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1998年英语专八真题及答案篇一：1998年英语专业八级考试试题和答案
1998年英语专业八级考试试题和答案 SECTION A TALK
One of the largest mental health problems in the US is that of compulsive gambling. Although there are no scientific studies that have discovered the exact number, experts estimate that between 5 and 10 million persons are compulsive gamblers.
Like addiction to alcohol, compulsive gambling crosses all social and economic lines. Compulsive gamblers can be found in any profession and at any level of society. And the addiction affects both men and women. The gambling compulsion usually starts in the early teens. The more often the young gambler indulges in the compulsion, the more obsessive it becomes. By his early twenties, the average compulsive gambler has moved from small bets on such things as football games, horse races and card games to more adult, more expensive gambling forms.
For the compulsive gambler, life becomes one continuous gambling binge. The compulsion consumes the gambling addict to such a point that nothing else matters, not even health, children or family. Studies by psychiatrists seem to show that compulsive gamblers bet to lose. Compulsive gamblers never stop when they are ahead. Instead, they try to win more. One important characteristic of the compulsive gambler is his optimism. Like most human beings, he does not like to admit defeat. Consequently, he hides his real motivations for gambling with large amounts of enthusiastic optimism. The more deeply he is committed to betting — and losing — the more fanatical his conviction that the next bet will make him wealthy.
Compulsive gamblers will use almost any means to get money to "feed their addiction". Borrowing or stealing from friends or family is the first method gamblers usually employ to get cash. Other common ways to get money are embezzlement, robbery or writing false checks.
In recent years, psychiatrists discovered some of the basic reasons for compulsive gambling. First, compulsive gamblers almost always come from homes lacking in love. As a result, the child grows up still looking for the warmth of family love and parental approval. Another aspect of the nature of the gambling addict is that unconsciously he wants to lose. Psychiatrists believe that compulsive gamblers consciously may expect to win; however, there is a strong element of self-destruction in their inclination to continue betting until all is lost.
One New York psychiatrist believes that basically the compulsive gambler is seeking an answer to the question. "Do you love me?" By winning, he receives a "yes" answer. However, the gamblers cannot accept the "yes" he sometimes receives because it is contrary to the reality of his (or her) unhappy childhood — one lacking in family love. The gambler is
compelled to continue betting, thus expressing again and again his need for love and acceptance. When gambling addicts do win some money, they rarely spend any of it on their families. Money is like a sacred thing to the addicts. It is reserved for one thing: placing a bet. Fortunately, there is hope and help today for gambling addicts.
Psychiatric treatment is one possibility. Group therapy seems to help in some cases. The most readily available and the least expensive help comes from an organization called "Gamblers Anonymous" (G. A.). Patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous — G. A. has more than ninety chapters in the US with about 3 000 gamblers seeking a cure. One basic rule of G. A. is the gamblers must pay back all their debts, even if it takes many years to do so. Thousands of members credit G. A. with saving them from their addiction and helping them to build new lives free from the gambling sickness. Happily, today with more public interest in helping the gambling addicts overcome his problem and with such organizations as the G. A. , the gambler who wants help to break his addiction now has some place or someone to turn to.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
M: Mrs Harrison, thanks very much for coming down here to the station. I, I know you've been through a terrible situation here today. I'd just like to go over some of the things you told Sergeant Clark at the bank. W: All right.
M: Ah, ah. Would you like a cup of tea?
W: No, no. I'm fine.
M: All right.
W: Thanks.
M: Well, could you describe the two people who robbed the bank for this report we're filling out here? Now, anything at all you could remember would be extremely helpful to us.
W: Well, just, I can only remember basically what I said before. M: That's all right.
W: The man was tall, about six feet, and he had dark hair.
M: Dark hair.
W: And he had moustache.
M: Very good. All right. Did he have any other distinguishing marks, I mean, scars, for example, anything like that?
W: Scars, no, none of that I can remember.
M: Do you remember how old he was, by any chance?
W: Eh, well, I guess around thirty. M: Around thirty.
W: Maybe younger, plus or minus a few years.
M: Mmm ... All right. Do you remember anything about what he might have been wearing?
W; Yes, he, he had on a dark sweater, a, a solid color. You know, the kind of color young people fancy nowadays.
M: Anything else that strikes you at the moment?
W: I, I remember he was wearing a light shirt under the sweater, a cotton one with dark, I think, dark stripes. It looks like a good brand. M: Ah, very good.
W; Yes, yes.
M: Mm, all right, now. Can you tell us anything about the woman robber, Mrs Harrison?
W: Well, I remember that she did most of the talking. She had the gun pointed at us and she told us to lie down on the floor and not to move if we knew what was good for us. I remember I've just felt like she was pointing the gun at me and my little daughter was right next to me and she, she was just so frightened.
M: Um, Mrs Harrison, Could you describe her for us?
W: She was wearing a wool sweater.
M: Ah, very good.
W: I remember it was a dark color, navy blue or ... or dark gray. M: Dark gray?
W: And I guess she was in her late twenties. Her hair was short, very short and a bit curly.
M: Do you remember how tall she was?
W: Ah, about the same as myself, around five four.
M: Five four. All right, do you remember anything else about this woman? W: Yes, I remember the woman was wearing a pendant around her neck. M: Oh.
W: I remember it specifically because I was then near the counter, next to the bank manager and my little daughter started to cry.
M: Ah.
W: And this woman came up to me and was very rude to me and said "Shut your damned kid, lady!" So I got a good look at her and she was sort of, uh, pulling on the chain and playing with the pendant.
M: Oh?
W: It was gold, well, anyway, look like gold. And it had a strange shape. M: Ah, now did either of them have any other noticeable characteristics, Mrs Harrison? Now, just take a minute ...
W: Er, no, I don't.
M: ... to think about this.
W: No, no, this is really all I can remember.
M: Well, did either of them wear glasses?
W: No, no, I'm sure of that.
M: All right, Mrs Harrison. I really appreciate what you've been through today. I'm just going to ask you to look at some photographs before you leave, if you don't mind. It won't take very long. Can you do that for me?
W: Ah, all right.
M: Would you like to step this way with me, please?
W: OK, sure.
M: Thank you.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
News Item One (For Questions 11—12)
The UN Agency, the World Food Program, says Iraq is facing a food crisis, which is causing enormous damage to its population, especially its children. The agency said more and more Iraqis were spending their whole day struggling to find food for survival and the social fabric of the nation was disintegrating. It said that an entire generation of children was being harmed irreparably and the country was at a point of no return. WFP says that 60% of Iraq's population, that's 12 million people, are struggling to survive because of food shortages. Food for the average family cost the equivalent of $26 a month. The devaluation of the Iraqi dinar means that few can afford this. Levels of severe malnutrition among children under five now can compare with the Sub-Sahara in Africa. The infant mortality rate has risen by more than 700% compared with before the Gulf War. Many donor states say the Baghdad government should take the blame for this because it refuses to raise money for food by selling oil through the UN as the sanction rules allow. WFP is asking for $122 million dollars to help feed 2 million people, mostly those under five or over seventy. That's double the size of last year's program, although the agency says it's still a fraction of the real need. WFP also
acknowledges that it's unlikely that governments around the world will respond fully to this appeal.
News Item Two (For Question 13)
France and US have signed an accord to share sensitive information on nuclear weapons. US and French officials say the agreement is aimed at maintaining the reliability and safety of the two countries' nuclear stockpiles. As part of the accord, the US will share with France its computer data on simulated nuclear explosions. Until now, the US data was shared only with Britain. Officials say the agreement will help the two countries maintain their arsenals after they sign a global treaty expected later this year that bans all nuclear testing.
News Item Three (For Questions 14—15)
The University of Michigan carries out a survey of the drug habits among young people every year. And this year it's concluded that the teenage drug use is rapidly getting worse. 25% of the teenagers surveyed said they'd used an illegal drug at sometime in their lives, an increased of 3% from the figures for 1993. Marijuana use is climbing back towards levels not seen since the late 197O's. And today's Marijuana is up to ten times more potent than in the past. Cocaine use, which leveled off in the early 1990's, is also making a comeback among 13 to 15-year-olds. And LSD, which
had dropped considerably in the 1980's, is also on the rise. Officials involved in the survey say the results indicate that young people no longer see drugs as dangerous; instead, the researchers say, they are viewed as glamorous or trendy. The health secretary said it was time to sound the alarm and the secretary calls for a powerful anti-drug message to be sent to children, with parents leading the way.
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
People in Britain speak English with different accents according to where they come from and what kind of social status they have or what kind of education they've received, etc. Among the various accents, there is one that has achieved a certain eminence. It's called Received Pronunciation (RP). And this accent is also generally preferred for teaching English as a foreign language and for reading BBC news bulletins. Why is it so? Let's take a look at how it evolved over the years, its features, its present status and so forth.
Received pronunciation (RP) had its historical origins in a dialect of English spoken particularly in the region stretching southeast from the Midlands, which is in the central part of England, down towards London, the capital city. The two historical university cities of Cambridge and Oxford, though outside this region, are also considered as the place of origin for the dialect. The dialect survived because of its association with centers of power and influence. It was spoken by the merchant classes of London in the 14th century, for example, and would had been familiar to students attending the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the Middle Ages. Its status as an important dialect was enhanced by its use in government and official documents from about 1430 onwards. More recently, its association since the 19th century with public schools helped to achieve special pre-eminence for its distinctive patterns of pronunciation. So we can see, in the United Kingdom, at least, this accent is usually associated with a higher social or educational background, with the BBC and certain professions and it's most commonly taught to students learning English as a foreign language. For many such students, it is the only accent they are prepared to learn and a teacher who does not use it may have difficulty in finding a position as a teacher of English in certain non-English speaking countries. Other names for this accent are the Queen's English, Oxford English and BBC English. As the accent has lost its former regional affiliations, it is now the most widely understood and spoken of all the accents within the British Isles. So what are the most interesting characteristics of RP? Firstly, a relatively very small number of speakers who use it do not identify themselves as coming from any particular geographical region; secondly, RP is largely confined to England and there it is a non-localized accent; thirdly, RP is a class accent. In England, the higher the social class of the speaker, the less the regional accent, and also the use of local
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇二：1997年英语专八考试真题及答案
1997年英语专八考试真题及答案
试卷一 (95 min)
Part Ⅰ
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. Mark the correct answer to each question on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
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. In the Black Forest, the acid rain is said to attack all EXCEPT ___.
A. firs B. metals C. leaves D. soil
2. The percentage of firs dying in the Black Forest is ___.
A.41% B.43% C.26% D.76%
3. Germany is tackling part of the problem by introducing ___.
A. new car designing schemes
B. new car production lines
C. a new type of smoke stacks
D. new car safety standards
4. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. Germany is likely to succeed in persuading her neighbours to reduce acid rain.
B. The disastrous effects of acid rain are not confined to one area.
C. German tourists are allowed to drive across their neighbours’ borders.
D. Germany’s neighbours are in favour of the use of lead-free petrol.
5. On the issue of future solution of acid rain, the speaker’s tone is that of ___.
A. warning B. pessimism C. indifference D. optimism
SECTION B INTERVIEW
2
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. What subject is Mr. Pitt good at_____?
