1、国家公共英语（五级）笔试模拟试卷 88及答案与解析 Part A Directions: You will hear a talk. As you listen, answer Questions 1-10 by circling TRUE or FALSE. You will hear the talk ONLY ONCE. You now have 1 minute to read Questions 1-10. 1 The recent social and economic changes in the U.S. have great impact on all the America
2、n housing system. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 2 One out of four married couples have got divorced in America. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 3 The change in family size has affected the size of houses needed. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 4 In many areas of the U.S., people would rather rent an apartment than buy a house.
3、 （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 5 People form cooperatives to spend less money on houses. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 6 People move back to cities because they want to be closer to their offices. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 7 Living underground can help reduce the cost of heating and lighting. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 8 In
4、flation has made the interest on housing loans 18% higher than before. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 9 Unemployment in housing industry and depression in housing market result from social and economic changes. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong 10 Mobile houses are built in order to lower the cost. （ A） Right （ B） Wrong
5、 Part B Directions: You will hear 3 conversations or talks and you must answer the questions by choosing A, B, C or D. You will hear the recording ONLY ONCE. 11 What is the speaker mainly discussing? （ A） Traditional European architecture. （ B） Techniques for building log cabins. （ C） The history of
6、 log structures. （ D） How to build a home yourself. 12 According to the speaker, what gives modern log homes their warm atmosphere? （ A） Their small size. （ B） Their rustic dirt floors. （ C） Their walls made up of rounded logs. （ D） Their sliding board windows. 13 According to the speaker, why were
7、log cabins especially popular to settlers who moved west? （ A） They could easily build the log houses themselves. （ B） They could construct the houses from kits. （ C） They liked the cozy atmosphere of the log interior. （ D） They wanted homes that could be transported. 14 Who is the man? （ A） Student
8、 advisor. （ B） Course teacher. （ C） Admissions officer. （ D） Department secretary. 15 Which subject does the student say she was good at? （ A） Computer programming. （ B） Art and design. （ C） Electronics. （ D） Mathematics. 16 What will she most likely do eventually? （ A） Do basic electronics. （ B） Te
9、ach English literature. （ C） Produce educational games. （ D） Write computer programs. 17 According to the woman, why women are much better at dealing with more than one thing at a time? （ A） She doesnt know the reason exactly. （ B） Because women are smarter than men. （ C） Because women have more thi
10、ngs to deal with than men. （ D） Because men always refuse to deal with more than one thing at the same time. 18 Why are women much better at dealing with more than one thing at a time, but men are not as good? （ A） Because women have better abilities. （ B） Because men are not used to housework. （ C）
11、 Because men lack practice. （ D） Because men find it easy to concentrate on only one thing. 19 What do we know about the difference between men and women in terms of personal relationships? （ A） It is easier to get along with women than with men. （ B） Women tend to reveal their feelings more easily.
12、 （ C） Personal relationships are more central to most mens lives. （ D） Its easier to establish personal relationships with women than with men. 20 Why does the woman refer to football? （ A） To illustrate mens interest. （ B） To illustrate that men usually do not touch upon anything important in talki
13、ng about their work and interest. （ C） To prove men are mostly football fans. （ D） To show that men intentionally try to avoid talking about their true feelings. Part C Directions: You will hear a talk. As you listen, answer the questions or complete the notes in your test booklet for Questions 21-3
14、0 by writing NOT MORE THAN THREE words in the space provided on the right. You will hear the talk TWICE. You now have 1 minute to read Questions 21-30. 21 How many planets are there in the solar system revolving around the sun? 22 Which planet do people think is the most important one? 23 From which
15、 field of science do we learn a lot about the planets? 24 How long have astronomers studied the planets and other objects in space? 25 What kind of new technology helped us a lot to study the planets? 26 Which planet is the closest planet to the sun? Mercury, Mars, Venus or Jupiter? 27 How long does
16、 it take Mercury to complete its orbit around the sun? 28 How long does it take the Earth to rotate on its own axis once? 29 Which planet is the easiest for people to see in the sky? Earth, Mercury, Venus or Jupiter? 30 Which is the largest one of all the planets? 一、 Section II Use of English (15 mi
