2005-2006年专八(TEM8)真题、答案及听力原文（整理打印版）

2005-2006年专八(TEM8)真题、答案及听力原文（整理打印版） 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2006) -GRADE EIGHT- TIME LIMIT: 195 MIN PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION (35MIN) SECTION A MINI-LECTURE In this section you sill 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. Complete the gap-filling task, some of the gaps below may require a maximum of THREE words. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to your notes. Meaning in Literature (2006) In reading literary works, we are concerned with the ―meaning‖ of one literary piece or another. However, finding out what something really means is a difficult issue. There are three ways to tackle meaning in literature. I. Meaning is what is intended by (1) _________. (1) _________ Apart from reading an author‘s work in question, readers need to 1) read (2) __________by the same author; (2) _________ 2) get familiar with (3) __________ at the time; (3) _________ 3) get to know cultural values and symbols of the time. II. Meaning exists ―in‖ the text itself. 1) some people‘s view: meaning is produced by the formal properties of the text like (4)_______, etc. (4) _________ 2) speaker‘s view: meaning is created by both conventions of meaning and (5)______. (5) _________ Therefore, agreement on meaning could be created by common traditions and conventions of usage. But different time periods and different (6) _____ perspectives could lead to different interpretations of meaning in a text. (6) _________ III. Meaning is created by (7) __________. (7) _________ 1) meaning is (8) ___________; (8) _________ 2) meaning is contextual; 3) meaning requires (9) ___________; (9) _________ ----practicing competency in reading ----practicing other competencies ----background research in (10) ___________, etc. (10) _________ 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. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Miss Green‘s university days? A. She felt bored. B. She felt lonely. C. She cherished them. D. The subject was easy. 2. Which of the following is NOT part of her job with the Department of Employment? A. Doing surveys at workplace. B. Analyzing survey results. C. Designing questionnaires. D. Taking a psychology course. 3. According to Miss Green, the main difference between the Department of Employment and the advertising agency lies in___. A. the nature of work. B. office decoration. C. office location. D. work procedures. 4. Why did Miss green want to leave the advertising agency? A. She felt unhappy inside the company. B. She felt work there too demanding. She longed for new opportunities. C. She was denied promotion in the company. D. 5. How did Miss Green react to a heavier workload in the new job? A. She was willing and ready. B. She sounded mildly eager. C. She a bit surprised. D. She sounded very reluctant. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet. Questions 6 and 7 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now listen to the news. 6. The man stole the aircraft mainly because he wanted to ______. A. destroy the European Central Bank. B. have an interview with a TV station. C. circle skyscrapers in downtown Frankfurt. D. remember the death of a US astronaut. 7. Which of the following statements about the man is TRUE? A. He was a 31-year-old student from Frankfurt. B. He was piloting a two-seat helicopter he had stolen. C. He had talked to air traffic controllers by radio. D. He threatened to land on the European Central Bank. 1 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. 8. The news is mainly about the city government‘s plan to ______. A. expand and improve the existing subway system. B. build underground malls and parking lots. C. prevent further land subsidence. D. promote advanced technology. Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now listen to the news. 9. According to the news, what makes this credit card different from conventional ones is ______. A. that it can hear the owner‘s voice. B. that it can remember a password. C. that it can identify the owner‘s voice. D. that it can remember the owner‘s PIN. 10. The newly developed credit card is said to said to have all the following EXCEPT ______. A. switch. B. battery. C. speaker. D. built-in chip. PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30MIN) In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions.Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet. TEXT A The University in transformation, edited by Australian futurists Sohail Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley, presents some 20 highly varied outlooks on tomorrow‘s universities by writers representing both Western and mon-Western perspectives. Their essays raise a broad range of issues, questioning nearly every key assumption we have about higher education today. The most widely discussed alternative to the traditional campus is the Internet University – a voluntary community to scholars/teachers physically scattered throughout a country or around the world but all linked in cyberspace. A computerized university could have many advantages, such as easy scheduling, efficient delivery of lectures to thousands or even millions of students at once, and ready access for students everywhere to the resources of all the world‘s great libraries. Yet the Internet University poses dangers, too. For example, a line of franchised courseware, produced by a few superstar teachers, marketed