A. Art. B. French. C. German. D.Chemistry.
7. What does Mr. Pitt NOT do in his spare time?
A. Doing a bit of acting and photography.
B. Going to concerts frequently.
C. Playing traditional jazz and folk music.
D. Travelling in Europe by hitch-hiking.
8. When asked what a manager’s role is Mr. Pitt sounds ___.
A. confident B. hesitant C. resolute D. doubtful
9. What does Mr. Pitt say he would like to be?
A. An export salesman working overseas.
B. An accountant working in the company.
C. A production manager in a branch.
D. A policy maker in the company.
10. Which of the following statements about the management trainee scheme is TRUE?
A. Trainees are required to sign contracts initially.
B. Trainees’ performance is evaluated when necessary.
C. Trainees’ starting salary is 870 pounds.
D. Trainees cannot quit the management scheme
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. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Five gunmen were flown to Iran in a helicopter.
B. Most of the ransom was retrieved in the end.
C. The children were held for five days.
D. The authorities have passed sentence on the gunmen.
Question 12 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.
3
12. According to the news, American troops in Panama ___.
A. were attacked at refugee camps
B. were angry at delays in departure
C. attacked Cuban refugee camps last week
D. will be increased to 2,000
Question 13 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.
13. Which of the following statements is CORRECT? U.S. lawmakers
___.
A. challenged the accord for freezing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme
B. required the inspection of Pyongyang’ s nuclear site for at least five years
C. were worried that North Korea may take advantage of the
concessions
D. blamed the U. S. negotiator for making no compromises with North Korea
Questions 14 & 15 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,
you will be given 30 seconds to answer the two questions. Now listen to the news.
14. According to the news, the Italian Parliament was asked to act by ___.
A. the U.N. B. the Red Cross
C. the Defence Minister D. the Swedish Government
15. On the issue of limited use of landmines, the Italian Parliament is ___.
A. noncommittal B. resolute C. unsupportive D. wavering
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
In business, many, places adopt a credit system, which dates back to ancient times. At present, purchases can be made by using credit cards. They fall into two categories: one has (1)______________ use, while the other is accepted almost everywhere. The application for the 4
use of the latter one must be made at a (2)____________. Once the customer starts using the card, he will be provided with a monthly
statement of (3)_______________ by the credit company. He is required to pay one quarter to half of his credit (4)_______________ every month.
Advantages:
1. With a card, it is not (5)_____________ to save up money before an actual purchase.
2. If the card is lost, its owner is protected.
3. A (6)______________ and complete list of purchase received from the credit company helps the owner to remember the time and
(7)_______________ of his purchase.
4. The cards are accepted in a (n) (8)_____________ by professional people like dentists, etc.
Major disadvantage. The card owner is tempted to (9)_______________ his money. If this is the case, it will become increasingly diffluent(分
流的，易溶解的) for the user to keep up with the required
(10)_______________, which will result in the credit card being cancelled by the credit company.
Part Ⅱ
Proofreading an Error Correction (15 min)
The following passage contains TEN errors. Each line contains a maximum
of one error and three are free from error. In each case, only one word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way.
For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line.
For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a “∧” sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line.
For an unnecessary word, cross out the unnecessary word with a slash “／” and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line. Example
When∧art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) an
it never〖KG-1*3〗／ buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never 5
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
Classic Intention Movement
In social situations, the classic Intention Movement is ‘the
chair-grasp’. Host and guest have been talking for some time,
but now the host has an appointment to keep and can get away. 1.___ His urge to go is held in cheek by his desire not be rude to his 2.___ guest, if he did not care of his guest’ s feelings he would simply
3.___
get up out of his chair and to announce his departure. This is 4.___
what his body wants to do, therefore his politeness glues his body 5.___ to the chair and refuses to let him raise. It is at this point that
he 6.___
performs the chair-grasp Intention Movement. He continues to
talk to the guest and listen to him, but leans forward and grasps
the arms of the chair as about to push himself upwards. This is 7.___ the first act he would make if he were rising . If he were not 8.___ hesitating, it would only last a fraction of the second. He would 9.___ lean, push, rise, and be up. But now, instead, it lasts much longer. He holds his ’readiness-to-rise’ post and keeps on holding it. It is 10.___
as if his body had frozen at the get-ready moment.
Part Ⅲ
Reading Comprehension (40 min)
SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 min)
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total 6
of fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
A magazine’s design is more than decoration, more than simple packaging. It expresses the magazine’s very character. The Atlantic Monthly has long attempted to provide a design environment in which two disparate traditions—literary
and journalistic—can co-exist in pleasurable dignity. The redesign that we in
troduce with this issue—the work of our art director, Judy Garlan —represents, we think, a notable enhancement of that environment. Garlan explains some of what was in her mind as she began to create the new design: “I saw this as an opportunity to bring the look closer to matching the
elegance and power of the writing which the magazine is known for. The overall
design has to be able to encompass a great diversity of styles and subjects—urgent pieces of reporting, serious essays, lighter pieces, lifestyle-oriented pieces, short stories, poetry. We don’t want lighter pieces to seem too heavy, and we
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇三：1998英语专八真题
TEM-8 (1998)
QUESTION BOOKLET
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (98)
- GRADE EIGHT -
PAPER ONE
TIME LIMIT: 95 MIN.
PART ONE LISTENING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN.)
Direction: In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct response for each question on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
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 questions.
Now listen to the talk.
1. According to the talk, compulsive gambling and alcoholic addiction share similarities because ____.
A. no actual figure of addicts has been reported.
B. no scientific studies have yielded effective solutions.
C. both affect all sectors of society.
D. both cause serious mental health problems.
正确答案是
2. The development of the gambling compulsion can be described as being ____.
A. gradual.
B. slow.
C. periodic.
D. radical.
正确答案是
3. G. A. mentioned in the talk is believed to be a(n) ____.
A. anonymous group.
B. charity organization.
C. gamblers' club.
D. treatment centre.
正确答案是
4. At the end of the talk, the speaker's attitude towards the cure of gambling addiction is ____.
A. unclear.
B. uncertain.
C. optimistic.
D. pessimistic.
正确答案是
5. Throughout the talk, the speaker examines the issue of gambling in a ____ way.
A. balanced
B. biased
C. detached
D. lengthy
正确答案是
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 questions.
Now listen to the interview.
6. What strikes the woman most about the male robber is his ____.
A. clothes.
B. age.
C. physique.
D. appearance.
正确答案是
7. The most detailed information about the woman robber is her ____.
A. manners.
B. talkativeness.
C. height.
D. jewelry.
正确答案是
8. The interviewee is believed to be a bank ____.
A. receptionist.
B. manager.
C. customer.
D. cashier.
正确答案是
9. Which of the following about the two robbers is NOT true?
A. Both were wearing dark sweaters.
B. Neither was wearing glasses.
C. Both were about the same age.
D. One of them was marked by a scar.
正确答案是
10. After the incident the interviewee sounded ____.
A. calm and quiet.
B. nervous and numb.
C. timid and confused.
D. shocked and angry.
正确答案是
SECTION C. NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 and 12 are based on the following news. At the end of the news items, you will be given 30 seconds to answer the questions.
11. According to the news, the enormous food shortage in Iraq has the most damaging effect on its ____.
A. national economy.
B. adult population.
C. young children.
D. national currency.
正确答案是
12. The WFP is appealing to donor nations to ____.
A. double last year's food-aid.
B. raise '122 million for Iraqi people.
C. provide each Iraqi family with '26 a month.
D. help Iraq's 12 million population.
正确答案是
Questions 13 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the question.
13. As a result of the agreement, the two countries' arsenals are to be ____.
A. upgraded in reliability and safety.
B. reduced in size and number.
C. dismantled partly later this year.
D. maintained in their present conditions.
正确答案是
Questions 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.
14. We can infer from the news that ____ of teenagers under survey in 1993 were drug users.
A. 28%.
B. 22%.
C. 25%.
D. 21%.
正确答案是
15. The following statements are correct EXCEPT ____.
A. Parents are asked to join in the anti-drug efforts.
B. The use of both cocaine and LSD are on the increase.
C. Teenagers hold a different view of drugs today.
D. Marijuana is as powerful as it used to be.
正确答案是
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING & GAP-FILLING
Direction: In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE. 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 ONE after the mini lecture. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.
ANSWER SHEET ONE
Fill in each of the gaps with ONE suitable word. You may refer to your notes. Make sure the word you fill in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable.
The Rise of RP
Historical reasons
Received Pronunciation (RP) was originally associated with a (16) spoken in the region between central England and London, including Oxford and Cambridge. Its survival was due to its use by the (17) in the 14th century and by university students in the (18) Ages.
Its rise in importance resulted from its application in government and official documents. The prestige of its (19) pattern of pronunciation came about with its use in (20) schools in the 19th century.
As a result, its (21) is accepted by Television and the radio, the professions and teaching English as a foreign language.
Three characteristics of RP
1) its speakers don't regard themselves as connected with any geographical region;
2) RP is largely used in England;
3) RP is a `class' accent, associated with (22) social classes.
Its present status
Decline in the prestige of RP is the result of a) loss of monopoly of education by the privileged; b)
(23) of higher education in the post-war period.
However, it still retains its eminence among certain professional people.
There is a rise in the status of all (24) accents.
We are moving towards the (25) position: general acceptance of all regional accents and absence of a class accent that transcends all regions.
PART II PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN.)
Direction: The following passage contains ten errors. Each line contains a maximum of one error. In each case only one word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way:
For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line.
For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a "^" sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line.
For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash "/" and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line.
EXAMPLE
When ^ art museum wants a new exhibit,
(1) an
it (never/) buys things in finished form and hangs
(2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
(3)exhibit
When a human infant is born into any
community in any part of the world it has
two things in common with any infant, provided
(26)
neither of them have been damaged in any way
(27)
either before or during birth. Firstly, and
most obviously, new born children are completely
helpless. Apart from a powerful capacity to pay
(28)
attention to their helplessness by using sound,
there is nothing the new born child can do to
ensure his own survival. Without care from
some other human being or beings, be it mother,
grandmother, or human group, a child is very unlikely
to survive. This helplessness of human infants is in
marked contrast with the capacity of many new born
animals to get on their feet within minutes of
(29)
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇四：2002年英语专八试卷真题及答案详解
2002年专业英语八级考试真题试卷及答案详解
●试卷一 (95 min)
Part Ⅰ 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. Mark the correct answer to each question on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
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. According to the passage, during the 18th and 19th centuries cities were small in size mainly because ___.