17、nutes) Directions: Read the following text and fill each of the numbered spaces with ONE suitable word. Write your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. 31 These days we are so accustomed to telegraph messages (31) it is hard for us to imagine the excitement that was felt in the nineteenth century when the fir
18、st cables were laid, Cable (32) proved to be immensely difficult. The cable (33) was laid in the autumn of 1850 carried the first telegraph messages (34) England and France had a very short life. The day after, a fisherman “caught“ the cable by mistake. Thinking that the copper wire at the centre of
19、 the thick cable was gold, he cut a piece (35) to show his friends. However, a new cable was put down and (36) news could travel quickly across Europe. But there was (37) a way of sending messages between Europe and America. When the Atlantic Telegraph Company was formed in 1856, a serious (38) was
20、made to “join“ Europe to America with no less (39) 2,300 miles of cable. As (40) single ship could carry such a weight, the job was shared by two sailing vessels, the Agamemnon and the Niagara. The intention was (41) after setting out in opposite directions, they should (42) in the middle of the Atl
21、antic Ocean (43) the two cables would be connected together. But the ships had (44) covered 300 miles when the cable broke. In 1858, a second attempt was made. This time, greatly hindered by storms, the ships were again unsuccessful. There was great rejoicing a few months later, when after the combi
22、ned efforts of both ships, Britain and America were at last connected by cable and the Queen of England was able to speak (45) the President of the United States. This cable, (46) only lasted eleven weeks. (47) attempts were postponed until 1864 when Brunels steamship, the Great Eastern, set forth.
23、This powerful ship did the whole job (48) itself, but again messages could not travel freely (49) the cable developed a fault. While it was being mended, it broke and 1, 300 mile of it lay on the ocean floor. But two years later the Great Eastern completed a highly successful journey and (50) then i
24、t has become possible to send messages to all parts of the world. Part A Directions: Read the following texts and answer the questions which accompany them by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. 51 I am extremely important. So important that all kinds of people might need to
25、communicate with me 24 hours a day. Mere phone calls are good enough, letters take days, or at least a day, and meetings face to face well, obviously that is out of the question. No, the index of my success is my fax-ability. Only God knows what international incidents have been averted by my black
26、fax machine. For I am now at the centre of a vast global communications network, all of which is instantly faxable, and made up of busy people who cannot possibly wait for that vital document a minute longer. “Fax it to me“, we say snappily, presuming that we are in the company similarly echnologica
27、lly endowed. “What do you mean you havent got one?“ We gasp in amazement at their willingness to admit they are not a member of this exclusive club. After all, membership only sets you back $400 or so and for this you get to review daily our motto: “I fax therefore I am“. Once you are in possession
28、of one of those magic machines a new world opens up to you. A world of escalating urgency, a world where the most mundane information becomes some how more significant because it arrives via a bleeping machine, a world where the medium has more cachet than the message. The fax machine, like the camc
29、order, has come into its own in the Nineties. The affordability of this technology has meant that the democracy of instantaneous communication has filtered down to us all. So we are all dutifully engaged in this orgy of electronic impulses, recording and erasing, faxing and receiving. But what we ar
30、e actually communicating apart from the fact that we are in communication? The urgent messages we send each other on these electronic postcards are often little more than reminders that, “Yes, we have the technology, even if we have little use for it“. Yet because we know that knowledge is power we
31、cannot admit as much, for to do so would be to join the great faxless underclass. Instead, we pretend that every doodle, every hurried sentence is somehow so earth-shatteringly crucial that it must immediately be signaled halfway round the world. For some like Philippe Starck, who designs by fax, th
32、is may be the case. But what do most of us use fax for? We can now fax a pizza or a sandwich; we can fax afternoon radio shows with our funny stories; we can fax our bank manager; we can fax our resignation notice and nowadays we can even be fired by fax. Although there is some argument about the le
33、gal status of any fax that declares to be contractual, the great benefit of all these is that it is done in public. Indeed what the latest batch of communications technology, from mobile phones to camcorders to faxes, have in common is that they no longer respect the old boundaries between public an
