1、专业英语八级（阅读）练习试卷 29及答案与解析 0 When Tony Blair was elected to Britains House of Commons in 1983, he was just 30, the Labour Partys youngest M.R Labour had just fought and lost a disastrous election campaign on a far-left platform, and Margaret Thatcher, fresh from her victory in the Falklands War, was in
2、 her pomp. The opposition to Thatcher was limited to a few ancient warhorses and a handful of bright young things. Blair, boyish Blair, quickly became one of the best of the breed. Nobody would call Blair, 54 on May 6, boyish today. His face is older and beaten up, his reputation in shreds. Very soo
3、n, he will announce the timetable for his departure from office. In a recent poll for the Observer newspaper, just 6% of Britons said they found Blair trustworthy, compared with 43% who thought the opposite. In Britain as in much of the rest of the world Blair is considered an unpopular failure. Ive
4、 been watching Blair practically since he entered politics at first close up from the House of Commons press gallery, later from thousands of miles away. In nearly a quarter-century, I have never come across a public figure who more consistently asked the important questions about the relationships
5、between individuals, communities and governments or who thought more deeply about how we should conduct ourselves in an interconnected world in which loyalties of nationality, ethnicity and religion continue to run deep. Blairs personal standing in the eyes of the British public may never recover, b
6、ut his ideas, especially in foreign policy, will long outlast him. Britons (who have and expect an intensely personal relationship with their politician) love to grumble about their lot and their leaders, especially if like Blair theyve been around for a decade. So you would never guess from a few h
7、ours down the pub how much better a place Britain is now than it was a decade ago. Its more prosperous, its healthier, its better educated, and with all the inevitable caveats about disaffected young Muslim men it is the European nation most comfortable with the multicultural future that is the fate
8、 of all of them. It would be foolish to give all the credit for the state of this blessed plot to Blair but equally foolish to deny him any of it. In todays climate, however, this counts for naught compared with the blame that Blair attracts for ensnaring Britain in the fiasco of Iraq. As the Bush A
9、dministration careered from a war in Afghanistan to one in Iraq, with Blair always in support, it became fashionable to say the Prime Minister had become the Presidents poodle. This attack both misreads history and misunderstands Blair. Long before 9/11 shook up conventional thinking in foreig, n af
10、fairs, Blair had come by two beliefs he still holds: First, that it is wrong for the rest of the world to sit back and expect the U.S. to solve the really tough questions. Second, that some things a state does within its borders justify intervention even if they do not directly threaten another nati
11、ons interests. Blair understood that today any countrys problems could quickly spread. As he said in a speech in 2004, “Before Sept. 11, I was already reaching for a different philosophy in international relations from a traditional one that has held sway since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 namel
12、y, that a countrys internal affairs are for it and you dont interfere unless it threatens you, or breaches a treaty, or triggers an obligation of alliance.“ Blairs thinking crystallized during the Kosovo crisis in 1999. For Blair, the actions of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic were so heinous that
13、 they demanded a response. There was nothing particularly artful about the way he put this. In an interview with Blair for a TV film on Kosovo after the war, I remember his justifying his policy as simply “the right thing to do.“ But Blair was nobodys poodle. He and Bill Clinton had a near falling-o
14、ut over the issue of ground troops. (Blair was prepared to contemplate a ground invasion of Kosovo, an idea that gave Clinton s team the vapors.) The success of Kosovo and that of Britains intervention to restore order in Sierra Leone a year lateremboldened Blair to think that in certain carefully d
15、elineated cases the use of force for humanitarian purposes might make sense. As far back as 1999, he had Iraq on his mind. In a speech in Chicago at the height of the Kosovo crisis, Blair explicitly linked Milosevic with Saddam Hussein: “two dangerous and ruthless men.“ In office, moreover, Blair ha
16、d become convinced of the dangers that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed. He didnt need 9/11 to think the world was a risky place. As a close colleague of Blairs said to me in 2003, just before the war in Iraq, “He is convinced that if we dont tackle weapons of mass destruction now, it is only
17、 a matter of time before they fall into the hands of rogue states or terrorists. If George Bush wasnt pressing for action on this, Blair would be pressing George Bush on it.“ To those who knew him, there was simply never any doubt that he would be with the U.S. as it responded to the attacks or that