A. the urban population was stable
B. few people lived in cities
C. transport was backward
D. it was originally planned
2. Cities survived in those days largely as a result of ___.
A. the trade activities they undertook
B. the agricultural activities in the nearby areas
C. their relatively small size
D. the non-economic roles they played
3. City dwellers were engaged in all the following economic activities EXCEPT ___.
A. commerce B. distribution C. processing D. transportation
4. Urban people left cities for the following reasons EXCEPT ___.
A. more economic opportunities
B. a freer social and political environment
C. more educational opportunities
D. a more relaxed religious environment
5. Why did the early cities fail to grow as quickly as expected throughout the 18th century?
A. Because the countryside attracted more people.
B. Because cities did not increase in number.
C. Because the functions of the cities changed.
D. Because the number of city people was stable.
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. According to Janet, the factor that would most affect negotiations is ___.
A. English language proficiency B. different cultural practices
C. different negotiation tasks D. the international Americanized style
7. Janet’s attitude towards the Americanized style as a model for business negotiations is ___.
A. supportive B. negative C. ambiguous D. cautious
8. Which of the following can NOT be seen as a difference between Brazilian and American negotiators?
A. Americans prepare more points before negotiations.
B. Americans are more straightforward during negotiations.
C. Brazilians prefer more eye contact during negotiations.
D. Brazilians seek more background information.
9. Which group of people seems to be the most straightforward?
A. The British. B. Germans. C. Americans. D. Not mentioned.
10. Which of the following is NOT characteristic of Japanese negotiators?
A. Reserved. B. Prejudiced. C. Polite. D. Prudent.
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. The news item is mainly about ___.
A. a call for research papers to be read at the conference
B. an international conference on traditional Tibetan medicine
C. the number of participants at the conference and their nationalities
D. the preparations made by the sponsors for the international conference
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. The news item mainly concerns ___ in Hong Kong.
A. Internet centres B. an IBM seminarC. e-government D. broadcasting
13. The aims of the three policy objectives include all the following EXCEPT ___.
A. improvement of government efficiency B. promotion of e-commerce
C. integration of service delivery D. formulation of Digital 21 Strategy
Questions 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. Which of the following records was the second best time of the year by Donovan Bailey?
A.9.98. B.9.80. C.9.91. D.9.95.
15. The record shows that Bailey was ___.
A. still suffering from an injury B. getting back in shape
C. unable to compete with Greene D. less confident than before
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
Fill in each of the gaps with ONE word. You may refer to your notes. Make sure the word you fill in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable.Study Activities in UniversityIn order to help college and university students in the process of learning, four key study activities have been designed and used to encourage them to make knowledge their own.
1. Essay writing: central focus of university work esp. in the humanities,
e.g.(l) ___.
benefits: 1) helping to select interesting content in books and to express understanding.
2 ) enabling teachers to know progress and to offer(2) ___.
3) familiarizing students with exam forms.
2. Seminars and classroom discussion: another form to internalize knowledge in specialized contexts.
benefits: 1) (3)___ enables you to know the effectiveness of and others’ response to your speech immediately.
2) Within the same period of time, more topics can be dealt with than in(4) ___.
3) The use of a broader range of knowledge is encouraged.
3. Individual tutorials: a substitute for group discussion.
format: from teacher (5)___ to flexible conversation.
benefit: encouraging ideas and interaction.
4. Lectures: a most (6) ___.used study activity.
disadvantages: 1 ) less (7)___ than discussions or tutorials.
2) more demanding in note-taking.
advantages: 1) providing a general (8)___ of a subject under discussion.
2) offering more easily understood versions of a theory.
3) updating students on (9)___ developments. 4) allowing students to follow different (10) ___.
1.___
2.___
3.___
4.___
5.___
6.___
7.___
8.___
9.___
10.___
Part Ⅱ Proofreading and Error Correction (15 min)
The following passage contains TEN errors. Each line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way. For a wrong word,underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line.
For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a “∧” sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line.For an unnecessary word cross out the unnecessary word with a slash “/’ and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line.
Example
When∧art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) an
it never／ buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
There are great impediments to the general use of a standard
in pronunciation comparable to that existing in spelling
(orthography). One is the fact that pronunciation is learnt
‘naturally’ and unconsciously, and orthography is learnt 1.___
deliberately and consciously. Large numbers of us, in fact,
remain throughout our lives quite unconscious with what our 2.___
speech sounds like when we speak out, and it often comes as a 3.___
shock when we firstly hear a recording of ourselves. It is not a 4.___
voice we recognize at once, whereas our own handwriting is
something which we almost always know. We begin the 5.___
‘natural’ learning of pronunciation long before we start learning
to read or write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously 6.___ imitating and practicing the pronunciation of those around us for
many more hours per every day than we ever have to spend 7.___
learning even our difficult English spelling. This is ‘natural’, 8.___ therefore, that our speech-sounds should be those of our
immediate circle; after all, as we have seen, speech operates as a
means of holding a community and giving a sense of 9.___
’belonging’. We learn quite early to recognize a ’stranger’,
someone who speaks with an accent of a different community-
perhaps only a few miles far. 10.___
Part Ⅲ 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 and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
TEXT A
Do you ever feel as though you spend all your time in meetings?
Henry Mintzberg, in his book The Nature of Managerial Work , found that in large organizations managers spent 22 per cent of their time at their desk, 6 percent on the telephone, 3 per cent on other activities, but a whopping 69 per cent in meetings.
There is a widely-held but mistaken belief that meetings are for “solving
problems” and “making decisions. ” For a start, the number of people attending a meeting tends to be inversely proportional to their collective ability to reach conclusions and make decisions. And these are the least important elements.
Instead hours are devoted to side issues, playing elaborate games with one another. It seems, therefore, that meetings serve some purpose other than just making decisions.
All meetings have one thing in common: role-playing. The most formal role is that of chairman. He sets the agenda, and a good chairman will keep the meeting running on time and to the point. Sadly, the other, informal role-players are often able to gain the upper hand. Chief is the “constant talker”, who just l
oves to hear his or her own voice.
Then there are the “can’t do” types who want to maintain the status quo. Since they have often been in the organization for a long time, they frequently quote historical experience as an excuse to block change: “It won’t work, we tried that last year and it was a disaster.” A more subtle version of the “can’t do” type, the “yes, but„ ” has emerged recently. They have learnt about the need to sound positive, but they still can’t bear to have things change.
Another whole sub-set of characters are people who love meetings and want them to continue until 5:30 pm or beyond. Irrelevant issues are their specialty. They need to call or attend meetings, either to avoid work, or to justify their lack of performance, or simply because they do not have enough to do.
Then there are the “counter-dependents”, those who usually disagree with
everything that is said, particularly if it comes from the chairman or through consensus from the group. These people need to fight authority in whatever form.
Meetings can also provide attenders with a sense of identification of their status and power. In this ease, managers arrange meetings as a means of communicating to others the boundaries of their exclusive club: who is “in”, and who is not.
Because so many meetings end in confusion and without a decision, another game is played at the end of meetings, called reaching a false consensus. Since it is important for the chairman to appear successful in problem-solving and making a decision, the group reaches a false consensus. Everyone is happy, having s
pent their time productively. The reality is that the decision is so ambiguous that it is never acted upon, or, if it is, there is continuing conflict, for which another meeting is necessary.
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇五：英语专业历年专八翻译真题及答案
1997年:English to Chinese
Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are inevitably the province（范围） of the rich unless we abdicate（退位、放弃） society’s power of choice. We can choose to make opera and other expensive forms of culture, accessible（易接近的，可达到的） to those who cannot individually pay for it. The question is: why should we? No body denies the imperatives（必要的）of food, shelter, defence, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave, man-kind stretched out a hand of not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to draw. The impulse（冲动） towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation（表述、陈述）is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfillment（完成、成就） in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones（标准、试金石） for all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire（立志、追求目标、渴望）; they carry the most profound （深厚的、深刻的）messages that can be sent from one human to another.
【参考答案】欣赏歌剧是一种奢侈：你必须为此支付昂贵的票价。然而，享用昂贵的东西并不完全是富人的特权，除非我们放弃社会选择的权利。我们有权利使歌剧和其他昂贵的文化形式面向大众，面向那些个人没有支付能力的人。然而，问题是我们为什么要这么做。没有人会否认食物、居所、防护、健康与教育是不可或缺的。但是，即使在史前的穴居时代，人们伸出手来，也不仅仅是为了吃喝，为了搏杀，而且还有一个目的，那就是动手作画。人们对文化的冲动，即人们希望通过想象和再现来表现并探索这个世界的愿望，才是最根本的。在欧洲，人们通过音乐、美术、文学和戏剧等方面的不朽作品的创作，实现了这一愿望。这些杰作是衡量人类努力程度的试金石，是检验人类思维和想象潜能的标准，它们有着最深厚的寓意，并在人们彼此之间传播。
1998年: I agree to some extent with my imaginary English reader. American literary historians are perhaps prone to view their own national scene too narrowly, mistaking prominence for uniqueness. They do over-phrase their own literature, or certainly its minor figures. And Americans do swing from aggressive over phrase of their
literature to an equally unfortunate, imitative deference. But then, the English themselves are somewhat insular in their literary appraisals. Moreover, in fields where they are not pre-eminent — e. g. in painting and music —they too alternate between boasting of native products and copying those of the Continent. How many English paintings try to look as though they were done in Paris; how many times have we read in articles that they really represent an ―English tradition‖ after all.To speak of American literature, then, is not to assert（断言、声称）that it is completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking, America and Europe have kept step（同步）. At any given moment（在任何时候） the traveler could find examples in both of the same architecture, the same styles in dress, the same books on the shelves. Ideas have crossed the Atlantic as freely as men and merchandise, though sometimes more slowly. When I refer to American habit, thoughts, etc., I intend some sort of qualification（限制、限定、资格） to precede（领先、超前） the word, for frequently the difference between America and Europe (especially England) will be one of degree（唯一只是在程度上）, sometimes only of a small degree. The amount of divergence（分歧、差异） is a subtle （微妙的）affair, liable（有可能的） to perplex the Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at a country which in important senses （重要的感觉）grew out of his own, which in several ways（在有些方面）still resembles his own — and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd overlappings（重叠） and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship(亲缘关系) yields to a sudden alienation（疏远关系）, as when we hail（打招呼） a person across the street, only to discover from his blank（没有表情的） response that we have mistaken a
stranger for a friend.【参考译文一】因此，我们在说―美国‖文学，并不表明我们认为美国文学与欧洲文学截然不同。一般来说，美国和欧洲一直在同步发展。无论何时，旅游者在两地都能看到同一式的建筑，见到同一款式的服饰，读到摆在书架上的同一风格的书籍。在大洋两岸，人们的思想观念，就容易同人员与货物一样，可以自由交流，尽管有时会略显迟缓。谈到美国人的习惯、美国人的思维等概念时，我想在―美国式的‖这几个词前面再加上某种修饰，因为欧美之间（尤其是英美之间）的差异往往只是程度上的差异而已，而且在有的时候，是极低程度上的差异而已。差异的程度微乎其微，很可能会使审视美国的英国人感到迷
惑不解。重要的是，英国人所审视的这个国家诞生于英国，并在不少方面仍与英国相差无几---然而，实实在在是个异邦。两地有着莫名的共同之处，以及令人深感突兀的陌生感。原先的亲戚已形同陌路，就仿佛隔着马路招呼，等看到对方一脸茫然时，我们才意识到认错人。
1999年： In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.
