2006 年专业英语八级考试真题及答案
Section A Mini-lecture
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. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Miss Green’s university days?
A. She felt bored.
B. She felt lonely.
C. She cherished them.
D. The subject was easy.
2. Which of the following is NOT part of her job with the Department of
Employment?
A. Doing surveys at workplace.
B. Analyzing survey results.
C. Designing questionnaires.
D. Taking a psychology course.
3. According to Miss Green, the main difference between the Department of
Employment and the advertising agency lies in
A. the nature of work.
B. office decoration.
C. office location.
D. work procedures.
4. Why did Miss green want to leave the advertising agency?
A. She felt unhappy inside the company.
B. She felt work there too demanding.
C. She was denied promotion in the company.
D. She longed for new opportunities.
5. How did Miss Green react to a heavier workload in the new job?
A. She was willing and ready.
B. She sounded mildly eager.
C. She a bit surprised.
D. She sounded very reluctant.
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.
Questions 6 and 7 based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you
will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now listen to the news.
6. The man stole the aircraft mainly because he wanted to
A. destroy the European Central Bank.
B. have an interview with a TV station.
C. circle skyscrapers in downtown Frankfurt.
D. remember the death of a US astronaut.
7. Which of the following statements about the man is TRUE?
A. He was a 31-year-old student from Frankfurt.
B. He was piloting a two-seat helicopter he had stolen.
C. He had talked to air traffic controllers by radio.
D. He threatened to land on the European Central Bank.
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. The news is mainly about the city government’s plan to
A. expand and improve the existing subway system.
B. build underground malls and parking lots.
C. prevent further land subsidence.
D. promote advanced technology.
Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,
you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now listen to the
news.
9. According to the news, what makes this credit card different from conventional
ones is
A. that it can hear the owner's voice.
B. that it can remember a password.
C. that it can identify the owner's voice.
D. that it can remember the owner's PIN.
10. The newly developed credit card is said to said to have all the following
EXCEPT
A. switch.
B. battery.
C. speaker.
D. built-in chip.
【阅读理解】
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20
multiple-choice questions.
Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
The University in transformation, edited by Australian futurists Sohail
Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley, presents some 20 highly varied outlooks on
tomorrow’ s universities by writers representing both Western and mon-Western
perspectives. Their essays raise a broad range of issues, questioning nearly every
key assumption we have about higher education today.
The most widely discussed alternative to the traditional campus is the Internet
University – a voluntary community to scholars/teachers physically scattered
throughout a country or around the world but all linked in cyberspace. A computerized
university could have many advantages, such as easy scheduling, efficient delivery
of lectures to thousands or even millions of students at once, and ready access for
students everywhere to the resources of all the world’s great libraries.
Yet the Internet University poses dangers, too. For example, a line of franchised
courseware, produced by a few superstar teachers, marketed under the brand name of
a famous institution, and heavily advertised, might eventually come to dominate the
global education market, warns sociology professor Peter Manicas of the University
of Hawaii at Manoa. Besides enforcing a rigidly standardized curriculum, such a
“college education in a box” could undersell the offerings of many traditional
brick and mortar institutions, effectively driving then out of business and throwing
thousands of career academics out of work, note Australian communications professors
David Rooney and Greg Hearn.
On the other hand, while global connectivity seems highly likely to play some
significant role in future higher education, that does not mean greater uniformity
in
follow.
Counter-movements are also at work.
dangers – will
necessarily
course
content – or
other
Many in academia, including scholars contributing to this volume, are
questioning the fundamental mission of university education. What if, for instance,
instead of receiving primarily technical training and building their individual
careers, university students and professors could focus their learning and research
efforts on existing problems in their local communities and the world? Feminist
scholar Ivana Milojevic dares to dream what a university might become“if we believed
that child-care workers and teachers in early childhood education should be one of
the highest (rather than lowest) paid professionals?”
Co-editor Jennifer Gidley shows how tomorrow’s university faculty, instead of
giving lectures and conducting independent research, may take on three new roles.
Some would act as brokers, assembling customized degree-credit programmes for
individual students by mixing and matching the best course offerings available from
institutions all around the world. A second group, mentors, would function much like
today’s faculty advisers, but are likely to be working with many more students
outside their own academic specialty. This would require them to constantly be
learning from their students as well as instructing them.
A third new role for faculty, and in Gidley’s view the most challenging and
rewarding of all, would be as meaning-makers: charismatic sages and practitioners
leading groups of students/colleagues in collaborative efforts to find spiritual
as well as rational and technological solutions to specific real-world problems.
Moreover, there seems little reason to suppose that any one form of university
must necessarily drive out all other options. Students may be “enrolled” in courses
offered at virtual campuses on the Internet, between –or even during – sessions
at a real-world problem-focused institution.
As co-editor Sohail Inayatullah points out in his introduction, no future is
inevitable, and the very act of imagining and thinking through alternative
possibilities can directly affect how thoughtfully, creatively and urgently even
a dominant technology is adapted and applied. Even in academia, the future belongs
to those who care enough to work their visions into practical, sustainable realities.
