【听力理解】

TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2005)
-GRADE EIGHT-

PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE

In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.

Writing a Research Paper
I. Research Papers and Ordinary Essay
A. Similarity in (1) __________:
e.g. —choosing a topic
—asking questions
—identifying the audience
B. Difference mainly in terms of (2) ___________
1. research papers: printed sources
2. ordinary essay: ideas in one’s (3) ___________
II. Types and Characteristics of Research Papers
A. Number of basic types: two
B. Characteristics:
1. survey-type paper:
—to gather (4) ___________
—to quote
—to (5) _____________
The writer should be (6) ___________.
2. argumentative (research) paper:
a. The writer should do more, e.g.
—to interpret
—to question, etc.
b. (7) _________varies with the topic, e.g.
—to recommend an action, etc.
III. How to Choose a Topic for a Research Paper
In choosing a topic, it is important to (8) __________.
Question No. 1: your familiarity with the topic
Question No. 2: Availability of relevant information on the chosen topic
Question No. 3: Narrowing the topic down to (9) _________
Question No. 4: Asking questions about (10) ___________
The questions help us to work out way into the topic and discover its possibilities.

SECTION B INTERVIEW

In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.Now listen to the interview.

1. What is the purpose of Professor McKay’s report?
A. To look into the mental health of old people.
B. To explain why people have negative views on old age.
C. To help correct some false beliefs about old age.
D. To identify the various problems of old age

2. Which of the following is NOT Professor McKay’s view?
A. People change in old age a lot more than at the age of 21.
B. There are as many sick people in old age as in middle age.
C. We should not expect more physical illness among old people.
D. We should not expect to find old people unattractive as a group.

3. According to Professor McKay’s report,
A. family love is gradually disappearing.
B. it is hard to comment on family feeling.
C. more children are indifferent to their parents.
D. family love remains as strong as ever.

4. Professor McKay is ________ towards the tendency of more parents living apart from their children.
A. negative
B. positive
C. ambiguous
D. neutral

5. The only popular belief that Professor McKay is unable to provide evidence against is
A. old-age sickness.
B. loose family ties.
C. poor mental abilities.
D. difficulities in maths

SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet.

Question 6 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.

6. Scientists in Brazil have used frog skin to
A. eliminate bacteria.
B. treat burns.
C. Speed up recovery.
D. reduce treatment cost.

Question 7 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.

7. What is NOT a feature of the new karaoke machine?
A. It is featured by high technology.
B. It allows you to imitate famous singers.
C. It can automatically alter the tempo and tone of a song.
D. It can be placed in specially designed theme rooms.

Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.

8. China’s Internet users had reached _________ by the end of June.
A. 68 million
B. 8.9 million
C. 10 million
D. 1.5 million

Question 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news.

9. According to the WTO, Chinese exports rose _________ last year.
A. 21%
B. 10%
C. 22%
D. 4.73

10. According to the news, which trading nation in the top 10 has reported a 5 per cent fall in exports?
A. The UK.
B. The US.
C. Japan.
D. Germany.

【阅读理解】

TEXT A

I remember meeting him one evening with his pushcart. I had managed to sell all my papers and was coming home in the snow. It was that strange hour in downtown New York when the workers were pouring homeward in the twilight. I marched among thousands of tired men and women whom the factory whistles had unyoked. They flowed in rivers through the clothing factory districts, then down along the avenues to the East Side.

I met my father near Cooper Union. I recognized him, a hunched, frozen figure in an old overcoat standing by a banana cart. He looked so lonely, the tears came to my eyes. Then he saw me, and his face lit with his sad, beautiful smile -Charlie Chaplin’s smile.

"Arch, it’s Mikey," he said. "So you have sold your papers! Come and eat a banana."

He offered me one. I refused it. I felt it crucial that my father sell his bananas, not give them away. He thought I was shy, and coaxed and joked with me, and made me eat the banana. It smelled of wet straw and snow.

"You haven’t sold many bananas today, pop," I said anxiously.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"What can I do? No one seems to want them."

It was true. The work crowds pushed home morosely over the pavements. The rusty sky darkened over New York building, the tall street lamps were lit, innumerable trucks, street cars and elevated trains clattered by. Nobody and nothing in the great city stopped for my father’s bananas.

"I ought to yell," said my father dolefully. "I ought to make a big noise like other peddlers, but it makes my throat sore. Anyway, I’m ashamed of yelling, it makes me feel like a fool. "

I had eaten one of his bananas. My sick conscience told me that I ought to pay for it somehow. I must remain here and help my father.