34、d private, work and leisure. If you fall down and break your leg, some idiots with a camcorder will be recording your pain and sending it to an amateur video show on TV. If someone sends you a humiliating rejection by fax, you can guarantee that everyone else will have read it before you. Likewise,
35、encouraged by insane advertising which advertises us to turn our homes into extensions of our offices, there is now no time in which work cannot intrude on leisure. The answering and fax machines may always be switched on in case we miss some vital pieces of information. But what exactly is it that
36、for most of us cannot wait till tomorrow? We are not running countries, or multinational corporations, but the trick is to act like we are. In our “accelerated culture“ speed, feeds our sense of self-importance. Its not what you say but how fast you say it, and a fax provides instant gratification t
37、hat this is the case. Faxes are about declarations rather than dialogue. But even this delicious frenzy of non-communication can go wrong. Fax terrorists sabotage business by bunging up the machine with 50 pages saying nothing except “Peace and love“. And who has had a fax gone astray? As you slot y
38、our paper into the hungry mouth how do you really know where it is going, that you have the right number, that you are not sending your masterpieces into oblivion? Worse still: they can break down. Since my ten-year-old son poured a can of coke into mine I have not received any faxes at all. The sad
39、 truth is that I never did get many. Apart from the odd work stuff they would mostly be from friends trying out their new fax machines. Having received theirs, I could then fax them back to tell them that they were in full working order. See, I told you I was important. 51 The purpose of the first p
40、aragraph is to （ A） interest and surprise the reader. （ B） explain why the writer needs a fax. （ C） convince the reader of the importance of faxes. （ D） focus on the legitimate used of faxes. 52 Why do so many people own fax machines today? （ A） Because the fax is a symbol of success. （ B） Because i
41、t is the fastest way of sending a document. （ C） Because it is more reliable than sending a letter. （ D） Because it is still too expensive for most people. 53 The writer thinks that most people use the fax （ A） to order pizzas and sandwiches. （ B） to send vital documents. （ C） to give themselves a s
42、ense of self-importance. （ D） to help them become successful. 54 The general tone of the text is （ A） serious. （ B） ironic. （ C） enthusiastic. （ D） matter-of-fact. 55 The writer uses exaggeration in order to （ A） demonstrate how ridiculous it is for people to have a fax. （ B） prove to the reader tha
43、t faxes can be sabotaged and broken down. （ C） show why her friends are getting fax machines. （ D） describe the importance of speedy communications in the modern business world. 56 Standard English is that variety of English which is usually used in print, and which is normally taught in schools and
44、 to non-native speakers studying the language. It is also the variety which is normally spoken by educated people and used in news broadcasts and other similar situations. The difference between standard and non-standard, it should be noted, has nothing in principle to do with differences between fo
45、rmal and colloquial language; Standard English has colloquial as well as formal variants. Historically, the standard variety of English is derived from the London dialect of English that developed after the Norman Conquest resulted in the removal of the Court from Winchester to London. This dialect
46、became the one preferred by the educated, and it was developed and promoted as a model, or norm, for wider and wider segments of society. It was also the norm that was carried overseas, but not one unaffected by such export. Today, Standard English is codified to the extent that the grammar and voca
47、bulary of English are much the same everywhere in the world where English is used: variation among local standards is really quite minor, so that the Singapore, South Africa, and Irish varieties are really very little different from one another so far as grammar and vocabulary are concerned. Indeed,
48、 Standard English is so powerful that it exerts a tremendous pressure on all local varieties, to the extent that many of the long-established dialects of England have lost much of their vigor and there is considerable pressure on them to converge toward the standard. This latter situation is not uni
49、que to English: it is also true in other countries where processes of standardization are under way. But it sometimes brings problems to speakers who try to strike some kind of compromise between local norms and national, even supranational ones. 56 What are the characteristics of Standard English? （ A） It is usually used in print. （ B） It is normally taught in schools. （ C） It is used in news broadsts. （ D） A, B and C. 57 Which of the following statements is true according to this passage? （ A） Standard English is better than non-standard English. （ B） Standard English does not d
