2023年专业英语八级真题附答案详解.doc

TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1999)GRADE EIGHTPAPER ONE PART LISTENING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN. ) In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. SECTION A TALK Questions 1 to 5 refer to the talk in this section. At the end of the talk you will be given 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the talk. 1. The technology to make machines quieter A. has been in use since the 1930's. B. has accelerated industrial production. C. has just been in commercial use. D. has been invented to remove all noises. 2. The modern electronic anti-noise devices A. are an update version of the traditional methods. B. share similarities with the traditional methods. C. are as inefficient as the traditional methods. D. are based on an entirely new working principle. 3. The French company is working on anti-noise techniques to be used in all EXCEPT A. streets. B. factories. C. aircraft. D. cars. 4. According to the talk, workers in "zones of quiet" can A. be more affected by noise. B. hear talk from outside the zone. C. work more efficiently. D. be heard outside the zone. 5. The main theme of the talk is about A. noise-control technology. B. noise in factories. C. noise-control regulations. D. noise-related effects. SECTION B INTERVIEW Questions 6 to 10 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the interview. 6. Employees in the US are paid for their time. This means that they are supposed to A. work hard while their boss is around. B. come to work when there is work to be done. C. work with initiative and willingness. D. work through their lunch break. 7. One of the advantages of flexible working hours is that A. pressure from work can be reduced. B. working women can have more time at home. C. traffic and commuting problems can be solved. D. personal relationships in offices can be improved. 8. On the issue of working contracts in the US, which statement is NOT correct? A. Performance at work matters more than anything else. B. There are laws protecting employees' working rights. C. Good reasons must be provided in order to fire workers. D. Working contracts in the US are mostly short-term ones. 9. It can be assumed from the interview that an informal atmosphere might be found in A. small firms. B. major banks. C. big corporations. D. law offices. 10. The interview is mainly about _ in the USA. A. office hierarchies B. office conditions C. office rules. D. office life. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST Question 11 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. 11. Senator Bob Dole's attitude towards Clinton's anti-crime policy is that of A. opposition. B. support. C. ambiguity. D. indifference. Questions 12 and 13 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 30 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. 12. Japan and the United States are now A. negotiating about photographic material. B. negotiating an automobile agreement. C. facing serious problems in trade. D. on the verge of a large-scale trade war. 13. The news item seems to indicate that the agreement A. will end all other related trade conflicts. B. is unlikely to solve the dispute once and for all. C. is linked to other trade agreements. D. is the last of its kind to be reached. Question 14 and 15 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 30 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. 14. According to the news, the ice from Greenland provides information about A. oxygen. B. ancient weather. C. carbon dioxide. D. temperature. 15. Which of the following statement is CORRECT? A. Drastic changes in the weather have been common since ancient times. B. The change in weather from very cold to very hot lasted over a century. C. The scientists have been studying ice to forecast weather in the future. D. The past 10,000 years have seen minor changes in the weather. SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture once only. While listening to the lecture, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a 15-minute gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET after the mini-lecture. Use the blank sheet for note-taking ANSWER SHEET At present companies and industries like to sponsor sports events. Two reasons are put forward to explain this phenomenon. The first reason is that they get (1) throughout the world. The second reason is that companies and industries (2) money as they get reductions in the tax they owe if they sponsor sports or arts activities. As sponsorship is (3) careful thinking is required in deciding which events to sponsor. It is important that the event to be sponsored (4) the product(s) to be promoted. That is, the right (5) and maximum product coverage must be guaranteed in the event. Points to be considered in sports sponsorship. Popularity of the event International sports events are big (6) events, which get extensive coverage on TV and in press. Smaller events attract fewer people. Identification of the potential audience Aiming at the right audience is most important for smaller events. The right audience would attract manufacturers of related products like (7) , etc. Advantages of sponsorship Advantages are longer-term. People are expected to respond 8 to the products promoted and be more likely to buy them. Advertising is 9 the mind. Sponsorship is better than straight advertising: a) less 10 b) tax-free PART PROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN. ) Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET as instructed.The hunter-gatherer tribes that today live as our prehistoric (1) _ human ancestors consume primarily a vegetable diet supplementing (2) _ with animal foods. An analysis of 58 societies of modern hunter- gatherers, including the Kung of southern Africa, revealed that one-half emphasize gathering plant foods, one-third concentrate on fishing, and only one-sixth are primarily hunters. Overall, two-thirds and (3) _ more of the hunter-gatherer's calories come from plants. Detailed studies of the Kung by the food scientists at the University of London, showed that gathering is a more productive source of food than is hunting. An hour of hunting yields in average about 100 edible calories, (4) _ as an hour of gathering produces 240. (5) _ Plant foods provide for 60 percent to 80 percent of the Kung diet, (6) _ and no one goes hungry when the hunt fails, interestingly, if they escape fatal infections or accidents, these contemporary aborigines live to old ages despite of the absence of medical care. They experience no obesity, (7) _ and no middle-aged spread, little dental decay, no high blood pressure, no heart disease, and their blood cholesterol level are very low (about half of (8) _ the average American adult. ) If no one is suggesting that