In addition, one class(一类) of family reasons shares a border（接壤、相近）with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy（使 …忙（有事干） the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption（设想、假设 consumption 消费） that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined（突出、显现） by its converse（反面、相反）: in some societies the failure to bear children（养孩子） (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.
Beyond all that（除了这些 ）is the profound（深刻的、深远的） significance of children to the very institution（结构） of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family（完整的） —they need children to enrich the circle（丰富家庭生活、拓宽生活圈子）, to validate（使…有效） its family character（家族的特征、风格）, to gather（增加、集合） the redemptive（赎回的, 用于补偿的）influence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution（社会结构）uniquely（唯一） available, at least in principle, for （获得）security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one person for sustenance（生计） and in generational extension（家族的繁衍）.
【参考答案】 另外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共同之处，那就是：生儿育女要么是为了维系现有婚姻，提高婚姻质量，要么是为了拴住丈夫，使妻子有所事事，要么是为了修复婚姻，给婚姻注入新的活力，亦或是出于多子多福的观念而多生儿女。当然，我们也可以从问题的反面得到昭示：在某些社会，无法生育子嗣（或不能生育男孩）对婚姻而言是最大的威胁，也可作为夫妻分手的现成理由。
后代对家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此。在许多人看来，丁克家庭算不上真正的家庭。夫妻需要孩子来拓宽自己的生活圈子，实现家庭在传宗接代中的作用，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。在这个变幻莫测，常常不尽友善的世界上，家庭作为社会的基本单位，至少可在原则上，以其独特方式为家人提供安全保障，抚慰家人受伤的心灵，为家人指出生活方向，因此，孩子需要家庭，但与此同时，家庭也需要孩子。
f people mean anything at all by the expression_r ―untimely（不合时宜的，timely:适时的、及时的） death‖, they must believe that some deaths run on（连续, 不分段, 流逝, 涉及）a better schedule than others. Death in old age is rarely called untimely—a long life is thought to be a full one. But with the passing（= passing away 死亡）of a young person, one assumes（假定、设想） that the best years lay ahead and the measure（尺度、评价） of that life was still to be taken.
History denies this, of course. Among prominent（卓越的、突出的）summer（壮年时期, 青春）deaths, one recalls those of Marilyn Monroe（马丽莲•梦露 ）and James Deans（詹姆士•迪恩斯）, whose lives seemed equally brief and complete. Writers cannot bear the fact that poet John Keats（约翰•济慈）died at 26, and only half
playfully（开玩笑地） judge their own lives as failures when they pass that year. The idea that the life cut short is unfulfilled is illogical because lives are measured by the impressions they leave on the world and by their intensity（强度、亮度=achievements: 成就）and virtue（德行、品德）.
【参考译文】如果人们使用―死不逢时‖的时候有所指的话，那肯定认为一些人的逝世是寿终正寝，而另外一些人的辞世则是英年早逝。很少有人会说因年老而死亡是―死不逢时‖---人们总是把老年人的寿终正寝看作是一种圆满。但是对于一个英年早逝的人，人们常常认为他的好日子还在后头，对他短暂的一生作出
评价还为时尚早。
然而，历史对此观点持否定态度。谈到英年早逝的人物，人们常常回想起马丽莲•梦露和詹姆士•迪恩斯。二人生命虽短，却功成名就。作家们难以接受英国诗人约翰•济慈26岁便匆匆辞世的残酷现实，然而，当他们26岁时，只有自嘲虚度年华碌碌无为的份了。那种认为生命短暂就不圆满的观点是不合逻辑的，因为评价一个人的一生应当看他给世人留下的印象，他所取得的成就，以及他的个人品质。
Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood would have been Thoreau’s idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening one’s perception of what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of starvation, but he would put into feeding himself only as much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts. Effort is the gist（要点，主旨） of it. There is no happiness except as we take on(接纳) life-engaging（有魅力的、迷人的） difficulties. Short of the impossible, as Yeats put it, the satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on how high we choose our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in something like the same terms（相同的表达、看法） when he spoke of ―The pleasure of taking pains‖. The mortal flaw （致命的缺陷）in the advertised version of happiness is in the fact that it purports（宣称、声称） to be effortless.
We demand difficulty even in our games（体育比赛、游戏）. We demand it because without difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary（武断的） imposition（强迫接受） of difficulty. When someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules. It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to change the wholly arbitrary rules, but the fun is in winning within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.
参考译文】努力是问题的关键。如果不经历艰难困苦，就没有幸福可言。正如爱尔兰诗人叶芝所言，除了极少数不大可能出现的情况外，我们一生中得到的满意程度取决于我们愿意克服的困难有多大。美国诗人罗伯特费罗斯特谈到―苦中求乐‖时，也表达了相同的看法。出现在广告中的幸福都有一个致命的错误，那就是，不费吹灰之力即可获得幸福。
即使在体育比赛中，我们也需要克服困难。我们需要克服困难，因为没有困难就没有比赛。比赛就是使某件事情变得更加困难，以便难中取乐。制定比赛规则就是故意制造困难。违反竞赛规则也就丧失了比赛乐趣。下棋时，如果不受规则的约束，高兴怎么走就怎么走，你很容易取胜。然而，乐趣源于胜利而又遵守规则。没有困难，也就没有乐趣。
mean one who makes some else lose. To us, a winner is one who responds authentically by being credible, trustworthy, responsive, and genien, both as an individual and as a member of a society.
Winners do not decide their lives to a concept of what they imagine they should be; rather, they are themselves and so much do not use their energy putting on a performance, maintaining pretence(伪装) and
manipulating（操纵） others. They are aware that there is a difference between being loving and acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid, between being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable. Winners do not need to hide behind a mask. 胜者不会穷其毕生精力，去拘泥于某个他们所想象的为人之道；相反，他们会保持其真我本色，并且，作为这种追求真我的仁者，他们不会绞尽脑汁装腔作势，维持一种自命不凡的姿态，或去操纵他人。他们深知，在真心关爱和虚情假意之间，在顽固不化和大智若愚之间，在真才实学和装学富五车之间，实质上都存在着天壤之别。成功者无需面具掩藏自我。
Winners are not afraid of to do their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can separate facts from opinions and don’t pretend to have all the answers. They listen to others, evaluate what they say, but come to their own conclusions. Although winners can admire and respect other people, they are not totally defined, demolished（毁坏、推翻）, bound, or awed（敬畏） by them. 成功者们能运用自己的知识进行独立思考。他们能够分清事实，而不会假装他们自己无所不知。他们会倾听他人的想法，评判他人的言论，最后得出自己的结
论。虽然成功者也会钦佩、尊敬他人，但他们不会受他人牵制，被他人左右，或被他人打垮。
Winners do not play ―helpless‖, nor do they play the blaming game. Instead, they assume（假定、设想、采取） responsibility for their own lives. 优胜者不会面对困难而显得无助（敢于只面困难），也不会怨天尤人。相反，他们会努力肩负起自己对待生活的责任。
2003年： In his classic novel, ―The Pioneers‖, James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, with his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a bustling metropolis（大城市，大都市）. But his cousin looks around bewildered（困惑、迷惑）. All she sees is a forest. ―Where are the beauties and improvements（改造的地方）which you were to show me?‖ she asks. He’s astonished she can’t see them. ―Where! Why everywhere,‖ he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has built them in his mind, and they are as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished.
Cooper was illustrating（讲述、描述、阐述）a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness（minded:有思想的，着眼未来的）: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel
unencumbered 【没有阻碍的, 不受妨碍的；cumber（n.）障碍→encumber（v.）阻碍→encumbered有阻碍的→unencumbered没有阻碍的】by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, ―Life for the American is always becoming(会变成什么样子), never being（现在是什么样子）.‖
【参考答案】詹姆斯·费尼莫·库珀在其经典小说《拓荒者》中，讲述了主人公，一个土地开发商人，带着他的表妹参观他正在开发承建的一座城市。他说，这是一个熙熙攘攘的大都市，街道宽阔，房屋林立。而他的表妹却环顾四周，大惑不解。她所看见的只是一片树林。她不禁问道：―你要给我看的美景在哪，被你改造了的地方又在哪?‖。开发商没料到他的表妹竟看不到他所讲的一切，惊讶地回答说，―哪儿?到处都是啊!‖虽然这一切还未在大地上建成，但他已经在脑海里建好了，对他来说，这一切都像已经建成竣工了那样真实具体。在这里库珀揭示了美国人的一个典型特点：那就是着眼未来，也就是说，他们能够从未来的角度看待现在的一切，可以不为过去所羁绊看待现在，在情感上更多地依附于未来的事物。正如阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦曾经说过的那样：―对美国人来说，生活总是在发展变化中，从来不会静止不变。‖
For me the most interesting thing about a solitary life, and mine has been that for the last twenty years, is that it becomes increasingly rewarding. When I can wake up and watch the sun rise over the ocean, as I do most days, and know that I have an entire day ahead, uninterrupted, in which to write a few pages, take a walk with my dog, read and listen to music, I am flooded with happiness.
I’m lonely only when I am overtired, when I have worked too long without a break, when from the time being I feel empty and need filling up. And I am lonely sometimes when I come back home after a lecture trip, when I have seen a lot of people and talked a lot, and am full to the brim(边缘) with experience that needs to be sorted out（挑选、选择）.
Then for a little while the house feels huge and empty, and I wonder where my self（本性、本我）is hiding. It has to be recaptured slowly by watering the plants and perhaps, by looking again at each one（指代 plant植物）as though it were a person.It takes a while, as I watch the surf（水浪）blowing up in fountains（喷泉）, but the moment（ 指the lonely moment） comes when the worlds falls away, and the self emerges again from the deep unconscious（潜意识）, bringing back all I have recently experienced to be explored and slowly understood.
【参考答案】只有我在非常疲劳的时候，在我不断工作了很长时间以后，在我倍感空虚，需要充实时候，我才会感到寂寞。而有时候在我结束巡回演讲回家的时候，在讲了很多话后，而且有太多经历需要整理时，我也会感到寂寞。
于是，有那么一会儿，我感到房子又大又空，我都不知道我的自我又到哪里去了。这时，我必须给植物浇水，并挨个瞅瞅，仿佛他们是有生命的精灵一般，这样我才能慢慢找到我的那个自我。
很长一段时间，我看着水浪从喷泉中喷涌而出。但只有当世界在我身边逐渐消失，当我再次从我内心深处的无意识中冒出来时，带给我最近的种种经历，让我探究，让我慢慢领会时，我才会感到寂寞。
当我因为持续工作太久而感觉疲劳空虚，需要充实一下的时候，我会觉得孤独。有时，我出差做讲座，见
很多人，说很多话，回来后脑子里很多东西需要理一理，这时我也会觉得孤独。2005年：It is simple enough to say that since books have classes----fiction, biography, poetry—we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred（模糊的，不明确的）and divided minds（分心）, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish(消除) all such preconceptions（偏见、成见） when we read, that would be an admirable（绝妙的、极好的） beginning. Do not dictate（口述、发号施令）to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow worker and accomplice（同谋、合作者）. If you hang back（迟疑、犹豫不决）, and reserve（保留、储备）and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible（觉察不到的）fineness（优良、出色）, from the twist and turn of the first sentences（换行的句子）, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep（沉浸、潜心、专心）yourself in this, acquaint（使熟知）yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite.