under the brand name of a famous institution, and heavily advertised, might eventually come to dominate the global education market, warns sociology professor Peter Manicas of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Besides enforcing a rigidly standardized curriculum, such a ―college education in a box‖ could undersell the offerings of many traditional brick and mortar institutions, effectively driving then out of business and throwing thousands of career academics out of work, note Australian communications professors David Rooney and Greg Hearn. On the other hand, while global connectivity seems highly likely to play some significant role in future higher education, that does not mean greater uniformity in course content – or other dangers – will necessarily follow. Counter-movements are also at work. Many in academia, including scholars contributing to this volume, are questioning the fundamental mission of university education. What if, for instance, instead of receiving primarily technical training and building their individual careers, university students and professors could focus their learning and research efforts on existing problems in their local communities and the world? Feminist scholar Ivana Milojevic dares to dream what a university might become ―if we believed that child-care workers and teachers in early childhood education should be one of the highest (rather than lowest) paid professionals?‖ Co-editor Jennifer Gidley shows how tomorrow‘s university faculty, instead of giving lectures and conducting independent research, may take on three new roles. Some would act as brokers, assembling customized degree-credit programmes for individual students by mixing and matching the best course offerings available from institutions all around the world. A second group, mentors, would function much like today‘s faculty advisers, but are likely to be working with many more students outside their own academic specialty. This would require them to constantly be learning from their students as well as instructing them. A third new role for faculty, and in Gidley‘s view the most challenging and rewarding of all, would be as meaning-makers: charismatic sages and practitioners leading groups of students/colleagues in collaborative efforts to find spiritual as well as rational and technological solutions to specific real-world problems. Moreover, there seems little reason to suppose that any one form of university must necessarily drive out all other options. Students may be ―enrolled‖ in courses offered at virtual campuses on the Internet, between –or even during – sessions at a real-world problem-focused institution. As co-editor Sohail Inayatullah points out in his introduction, no future is inevitable, and the very act of imagining and thinking through alternative possibilities can directly affect how thoughtfully, creatively and urgently even a dominant technology is adapted and applied. Even in academia, the future belongs to those who care enough to work their visions into practical, sustainable realities. 11. When the book reviewer discusses the Internet University, ______. A. he is in favor of it. B. his view is balanced. C. he is slightly critical of it. D. he is strongly critical of it. 12.Which of the following is NOT seen as a potential danger of the Internet University? A. Internet-based courses may be less costly than traditional ones. B. Teachers in traditional institutions may lose their jobs. C. Internet-based courseware may lack variety in course content. D. The Internet University may produce teachers with a lot of publicity. 13. According to the review, what is the fundamental mission of traditional university education? 2 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 A. Knowledge learning and career building. B. Learning how to solve existing social problems. C. Researching into solutions to current world problems. D. Combining research efforts of teachers and students in learning. 14. Judging from the Three new roles envisioned for tomorrow's university faculty, university teachers ______. A. are required to conduct more independent research. B. are required to offer more course to their students. C. are supposed to assume more demanding duties. D. are supposed to supervise more students in their specialty. 15.Which category of writing does the review belong to? A. Narration. B. Description C. persuasion D. Exposition. TEXT B Every street had a story, every building a memory. Those blessed with wonderful childhoods can drive the streets of their hometowns and happily roll back the years. The rest are pulled home by duty and leave as soon as possible. After Ray Atlee had been in Clanton (his hometown) for fifteen minutes he was anxious to get out. The town had changed, but then it hadn't. On the highways leading in, the cheap metal buildings and mobile homes were gathering as tightly as possible next to the roads for maximum visibility. This town had no zoning whatsoever. A landowner could build anything wiih no permit no inspection, no notice to adjoining landowners. nothing. Only hog farms and nuclear reactors required approvals and paperwork. The result was a slash-and-build clutter that got uglier by the year. But in the older sections, nearer the square, the town had not changed at all The long shaded streets were as clean and neat as when Kay roamed them on his bike. Most of the houses were still owned by people he knew, or if those folks