1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 54（无答案）0 Distant indeed seem the days when the two great rivals of commercial aviation, Boeing and Airbus, would use big air shows to trumpet hundreds of new orders. This years Paris Air Show was a much more sombre affair, even if the Boeing-Airbus feud still took centre stage.There w
2、ere one or two bright spots. Airbus was able to boast of a firm order for ten of its wide-body A350s from AirAsia X. John Leahy, its top salesman, expects deliveries in 2009 to match the record 483 in 2008. Boeing, which was hit by a prolonged strike last year, will probably deliver more aircraft th
3、is year than last. Both firms built up huge backlogs in the fat years: each has orders for about 3,500 planes.But many of those may soon evaporate. Giovanni Bisignani, the boss of IATA, the trade body that speaks for most airlines, gave warning earlier this month that his members might defer as many
4、 as 30% of aircraft deliveries next year. He also almost doubled his forecast for the industrys cumulative losses in 2009, to $9 billion.Both Mr. Leahy and Jim McNerney, the chief executive of Boeing, think that Mr. Bisignani is overdoing the gloom. But they concede that potential customers may find
5、 purchases hard to finance. Another issue is the cost of fuel. Mr. McNerney thinks the recent increase in the oil price should encourage carriers to replace elderly gas guzzlers with efficient new planes. But if the price “spikes over $100“ all bets are off.The two aviation giants agree on one other
6、 thing: the industry will not get a successor to its ubiquitous short-haul workhorses, the 737 and the A320, for more than a decade. That is partly because the 15-20% efficiency gain that airlines say they want from the next generation is, says Mr. McNerney, “a bar that keeps moving north“ thanks to
7、 the continuous improvements of 1-2% a year that the manufacturers are making to existing planes.Moreover, both Boeing and Airbus are conserving cash for a long and bitter scrap to dominate the market for long-haul aircraft with up to 350 seats. Boeings troubled 787 Dreamliner will at last take to t
8、he air this month, two years late. The production problems that stemmed from both the revolutionary use of composites and an extended global supply chain appear to have been overcome. To speed up deliveries of the 787, for which Boeing has received more than 860 orders, Mr. McNerney is planning a se
9、cond assembly line.The delays to the 787 have been a godsend for Airbus. Its rival, the slightly bigger A350, is on track to fly in early 2012 after a painful gestation. With nearly 500 orders, Airbus claims that the A350 is selling even faster than the record-breaking 787 did at the same stage in i
10、ts development. The biggest concern for Boeing, however, is not that the A350 will take sales from the 787 , but that its largest variant, the A350-1000, will be a strong rival to its successful 777. Mr McNerney says that Boeing can afford to wait and see how great a threat the biggest A350 is. But
11、according to Airbus executives, Boeing will be faced with the dilemma of merely upgrading the 777 or taking the bigger and more costly step of building a replacement.The A350 and the 787 are at the heart of the long-running and acrimonious dispute between Boeing and Airbus at the World Trade Organis
12、ation(WTO)over state subsidies for large commercial aircraft. This week European governments declared that they were ready to contribute 3.5 billion($4.9 billion)of reimbursable launch aid to the 11 billion cost of developing the A350. The announcement had Boeing executives scurrying to their BlackB
13、errys to condemn what they saw as a “provocative“ move given that the WTO is expected to issue a ruling on Boeings complaint within weeks(a ruling on a counter-complaint by Airbus is due later in the year).Louis Gallois, the chief executive of EADS, the parent company of Airbus, denied there was any
14、thing odd about the timing: “We do not plead guilty,“ he said. “Our support is much more transparent than Boeings. We have fully repaid with interest the support we received for the A320 and A330 and we are already paying back on the A380(super-jumbo). “ Tom Enders, the chief executive of Airbus, ad
15、ded that the aid was aimed only at “levelling the playing field“ and that the European Union had described the 787 as the most subsidised commercial aircraft in history.1 It can be inferred from Paragraph One that Boeing and Airbus_.（A）have not suffered from a reduction of new orders until this year
16、（B） did not compete with each other intensely in the past（C） used to advertise their success in business at air shows（D）would have to resolve their rivalry as early as possible2 According to the passage, Airbus and Boeing shared the following challenges EXCEPT_.（A）financial trouble of potential cust
17、omers（B） labour dispute with their employees（C） risk of oil price higher than $100（D）difficulties in developing new aircraft3 Boeing executives found the announcement of Airbus “provocative“ because_.（A）Airbus received higher subsidies than Boeing（B） Airbus received new subsidies while the old dispu