"I’ll yell for you, pop," I volunteered.

"Arch, no," he said, "go home; you have worked enough today. Just tell momma I’ll be late."

But I yelled and yelled. My father, standing by, spoke occasional words of praise, and said I was a wonderful yeller. Nobody else paid attention. The workers drifted past us wearily, endlessly; a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home. Elevated trains crashed; the Cooper Union clock burned above us; the sky grew black, the wind poured, the slush burned through our shoes. There were thousands of strange, silent figures pouring over the sidewalks in snow. None of them stopped to buy bananas. I yelled and yelled, nobody listened.

My father tried to stop me at last. "Nu," he said smiling to console me, "that was wonderful yelling. Mikey. But it’s plain we are unlucky today! Let’s go home."

I was frantic, and almost in tears. I insisted on keeping up my desperate yells. But at last my father persuaded me to leave with him.

11. "unyoked" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to
A. sent out
B. released
C. dispatched
D. removed

12. Which of the following in the first paragraph does NOT indicated crowds of people?
A.Thousands of
B. Flowed
C. Pouring
D. Unyoked

13. Which of the following is intended to be a pair of contrast in the passage?
A. Huge crowds and lonely individuals.
B. Weather conditions and street lamps.
C. Clattering trains and peddlers’ yells.
D. Moving crowds and street traffic.

14. Which of the following words is NOT suitable to describe the character of the son?
A. Compassionate
B. Responsible
C. Shy
D. Determined

15. What is the theme of the story?
A. The misery of the factory workers.
B. How to survive in a harsh environment.
C. Generation gap between the father and the son.
D. Love between the father and the son.

16. What is the author’s attitude towards the father and the son?
A. Indifferent
B. Sympathetic
C. Appreciative
D. Difficult to tell

TEXT B

提示：原文出自美国时代杂志（TIME） 日期Jan. 29, 2001
文章标题No Fall Insurance 作者AN K. SMITH, M.D.

When former President Ronald Reagan fell and broke his hip two weeks ago, he joined a group of more than 350,000 elderly Americans who fracture their hips each year. At 89 and suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, Reagan is in one of the highest-risk groups for this type of accident. The incidence of hip fractures not only increases after age 50 but doubles every five to six years as the risk of falling increases. Slipping and tumbling are not the only causes of hip fractures; weakened bones sometimes break spontaneously. But falling is the major cause, representing 90% of all hip fractures.

These injuries are not to be taken lightly. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, only 25% of those who suffer hip fractures ever fully recover; as many as 20% will die within 12 months. Even when patients do recover, nearly half will need a cane or a walker to get around.

When it comes to hip fractures, the most dangerous place for elderly Americans, it turns out, is their homes; nearly 60% of these dangerous spills will occur in ore around the patient’s domicile. This isn’t all bad news, however, because a few modifications could prevent a lot of accidents.

The first thing to do is to get rid of those throw rugs that line hallways and entrances. They often fold over or bunch up, turning them into booby traps for anyone shuffling down the hall.

Entering and leaving the house is a particularly high-risk activity, which is why some experts suggest removing any doorsills higher than 1/2 in. if the steps are bare wood, you can increase traction by applying non-slip treads.

Because many seniors suffer from poor balance (whether from neurological deficits or from the inner-ear problems that increase naturally with aging), it also helps to install grab bars and handrails in bathrooms and along hallways.

The bedroom is another major hazard area that can be made much safer with a few adjustments. Avoid stain sheets and comforters, and opt for non-slip material like wool or cotton. Easy access to devices is important, so place a lamp, telephone and flashlight near the bed within arm’s reach. Make sure the pathway between the bedroom and bathroom is completely clear, and install a night-light along the route for those emergency late-night trips.

It’s a good idea to rearrange the furniture throughout the house, so that the paths between rooms are free of obstructions. Also, make sure telephone and appliance cords aren’t strung across common walkways, where they can be tripped over.

In addition to these physical precautions, there are the health precautions every aging body should take. Physical and eye examinations, with special attention to cardiac and blood-pressure problems, should be performed annually to rule out serious medical conditions. Blood pressure that’s too low or an irregular heartbeat can put you at risk for fainting and falling. Don’t forget to take calcium and vitamin D, two critical factors in developing strong bones. Finally, enrolling in an exercise programme at your local gym can improve agility, strength, balance and coordination - all important skills that can keep you on your feet and off the floor.