【参考译文】 然而很少有人愿意接受书上的告诉我们的东西。我们通常是带着一种不明确的不专一的目的去读书，我们要求小说是真实的，诗歌应该是虚构的，传记应该是奉承人的，历史则应该是能加深我们自己的偏见的。如果我们读书的时候能够屏弃这些成见，那将会是一个绝妙的开端。不要试图对作者发号施令，而是要设身处地把作者的思路，把自己当作作者的合作伙伴。假如你开始就犹豫不决，不愿接受作者观点，甚至对作者观点评头论足，你就是给自己设置障碍，使自己不可能最大限度地利用书本。然而，如果你尽量敞开心扉，那么文章开头就能给你一些暗示，由此一个与众不同的人物形象将跃然呈现于你面前。 2006年：I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal ofthe most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word, it is victory. Victory at all costsvictory in spiteof all terrors---victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
Let that be realized, no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that British Empire has stood for , no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall more forward toward his goal. I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, ―Come then, let us go forward together with our
unitedstrength.我能奉献的唯有热血、辛劳、泪水和汗水。我们所面临的将是一场极为残酷的考验，我们面临的将是旷日持久的斗争和苦难。你若问我们的目标是什么？我可以用一个词来概括，那就是胜利。不惜一切代价去夺取胜利，不畏惧一切恐怖去夺取胜利，不论前路再长再苦也要多去胜利，因为没有胜利纠无法生存！我们必须意识到，没有胜利就没有大英帝国，没有胜利就没有大英帝国所象征的一切，没有胜利就没有多少世纪以来强烈的要求和冲动：人类应当向自己的目标迈进。此刻，我的精神振奋，满怀信心地承当起自己的人物。我确信，只要我们大家联合，我们的事业就不会挫败。此时此刻千钧一发之际，我觉得我有权要求各方面的支持。我要呼吁：―来吧，让我们群策努力，并肩迈进！‖
2007年选自哈佛大学校长劳伦斯·萨默斯演讲，演说全部内容如下，其中划线部分为考试内容。难度适中。Today, I speak from this podium a final time as your president. As I depart, I want to thank all of you - students, faculty, alumni and staff - with whom I have been privileged to work over these past years. Some of us have had our disagreements, but I know that which unites us transcends that which divides us.
今天，我将以校长的身份，最后一次在这个讲台上演讲。即将离任前，我要感谢诸位学生、教师、校友和员工，而且非常荣幸在过去的5年里能与你们共事。我们中的一些人意见不尽相同，但是，我知道，我们的共识远远超越分歧。
Some things look different to me than they did five years ago. The world that today’s Harvard’s graduates are entering is a profoundly different one than the world administrators entered.在我看来，现在于5年前不同了。今天的哈佛毕业生正在进入的世界和管理人员当年所进入的世界相比已是大相径庭了。
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇六：专业英语八级真题1998年+附答案详解
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1998)
—GRADE EIGHT
PAPER ONE
PART Ⅰ 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. According to the talk, compulsive gambling and alcoholic addiction share similarities because
A. no actual figure of addicts has been reported.
B. no scientific studies have yielded effective solutions.
C. both affect all sectors of society.
D. both cause serious mental health problems.
2. The development of the gambling compulsion can be described as being
A. gradual. B. slow. C. periodic. D. radical.
3. G. A. mentioned in the talk is believed to be a(n)
A. anonymous group. B. charity organization.
C. gamblers' club. D. treatment centre.
4. At the end of the talk, the speaker's attitude towards the cure of gambling addiction is
A. unclear. B. uncertain. C. optimistic. D. pessimistic.
5. Throughout the talk, the speaker examines the issue of gambling in a ____________ way.
A. balanced B. biased C. detached D. lengthy
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. What strikes the woman most about the male robber is his
A. clothes. B. age. C. physique. D. appearance.
7. The most detailed information about the woman robber is her
A. manners. B. talkativeness. C. height. D. jewelry.
8. The interviewee is believed to be a bank
A. receptionist. B. manager. C. customer. D. cashier.
9. Which of the following about the two robbers is NOT true?
A. Both were wearing dark sweaters. B. Neither was wearing glasses.
C. Both were about the same age. D. One of them was marked by a scar.
10. After the incident the interviewee sounded
A. calm and quiet. B. nervous and numb.
C. timid and confused. D. shocked and angry.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Questions 11 and 12 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.
11. According to the news, the enormous food shortage in Iraq has the most damaging effect on its
A. national economy. B. adult population.
C. young children. D. national currency.
12. The WFP is appealing to donor nations to
A. double last year's food-aid.
B. raise $ 122 million for Iraqi people.
C. provide each Iraqi family with $ 26 a month.
D. help Iraq's 12 million population.
Question 13 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.
13. As a result of the agreement, the two countries' arsenals are to be
A. upgraded in reliability and safety. B. reduced in size and number.
C. dismantled partly later this year. D. maintained in their present conditions.
Questions 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 two questions. Now listen to the news.
14. We can infer from the news that ____________ of teenagers under survey in 1993 were drug users.
A. 28% B. 22% C. 25% D. 21%
15. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. Parents are asked to join in the anti-drug efforts.
B. The use of both cocaine and LSD are on the increase.
C. Teenagers hold a different view of drugs today.
D. Marijuana is as powerful as it used to be.
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 paper for note-taking.
ANSWER SHEET
The Rise of RP
Historical reasons
Received pronunciation was originally associated with a spoken in the region between central England and London, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Its survival was due to its use by the in the 14th century and by university students in the Ages.
Its rise in importance resulted from its application in government and official documents.
The prestige of its pattern of pronunciation came about with its use in schools in the 19th century.
As a result, its is accepted by television and the radio, the professions and teaching English as a foreign language. Three characteristics of RP
1)its speakers don't regard themselves as connected with any geographical region;
2) RP is largely used in England;
3) RP is a "class" accent, associated with social classes.
Its present status
Decline in the prestige of RP is the result of a) loss of monopoly of education by the privileged; b) of high education in the post-war period.
However, it still retains its eminence among certain professional people.
There is a rise in the status of all accents.
We are moving towards the position: general acceptance of all regional accents and absence of a class accent that transcends all regions.
PART Ⅱ PROOFREADING AND ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN. )
Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET as instructed.
The following passage contains TEN errors. Each line contains a maximum of one error. In each case, only one
word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it.
When a human infant is born into any community in any part of the
world it has two things in common with any infant, provided neither of them (1) ________
have been damaged in any way either before or during birth. Firstly, and (2) ________
most obviously, new born children are completely helpless. Apart from a
powerful capacity to pay attention to their helplessness by using sound, there (3) ________
is nothing the new born child can do to ensure his own survival. Without
care from some other human being or beings, be it mother, grandmother, or
human group, a child is very unlikely to survive. This helplessness of human
infants is in marked contrast with the capacity of many new born animals to
get on their feet within minutes of birth and run with herd within a few (4) ________
hours. Although young animals are certainly in risk ,sometimes for weeks (5) ________
or even months after birth, compared with the human infant they very quickly
grow the capacity to fend for them. (6) ________
It is during this very long period in which the human infant is totally
dependent on the others that it reveals the second feature which it shares (7) ________
with all other undamaged human infants, a capacity to learn language. For
this reason, biologists now suggest that language be "species specific" to the (8) ________
human race, that is to say, they consider the human infant to be genetic (9) ________
programmed in such way that it can acquire language. (10) ________
This suggestion implies that just as human beings are designed to see
three-dimentionally and in colour, and just as they are designed to stand
upright rather than to move on all fours, so they are designed to learn and
use language as part of their normal developments as well-formed
human beings.
PART Ⅲ READING COMPREHENSION (40 MIN. )
SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN. )
In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple choice questions. Read the passages and then answer the questions.
TEXT A
On Society
1 Low self-esteem pops up regularly in academic reports as an explanation for all sorts of violence, from hate crimes and street crimes to terrorism. But despite the popularity of the explanation, not much evidence backs it up. In a recent issue of Psychological Review, three researchers examine this literature at length and conclude that a much stronger link connects high self-esteem to violence. "It is difficult to maintain belief in the low self-esteem view after seeing that the more violent groups are generally the ones with higher self-esteem," write Roy Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University and Laura Smart and Joseph Boden of the University of Virginia. 2 The conventional view is that people without self-esteem try to gain it by hurting others. The researchers find that violence is much more often the work of people with unrealistically high self-esteem attacking others who challenge their self-image. Under this umbrella come bullies, rapists, racists, psychopaths and members of street gangs and organized crime.
3 The study concludes, "Certain forms of high self-esteem seem to increase one's proneness to violence. An uncritical endorsement of the cultural value of self-esteem may therefore be counterproductive and even dangerous... The societal pursuit of high self- esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm. "
4 As for prison programs intended to make violent convicts feel better about themselves, "perhaps it would be
better to try instilling modesty and humility," the researchers write.
5 In an interview with the Boston Globe, Baumeister said he believes the "self'- promoting establishment is starting to crumble. "What would work better for the country is to forget about self-esteem and concentrate on self-control,' he said.
6 In the schools, this would mean turning away from psychic boosterism and emphasizing self-esteem as a by-product of real achievement, not as an end in itself. The self-esteem movement, still entrenched in schools of education, is deeply implicated in the dumbing down of our schools, and in the spurious equality behind the idea that it is a terrible psychic blow if one student does any better or any worse than another. Let's hope it is indeed crumbling.
16. The researchers find that there are stronger connections between
A. low self-esteem and violence. B. low self-cotrol and violence.
C. high self-image and violence. D. high self-control and violence.
17. The researchers would most probably agree with the following EXCEPT
A. self-esteem should be promoted and encouraged.
B. schools should change their concept of self-esteem.
C. the traditional view is beginning to lose ground.
D. prisons should change their present practice.
TEXT B
1 Social change is more likely to occur in heterogeneous societies than in homogeneous ones, simply because there are more diverse points of view available in the former. There are more ideas, more conflicts of interest, and more groups and organizations of different persuasions. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and tolerance in heterogeneous societies. All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision rather than subjecting them to authority. In a quite homogeneous society, there are fewer occasions for people to perceive the need or the opportunity for change, because everything seems to be the same and, if not satisfactory, at least customary and undisputed.
2 Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily (1) in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; (2) in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; (3) in the less basic, less emotional, or less sacred aspects of society than in their opposites, like religion or a system of prestige; (4) in the simple elements rather than in the complex ones; (5) in form rather than in substance; and (6) in elements congenial to the culture rather than in strange elements.