18、 he would stay with the Bush Administration if it close to tackle the possibility that Iraq had WMD. The Prime Minister, of course, turned out to be disastrously wrong. By 2003, Iraq was already a ruined nation, long incapable of sustaining a sophisticated WMD program. And the Middle East turned out
19、 to be very different from the Balkans and West Africa. In a region where religious loyalties and fissures shape societies and where the armies of “the West“ summon ancient rivalries and bitter memories, it was native to expect that an occupation would quickly change a societys nature. “When we remo
20、ved the Taliban and Saddam Hussein,“ Blair told Congress in 2003, “this was not imperialism. For these oppressed people, it was their liberation.“ But we have learned the hard way that it is not for the West to say what is imperialism and what is liberation. When you invade someone elses country and
21、 turn his world upside down, good intentions are not enough. Yet that on its own is not a sufficient judgment on Tony Blair. He will forever be linked to George Bush, but in crucial ways they saw the world very differently. For Blair, armed intervention to remove the Taliban and Saddam was never the
22、 only way in which Islamic extremism had to be combated. Far more than Bush, he identified the need to settle the Israel-Palestine dispute “Here it is that the poison is incubated,“ he told Congress if radical Islam was to lose its appeal. In Britain, while maintaining a mailed fist against those su
23、spected of crimes, he tried to treat Islam with respect. He took the lead in ensuring that the rich nations kept their promises to aid Africa and lift millions from the poverty and despair that breed support for extremism. The questions Blair asked When should we meddle in another nations life? Why
24、should everything be left to the U.S.? What are the wellsprings of mutual cultural and religious respect? How can the West show its strength without using guns? will continue to be asked for a generation. We will miss him when hes gone. 1 Which of the following leads to Blairs failure in office? （ A
25、） The war in Iraq. （ B） His ideas in foreign policy. （ C） His close relationship with George Bush. （ D） His good intention to help the Iraqi peopl 2 According to the passage, Tony Blair and George Bush are different in _. （ A） Their positions in the world. （ B） Their perspectives on the world. （ C）
26、Their policies on foreign affairs. （ D） Their popularity in their own nations. 3 The main purpose of the passage is to _. （ A） criticize Tony Blairs policy on foreign affairs. （ B） exemplify that Tony Blair is a political failure. （ C） justify that Tony Blair deserves a better appraisal. （ D） compar
27、e Tony Blair and George Bush on their policies on foreign affairs. 4 Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage? （ A） Tony Blair has his own thinking in foreign affairs rather than follow anyone. （ B） Tony Blair makes a disastrous mistake in following George Bush in forei
28、gn affairs. （ C） People think that Tony Blair follows George Bush in the policies on the Middle East. （ D） People are wrong when they think Tony Blair is a follower of Americans foreign policy. 5 What can be inferred from the passage about the authors opinion of Tony Blair? （ A） He deserves his fail
29、ure in office. （ B） He is unpopular in his foreign policy. （ C） He deserves better than conventional thinking. （ D） He is naive in the use of force in foreign affairs. 5 Harry Potter: The End Is Here What a lot of commotion over a book. Not since 19th-century New Yorkers anxiously crowded the Manhat
30、tan docks to be the first to discover the serialized fate of Dickenss Little Nell have people gotten so excited about fiction. For weeks now, the rumors have flown over the Internet: Harry lives! Harry dies! Last week the excitement reached a new pitch as the hoopla soared to unprecedented levels th
31、at not even the well-oiled publicity machinery of publishers could have ignited. Books fell into the hands of eager fans despite the closely monitored embargo of the 12 million copies when you have 12 million copies of anything, sooner or later somethings going to fall off a truck. Once the novel wa
32、s on the streets, photocopies were quickly posted online. Spoilers went to work revealing the fates of various characters and got a lot wrong. Even more-diligent fans got busy retyping the entire book to put online. Most astonishing, someone posted a bogus version of the novel that ran to well over
33、600 pages. That it wasnt much good is beside the point. Has anyone ever done this: sat down and composed an entirely fake version of anything on the eve of the real things debut? No book, no matter how wonderful, could live up to that sort of expectation. But lets say it right here: “Harry Potter an
34、d the Deathly Hallows“ comes as close as any novel could. Its not without its flaws, and at 759 pages not without more than a little windiness. But when set against this final installments achievements, its imperfections seem mighty inconsequential. Writing a decent sequel to a good novel is hard. W