17. The following are all specific measures to guard against injuries with the EXCEPTION of
A. removal of throw rugs.
B. easy access to devices
C. installation of grab bars
D. re-arrangement of furniture

18. In which paragraph does the author state his purpose of writing?
A. The third paragraph
B. The first paragraph
C. The last paragraph
D. The last but one paragraph

19. The main purpose of the passage is to
A. offer advice on how to prevent hip fractures
B. emphasize the importance of health precautions
C. discuss the seriousness of hip fractures.
D. identify the causes of hip fractures.

TEXT C

提示：原文同2003年英语专业八级英译汉翻译试题相同

In his classic novel, "The Pioneers", James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, take his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a teeming metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest. "Where are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?" she asks. He’s astonished she can’t see them. "Where! Everywhere," he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has built them in his mind, and they as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished.

Cooper was illustrating a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, "Life for the American is always becoming, never being."... ...

20. The third paragraph examines America’s future-mindedness from the _________ perspective.
A. future
B. realistic
C. historical
D. present

21. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT brought about by future-mindedness?
A. Economic stagnation
B. Environmental destruction
C. High divorce rates
D. Neglect of history

22. The word "pooh-pooh" in the sixth paragraph means
A. appreciate
B. praise
C. shun
D. ridicule

23. According to the passage, people at present can forecast ________ of a new round of future-mindedness.
A. the nature
B. the location
C. the variety
D. the features

24. The author predicts in the last paragraph that the study of future-mindedness will focus on
A. how it comes into being
B. how it functions
C. what it brings about
D. what it is related to.

TEXT D

"In every known human society the male’s needs for achievement can be recognized... In a great number of human societies men’s sureness of their sex role is tied up with their right, or ability, to practice some activity that women are not allowed to practice. Their maleness in fact has to be underwritten by preventing women from entering some field or performing some feat."

This is the conclusion of the anthropologist Margaret Mead about the way in which the roles of men and women in society should be distinguished.

If talk and print are considered it would seem that the formal emancipation of women is far from complete. There is a flow of publications about the continuing domestic bondage of women and about the complicated system of defences which men have thrown up around their hitherto accepted advantages, taking sometimes the obvious form of exclusion from types of occupation and sociable groupings, and sometimes the more subtle form of automatic doubt of the seriousness of women’s pretensions to the level of intellect and resolution that men, it is supposed, bring to the business of running the world.

There are a good many objective pieces of evidence for the erosion of men’s status. In the first place, there is the widespread postwar phenomenon of the woman Prime Minister, in India, Sri Lanka and Israel.

Secondly, there is the very large increase in the number of women who work, especially married women and mothers of children. More diffusely there are the increasingly numerous convergences between male and female behaviour: the approximation to identical styles in dress and coiffure, the sharing of domestic tasks, and the admission of women to all sorts of hitherto exclusively male leisure-time activities.

Everyone carries round with him a fairly definite idea of the primitive or natural conditions of human life. It is acquired more by the study of humorous cartoons than of archaelology, but that does not matter since it is not significant as theory but only as an expression of inwardly felt expectations of people’s sense of what is fundamentally proper in the differentiation between the roles of the two sexes. In this rudimentary natural society men go out to hunt and fish and to fight off the tribe next door while women keep the fire going. Amorous initiative is firmly reserved to the man, who sets about courtship with a club.

25. The phrase "men’s sureness of their sex role" in the first paragraph suggests that they
A. are confident in their ability to charm women.
B. take the initiative in courtship.
C. have a clear idea of what is considered "manly".
D. tend to be more immoral than women are.

26. The third paragraph does NOT claim that men
A. prevent women from taking up certain professions.
B. secretly admire women’s intellect and resolution.
C. doubt whether women really mean to succeed in business.
D. forbid women to join certain clubs and societies.

27. The third paragraph
A. generally agrees with the first paragraph
B. has no connection with the first paragraph
C. repeats the argument of the second paragraph
D. contradicts the last paragraph

28. At the end of the last paragraph the author uses humorous exaggeration in order to
A. show that men are stronger than women
B. carry further the ideas of the earliest paragraphs
C. support the first sentence of the same paragraph
D. disown the ideas he is expressing

29. The usual idea of the cave man in the last paragraph
A. is based on the study of archaeology
B. illustrates how people expect men to behave
C. is dismissed by the author as an irrelevant joke
D. proves that the man, not woman, should be the wooer

30. The opening quotation from Margaret Mead sums up a relationship between man and woman which the author
A. approves of
B. argues is natural
C. completely rejects
D. expects to go on changing

【人文知识】

PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)

31. ______ is the capital city of Canada.
A. Vancouver
B. Ottawa √
C. Montreal
D. York

32. U.S. presidents normally serves a (an) _________term.
A. two-year
B. four-year √
C. six-year
D. eight-year

33. Which of the following cities is NOT located in the Northeast, U.S.?
A. Huston. √
B. Boston.
C. Baltimore.
D. Philadelphia.

