1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 98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)He
2、was an old man who fished alone in a boat in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boys parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is
3、the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat, which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or harpoon(鱼叉 )and the sail that
4、 was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat. (2)The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown spots of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic se
5、a were on his cheeks. The spots ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeate
6、d. (3)“Santiago,“ the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the boat was hauled up. “I could go with you again. Weve made some money.“ The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him. “No,“ the old man said. “Youre with a lucky boat. Stay with them.“ “But remember how you
7、went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.“ “I remember,“ the old man said. “I know you did not leave me because you doubted.“ “It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him.“ “I know,“ the old man said. “It is quite normal.“ “He hasnt much
8、 faith.“ “No,“ the old man said. “But we have. Havent we?“ “Yes,“ the boy said. “Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace and then well take the stuff home.“ “Why not?“ the old man said. “Between fishermen.“ (4)They sat on the Terrace and many of the fishermen made fun of the old man and he was not ang
9、ry. Others, of the older fishermen, looked at him and were sad. But they did not show it and they spoke politely about the current and the depths they had drifted their lines at and the steady good weather and of what they had seen. The successful fishermen of that day were already in and had butche
10、red their marlin out and carried them laid full length across two planks, with two men staggering at the end of each plank, to the fish house where they waited for the ice truck to carry them to the market in Havana. Those who had caught sharks had taken them to the shark factory on the other side o
11、f the bay where they were hoisted on a block and tackle, their livers removed, their fins cut off and their hides skinned out and their flesh cut into strips for salting. When the wind was in the east a smell came across the harbour from the shark factory; but today there was only the faint edge of
12、the odour because the wind had backed into the north and then dropped off and it was pleasant and sunny on the Terrace. (5)“Santiago,“ the boy said. “Yes,“ the old man said. He was holding his glass and thinking of many years ago. “Can I go out to get sardines for you for tomorrow?“ “No. Go and play
13、 baseball. I can still row and Rogelio will throw the net.“ “I would like to go. If I cannot fish with you. I would like to serve in some way.“ “You bought me a beer,“ the old man said. “You are already a man.“ “How old was I when you first took me in a boat?“ “Five and you nearly were killed when I
14、 brought the fish in and he nearly tore the boat to pieces. Can you remember?“ “I can remember the tail slapping and banging and the thwart breaking and the noise of the clubbing. I can remember you throwing me into the bow where the wet coiled lines were and feeling the whole boat shiver and the no
15、ise of you clubbing him like chopping a tree down and the sweet blood smell all over me.“ The old man looked at him with his sun-burned, confident loving eyes. (6)“If you were my boy, Id take you out and gamble,“ he said. “But you are your fathers and your mothers and you are in a lucky boat.“ “May
16、I get the sardines? I know where I can get four baits too.“ “I have mine left from today. I put them in salt in the box.“ “Let me get four fresh ones.“ “One,“ the old man said. His hope and his confidence had never gone. But now they were freshening as when the breeze rises. “Two,“ the boy said. “Tw
17、o,“ the old man agreed. “You didnt steal them?“ “I would,“ the boy said. “But I bought these.“ “Thank you,“ the old man said. He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride. (7)“Tomorro
18、w is going to be a good day with this current,“ he said. “Where are you going?“ the boy asked. “Far out to come in when the wind shifts. I want to be out before it is light.“ “Ill try to get him to work far out,“ the boy said. “Then if you hook something truly big we can come to your aid.“ “He does
19、not like to work too far out.“ “No,“ the boy said. “But I will see something that he cannot see such as a bird working and get him to come out after dolphin.“ “Are his eyes that bad?“ “He is almost blind.“ “It is strange,“ the old man said. “He never went turtle-ing. That is what kills the eyes.“ “B
20、ut you went turtle-ing for years off the Mosquito Coast and your eyes are good.“T am a strange old man.“ “But are you strong enough now for a truly big fish?“ “I think so. And there are many tricks.“ “Let us take the stuff home,“ the boy said. “So I can get the cast net and go after the sardines.“ 1
21、 Which of the following statements can best summarize the main idea of the fourth paragraph? （ A） The way people treated the old man and the fate of the fish caught by them. （ B） The introduction of the places where the fish were killed. （ C） The old man and the boy sat on the Terrace, drinking beer
22、. （ D） The old man showed other fishermen how to kill the fish they caught. 2 Which of the following sentences contains a simile? （ A） The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.(Para. 1) （ B） Everything about him was old except his eyes and they w
23、ere the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.(Para. 2) （ C） I can remember you throwing me into the bow where the wet coiled lines were.(Para. 5) （ D） The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck.(Para. 2) 3 The following words said by the boy show his
24、love for the old man EXCEPT_. （ A） It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him(Para. 3) （ B） Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace and then well take the stuff home(Para. 3) （ C） I can remember the tail slapping and banging and the thwart breaking and the noise of the clubbing(Para. 5)
25、 （ D） If I cannot fish with you. I would like to serve in some way(Para. 5) 4 What can we infer from the boys words “But you went turtle-ing for years off the Mosquito Coast and your eyes are good“(Para. 7)? （ A） Turtle-ing does no harm to ones eyes. （ B） The old man deceives the boy about turtle-in
26、g. （ C） Turtle-ing requires many strange tricks. （ D） The old mans turtle-ing technique is good. 4 (1)Space may seem remote, but its really not that far away. The popular orbits for satellites begin twice as far up about 400 miles above our heads. There telecommunications and weather satellites orbi