11. When the book reviewer discusses the Internet University,
A. he is in favour of it.
B. his view is balanced.
C. he is slightly critical of it.
D. he is strongly critical of it.
12. Which of the following is NOT seen as a potential danger of the Internet
University?
A. Internet-based courses may be less costly than traditional ones.
B. Teachers in traditional institutions may lose their jobs.
C. internet-based courseware may lack variety in course content.
D. The Internet University may produce teachers with a lot of publicity.
13. According to the review, what is the fundamental mission of traditional
university education?
A. Knowledge learning and career building.
B. Learning how to solve existing social problems.
C. Researching into solutions to current world problems.
D. Combining research efforts of teachers and students in learning.
14. Judging from the Three new roles envisioned for tomorrow's university
faculty, university teachers
A. are required to conduct more independent research.
B. are required to offer more course to their students.
C. are supposed to assume more demanding duties.
D. are supposed to supervise more students in their specialty.
15. Which category of writing does the review belong to?
A. Narration.
B. Description
C. persuasion
D. Exposition.
TEXT B
Every street had a story, every building a memory, Those blessed with wonderful
childhoods can drive the streets of their hometowns and happily roll back the years.
The rest are pulled home by duty and leave as soon as possible. After Ray Atlee had
been in Clanton (his hometown) for fifteen minutes he was anxious to get out.
The town had changed, but then it hadn't. On the highways leading in, the cheap
metal buildings and mobile homes were gathering as tightly as possible next to the
roads for maximum visibility. This town had no zoning whatsoever. A landowner could
build anything wiih no permit no inspection, no notice to adjoining landowners.
nothing. Only hog farms and nuclear reactors required approvals and paperwork. The
result was a slash-and-build clutter that got uglier by the year.
But in the older sections, nearer the square, the town had not changed at all
The long shaded streets were as clean and neat as when Kay roamed them on his bike.
Most of the houses were still owned by people he knew, or if those folks had passed
on the new owners kept the lawns clipped and the shutters painted. Only a few were
being neglected. A handful had been abandoned.
This deep in Bible country, it was still an unwritten rule in the town that little
was done on Sundays except go to church, sit on porches, visit neighbours, rest and
relax the way God intended.
It was cloudy, quite cool for May, and as he toured his old turf, killing time
until the appointed hour for the family meeting, he tried to dwell on the good
memories from Clanton. There was Dizzy Dean Park where he had played little League
for the Pirates, and (here was the public pool he'd swum in every summer except 1969
when the city closed it rather than admit black children. There were the churches
- Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian - facing each other at the intersection of
Second and Elm like wary sentries, their steeples competing for height. They were
empty now, hut in an hour or so the more faithful would gather for evening services.
The square was as lifeless as the streets leading to it. With eight thousand
people, Clanton was just large enough to have attracted the discount stores that
had wiped out so many small towns. But here the people had been faithful to their
downtown merchants, and there wasn’t s single empty or boarded-up building around
the square – no small miracle. The retail shops were mixed in with the banks and
law offices and cafes, all closed for the Sabbath.
He inched through the cemetery and surveyed the Atlee section in the old part,
where the tombstones were grander. Some of his ancestors had built monuments for
their dead. Ray had always assumed that the family money he’d never seen must have
been buried in those graves. He parked and walked to his mother’s grave, something
he hadn’t done in years. She was buried among the Atlees, at the far edge of the
family plot because she had barely belonged.
Soon, in less than an hour, he would be sitting in his father’s study, sipping
bad instant tea and receiving instructions on exactly how his father would be laid
to rest. Many orders were about to be give, many decrees and directions, because
his father(who used to be a judge) was a great man and cared deeply about how he
was to be remembered.
Moving again, Ray passed the water tower he’d climbed twice, the second time
with the police waiting below. He grimaced at his old high school, a place he’d
never visited since he’d left it. Behind it was the football field where his brother
Forrest had romped over opponents and almost became famous before getting bounced
off the team.
It was twenty minutes before five, Sunday, May 7. Time for the family meeting.