had passed on the new owners kept the lawns clipped and the shutters painted. Only a few were being neglected. A handful had been abandoned. This deep in Bible country, it was still an unwritten rule in the town that little was done on Sundays except go to church, sit on porches, visit neighbors, rest and relax the way God intended. It was cloudy, quite cool for May, and as he toured his old turf, killing time until the appointed hour for the family meeting, he tried to dwell on the good memories from Clanton. There was Dizzy Dean Park where he had played little League for the Pirates, and (here was the public pool he'd swum in every summer except 1969 when the city closed it rather than admit black children. There were the churches - Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian - facing each other at the intersection of Second and Elm like wary sentries, their steeples competing for height. They were empty now, hut in an hour or so the more faithful would gather for evening services. The square was as lifeless as the streets leading to it. With eight thousand people, Clanton was just large enough to have attracted the discount stores that had wiped out so many small towns. But here the people had been faithful to their downtown merchants, and there wasn‘t s single empty or boarded-up building around the square – no small miracle. The retail shops were mixed in with the banks and law offices and cafes, all closed for the Sabbath. He inched through the cemetery and surveyed the Atlee section in the old part, where the tombstones were grander. Some of his ancestors had built monuments for their dead. Ray had always assumed that the family money he‘d never seen must have been buried in those graves. He parked and walked to his mother‘s grave, something he hadn‘t done in years. She was buried among the Atlees, at the far edge of the family plot because she had barely belonged. Soon, in less than an hour, he would be sitting in his father‘s study, sipping bad instant tea and receiving instructions on exactly how his father would be laid to rest. Many orders were about to be give, many decrees and directions, because his father(who used to be a judge) was a great man and cared deeply about how he was to be remembered. Moving again, Ray passed the water tower he‘d climbed twice, the second time with the police waiting below. He grimaced at his old high school, a place he‘d never visited since he‘d left it. Behind it was the football field where his brother Forrest had romped over opponents and almost became famous before getting bounced off the team. It was twenty minutes before five, Sunday, May 7. Time for the family meeting. 16. From the first paragraph, we get the impression that ______. A. Ray cherished his childhood memories. B. Ray had something urgent to take care of. C. Ray may not have a happy childhood. D. Ray cannot remember his childhood days. 17. Which of the following adjectives does NOT describe Ray‘s hometown? A. Lifeless. B. Religious. C. Traditional. D. Quiet. 18. Form the passage we can infer that the relationship between Ray and his parents was ______. A. close. B. remote. C. tense. D. impossible to tell. 19. It can be inferred from the passage that Ray‘s father was all EXCEPT ______. A. considerate. B. punctual. C. thrifty. D. dominant. TEXT C Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find their counterparts in any other portion of the globe. Valley walls rise steeply five or six thousand feet on every side. The columns crawl through a maze of giant corridors down which fierce snow-fed torrents foam under skies of brass. Amid these scenes of savage brilliancy there dwells a race whose qualities seem to harmonize with their environment. Except at harvest-time, when self-preservation requires a temporary truce, the Pathan tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress made, it is true, only of sun-baked clay, but with battlements, turrets, loopholes, drawbridges, etc. complete. Every village has its defence. Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud. The numerous tribes and combinations of tribes all have their accounts to settle with one another. Nothing is ever forgotten, and very few debts are left unpaid. For the purposes of social life, in addition to the convention about harvest-time, a most elaborate code of honour has been established and is on the whole faithfully observed. A man who knew it and observed it faultlessly might pass 3 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 unarmed from one end of the frontier to another. The slightest technical slip would, however, be fatal. The life of the Pathan is thus full of interest; and his valleys, nourished alike by endless sunshine and abundant water, are fertile enough to yield with little labour the modest material requirements of a sparse population. Into this happy world the nineteenth century brought two new facts: the rifle and the British Government. The first was an enormous luxury and blessing; the second, an unmitigated nuisance. The convenience of the rifle was nowhere more appreciated than in the Indian highlands. A weapon which would kill with accuracy at fifteen hundred yards opened a whole new vista of delights to every family or clan which could acquire it. One could actually remain in one's own house and fire at one's neighbour nearly a mile away. One could lie in wait on some high crag, and at hitherto unheard-of ranges hit a horseman far below. Even