18、te remained unsolved（C） Airbus didnt have to repay the newly announced subsidies（D）WTO ruling is expected to be in Airbuss favour4 Which type of the aircrafts mentioned in this passage will be the last to begin delivery?（A）Boeing 787.（B） Boeing 777.（C） A380.（D）A350.5 What does “levelling the playing
19、 field“ in the last paragraph mean?（A）Making the ground smooth.（B） Making the competition fair.（C） Supporting the development of new aircraft.（D）Reimbursing previous subsidies.5 Scientist, engineer, musician and great artist, Leonardo da Vinci is the archetypal Renaissance man. This undisputed geniu
20、s, who lived to be 67, was also one of historys most accomplished underachievers. He started many projects he did not finish; he accepted commissions he never began; his many planned treatises remained just notes. Only 18 of his paintings survive. Half of them are included in a show that opened on N
21、ovember 9th at Londons National Gallery, making this the most important da Vinci display ever.The artist was born near Florence in 1452 and went to Milan at the age of 30. Luke Syson, the shows curator, has come to believe that the freedom da Vinci enjoyed there as court painter to Ludovico Sforza,
22、Duke of Milan, was the key that unlocked his genius.Mr. Sysons contention that Leonardos great breakthrough came in Milan and not later in Florence, as has generally been accepted until now, has captivated curators, collectors and museum directors who have been generous in loaning works to the show;
23、 from the Vatican, Prague, Cracow, Paris and the Royal Collection.All the pictures on show were painted during da Vincis 18 years in Milan. Never has it been possible to see so many of da Vincis paintings together. There are also some 50 drawings, including the monumental Virgin and Child with Saint
24、 Anne and Saint John the Baptist(sometimes called The Burlington House Cartoon).The one picture missing from this period is The Last Supper, which is painted on a wall. This work, which is badly damaged, is represented here by a large photograph and a near-contemporary(though far inferior)copy. In p
25、ages from a notebook da Vincis slanted “mirror“ writing describes the guests at a dinner. With a novelists interest in detail, he carefully observed the shrug of one mans shoulders, the position of anothers hands, the scowl on one face and the frown on yet one more.The exhibition is arranged themati
26、cally; in addition to “Beauty and Love“, there is also “Character and Emotion“ and “Body and Soul“. The visitor quickly comes face to face with the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, also known as The Lady with an Ermine. Although the image is familiar from reproductions, the radiance of the painting is
27、 surprising. Further along is an unfinished, yet searing, Saint Jerome. For the first time, both versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, one the National Gallerys own and the other belonging to the Louvre, are shown together.The two versions hang at opposite ends of the long exhibition space. The more
28、one looks at the two pictures, the more visible are the differences between them; the strangely formed rocks in the Louvres version create a protective atmosphere, whereas in the National Gallerys painting the rocks seem quite eerie, contributing to the overall sepulchral feel of the work.As a philo
29、sopher and scientist, da Vinci strove to understand what he observed in his close studies of nature. Art was an expression of his thoughts. The Lady with an Ermine shows the Duke of Milans teenage mistress in a fashionable red gown, its slit sleeves revealing a pale underdress. Da Vinci, always fasc
30、inated by knots, carefully details the way the black ribbons are tied on Cecilias left sleeve. Her right arm is in shadow. The ties on that sleeve are sketchy. The artist has taken into account his observation that visual acuity declines in the dark. The brain fills in necessary information. The ske
31、tchiness of the right sleeve helps bring the portrait to life, creating what Walter Pater, a 19th-century British essayist and art critic, described as a “reality which almost amounts to illusion“.Da Vinci would sometimes spend years thinking about a single painting. Mr. Syson hopes visitors to the
32、National Gallery will, in turn, look long and hard at these works. Advance tickets for entry to the end of the year had sold out by the opening day. The show does not close until February 5th 2012, but advance tickets for its final weeks are going fast. Meanwhile, the only way to get in now is to qu
33、eue for one of the 500 tickets being held back for sale each morning. The security checks are elaborate, but the wait is well worth it.6 That Leonardo da Vinci “ was also one of historys most accomplished underachievers“(Paragraph One)means_.（A）he failed to complete many of his works（B） his achievem