we return to (9) _ an aboriginal life, we certainly could use their eating habits as a model for healthier diet. (10) _ PART READING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN. ) SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN. ) In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple- choice questions. Read the passages carefully and then answer the questions. TEXT ARicci's "Operation Columbus"1 Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plans to market an English-language edition of his elegant monthly art magazine, FMR, in the United States. Once again the skeptics are murmuring that the successful Ricci has headed for a big fall. And once again Ricci intends to prove them wrong.2 Ricci is so confident that he has christen quest "Operation Columbus" and has set his sights on discovering an American readership of 300,000. That goal may not be too far- fetched. The Italian edition of FMR the initials, of course, stand for Franco Maria Ricci is only 18 months old. But it is already the second largest art magazine in the world, with a circulation of 65,000 and a profit margin of US $ 500,000. The American edition will be patterned after the Italian version, with each 160-page issue carrying only 40 pages of ads and no more than five articles. But the contents will often differ. The English-language edition will include more American works, Ricci says, to help Americans get over "an inferiority complex about their art". He also hopes that the magazine will become a vehicle for a two-way cultural exchange what he likes to think of as a marriage of brains, culture and taste from both sides of the Atlantic.3 To realize this version, Ricci is mounting one of the most lavish, enterprising and expensive promotional campaigns in magazine-publishing history. Between November and January, eight jumbo jets will fly 8 million copies of a sample 16-page edition of FMR across the Atlantic. From a warehouse in Michigan, 6.5 million copies will be mailed to American subscribers of various cultural, art and business magazines. Some of the remaining copies will circulate as a special Sunday supplement in the New York Times. The cost of launching Operation Columbus is a staggering US $ 5 million, but Ricci is hoping that 600% of the price tag will be financed by Italian corporations. "To land in America Columbus had to use Spanish sponsors," reads one sentence in his promotional pamphlet. "We would like Italians."4 Like Columbus, Ricci cannot know what his reception, will be on foreign shores. In Italy he gambled and won on a simple concept: it is more important to show art than to write about it. Hence, one issue of FMR might feature 32 full-colour pages of 17th-century tapestries, followed by 14 pages of outrageous eyeglasses. He is gambling that the concept is exportable. "I don't expect that more than 30% of my readers., will actually read FMR," he says. "The magazine is such a visual delight that they don't have to. "Still, he is lining up an impressive stable of writers and professors for the American edition, including Noam Chomsky, Anthony Burgess, Eric Jong and Norman Mailer. In addition, he seems to be pursuing his own eclectic vision without giving a moment's thought to such established competitors as Connosisseur and Horizon. "The Americans can do almost everything better than we can, "says Ricci," But we (the Italians) have a 2,000 year edge on them in art." 16. Ricci intends his American edition of FMR to carry more American art works in order to A. boost Americans' confidence in their art. B. follow the pattern set by his Italian edition. C. help Italians understand American art better. D. expand the readership of his magazine. 17. Ricci is compared to Columbus in the passage mainly because A. they both benefited from Italian sponsors. B. they were explorers in their own ways. C. they obtained overseas sponsorship. D. they got a warm reception in America. 18. We get the impression that the American edition of FMR will probably A. carry many academic articles of high standard. B. follow the style of some famous existing magazines. C. be read by one third of American magazine readers. D. pursue a distinctive editorial style of its own. TEXT BUncle Geoff1 My mother's relations were very different form the Mitfords. Her brother, Uncle Geoff, who often came to stay at Swinbrook, was a small, spare man with thoughtful blue eyes and a rather silent manner. Compared to Uncle Tommy, he was an intellectual of the highest order, and indeed his satirical pen belied his mild demeanor. He spent most of his waking hours composing letters to The Times and other publications in which he outlined his own particular theory of the development of English history. In Uncle Geoff's view, the greatness of England had risen and waned over the centuries in direct proportion to the use of natural manure in fertilizing the soil. The Black Death of 1348 was caused by gradual loss of the humus fertility found under forest trees. The rise of the Elizabethans two centuries later was attributable to the widespread use of sheep manure.2 Many of Uncle Geoff's letters-to-the-editor have fortunately been preserved in a privately printed volume called Writings of A Rebel. Of the collection, one letter best sums up his views on the relationship between manure and freedom. He wrote:3 Collating old records shows that our greatness rises and falls with the living fertility of our soil. And now, many years of exhausted and chemically murdered soil, and of devitalized food from it, has softened our bodies and still worse, softened our national character. It is an actual fact that character is largely a product of the soil. Many years of murdered food from deadened soil has made us too tame. Chemicals have had their poisonous day. It is now the worm's turn to reform the manhood of England. The only way to regain our punch, our character, our lost virtues, and with them the freedom natural to islanders, is to compost our land so as to allow moulds, bacteria and earthworms to remake living soil to nourish Englishmen's bodies and spirits.4 The law requiring pasteurization of milk in England was a particular target of Uncle Geoff's. Fond of alliteration, he dubbed it "Murdered Milk Measure," and established the Liberty Restoration League, with headquarters at his house in London, for the specific purpose of organizing a counteroffensive. "Freedom not Doctordom" was the League's proud slogan. A subsidiary, but nevertheless important, activity of the League was advocacy of a return to the " unsplit, slowly smoked fish" and bread made with "English stone-ground flour, yeast, milk, sea salt and raw cane-sugar." 19. According to Uncle Geoff, national strength could only be regained by A. reforming the manhood of England. B. using natural manure as fertilizer.