-
专八真题
2014
年
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS
(2014)
GRADE EIGHT
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 ONL
Y. 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, using no more than three words in each
gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in
is (are) both grammatically and semantically
acceptable. You may refer to
your notes
while completing the task Use the blank sheet for
note-taking.
Now, listen to
the mini-lecture.
How
to Reduce Stress
Life is full of things
that cause us sress. Though we may not like
stress, we have to live
with it.
I. Definition of stress
A. (1)
reaction
exerted between two touching bodies
B. human reaction
i.e. response to (2)
on someone
e.g.
increase in breathing, heart rate, (3)
,
or muscle tension
II. (4)
,
A. positive
stress
where it occurs: Christmas,
wedding, (5)
B. negative stress
where it occurs: test-taking
situations, friend
?
s death
III. Ways to cope with stress
A. recoginition
of stress signals
—monitor for (6)
of stress
—find ways to protect oneself
B. attention to
body demand
—effect of (7)
C.
planning and acting appropriately
—reason for
planning
—(8)
of planning
D. learning to (9)
—e.g. dlay caused by
traffic
E.
pacing activities
—manageable task
—(10)
SECTION B
INTERVIEW
In
this
section
you
will
hear
everything
ONCE
ONL
Y
.
Listen
carefully
and
then
answer
the
questions
that
follow. Mark the best
answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
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.
专八真题
2014
年
1.
According
to
the
interviewer,
which
of
the
following
best
indicates
the
relationship
between
choice
and
mobility?
A.
Better education
→
greater
mobility
→
more choices.
B. Better
education
→
more
choices
→
greater mobility.
C. Greater
mobility
→
better
education
→
more choices.
D. Greater
mobility
→
more
choices
→
better education.
2. According to the
interview, which of the following details about
the first poll is INCORRECT?
A. Shorter
work hours was least chosen for being most
important.
B. Chances for advancement
might have been favoured by young people.
C. High income failed to come on top
for being most important.
D. Job
security came second according to the poll
results.
3. According to
the interviewee, which is the main difference
between the first and the second poll?
A. The type of respondents who were
invited.
B. The way in which the
questions were designed.
C. The content
area of the questions.
D. The number of
poll questions.
4. What can
we learn from the respondents' answers to items 2,
4 and 7 in the second poll?
A.
Recognition from colleagues should be given less
importance.
B. Workers are always
willing and ready to learn more new skills.
C. Psychological reward is more
important than material one.
D. Work
will have to be made interesting to raise
efficiency.
5. According to
the interviewee, which of the following can offer
both psychological and monetary benefits?
A. Contact with many people.
B. Chances for advancement.
C. Appreciation from coworkers.
D. Chances to learn new skills.
SECTION C
NEWS BROADCAST
In
this
section
you
will
hear
everything
ONCE
ONL
Y
.
Listen
carefully
and
then
answer
the
questions
that
follow. Mark the best
answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
Questions 6 and 7 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.
6. According to the news
item,
A. airports.
B.
passengers.
C. architects.
D. companies.
7.
Which of the following is NOT true with reference
to the news?
A. Sleepboxes can be
rented for different lengths of time.
B. Renters of normal height can stand
up inside.
C. Bedding can be
automatically changed.
D. Renters can
take a shower inside the box.
Question 8 is based on the following
news. At the end of the news item, you will be
given 10 seconds to answer
the
question.
Now listen to the news.
8. What is the news item
mainly about?
专八真题
2014
年
A. London's
preparations for the Notting Hill Carnival.
B. Main features of the Notting Hill
Carnival.
C. Police's preventive
measures for the carnival.
D. Police
participation in the carnival.
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 news item reports on
a research finding about
A. the Dutch
famine and the Dutch women.
B. early
malnutrition and heart health.
C. the
causes of death during the famine.
D.
nutrition in childhood and adolescence.
10. When did the research
team carry out the study?
A. At the end
of World War II.
B. Between 1944 and
1945.
C. In the 1950s.
D. In
2007.
PART II
READING COMPREHENSION (30
MIN)
TEXT A
My class at
Harvard Business School helps students understand
what good management theory is and how
it
is
built.
In
each
session,
we
look
at
one
company
through
the
lenses
of
different
theories,
using
them
to
explain how the company got into its
situation and to examine what action will yield
the needed results. On the
last day of
class, I asked my class to turn those theoretical
lenses on themselves to find answers to two
questions:
First, How can I be sure
I’ll be happy in
my career? Second, How
can I be sure my relationships with
my
spouse and my family will become an
enduring source of happiness? Here are some
management tools that can
be used to
help you lead a purposeful life.