3 Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily in human relations on a continuous scale rather than one with sharp dichotomies. This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black Americans as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white counterparts.
18. According to the passage, the main difference between a homogeneous society and a heterogeneous one lies in
A. the number of opportunities offered.
B. the nature of conflicts of interest.
C. the awareness of the need for change.
D. the role of social organizations.
19. The author would most probably agree that changes are more likely to be successful in
A. production methods. B. ideological concepts.
C. religious beliefs. D. social behaviour.
TEXT C
1 One argument used to support the idea that employment will continue to be the dominant form of work, and that employment will eventually become available for all who want it, is that working time will continue to fall.
People in jobs will work fewer hours in the day, fewer days in the week, fewer weeks in the year, and fewer years in a lifetime, than they do now. This will mean that more jobs will be available for more people. This, it is said, is the way we should set about restoring full employment.
2 There is no doubt that something of this kind will happen. The shorter working week, longer holidays, earlier retirement, job-sharing — these and other ways of reducing the amount of time people spend on their jobs — are certainly likely to spread. A mix of parttime paid work and part-time unpaid work is likely to become a much more common work pattern than today, and a flexi-life pattern of work — involving paid employment at certain stages of life, but not at others — will become widespread. But it is surely unrealistic to assume that this will make it possible to restore full employment as the dominant form of work.
3 In the first place, so long as employment remains the overwhelmingly important form of work and source of income for most people, it is very difficult to see how reductions in employees' working time can take place on a scale sufficiently large and at a pace sufficiently fast to make it possible to share out the available paid employment to everyone who wants it. Such negotiations as there have recently been, for example in Britain and Germany, about the possibility of introducing a 35-hour working week, have highlighted some of the difficulties. But, secondly, if changes of this kind were to take place at a pace and on a scale sufficient to make it possible to share employment among all who wanted it, the resulting situation — in which most people would not be working in their jobs for more than two or three short days a week — could hardly continue to be one in which employment was still regarded as the only truly valid form of work. There would be so many people spending so much of their time on other activities, including other forms of useful work, that the primacy of employment would be bound to be called into question, at least to some extent.
20. The author uses the negotiations in Britain and Germany as an example to
A. support reductions in employees' working time.
B. indicate employees are unwilling to share jobs.
C. prove the possibility of sharing paid employment.
D. how that employment will lose its dominance.
21. At the end of the passage the author seems to imply that as a result of shorter working time
A. employment may not retain its usual importance.
B. employment may not be regarded as valid work.
C. people can be engaged in far less unpaid work.
D. people can be engaged in far more unpaid work.
22. The author's attitude towards future full employment is generally
A. supportive. B. wavering. C. skeptical. D. unclear.
TEXT D
1 During the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, advertising was a relatively straightforward means of announcement and communication and was used mainly to promote novelties and fringe products. But when factory production got into full swing and new products, e. g. processed foods, came onto the market, national advertising campaigns and brandnaming of products became necessary. Before large-scale factory production, the typical manufacturing unit had been small and adaptable and the task of distributing and selling goods had largely been undertaken by wholesalers. The small non-specialized factory which did not rely on massive investment in machinery had been flexible enough to adapt its production according to changes in public demands.
2 But the economic depression which lasted from 1873 to 1894 marked a turning point between the old method of industrial organization and distribution and the new. From the beginning of the nineteenth century until the 1870s, production had steadily expanded and there had been a corresponding growth in retail outlets. But the depression brought on a crisis of over-production and under-consumption — manufactured goods piled up unsold and prices and profits fell. Towards the end of the century many of the small industrial firms realized that they
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇七：2008年英语专八真题及其答案解析
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS（2008）
—GRADE EIGHT—
TIME LIMIT: 195MIN
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 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. You notes will not be market, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task for 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- tanking.
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 colored 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. Mary doesn't seem to favour the idea of a new airport because
A. the existing airports are to be wasted
B. more people will be encouraged to travel.
C. more oil will be consumed.
D. more airplanes will be purchased.
2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by Mary as a potential
disadvantage?
A. More people in the area. B. Noise and motorways.
C. Waste of land. D. Unnecessary travel.
3. Freddy has cited the following advantages for a new airport EXCEPT
A. more job opportunities. B. vitality to the local economy.
C. road construction, D. presence of aircrew in the area.
4. Mary thinks that people dont need to do much travel nowadays as a result of
A. less emphasis on personal contact.
B. advances in modern telecommunications.
C. recent changes in peoples concepts.
D. more potential damage to the area
5. We learn from the conversation that Freddy is Marys ideas,
A. strongly in favour of B. mildly in favour of
C. strongly against D. mildly against
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. What is the main idea of the news item?
A. A new government was formed after Sundays elections.
B. The new government intends to change the welfare system.
C. The Social Democratic Party founded the welfare system.
D. The Social Democratic Party was responsible for high unemployment. Questions 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the news.
7. The tapes of the Apollo-11 mission were first stored in
A. a U.S. government archives warehouse.
B. a NASA ground tracking station.
C. the Goddard Space Flight Centre.
D. none of the above places.
8. What does the news item say about Richard Nafzger?
A. He is assigned the task to look for the tapes.
B. He believes that the tapes are probably lost.
C. He works in a NASA ground receiving site.
D. He had asked for the tapes in the 1970s.
Questions 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 questions.Now listen to the news.
9. The example in the news item is cited mainly to show
A. that doctors are sometimes professionally incompetent
B. that in cases like that hospitals have to pay huge compensations.
C. that language barriers might lower the quality of treatment.
D. that language barriers can result in fatal consequences.
10. According to Dr. Flores, hospitals and clinics
A. have seen the need for hiring trained interpreters.
B. have realized the problems of language barriers.
C. have begun training their staff to be bilinguals.
D. have taken steps to provide accurate diagnosis.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
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
At the age of 16, Lee Hyuk Joons life is a living hell. The South Korean 10th grader gets up at 6 in the morning to go to school, and studies most of the day until returning home at 6 p.m. After dinner, its time to hit the books again—at one of Seouls many so-called cram schools. Lee gets back home at 1 in the morning, sleeps less than five hours, then repeats the routine—five
days a week. Its a grueling schedule, but Lee worries that it may not be good enough to get him into a top university. Some of his classmates study even harder.
South Koreas education system has long been highly competitive. But for Lee and the other 700,000 high-school sophomores in the country, high-school studies have gotten even more intense. Thats because South Korea has conceived a new college-entrance system, which will be implemented in 2008. This years 10th graders will be the first group evaluated by the new admissions standard, which places more emphasis on grades in the three years of high school and less on nationwide SAT-style and other selection tests, which have traditionally determined which students go to the elite colleges.
The change was made mostly to reduce what the government says is a growing education gap in the country: wealthy students go to the best colleges and get the best jobs, keeping the children of poorer families on the social margins. The aim is to reduce the importance of costly tutors and cram schools, partly to help students enjoy a more normal high-school life. But the new system has had the opposite effect. Before, students didnt worry too much about their grade-point averages; the big challenge was beating he standardized tests as high-school seniors. Now students are competing against one another over a three-year period, and every midterm and final test is crucial. Fretful parents are relying even more heavily on tutors and cram schools to help their children succeed.
Parents and kids have sent thousands of angry online letters to the Education Ministry complaining that the new admissions standard is setting students against each other. "One can succeed only when others fail,” as one parent said.
Education experts say that South Koreas public secondary-school system is foundering, while private education is thriving. According to critics, the countrys high schools are almost uniformly mediocre—the result of an egalitarian government education policy. With the number of elite schools strictly controlled by the government, even the brightest students typically have to settle for ordinary schools in their neighbourhoods, where the curriculum is centred on average students. To make up for the mediocrity, zealous parents send their kids to the expensive cram schools. Students in affluent southern Seoul neighbourhoods complain that the new system will hurt them the most. Nearly all Korean high schools will be weighted equally in the college-entrance process, and relatively weak students in provincial schools, who may not score well on standardized tests, often compile good grade-point averages.
Some universities, particularly prestigious ones, openly complain that they cannot select the best students under the new system because it eliminates differences among high schools. Theyve asked for more discretion in picking students by giving more weight to such screening tools as essay writing or interviews.
President Roh Moo Hyun doesnt like how some colleges are trying to
circumvent the new system. He recently criticized "greedy" universities that focus more on finding the best students than faying to "nurture good students". But amid the crossfire between the government and universities, the countrys 10th graders are feeling the stress. On online protest sites, some are calling themselves a “cursed generation” and “mice in a lab experiment”. It all seems a touch melodramatic, but thats the South Korean school system.
11. According to the passage, the new college-entrance system is designed to
A. require students to sit for more college-entrance tests.
B. reduce the weight of college-entrance tests.
C. select students on their high school grades only.
D. reduce the number of prospective college applicants.
12. What seems to be the effect of introducing the new system?
A. The system has given equal opportunities to students.
B. The system has reduced the number of cram schools.
C. The system has intensified competition among schools.
D. The system has increased students study load.
13. According to critics, the popularity of private education is mainly the result of
A. the governments egalitarian policy. B. insufficient number of schools:
C. curriculums of average quality. D. low cost of private education.
14. According to the passage, there seems to be disagreement over the adoption of the new system between the following groups EXCEPT
A. between universities and the government.
B. between school experts and the government.
C. between parents and schools.
D. between parents and the government.
15. Which of the following adjectives best describes the authors treatment of the topic?
A. Objective. B. Positive. C. Negative. D. Biased.TEXT B
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was a teenager before he saw his first cow in his first field. Born in Jamaica, the 47-year-old grew up in inner-city Birmingham before making a career as a television producer and launching his own marketing agency. But deep down he always nurtured every true Englishmans dream of a rustic life, a dream that his entrepreneurial wealth has allowed him to satisfy. These days hes the owner of a thriving 12-hectare farm in deepest Devon with cattle, sheep and pigs. His latest business venture: pushing his brand of Black Fanner gourmet sausages and barbecue sauces. “My background may be very urban,” says Emmanuel-Jones.
“But it has given me a good idea of what other urbanites want.”
And of how to sell it. Emmanuel-Jones joins a herd of wealthy fugitives from city life who are bringing a new commercial know-how to British farming. Britains burgeoning farmers markets -numbers have doubled to at least 500 in the last five years—swarm with specialty cheesemakers, beekeepers or
organic smallholders who are redeploying the business skills they learned in the city. "Everyone in the rural community has to
come to terms with the fact that things have changed." Says Emmanuel-Jones. "You can produce the best food in the world, but if you dont know how to market it, you are wasting your time. We are helping the traditionalists to move on."