34. ________ is the state church in England.
A. The Roman Catholic Church.
B. The Baptist Church
C. The Protestant Church
D. The Church of England √

注：The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion.

35. The novel Emma is written by
A. Mary Shelley.
B. Charlotte Brontë.
C. Elizabeth C. Gaskell.
D. Jane Austen. √

36. Which of following is NOT a romantic poet?
A. William Wordsworth.
B. George Elliot. √
C. George G. Byron.
D. Percy B. Shelley.

37. William Sidney Porter, known as O. Henry, is most famous for
A. his poems.
B. his plays.
C. his short stories. √
D. his novels

注：O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910), He was famous for his short stories and a master of the surprise ending, O. Henry is remembered best for such enduring favorites as "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief." The combination of humor and sentiment found in his stories is the basis of their universal appeal.

38. Syntax is the study of
A. language functions.
B. sentence structures. √
C. textual organization.
D. word formation.

注：Definition of Syntax:

a. The study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences.
b. A publication, such as a book, that presents such rules.
c. The pattern of formation of sentences or phrases in a language.
d. Such a pattern in a particular sentence or discourse.

39. Which of the following is NOT a distinctive feature of human language?
A. Arbitrariness. 任意性
B. Productivity. 丰富性
C. Cultural transmission. 文化传播性
D. Finiteness. 局限性 ？

注：design feature: features that define our human languages,such as arbitrariness,duality,creativity,displacement,cultural transmission,etc.

40. The speech act theory was first put forward by
A. John Searle.
B. John Austin. √
C. Noam Chomsky.
D. M.A.K. Halliday.

注：John Langshaw Austin (March 28, 1911 - February 8, 1960) was a philosopher of language, who developed much of the current theory of speech acts. He was born in Lancaster and educated at Balliol College, Oxford. After serving in MI6 during World War II, Austin became White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. He occupies a place in the British philosophy of language alongside Wittgenstein in staunchly advocating the examination of the way words are used in order to elucidate meaning.

【改错】

The University as Business
A number of colleges and universities have announced steep
tuition increases for next year much steeper than the current,
very low, rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed because
of a loss in value of university endowments’ heavily investing in common ___1
stock. I am skeptical. A business firm chooses the price that maximizes
its net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in income; and increasingly the ___2
outlook of universities in the United States is indistinguishable from those of ___3
business firms. The rise in tuitions mayreflect the fact economic uncertainty ___4
increases the demand for education. The biggest cost of being
in the school is foregoing income from a job (this isprimarily a factor in ___5
graduate and professional-school tuition); the poor one’ s job prospects, ___6
the more sense it makes to reallocate time from the job market to education,
in order to make oneself more marketable. The ways which universities make themselves attractive to students ___7
include soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, giving students
a governance role, and eliminate required courses. ___8
Sky-high tuitions have caused universities to regard their students as
customers. Just as business firms sometimes collude to shorten the ___9
rigors of competition, universities collude to minimize the cost to them of the
athletes whom they recruit in order to stimulate alumni donations, so the best
athletes now often bypass higher education in order to obtain salaries earlier
from professional teams. And until they were stopped by the antitrust authorities,
the Ivy League schools colluded to limit competition for the best students, by
agreeing not to award scholarships on the basis of merit rather than purely
of need-just like business firms agreeing not to give discounts on their best ___10
customer.

【中译英】

PART V TRANSLATION （60 MIN）

提示：今年英语专业八级翻译部分的选材均出自《散文佳作108篇(汉英·英汉对照)》
作者： 乔萍 翟淑蓉 宋洪玮，建议大家熟读此书。点击查看该书简介及文章目录

SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH

Translate the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.

一个人的生命究竟有多大意义，这有什么标准可以衡量吗？提出一个绝对的标准当然很困难；但是，大体上看一个人对待生命的态度是否严肃认真，看他对待劳动、工作等等的态度如何，也就不难对这个人的存在意义做出适当的估计了。

古来一切有成就的人，都很严肃地对待自己的生命，当他活着一天，总要尽量多劳动、多工作、多学习，不肯虚度年华，不让时间白白地浪费掉。我国历代的劳动人民及大政治家、大思想家等等都莫不如此。