1. Use Your Resources Wisely. Your
decisions about allocating your personal time,
energy, and talent shape
your life’s
strategy. I have a bunch of “businesses” that
compete for these resources: I’m trying to have a
rewarding relationship with my wife,
raise great kids, contribute to my community,
succeed in my career, and
contribute to
my church. And I have exactly the same problem
that a corporation does. I have a limited amount
of time, energy and talent. How much do
I devote to each of these pursuits?
Allocation
choices
can
make
your
life
turn
out
to
very
different
from
what
you
intended.
Sometimes
that’s
good:
opportunities
that
you
have
never
planned
for
emerge.
But
if
you
don’t
invest
your
resources
wisely, the outcome can be bad. As I
think about my former classmates who inadvertently
invested in lives of
hollow
unhappiness, I can’t help believing that their
troubles related right back to a short-term
perspective.
When people
with a high need for achievement have an extra
half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy,
they’ll unconsciously allocate it to
activities that yield the most tangible
accomplishments. Our careers provide
the
most
concrete
evidence
that
we’re
moving
forward.
You
ship
a
product,
finish
a
design,
complete
a
presentation, close a sale teach a
class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In
contrast, investing time and
energy in
your relationships with your spouse and children
typically doesn’t offer the same immediate sense
of
achievement. Kids misbehave every
day. It’s really not until 20 years down the road
that you can say, “I raised
a good son
or a good daughter.” You can neglect your
relationship with your spouse and on a daily basis
it
doesn’t seem as if thing are
deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have
this unconscious propensity to
under
invest
in
their
families
and
overinvest
in
their
careers,
even
though
intimate
and
loving
family
relationships are the most powerful and
enduring source of happiness.
If
you
study
the
root
causes
of
business
disasters,
over and
over
you’ll
find
this
predisposition
toward
endeavors
that
offer
immediate
gratification.
If
you
look
at
personal
lives
through
that
lens,
you’ll
see
that
same stunning and
sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and
fewer resources to the things they would have
once said mattered most.
2. Create A Family Culture. It’s one
thing to see into the foggy future with a acuity
and chart the course
corrections
a
company
must
make.
But
it’s
quite
another
to
persuade
employees
to
line
up
and
work
cooperatively to take the company in
that new direction.
专八真题
2014
年
When there is little agreement, you
have to use “power tools” – coercion, threats,
punishments and so on,
to secure
cooperation. But if employee’s ways of working
together succeed over and over, consensus begins
to
form. Ultimately, people don’t even
think about whether their way yields success. They
embrace priorities and
follow
procedures
by
instinct
and
assumption
rather
than
by
explicit
decision,
which
means
that
they’ve
created a culture.
Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates
the proven, acceptable methods by which
member s of a group address recurrent
problems. And culture defines the priority given
to different types of
problems. It can
be a powerful management tool.
I use this model to address the
question, How can I be my family becomes an
enduring source of happiness?
My
students quickly see that the simplest way parents
can elicit cooperation from children is to wield
power
tools. But there comes a point
during the teen years when power tools no longer
work. At that point, parents
start
wishing
they
had
begun
working
with
their
children
at
a
very
young
age
to
build
a
culture
in
which
children instinctively behave
respectfully toward one another, obey their
parents, and choose the right thing to
do. Families have cultures, just a
companies do. Those cultures can be built
consciously.
If
you want
your kids to have
strong self-esteem and the confidence that they
can solve hard problems,
those
qualities won’t magically materialize in high
school. You have to design them into family’s
culture and
you have think about this
very early on.
Like employees, children
build self-esteem by doing things that are
hard and learning what works.
11. According
to the author, the key to successful allocation of
resources in your life depends on whether you
A. can manage your time well
B. have long-term planning
C. are lucky enough to have new
opportunities
D. can solve both company and family
problems
12. What is the
role of the statement
“
Our
careers provide the most concrete evidence that
we’re moving
forward
” with
reference to the previous statement in the
paragraph?
A. To offer further
explanation
B. To provide a
definition
C. To present a contrast
D. To
illustrate career development
13. According to the author, a common
cause of failure in business and family
relationships is
A. lack of planning
B. short-sightedness
C. shortage of resources D. decision by
instinct
14. According to
the author, when does culture begin to emerge
A. When people decide what and how to
do by instinct
B. When people realize
the importance of consensus
C. When
people as a group decide how to succeed
D. When people use “power
tools” to reach agreement
15. One of the similarities between
company culture and family culture is that
A. problem-solving ability is essential
B.
cooperation is the foundation
C.
respect and obedience are key elements
D. culture
needs to be nurtured
Text B
It was nearly bed-time and when they
awoke next morning land would be in sight. Dr.