The emergence of the new class of superpeasants reflects some old yearnings. If the British were the first nation to industrialize, they were also the first to head back to the land. "There is this romantic image of the countryside that is particularly English," says Alun Howkins of the University of Sussex, who reckons the population of rural England has been rising since 1911. Migration into rural areas is now running at about 100,000
a year, and the hunger for a taste of the rural life has kept land prices buoyant even as agricultural incomes tumble. About 40 percent of all farmland is now sold to "lifestyle buyers" rather than the dwindling number of traditional farmers, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Whats new about the latest returnees is their affluence and zeal for the business of producing quality foods, if only at a micro-level. A healthy economy and surging London house prices have helped to ease the escape of the would-be rustics. The media recognize and feed the fantasy. One of the big TV hits of recent years, the "River
Cottage" series, chronicled the attempts of a London chef to run his own Dorset farm. Naturally, the newcomers cant hope to match their City salaries, but many are happy to trade any loss of income for the extra job satisfaction. Who cares if theres no six-figure annual bonus when the land offers other incalculable compensations?
Besides, the specialist producers can at least depend on a burgeoning market for their products. Todays eco-aware generation loves to seek out authentic ingredients. "People like me may be making a difference in a small way," Jan McCourt, a onetime investment banker now running his own 40-hectare spread in the English Midlands stocked with rare breeds.Optimists see signs of far-reaching change: Britain isnt catching up with mainland Europe; its leading the way. “Unlike most other countries, where artisanal food production is being eroded, here it is being recovered," says food writer Matthew Fort. “It may be the mark of the next stage of civilization that we rediscover the desirability of being a peasant.” And not an investment banker.
16. Which of the following details of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is INCORRECT?
A. He was born and brought up in Birmingham.
B. He used to work in the television industry.
C. He is wealthy, adventurous and aspiring.
D. He is now selling his own quality foods.
17. Most importantly, people like Wilfred have brought to traditional British farming
A. knowledge of farming.
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇八：2004年英语专八试卷真题及答案
2004年英语专八试卷真题及答案
PART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A TALK
Language is used for doing things. People use it in everyday
conversation for transacting business, planning meals and vacations, debating politics, and gossiping. Teachers use it for instructing
students, and comedians use it for amusing audiences. All these are instances of language use - that is activities in which people do things with language. As we can see, language use is really a form of joint action.
What is joint action? I think it is an action that is carried out by a group of people doing things in coordination with each other. As simple examples, think of two people waltzing, or playing a piano duet. When two dancers waltz, they each move around the ballroom in a special way. But waltzing is different from the sum of their individual actions. Can you imagine these two dancers doing the same steps, but in separate rooms, or at separate times? So waltzing is, in fact, the joint action that emerges as the two dancers do their individual steps in coordination, as a couple.
Similarly, doing things with language is also different from the sum of the speaker speaking and the listener listening. It is the joint action that emerges when speakers and listeners, or writers and readers, perform their individual actions in coordination, as ensembles.
Therefore, we can say that language use incorporates both individual and social processes. Speakers and listeners, writers and readers, must carry out actions as individuals, if they are to succeed in their
use of language. But they must also work together as participants in the social units I have called ensembles. In the example I mentioned just now, the two dancers perform both individual actions, moving their bodies, arms, and legs, and joint actions, coordinating these movements, as they create the waltz. In the past, language use has been studied as if it were entirely an individual process. And it has also been studied as if it were entirely a social process. For me, I suggest that it belongs to both. We cannot hope to understand language use without viewing it as joint actions built on individual actions. In order to explain how all these actions work, I'd like to review briefly settings of language use. By settings, I mean the scene in which language use takes place, plus the medium - which refers to whether language use is spoken or written. And in this talk, I'll focus on spoken settings. The spoken setting mentioned most often is conversation - either face to face, or on the telephone. Conversations may be devoted to gossip, business transactions or scientific matters, but they're all
characterized by the free exchange of terms among the two
participants. I'll call these personal settings. Then we have what I would call nonpersonal settings. A typical example is the monologue. In monologues, one person speaks with little or no opportunity for interruption, or turns by members of the audience. Monologues come in many varieties too, as a professor lectures to a class, or a student giving a presentation to a seminar. These people speak for
themselves, uttering words they formulated themselves for the
audience before them, and the audience isn't expected to interrupt. In another kind of setting which are called institutional settings, the participants engage in speech exchanges that look like ordinary
conversation, but they are limited by institutional rules. As examples, we can think of a government official holding a news conference, a
lawyer crossquestioning a witness in court, or a professor directing a seminar discussion. In these settings, what is said is more or less spontaneous, even though turns at speaking are allocated by a leader, or are restricted in other ways.
The person speaking isn't always the one whose intentions are being expressed. We have the clearest examples in fictional settings. Vivian Leigh plays Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind", Frank Sinatra sings a love song in front of a live audience, the speakers are each vocalizing words composed by someone else - for instance a playwright or a composer - and are openly pretending to be
expressing opinions that aren't necessarily their own. Finally there are private settings when people speak for themselves without actually addressing anyone else, for example, I might explain silently to myself, or talk to myself about solving a research problem, or
rehearsing what I'm about to say in a seminar tomorrow. What I say isn't intended to be recognized by other people, it is only of use to myself. These are the features of private settings.
SECTION B TALK
W: Good evening, I'm Nancy Johnson. The guest on our radio talk this evening is Professor Wang Gongwu. Hello, Professor Wang.
M: Hello.
W: Professor Wang, you're now professor emeritus of Australia National University, and in your long academic career, you've worn many hats as tutor, lecturer, department head, dean, professor, and vice chancellor. However, as I know, you're still very fond of your
university days as a student.
M: That's right. That was in 1949. The university that I went to was a brandnew university then, and the only one in the country at that time. When I look back, it was an amazingly small university, and we knew everybody.
W: How did the students like you, for example, study then?
M: We didn't study very hard, because we didn't have to. We didn't have all this fantastic competition that you have today. Mmm. We were always made to feel that getting a first degree in the Arts faculty was not preparation for a profession. It was a general education. We were not under any pressure to decide on our careers, and we had such a good time. We were left very much on our own, and we were encouraged to make things happen.
W: What do you see as the most striking difference in university education since then?
M: University education has changed dramatically since those days. Things are very specialized today.
W: Yes, definitely so. And, in your subsequent career experience as an educator and later administrator in various institutions of higher education in Asia and elsewhere, Professor Wang, you have repeatedly noted that one has to look at the development of education in one particular country in a broad context. What do you mean by that?
M: Well, the whole world has moved away from elite education in universities to meet the needs of mass education, and entering universities is no longer a privilege for the few. And universities today are more concerned with providing jobs for their graduates in a way that universities in our time never had to be bothered about. Therefore, the emphasis of university programs today is now on the practical and the utilitarian, rather than on a general education or on personal development.
W: Do you think that is a welcome development?
M: Well, I personally regret this development. But the basic bachelor's education now has to cater to people who really need a piece of paper to find a decent job.
W: So you're concerned about this development.
M: Yes, I'm very concerned. With technical changes, many of the things that you learn are technical skills, which don't require you to become very well educated. Yet, if you can master those skills, you can get very good jobs. So the technical institutions are going to be increasingly popular at the expense of traditional universitites.
W: Professor Wang, let's look at a different issue. How do you comment on the current phenomenon because of the fees they pay?
M: Well, once you accept students on financial grounds, one wonders whether you have to pass them as well. But this is the development in education that we have to contend with. Yet, if we are concerned about maintaining standards, what we can do is to concentrate on
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇九：2000年英语专业八级考试试卷真题及答案
2000年英语专业八级考试全真试卷
英语爱好者
听力
Part Ⅰ 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. Mark the correct answer to each ques tion on your Coloured Answer Sheet.
SECTION A TALK
Questions 1 to 5 refer to the talk in this section .At the end of the talk you w ill be 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now list en to the talk.
1. The rules for the first private library in the US were drawn up by ___.
A. the legislature B. the librarian C. John Harvard D. the faculty members
___.
A. could be lent to everyone
B. could be lent by book stores
C. were lent to students and the faculty
D. were lent on a membership basis
C. To serve t
___.
A. readership C. service D.function
D. to define the circulation system of US libraries
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Questions 6 to 10 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you wil l be given 15 seconds to answer each of the following five questions. Now listen to the interview.
6. Nancy became a taxi driver because ___.
A. she owned a car
B. she drove well
C. she liked drivers‟ uniforms
D. it was her childhood dream
7. According to her, what was the most difficult about becoming a taxi dr iver?
A. The right sense of direction.
B. The sense of judgment.
C. The skill of maneuvering.
D. The size of vehicles.
8. What does Nancy like best about her job?
A. Seeing interesting buildings in the city.
B. Being able to enjoy the world of nature.
C. Driving in unsettled weather.
D. Taking long drives outside the city.
9. It can be inferred from the interview that Nancy in a(n) ___ moth er.
A. uncaring B. strict C. affectionate
10. The people Nancy meets are
A. rather difficult to please
B. rude to women drivers
C. talkative and generous with tips
D. different in personality
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
___.
A. making more investments in Japan
B. stimulating Japanese businesses in France
C. helping boost the Japanese economy
D. launching a film festival in Japan
13. This is Jacques Chirac‟s ___ visit to Japan.
A. second B. fourteenth C. fortieth D. forty-first
Questions 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. Afghan people are suffering from starvation because ___.
A. melting snow begins to block the mountain paths
B. the Taliban have destroyed existing food stocks
C. the Taliban are hindering food deliveries
D. an emergency air-lift of food was cancelled
15. people in Afghanistan are facing starvation.
A. 160,000 B. 16,000 C. 1,000,000 D. 100 ,000
SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
both grammatically and semantically acceptable.
On Public Speaking
usually feel terrified no matter how well they speak in informal situations.other form of (1)___ 1.___speaking is a way for a speaker to (2)___ his thoughts with the the speaker is free 2.___ to decide on the (3)___ of his speech. 3.___key points to achieve success in public speaking: —(4)___ of the subject —good preparation of the speech. To facilitate their understanding, inform your beforehand of the (5)___ of your speech, and end it with a summary. 5.___ key points to bear in mind: —be aware of your audience through eye contact.the speed of (6)___ 6.___ —use the microphone skillfully to (7)___ in speech. 7.___ —be brief in speech; always try to make your message (8)___ 8.___are the (9)___ Therefore, brevity is essential to the (10)___ of a speech.
改错
Part (15 min)
way. For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and wri te the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line. For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a “∧” sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line. For an unnecessary word cross out the unnecessary word with a slash “/‟ and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line.
Example
When∧art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) an
it never／ buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
The grammatical words which play so large a part in English
grammar are for the most part sharply and obviously different 1.___
from the lexical words. A rough and ready difference which may
seem the most obvious is that grammatical words have“ less
meaning”, but in fact some grammarians have called them 2.___
“empty” words as opposed in the “full” words of vocabulary. 3.___
But this is a rather misled way of expressing the distinction. 4.___
Although a word like the is not the name of something as man is,
it is very far away from being meaningless; there is a sharp 5.___
difference in meaning between “man is vile and” “the man is
vile”, yet the is the single vehicle of this difference in meaning. 6.___
Moreover, grammatical words differ considerably among
themselves as the amount of meaning they have, even in the 7.___
lexical sense. Another name for the grammatical words has been
“little words”. But size is by no mean a good criterion for 8.___
distinguishing the grammatical words of English, when we
consider that we have lexical words as go, man, say, car. Apart
from this, however, there is a good deal of truth in what some
10.___
阅读理解 A
Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 min)
min)
In this section there are reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice TEXT A
be Danes. yo urself.