34、ents have been exaggerated（C） he did not deserve the fame in the history（D）he could have achieved more with his genius7 The original The Last Supper is not displayed at the show because_.（A）its replica looks better（B） it cannot be moved（C） it is not kept in London（D）it does not fit into the theme of
35、 the show8 Which of the following words can best describe the style of Leonardo da Vincis paintings?（A）Radiant.（B） Exquisite.（C） Exotic.（D）Sketchy.9 Which of the following statements contains a pun?（A）The key that unlocked his genius.(Paragraph Two)（B） Mr. Sysons contention.has captivated curators.(
36、Paragraph Three)（C） .the monumental Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist.(Paragraph Four)（D）.an unfinished, yet searing, Saint Jerome.(Paragraph Six)10 The tone of the author to Leonardo da Vince is_.（A）critical（B） neutral（C） curious（D）praising10 One of the paradoxes of human
37、biology is that the rich world has fewer children than the poor world. In most species, improved circumstances are expected to increase reproductive effort, not reduce it, yet as economic development gets going, country after country has experienced what is known as the demographic transition; ferti
38、lity(defined as the number of children borne by a woman over her lifetime)drops from around eight to near one and a half. That number is so small that even with the reduced child mortality which usually accompanies development it cannot possibly sustain the population.This reproductive collapse is p
39、articularly worrying because it comes in combination with an increase in life expectancy which suggests that, by the middle of the century, not only will populations in the most developed countries have shrunk(unless they are propped up by historically huge levels of immigration)but also that the nu
40、mber of retired individuals supported by each person of working age will increase significantly. If Mikko Myrskyla of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues are correct, though, things might not be quite as bad as that. A study they have just published in Nature suggests that as developme
41、nt continues, the demographic transition goes into reverse.Dr. Myrskyla compared two things. One was the total fertility rate(the number of children that would be born to a woman in a particular country over the course of her life if she experienced the age-specific fertility rates observed in that
42、country during the calendar year in question). The other was the human development index for that country. The HDI, a measure used by the United Nations, has three components: life expectancy; average income per person; and level of education. Its maximum possible value is one.Back in the 1970s, no
43、country got anywhere near one. Of the 107 places the researchers looked at, the best was Canada, with an HDI of 0.89. By 2005, however, things had improved markedly. Two dozen of what were now 240 countries had HDIs above nineand something else remarkable had happened. Back in 1975, a graph plotting
44、 fertility rate against the HDI fell as the HDI rose. By 2005, though, the line had a kink in it. Above an HDI of 0. 9 or so, it turned up, producing what is known in the jargon as a “J-shaped“ curve(even though it is the mirror image of a letter J). In many countries with really high levels of deve
45、lopment(around 0.95)fertility rates are now approaching two children per woman. There are exceptions, notably Canada and Japan, but the trend is clear.Why this change has come about, and why the demographic transition happens in the first place, are matters of debate. There are lots of social explan
46、ations of why fertility rates fall as countries become richer. The increasing ability of women in the developed world to control their own reproductive output is one, as is the related phenomenon of women entering the workplace in large numbers. The increasing cost of raising children in a society w
47、ith more material abundance plays a part. So does the substitution of nationalised social-security systems for the support of offspring in old age. Falling rates of child mortality are also significant. Conversely, Dr. Myrskyla speculates that the introduction of female-friendly employment policies
48、in the most developed countries allows women to have the best of both worlds, and that this may contribute to the uptick.No doubt all these social explanations are true as far as they go, but they do not address the deeper question of why peoples psychology should have evolved in a way that makes th
49、em want fewer children when they can afford more. There is a possible biological explanation, though.11 Which of the following factors does NOT contribute to the falling fertility rate in many developed countries?（A）Higher cost of raising children.（B） More material abundance.（C） Better availability of birth control measures.（D）Improved social-security systems.12 The following statements are consistent with Dr. Myrskylas view about demographic transition EXCEPT that_.（A）fertility rates in Canada dont rise because of the lack