Macphail lit his pipe
and, leaning over
the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern
Cross. After two years at the front and a wound
that had taken longer to heal than it
should, he was glad to settle down quietly at Apia
(
阿皮亚，
西萨摩亚首都
)
for twelve months at least, and he felt
already better for the journey. Since some of the
passengers were leaving
the ship next
day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that
evening and in his ears hammered still the harsh
notes of the mechanical piano. But the
deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw
his wife in a long chair
talking with
the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When
he sat down under the light and took off his hat
you saw that he had very red hair, with
a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled
skin which accompanies
red hair; he was
a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, precise
and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots
accent in a very low, quiet voice.
Between
the
Macphails
and
the
Davidsons,
who
were
missionaries,
there
had
arisen
the
intimacy
of
shipboard,
which
is
due
to
propinquity
rather
than
to
any
community
of
taste.
Their
chief
tie
was
the
disapproval
they
shared
of
the
men
who
spent
their
days
and
nights
in
the
smoking-room
playing
poker
or
bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was
not a little flattered to think that she and her
husband were the only
people on board
with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate,
and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half
unconsciously
acknowledged
the
compliment.
It
was
only
because
he
was
of
an
argumentative
mind
that
in
专八真题
2014
年
their
cabin at night he permitted himself to carp
(
唠叨
).
?Mrs.
Davidson was saying she didn?t know how they?d
have got through the journey if it hadn?t been for
us,? said Mrs. Macphail, as she neatly
brushed out her transformation
(
假发
). ?She said we
we
re really the only
people
on the ship they cared to know.?
?I shouldn?t have thought a missionary
was such a big bug
(
要人、
名士
) that he
could afford to put on frills
(
< br>摆架子
).?
?It?s
not frills. I quite understand what she means. It
wouldn?t have been very nice
for the
Davidsons to
have to mix with all that
rough lot in the smoking-room.’
‘The
founder of their religion wasn’t so exclusive,’
said Dr. Macphail with a chuckle.
‘I’ve
asked you over and over again not to joke about
religion,’ answered his wife. ‘I shouldn’t like
to have a nature like yours, Alec. You
never look for the best in people.’
He
gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue
eyes, but did not reply. After many years of
married life
he
had
learned
that
it
was
more
conducive
to
peace
to
leave
his
wife
with
the
last
word.
He
was
undressed
before she was, and climbing into the
upper bunk he settled down to read himself to
sleep.
When he came on deck next
morning they were close to land. He looked at it
with greedy eyes. There was
a thin
strip of silver beach rising quickly to hills
covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The
coconut trees,
thick and green, came
nearly to the water’s edge, and among them you saw
the grass houses of the Samoaris
(
萨摩亚人
); and here
and there, gleaming white, a little church. Mrs.
Davidson came and stood beside him. She
was dressed in black, and wore round
her neck a gold chain, from which dangled a small
cross. She was a little
woman,
with
brown,
dull
hair
very
elaborately
arranged,
and
she
had
prominent
blue
eyes
behind
invisible
pince-nez
(
夹鼻眼镜
). Her face was long,
like a sheep?s, but she gave no impression of
foolishness, rather of
extreme
alertness; she had the quick movements of a bird.
The most remarkable thing about her was her voice,
high, metallic, and without inflection;
it fell on the ear with a hard monotony,
irritating to the nerves like the
pitiless clamour of the pneumatic
drill.
‘This must seem like home to
you,’ said Dr. Macphail, with his thin, difficult
smile.
‘Ours are low islands, you know,
not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We’ve
got another ten days''
journey to reach
them.’
‘In these parts that’s almost
like being in the next street at home,’ said Dr.
Macphail facetiously.
‘Well, that’s
rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one
does look at distances differently in the J
South Seas. So far you’re right.’
Dr. Macphail sighed faintly.
16. It can be inferred from
the first paragraph that Dr. Macphail
A. preferred quietness to noise
B. enjoyed the sound of the mechanical
piano
C. was going back to
his hometown
D. wanted to befriend the Davidsons
17. The Macphails and the
Davidsons were in each other’e company because
they
A. had similar experience
B. liked each
other
C. shared dislike for some
passengers
D. had similar religious belief
18. Which of the following
statements best DESCRIBES Mrs. Macphail?
A. She was good at making friends
B.