27、t at the same rate that Earth rotates, allowing them to hover above a single spot on the Equator. (2)It was the explosions of derelict rockets that first drew NASAs attention to debris. In the 1970s Delta rockets left in orbit began blowing up after delivering their payloads. An investigation showed
28、 that the bulkheads separating the leftover fuels were probably cracking as a result of the rockets passing in and out of sunlight. NASA began recommending that leftover fuels be burned at the end of a flight, or that they be vented into space. Still, every few months on average an old rocket or sat
29、ellite explodes, flinging a cloud of debris into space. (3)For many years NASA and the Department of Defense were skeptical about the dangers of space debris. The problem seemed abstract, residing more in computer models than in hard experience. And it challenged the can-do mentality of space enthus
30、iasts. Earths orbit seemed too large and empty to pollute. To its credit, NASA has long maintained a debris-research program, staffed by top-notch scientists who have persisted in pointing out the long-term hazards of space junk even when the higher-ups at NASA didnt want to hear about it. Then the
31、Challenger accident came in 1986. NASA officials realized that their emphasis on human space flight could backfire. If people died in space, public support for the shuttle program could unravel. (4)Engineers took a new look at the shuttle and the international Space Station. Designed in the 1970s, w
32、hen debris was not considered a factor, the shuttle was determined to be clearly vulnerable. After almost every mission windows on the shuttle are so badly pitted by microscopic debris that they need to be replaced. Soon NASA was flying the shuttle upside down and backward, so that its rockets, rath
33、er than the more sensitive crew compartments, would absorb the worst impacts. And engineers were adding shielding to the space stations most vulnerable areas. At this point the modules should be able to survive impacts with objects measuring up to half an inch across, and NASA is developing repair k
34、its for plugging larger holes in the walls. (5)But adding shielding and repair kits wont solve the real problem. The real problem is that whenever something is put into an orbit, the risk of collision for all objects in that orbit goes up. Therefore, the only truly effective measure is a process kno
35、wn as deorbiting removing objects from orbit when they reach the end of their useful lives. With current technology deorbiting requires that a satellite or a rocket reserve enough fuel for one last trip after its operations are finished. With enough fuel a spacecraft can promptly immolate itself in
36、the atmosphere or fly far away from the most crowded orbits. If less fuel is available, it can aim for an orbit where atmospheric drag will eventually pull it to Earth. The logic behind deorbiting has been inescapable since the beginning of the Space Age, yet it has just begun to penetrate the consc
37、iousness of spacecraft designers and launchers. (6)Furthermore, the character of the Space Age is changing. The private sector now puts more payloads into orbit than do NASA and the U.S. and Russian militaries combined. A score of communications companies in the United States and other countries hav
38、e announced plans that will put hundreds of satellites into orbit over the next decade. Many will fly in relatively low orbits within a few hundred miles above where the space station will orbit, so that they can relay signals coming from hand-held phones. (7)None of these companies is under any obl
39、igation to limit orbital debris. Companies that are launching large constellations of satellites are worried about collisions between the satellites, and they are well aware that a public-relations disaster would ensue if a piece of a shattered satellite smacked the station. As a result, some plan t
40、o deorbit satellites at the end of their useful lives. But other companies are leaving their satellites up or are counting on atmospheric drag to bring them down. (8)Government regulations covering orbital debris are still rudimentary. For now, the federal agencies that have authority over commercia
41、l launches are waiting to see if the private sector can deal with the problem on its own. But deorbiting rockets and satellites is expensive. A satellite could keep operating for several additional months if it didnt need to reserve fuel for deorbiting. Some industry representatives say they want re
42、gulations, but only if the regulations apply to everyone and cannot be evaded. (9)One reason for our nonchalance is that new technologies have gotten us out of many past scrapes and maybe they will with orbital debris, too. Perhaps a future spaceship will race around Earth grabbing old spacecraft an
43、d flinging them back into the atmosphere, though it is hard to imagine a similar clean-up method for the small pieces of debris generated by collisional cascading. Maybe Star Wars technologies will produce a laser that can shoot orbital junk from the sky. In 1987 the World Commission on Environment
44、and Development defined sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In space we are failing the sustainability test miserably. A hundred years from now, when our descendants want to put satellites
45、into orbits teeming with debris, they will wonder what we could have been thinking. The simple answer is we werent thinking at all. 5 NASA began to pay attention to the debris problem because _. （ A） leftover fuels were heated and caused the rockets explosion （ B） burning of articles on the rockets
46、caused explosion （ C） leftover fuels leaked and the rockets fell onto the earth （ D） the rockets snapped in the sun and caused explosion 6 What can be inferred from the third paragraph? （ A） There was little chance of the earth being polluted by debris. （ B） Debris pollution didnt arouse enough publ
47、ic notice. （ C） Few scientists believed debris pollution is harmful. （ D） US government showed great concern for debris pollution. 7 NASA has used all the following methods EXCEPT _. （ A） adding some protective covering （ B） fixing the concerned equipments （ C） replacing the shuttle with a rocket （
48、D） applying a new technology 8 All private companies will deal with space debris when_. （ A） deorbiting rockets and satellites is less expensive （ B） the national law orders them to solve the problem （ C） their satellites are beyond the limits of service lifetime （ D） operable rules have been made b
49、y the government 9 A suitable title for the passage would be _. （ A） Causes of Producing Space Debris （ B） American Shuttle Program （ C） Ways of Combating Space Debris （ D） The Danger of Space Junk 9 (1)The excavated rooms of the Fullonica of Stephanus wool factory are home to some of Pompeiis best-preserved artifacts. Against one wall the terracotta basins used to wash wool with a mixture of water and urine a winning formula before soap was developed offer a rare glimpse into Pompeian life before the disastrous eruption of Mou
