer more serious translation difficulties （ C） members can block legislation with the excuse of poor translation （ D） the overall ratification of legislation in EU will take a long tim