16. From the first paragraph, we get the impression that
A. Ray cherished his childhood memories.
B. Ray had something urgent to take care of.
C. Ray may not have a happy childhood.
D. Ray cannot remember his childhood days.
17. Which of the following adjectives does NOT describe Ray’s hometown?
A. Lifeless.
B. Religious.
C. Traditional.
D. Quiet.
18. Form the passage we can infer that the relationship between Ray and his
parents was
A. close.
B. remote.
C. tense.
D. impossible to tell.
19. It can be inferred from the passage that Ray’s father was all EXCEPT
A. considerate.
B. punctual.
C. thrifty.
D. dominant.
Text C
Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself.Neither the
landscape nor the people find their counterparts in any other portion of the
globe.Valley walls rise steeply five or six thousand feet on every side.The columns
crawl through a maze of giant corridors down which fierce snow-fed torrents foam
under skies of brass.Amid these scenes of savage brilliancy there dwells a race whose
qualities seem to harmonize with their environment.Except at harvest?time,when
self-preservation requires a temporary truce,the Pathan tribes are always engaged
in private or public war.Every man is a warrior,a politician and a theologian.Every
large house is a real feudal fortress made,it is true,only of sun-baked clay,but
with battlements,turrets,loopholes,drawbridges,etc.complete.Every village has its
defence.Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan,its feud.The numerous
tribes and combinations of tribes all have their accounts to settle with one
another.Nothing is ever forgotten,and very few debts are left unpaid.For the
purposes of social life,in addition to the convention about harvest-time, a most
elaborate code of honour has been established and is on the whole faithfully
observed.A man who knew it and observed it faultlessly might pass unarmed from one
end of the frontier to another.The slightest technical slip would,however,be
fatal.The life of the Pathan is thus full of interest; and his valleys,nourished
alike by endless sunshine and abundant water,are fertile enough to yield with little
labour the modest material requirements of a sparse population.
Into this happy world the nineteenth century brought two new facts:the rifle
and the British Government.The first was an enormous luxury and blessing; the
second,an unmitigated nuisance.The convenience of the rifle was nowhere more
appreciated than in the Indian highlands.A weapon which would kill with accuracy
at fifteen hundred yards opened a whole new vista of delights to every family or
clan which could acquire it.One could actually remain in one’s own house and fire
at one’s neighbour nearly a mile away.One could lie in wait on some high crag,and
at hitherto unheard of ranges hit a horseman far below.Even villages could fire at
each other without the trouble of going far from home.Fabulous prices were therefore
offered for these glorious products of science.Rifle-thieves scoured all India to
reinforce the efforts of the honest smuggler.A steady flow of the coveted weapons
spread its genial influence throughout the frontier,and the respect which the Pathan
tribesmen entertained for Christian civilization was vastly enhanced.
The action of the British Government on the other hand was entirely
unsatisfactory.The great organizing,advancing,absorbing power to the southward
seemed to be little better than a monstrous spoil-sport.If the Pathan made forays
into the plains,not only were they driven back (which after all was no more than
fair),but a whole series of subsequent interferences took place,followed at
intervals by expeditions which toiled laboriously through the valleys,scolding the
tribesmen and exacting fines for any damage which they had done.No one would have
minded these expeditions if they had simply come,had a fight and then gone away
again.In many cases this was their practice under what was called the “butcher and
bolt policy” to which the Government of India long adhered.But towards the end of
the nineteenth century these intruders began to make roads through many of the
valleys,and in particular the great road to Chitral.They sought to ensure the safety
of these roads by threats,by forts and by subsidies.There was no objection to the
last method so far as it went.But the whole of this tendency to road-making was
regarded by the Pathans with profound distaste.All along the road people were
expected to keep quiet,not to shoot one another,and above all not to shoot at
travellers along the road.It was too much to ask,and a whole series of quarrels took
their origin from this source.
20. The word debts in“very few debts are left unpaid”in the first paragraph
means
A loans.
B accounts.
C killings.
D bargains.
21. Which of the following is NOT one of the geographical facts about the Indian
frontier?
A Melting snows.
B Large population.
C Steep hillsides.
D Fertile valleys.
22. According to the passage,the Pathans welcomed
A the introduction of the rifle.
B the spread of British rule.
C the extension of luxuries.
D the spread of trade.
23. Building roads by the British
A put an end to a whole series of quarrels.
B prevented the Pathans from carrying on feuds.
C lessened the subsidies paid to the Pathans.
D gave the Pathans a much quieter life.
24. A suitable title for the passage would be
A Campaigning on the Indian Frontier.
B Why the Pathans Resented the British Rule.
C The Popularity of Rifles among the Pathans.
D The Pathans at War.
Text D
“Museum”is a slippery word. It first meant (in Greek) anything consecrated
to the Muses:a hill,a shrine,a garden,a festival or even a textbook.Both Platos
Academy and Aristotles Lyceum had a mouseion, a muses shrine.Although the Greeks
already collected detached works of art,many temples— notably that of Hera at
Olympia (before which the Olympic flame is still lit) — had collections of
objects,some of which were works of art by well known masters,while paintings and
sculptures in the Alexandrian Museum were incidental to its main purpose.
The Romans also collected and exhibited art from disbanded temples,as well as
mineral specimens,exotic plants,animals; and they plundered sculptures and
paintings (mostly Greek) for exhibition.Meanwhile,the Greek word had slipped into
Latin by transliteration (though not to signify picture galleries,which were called
pinacothecae) and museum still more or less meant“Muses- shrine”.
of
saints
and
later
The inspirational collections of precious and semi-precious objects were kept
in larger churches and monasteries—which focused on the gold-enshrined,bejewelled
relics
similar
collections,which became the deposits of natural curiosities:large lumps of amber
or coral,irregular pearls,unicorn horns,ostrich eggs,fossil bones and so on.They
well
also
martyrs.Princes,and
gems — often
engraved
ones — as
merchants,had
included
coins
and
antique