She was prone to quarrelling with her husband
C. She was skillful in dealing with
strangers
D. She was easy to get along
with.
19. All the following
adjectives can be used to depict Mrs. Davidson
EXCEPT
A. arrogant
B.
unapproachable
C.
unpleasant
D. irritable
20. Which of the following
statements about Dr. Macphail is INCORRECT?
A. He was sociable.
B. He was
intelligent.
C. He was afraid of his
wife.
D. He was fun
of the Davidsons.
Text C
Today we make room for a remarkably
narrow range of personality styles. We're told
that to be great is to
be bold, to be
happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a
nation of extroverts—which means that we've lost
sight of who we really are. One-third
to one-half of Americans are introverts—in the
other words, one out of
every
two
or
three
people
you
know.
If
you're
not
an
introvert
yourself,
you
are
surely
raising,
managing,
专八真题
201
4
年
married to, or
coupled with one.
If
these
statistics
surprise
you,
that's
probably
because
so
many
people
pretend
to
be
extroverts.
Closet
introverts
pass
undetected
on
playgrounds,
in
high
school
locker
rooms,
and
in
the
corridors
of
corporate
America. Some fool even themselves,
until some life event---a layoff, an empty nest,
an inheritance that frees
them to spend
time as they like---jolts them into taking stock
of their true natures. You have only to raise this
subject with your friends and
acquaintances to find that the most unlikely
people consider themselves introverts.
It makes sense that so many introverts
hide even from themselves. We live with a value
system that I call the
Extrovert Ideal—
the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is
gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the
spotlight.
The
archetypal
extrovert
prefers
action
to
contemplation,
risk-taking
to
heed-taking,
certainty
to
doubt.
He
favors
quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong.
She works well in teams and socializes in groups.
We
like to think that we value
individuality, but all too often we admire one
type of individual—— the kind who's
comfortable
garages to have
any personality they please, but they are the
exceptions, not the rule, and our tolerance
extends
mainly to those who get
fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing
so.
Introversion---along
with
its
cousins
sensitivity,
seriousness,
and
shyness---is
now
a
second-
class
personality trait, somewhere
between a disappointment and a pathology.
Introverts living under the Extrovert
Ideal
are
like
women
in
a
man's
world,
discounted
because
of
a
trait
that
goes
to
the
core
of
who
they
are.
Extroversion is an enormously appealing
personality style, but we've turned it into an
oppressive standard to
which most of us
feel we must conform.
The Extrovert
Ideal has been documented in many studies, though
this research has never been grouped
under a single name. Talkative people,
for example, are rated as smarter, better-looking,
more interesting, and
more desirable as
friends. Velocity of speech counts as well as
volume: we rank fast talkers as more competent
and likable than slow ones. Even the
word introvert is stigmatized---one informal
study, by psychologist Laurie
Helgoe,
found
that
introverts
described
their
own
physical
appearance
in
vivid
language,
but
when
asked
to
describe generic introverts they drew a
bland and distasteful picture.
But we
make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert
Ideal so unthinkingly. Some of our greatest ideas,
art, and inventions---from the theory
of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers to the
personal computer---came
from quiet and
cerebral people who knew how to tune in to their
inner worlds and the treasures to be found
there.
21.
According to the author, there exists, as far as
personality styles are concerned, a discrepancy
between
A. what people say they can do
and what they actually can
B. what society values and what people
pretend to be
C. what people profess
and what statistics show
D. what people profess and
what they hide from others
22. The ideal extrovert is described as
being all the following EXCEPT
A.
doubtful
B. sociable
C. determined
D. bold
23. According to the
author, our society only permits ___ to have
whatever personality they like.
A. the
young
B. the
ordinary
C. the artistic
D. the rich
24. According to the
passage, which of the following statements BEST
reflects the author’s opinion?
A. Introversion is seen as an inferior
trait because of its association with sensitivity.
B. Extroversion is arbitrary forced by
society as a norm upon people.
C.
Introverts are generally regarded as either
unsuccessful or as deficient.
D.
Extroversion and introversion have similar
personality trait profiles.
25. The author winds up the passage
with a____ note.
A. cautious
B.
warning
C.
positive
D.
humorous
Text D
Speaking two languages rather than just
one has obvious practical benefits in an
increasingly globalized
world.
But
in
recent
years,
scientists
have
begun
to
show
that
the
advantages
of
bilingualism
are
even
more
fundamental than being able to converse
with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it
turns out, makes you
smarter. It can
have a profound effect on your brain, improving
cognitive skills not related to language and even
shielding against dementia in old age.