villages could fire at each other without the trouble of going far from home. Fabulous prices were therefore offered for these glorious products of science. Rifle-thieves scoured all India to reinforce the efforts of the honest smuggler. A steady flow of the coveted weapons spread its genial influence throughout the frontier, and the respect which the Pathan tribesmen entertained for Christian civilization was vastly enhanced. The action of the British Government on the other hand was entirely unsatisfactory. The great organizing, advancing, absorbing power to the southward seemed to be little better than a monstrous spoil-sport. If the Pathan made forays into the plains, not only were they driven back (which after all was no more than fair), but a whole series of subsequent interferences took place, followed at intervals by expeditions which toiled laboriously through the valleys, scolding the tribesmen and exacting fines for any damage which they had done. No one would have minded these expeditions if they had simply come, had a fight and then gone away again. In many cases this was their practice under what was called the "butcher and bolt policy" to which the Government of India long adhered. But towards the end of the nineteenth century these intruders began to make roads through many of the valleys, and in particular the great road to Chitral. They sought to ensure the safety of these roads by threats, by forts and by subsidies. There was no objection to the last method so far as it went. But the whole of this tendency to road-making was regarded by the Pathans with profound distaste. All along the road people were expected to keep quiet, not to shoot one another, and above all not to shoot at travellers along the road. It was too much to ask, and a whole series of quarrels took their origin from this source. 20.The word debts in "very few debts are left unpaid" in the first paragraph means ______. A. loans. B. accounts C. killings D. bargains. 21.Which of the following is NOT one of the geographical facts about the Indian frontier? A. Melting snows. B. Large population. C. Steep hillsides. D. Fertile valleys. 22. According to the passage, the Pathans welcomed ______. A. the introduction of the rifle. B. the spread of British rule. C. the extension of luxuries D. the spread of trade. 23. Building roads by the British A. put an end to a whole series of quarrels. B. prevented the Pathans from earning on feuds. C. lessened the subsidies paid to the Pathans. D. gave the Pathans a much quieter life. 24. A suitable title for the passage would be ______. A. Campaigning on the Indian frontier. B. Why the Pathans resented the British rule. C. The popularity of rifles among the Pathans. D. The Pathans at war. TEXT D "Museum" is a slippery word. It first meant (in Greek) anything consecrated to the Muses: a hill, a shrine, a garden, a festival or even a textbook. Both Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum had a mouseion, a muses' shrine. Although the Greeks already collected detached works of art, many temples - notably that of Hera at Olympia (before which the Olympic flame is still lit) - had collections of objects, some of which were works of art by well-known masters, while paintings and sculptures in the Alexandrian Museum were incidental to its main purpose. The Romans also collected and exhibited art from disbanded temples, as well as mineral specimens, exotic plants, animals; and they plundered sculptures and paintings (mostly Greek) for exhibition. Meanwhile, the Greek word had slipped into Latin by transliteration (though not to signify picture galleries, which were called pinacothecae) and museum still more or less meant "Muses' shrine". The inspirational collections of precious and semi-precious objects were kept in larger churches and monasteries - which focused on the gold-enshrined, bejewelled relics of saints and martyrs. Princes, and later merchants, had similar collections, which became the deposits of natural curiosities: large lumps of amber or coral, irregular pearls, unicorn horns, ostrich eggs, fossil bones and so on. They also included coins and gems - often antique engraved ones - as well as, increasingly, paintings and sculptures. As they multiplied and expanded, to supplement them, the skill of the fakers grew increasingly refined. At the same time, visitors could admire the very grandest paintings and sculptures in the churches, palaces and castles; they were not "collected" either, but "site-specific", and were considered an integral part both of the fabric of the buildings and of the way of life which went on inside them - and most of the buildings were public ones. However, during the revival of antiquity in the fifteenth century, fragments of antique sculpture were given higher status than the work of any contemporary, so that displays of antiquities would inspire artists to imitation, or even better, to emulation; and so could be considered Muses' shrines in the former sense. The Medici garden near San Marco in Florence, the Belvedere and the Capitol in Rome were the most famous of such early "inspirational" collections. Soon they multiplied, and, gradually, exemplary "modern" works were In the seventeenth century, scientific and prestige collecting became so widespread that three or four collectors independently published directories to museums all over the known world. But it was the age of revolutions and industry which produced the next sharp shift in the way the institution was perceived: the fury against royal and church monuments prompted antiquarians to shelter them in asylum-galleries, of which the Musee des Monuments Francais was the most famous. Then, in the first half of the 4 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 nineteenth century, museum funding took off, allied to the rise of new wealth: London acquired the National Gallery and the British Museum, the Louvre was organized, the Museum-Insel was begun in Berlin, and the Munich galleries were built. In Vienna, the huge Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museums took over much of the imperial treasure. Meanwhile, the decline of craftsmanship (and of public taste with it) inspired the creation of "improving" collections. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London was the most famous, as well as perhaps the largest of them. 25.The sentence "Museum is a slippery word" in the first paragraph means that ______. A. the meaning of the word didn't change until after the 15th century. B. the meaning of the word had changed over the years. C. the Greeks held different concepts from the Romans. D. princes and merchants added paintings to their collections. 26.The idea that museum could mean a mountain or an object originates from ______. A. the Romans. B. Florence. C. Olympia. D. Greek. 27. "... the skill of the fakers grew increasingly refined" in the third paragraph means that ______. A. there was a great demand for fakers. B. fakers grew rapidly in number. C. fakers became more skillful. D. fakers became more polite. 28. Painting and sculptures on display in churches in the 15th century were ______. A. collected from elsewhere. B. made part of the buildings. C. donated by people. D. bought by churches. 29. Modern museums came into existence in order to ______. A.protect royal and church treasures. B.improve existing collections. C.stimulate public interest. D.raise more funds. 30. Which is the main idea of the passage? A. Collection and collectors. B. The evolution of museums. C. Modern museums and their functions. D. The birth of museums. PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE(10 MIN) There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answers to each question. Mark your answers on your colored answer sheet. 31.The Presidents during the American Civil War was______. A. Andrew Jackson B. Abraham Lincoln C. Thomas Jefferson D. George Washington 32.The capital of New Zealand is______. A. Christchurch B. Auckland C. Wellington D. Hamilton 33. Who were the natives of Australia before the arrival of the British settlers? A. The Aborigines B. The Maori C. The Indians D. The Eskimos 34. The Prime Minister in Britain is head of______. A. the Shadow Cabinet B. the Parliament C. the Opposition D. the Cabinet 35. Which of the following writers is a poet of the 20th century? A. T. S. Eliot B. D. H. Lawrence C. Theodore Dreiser D. James Joyce 36. The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is written by______. A. Scott Fitzgerald B. William Faulkner C. Eugene O'Neil D. Ernest Hemingway 37. _____ is defined as an expression of human emotion which is condensed into fourteen lines A. Free verse B. Sonnet C. Ode D. Epigram 38. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is the notion of______. A. reference B. meaning C. antonymy D. context 39. The words "kid, child, offspring" are examples of______. A. dialectal synonyms B. stylistic synonyms C. emotive synonyms D. collocational synonyms 40. The distinction between parole and langue was made by______. A. Halliday B. Chomsky C. Bloomfield D. Saussure PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN) The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved You should proof, read 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 pro-vided 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)________ it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2)________ them on the wall. When a natural history museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3)________ We use language primarily as a means of communication with other human beings. Each of us shares with the community in which we live a store of words and meanings as well as agreeing conventions as (1)________ 5 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 to the way in which words should be arranged to convey a particular (2) _______ message: the English speaker has iii his disposal at vocabulary and a (3) _______ set of grammatical rules which enables him to communicate his (4) _______ thoughts and feelings, ill a variety of styles, to the other English (5) _______ speakers. His vocabulary, in particular, both that which he uses active- ly and that which he recognizes, increases ill size as he grows old as a result of education and experience. (6) _______ But, whether the language store is relatively small or large, the system remains no more, than a psychological reality for the individual, unless he has a means of expressing it in terms able to be seen by another (7) _______ member of his linguistic community; he bas to give tile system a concrete transmission form. We take it for granted rice‘ two most (8) _______ common forms of transmission-by means of sounds produced by our vocal organs (speech) or by visual signs (writing). And these are (9) _______ among most striking of human achievements. (10) _______ PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN) SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE. 