It is the land of the silk safety net, where almost half the national budg et goes toward smoothing out life‟s inequalities, and there is plenty of money f or schools, day care, retraining programmes, job seminars-Danes love seminars: t hree days at a study centre hearing about waste management is almost as good as a ski trip. It is a culture bombarded by English, in advertising, pop music, the Internet, and despite all the English that Danish absorbs—there is no Danish Academy to defend against it —old dialects persist in Jutland that can barel y be understood by Copenhageners. It is the land where, as the saying goes,“ Fe w have too much and fewer have too little, ”and a foreigner is struck by the swe e t egalitarianism that prevails, where the lowliest clerk
gives you a level gaze, where Sir and Madame have disappeared from common usage, even Mr. and Mrs. It‟ s a nation of recyclers—about 55 % of Danish garbage gets made into something new— and no nuclear power plants. It‟s a nation of tireless planner. Trains run on time. Things operate well in general.
Such a nation of overachievers — a brochure from the Ministry of Busines s and Industry says, “Denmark is one of the world‟s cleanest and most organize d countries, with virtually no pollution, crime, or poverty. Denmark is the most c orruption-free society in the Northern Hemisphere. ”So, of course, one‟s heart l ifts at any sighting of Danish sleaze: skinhead graffiti on buildings(“Foreigne r s Out of Denmark! ”), broken beer bottles in the gutters, drunken teenagers slu mped in the park.
nting-at-2-a.m.-for-the-green-light peoplesee themselves as jazzy people, improvisers, more free spirited but the truth disciplined people will get your goods around to the Baltic States, and Russia. and well-maintained.
yours by virtue of and you shouldn‟t feel bad f o r taking what you‟re entitled to, clear to everyone, the benefits of crisis.
B. modest C. deprecating D. mysterious
A. Fondness of foreign culture. B. Equality in society. C. Linguistic tolerance. D. Persistent planning.
18. The author‟s reaction to the statement by the Ministry of Business a nd Industry is ___.
A. disapproving B. approving C. noncommittal D. doubtful
19. According to the passage, Danish orderliness ___.
A. sets the people apart from Germans and Swedes
B. spares Danes social troubles besetting other people
C. is considered economically essential to the country
D. prevents Danes from acknowledging existing troubles
1998年英语专八真题及答案篇十：2009年英语专八考试真题及参考答案(完整版)
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35 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 Experimental Reports
I. Content of an experimental report, e.g.
--- study subject/ area
--- study purpose
--- ____1____
II.Presentation of an experimental report
--- providing details
--- regarding readers as _____2_____
III.Structure of an experimental report
--- feature: highly structured and ____3____
--- sections and their content:
INTRODUCTION ____4____; why you did it
METHOD how you did it
RESULT what you found out ____5____ what you think it shows IV. Sense of readership --- ____6____: reader is the marker
--- ____7____: reader is an idealized, hypothetical, intelligent person with little knowledge of your study
--- tasks to fulfill in an experimental report:
nintroduction to relevant area
necessary background informationn
ndevelopment of clear arguments
definition of technical termsn
precisendescription of data ____8____
V. Demands and expectations in report writing
--- early stage:
nunderstanding of study subject/area and its implications
basic grasp of thenreport's format
--- later stage:
____9____ on researchnsignificance
--- things to avoid in writing INTRODUCTION:
inadequatenmaterial
____10____ of research justification for the studyn
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 CORRECT?
A. Toastmasters was originally set up to train speaking skills.
B. Toastmasters only accepts prospective professional speakers.
C. Toastmasters accepts members from the general public.
D. Toastmasters is an exclusive club for professional speakers.
2. The following are job benefits by joining Toastmasters EXCEPT
A. becoming familiar with various means of communication.
B. learning how to deliver messages in an organized way.
C. becoming aware of audience expectations.
D. learning how to get along with friends.
3. Toastmasters' general approach to training can be summarized as
A. practice plus overall training.
B. practice plus lectures.
C. practice plus voice training.
D. practice plus speech writing.
4. Toastmasters aims to train people to be all the following EXCEPT
A. public speakers. B. grammar teachers. C. masters of ceremonies. D. evaluators.
5. The interview mainly focuses on
A. the background information.
B. the description of training courses.
C. the requirements of public speaking.
D. the overall personal growth.
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 are'based on the foUowing news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
6. Which of the following is the main cause of global warming?
A. Fossil fuel.
B. Greenhouse gases.
C. Increased dryness.
D. Violent storm patterns.
7. The news item implies that ______ in the last report.
A. there were fewer studies done
B. there were fewer policy proposals
C. there was less agreement
D. there were fewer objectives
Questions 8 and 9 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
8. The cause of the Indian train accident was
A. terrorist sabotage.
B. yet to be determined.
C. lack of communications.
D. bad weather.
9. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
A. The accident occurred on a bridge.
B. The accident occurred in New Delhi.
C. There were about 600 casualties.
D. Victims were rescued immediately.
Question 10 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10seconds to answer the question.
Now listen to the news.
10. What is the main message of the news item?
A. Young people should seek careers advice.
B. Careers service needs to be improved.
C. Businesses are not getting talented people.
D. Careers advice is not offered on the Intemet.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
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
We had been wanting to expand our children's horizons by taking them to a place that was unlike anything we'd been exposed to during our travels in Europe and the United States. In thinking about what was possible from Geneva, where we are based, we decided on a trip to
Istanbul, a two-hour plane ride from Zurich.
We envisioned the trip as a prelude to more exotic ones, perhaps to New Delhi or Bangkok later this year, but thought our 11- and 13-year-olds needed a first step away from manicured boulevards and pristine monuments.
What we didn't foresee was the reaction of friends, who warned that we were putting our children "in danger," referring vaguely, and most incorrectly, to disease, terrorism or just the unknown. To help us get acquainted with the peculiarities of Istanbul and to give our children a chance to choose what they were particularly interested in seeing, we bought an excellent guidebook and read it thoroughly before leaving.
Friendly warnings didn't change our planning, although we might have more prudently checked with the U.S. State Department's list of troublespots. We didn't see a lot
of children among the foreign visitors during our six-day stay in Istanbul, but we found the tourist areas quite safe, very interesting and varied enough even to suit our son, whose oft-repeated request is that we not see "every single" church and museum in a given city. Vaccinations weren't needed for the city, but we were concemed about adapting to the water for a short stay. So we used bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth, a precaution that may seem excessive, but we all stayed healthy.
Taking the advice of a friend, we booked a hotel a 20-minute walk from most of Istanbul's major tourist sites. This not only got us some morning exercise, strolling over the Karakoy Bridge, but took us past a colorful assortment of fishermen, vendors and shoe shiners.
From a teenager and pre-teen's view, Istanbul street life is fascinating since almost everything can be bought outdoors. They were at a good age to spend time wandering the labyrinth of the Spice Bazaar, where shops display mounds of pungent herbs in sacks. Doing this with younger children would be harder simply because the streets are so packed with people; it would be easy to get lost.
For our two, whose buying experience consisted of department stores and shopping mall boutiques, it was amazing to discover that you could bargain over price and perhaps end up with two of something for the price of one. They also learned to figure out the relative value of the Turkish lira, not a small matter with its many zeros.
Being exposed to Islam was an important part of our trip. Visiting the mosques, especially the enormous Blue Mosque, was our first glimpse into how this major religion is practiced. Our children's curiosity already had been piqued by the five daily calls to prayer over loudspeakers in every corner of the city, and the scarves covering the heads of many women.
Navigating meals can be troublesome with children, but a kebab, bought on the street or in restaurants, was unfailingly popular. Since we had decided this trip was not for gourmets, kebabs spared us the agony of trying to find a restaurant each day that would suit the adults' desire to try something new amid children's insistence that the food be served immediately. Gradually, we branched out to try some other Turkish specialties. Although our son had studied Islam briefly, it is impossible to be prepared for every awkward question that might come up, such as during our visits to the Topkapi Sarayi, the Ottoman Sultans' palace. No guides were available so it was do-it-yourself, using our guidebook,which cheated us of a lot of interesting history and anecdotes that a professional guide could provide. Next time, we resolved to make such arrangements in advance.
On this trip, we wandered through the magnificent complex, with its imperial treasures, its courtyards and its harem. The last required a bit of explanation that we would have happily lef~to a learned third party.
11. The couple chose Istanbul as their holiday destination mainly because
A. the city is not too far away from where they lived.
B. the city is not on the list of the U.S. State Department.
C. the city is between the familiar and the exotic.
D. the city is more familiar than exotic.
12. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A. The family found the city was exactly what they had expected.
B. Their friends were opposed to their holiday plan. C. They could have been more cautious about bringing kids along. D. They were a bit cautious about the quality of water in the city. 13. We learn from the couple's shopping experience back home that
A. they were used to bargaining over price.
B. they preferred to buy things outdoors.
C. street markets were their favourite.
D. they preferred fashion and brand names.
14. The last two paragraphs suggest that to visit places of interest in Istanbul
A. guidebooks are very useful.
B. a professional guide is a must.
C. one has to be prepared for questions.
D. one has to make arrangements in advance.
15. The family have seen or visited all the following in Istanbul EXCEPT
A. religious prayers.
B. historical buildings.
C. local-style markets.
D. shopping mall boutiques.
TEXT B
Last month the first baby-boomers turned 60. The bulky generation born between 1946 and 1964 is heading towards retirement. The looming "demographic cliff" will see vast numbers of skilled workers dispatched from the labour force.
The workforce is ageing across the rich world. Within the EU the number of workers aged between 50 and 64 will increase by 25% over the next two decades, while those aged 20-29 will decrease by 20%. In Japan almost 20% of the population is already over 65, the highest share in the world. And in the United States the number of workers aged 55-64 will have increased by more than half in this decade, at the same time as the 35- to 44-year-olds decline by 10%.
Given that most societies are geared to retirement at around 65, companies have a looming problem of knowledge management, of making sure that the boomers do not leave before they have handed over their expertise along with the office keys and their e-mail address. A survey of human-resources directors by IBM last year concluded: "When the baby-boomer generation retires, many companies will find out too late that a career's worth of experience has walked out the door, leaving insufficient talent to fill in the void."
Some also face a shortage of expertise. In aerospace and defence, for example, as much as 40% of the workforce in some companies will be eligible to retire within the next five years. At the same time, the number of engineering graduates in developed countries is in steep decline.
A few companies are so squeezed that they are already taking exceptional measures. Earlier this year the Los Angeles Times interviewed an enterprising Australian who was staying in Beverly Hills while he tried to persuade locals to emigrate to Toowoomba, Queensland, to work for his engineering company there. Toowoomba today; the rest of the
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