35、riting six of them is almost unheard of. Each of the “Harry Potters“ deserves to stand on the shelf with its mates, and the last one more than fulfills the promise of the first six. After a leisurely start, including a wedding scene at the Weasleys that goes on and on, Rowling hits the accelerator a
36、nd never takes her foot off the floor for the next 500 pages. “Action packed“ is a pale description of this novels many battles between the forces of good and evil. Rowling is not especially gifted with dialogue or subtle characterizations. Sometimes she explains things too much or too often. But sh
37、e is refreshingly unsentimental well, almost always: theres no explaining what made her write that cloying, too-cute epilogue. And she has a true storytellers knack for incident and plot twists and what may modestly be described as a genius for fleshing out her magical world with a host of details t
38、hat make it seem more real than the readers own. To cite but one example: the “pensieve,“ a bowl into which one may submerge oneself to see the memories of another. Even readers too young to get the pun built into that word will be taught unconsciously to look more closely at words, to look for mean
39、ings beyond the obvious. More than that, though, Rowling succeeds because she refuses to condescend to her readers (most of the time: there is a moment, as the final climax approaches, when the younger students at Hogwarts are shooed away because theyre “underage,“ but waitthis is to be the battle t
40、o see if good or evil will triumph, and were worrying about kids being underage? Or is this another wry joke from Rowling at all the overcautious parents who worry about what young readers are being exposed to? Never underestimate this cagey author). The last installment is a fitting cap to the seri
41、es because it does not merely tie off loose ends but extends the scope of the story. It is darker, as shes promised, but more significantly, it goes deeper. People die, yes, including a few whom readers care about. But the series is not about whether Harry survives, but about how he faces life and d
42、eath. More specifically, it is about growing up about the pains of growing up. In the last installment, Harry faces life largely on his own he even comes to doubt the motives of his mentor, Albus Dumbledore. Most important, he comes face to face with his own mortality, with the necessity of seeing l
43、ife and death as intertwined. The sadness that many readers will experience oh, all right, the tears they will shedwhen they close the cover on this novel has nothing to do with the fate of the characters and everything to do with maturity. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“ is about, more than
44、anything else, the end of childhood. The readers who have grown up with this series who have read it, as it were, in real time as it unfolds are themselves at that end. Saying goodbye to Harry is like saying goodbye to a piece of themselves. Rowling has honored their patience with a work as sincere
45、and profound as anything they could ask for, with the bonus thatany time they want to relive that childhood, they only have to pick up volume one and begin again. And if thats not magic, what is? 6 Which of the following expressions can be used to describe the readers reaction to the coming out of t
46、he novel “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows“? （ A） Anxiety （ B） Excitement （ C） Indifference （ D） Disappointment 7 According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true about Rowling? （ A） She is unsentimental. （ B） She is skillful in twisting plots. （ C） She is good at subtle c
47、haracterizations. （ D） She is gifted with describing things unreal. 8 According to the passage, many readers will feel sad when they read the novel because _. （ A） the characters have a miserable fate （ B） it is the last of the series of Harry Potter （ C） they have to say good-bye to their childhood
48、 （ D） it is not as successful as the other ones in the series 9 According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true about the novel? （ A） It is warmly received. （ B） It is written by Rowling. （ C） It is the sixth of the series “Harry Potter“. （ D） It is about how Harry Potter fac
49、es life and deat 10 The following adjectives can be used to describe the novel with the EXCEPTION of _? （ A） darker （ B） deeper （ C） magic （ D） perfect 专业英语八级（阅读）练习试卷 29答案与解析 【知识模块】 阅读 1 【正确答案】 A 【试题解析】 由第五段可知，伊拉克战争是导致布莱尔从政失败的主要原因。故A为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读 2 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 由第十段可知，布莱尔和布什在一些主要方面看待世界的方式是不同的，故 B为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读 3 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 综观全文可知，虽然英国广大民众对布莱尔的看法是不好的，但作者用了大量的篇幅来说明布莱尔在外交政策等方面是积极的，在对待伊拉克问题上有自己的观点 ，而并不是如人们所说，事事都跟着布什。全文的目的是证明布莱尔应该得到一个更好的评判。故 C为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读 4 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 作者试图证明布莱尔