中国民族自古以来从不把人看作高于一切，在哲学文艺方面的表现都反映出人在自然界中与万物占着一个比例较为 恰当的地位，而非绝对统治万物的主宰。因此我们的苦闷，基本上比西方人为少为小;因为苦闷的强弱原是随欲望与野 心的大小而转移的。农业社会的人比工业社会的人享受差得多;因此欲望也小得多。况中国古代素来以不滞于物，不为 物役为最主要的人生哲学。并非我们没有守财奴，但比起莫利哀与巴尔扎克笔下的守财奴与野心家来，就小巫见大巫了。 中国民族多数是性情中正和平、淡泊、朴实、比西方人容易满足。 SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE Translate the underlined part of the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE. On May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill, the newly appointed British Prime Minister, gave his first speech to Parliament, he was preparing the people for a long battle against Nazi aggression, at a time when England‘s survival was still in doubt. ―... I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our poliy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word, It is victory. Victory at all costs-victory in spite of 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 the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move 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 united strength‘.‖ PART VI WRITING (45 MIN) Joseph Epstein, a famous American writer, once said, ―We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide (so) that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.‖ Do you agree or disagree with him? Write an essay of about 400 words entitled: Ambition In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your opinion in response to Epstein‘s view, and in the second part you should support your opinion with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary. Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR. 6 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS(2006)-GRADE EIGHT-2006年英语专业八级参考答案 Section A Mini-lecture 1.the author 2.other works 3.literary trends Part I Listening Comprehension— 4. grammar, diction or uses of image 5. cultural codes 6. cultural 7. the reader 8. social 9. reader competency 10. social structure, traditions of writing or political cultural influences, etc. Section B Interview 1-5 CDADA Section C News Broadcast 6-10 DCBCA Part II Reading Comprehension 11-15 BAACD 16-20 CDBAC 21-25BABAB 26-30 DCBAB PART IV Proofreading & Error Correction 1.agreeing改成agreed 2. words前加上these/those 3.in改成at 4.enables改成enable 5.去掉other English speakers前的the 6.old改成older 7.seen改成perceived/understood/comprehended 8.去掉for granted前的it 9.And改成Yet; However 10.在most前加the PART V Translation—Section A Chinese to English Chinese people has never thought of human being as the highest creature among everything since ancient times, whose reflection takes a quite appropriate proportion with all others in our natural world in both aspects of philosophy and arts, but not as an absolute dominant ruler. Therefore, our bitterness and depression are basically less than those of westerners, because the intensity of which is growing with the expansion of one's desire and ambition. People in the agriculture society enjoyed far less than people in the industry society, thus their wants are far less either. Besides, ancient Chinese always regard "not confined by material, not driven by material" as the major philosophy. It not means we do not have misers, but in comparison with Mauriat and Balzac's miser and aspirant, that is dwarfed. Chinese people almost characterized by moderation, peacefulness, insecular, plainess, and easier to get satisfied than westerners. Section B English to Chinese 除了苦干、流汗、流泪、甚至流血，我别无所能。我们所面对的是种最痛苦的磨难，是历时数月之久的斗争和苦难。 一场竭尽我们所能，竭尽上帝你们会问， 我们的对策是什么,我认为是从地面，海上和空中发动的一场战争，— 所赐予我们的全部力量的战争，一场与人类罪行簿上所记载的最黑暗，最悲哀的恶魔暴政相抗争的战争。 你们还会问， 我们的目的是什么,我可以用一个词来回答，那就是胜利，——付出任何代价的胜利，不顾任何恐 怖的胜利。没有胜利就没有生存。 我们必须意识到这一点:没有胜利，就没有大英帝国的存在， 就没有大英帝国所代表的一切的存在， 就没有愿望 的存在， 就没有时代理想的存在， 就没有朝着人类目标的迈进。 PART VI Writing Ambition Ambition is the decision one makes and the resolution with which he carries out that decision. It provides us with the required driving force to accomplish any undertakings in our life. Just as Joseph Epstein, a famous American writer put it, ―And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed.‖ Indeed, once we make up our minds to choose to do something, then our life becomes meaningful and specifically orientated. This notion of life, as far as I observe, is closest to truth and does apply to almost all aspects of life. First things first, ambition renders us a sense of mission. No matter what decision you make you have to be responsible for your choice. Your choice procures you a sense of orientation, or more specially a sense of mission. And only a strong mission may enable one to accomplish greatness. Caesar of the ancient Roman Empire was urged by his ambition ―I came, I saw, I conquered.‖ And became an unrivaled empire builder in the history of Rome. John Milton, stimulated always by his ambition that aimed at writing some ―mighty lines‖ which England would unwillingly forget, had in due time secured his position as the second Shakespeare in the history of English literature. In the second place, ambition can bring one‘s potentials to the full. Ambition may well serve as a catalyst activating one‘s dormant potentials. Without ambition one‘s potentials will remain slumbering like a dormant volcano. A case in point is Ms Zhang Haidi, a Chinese Helen Keller. It was her ambition to be a useful person has turned the almost paralyzed Zhang Haidi into a well-accomplished figure whose achievements would dwarf those of some normal people aim at the sun, though, at worst, they may probably land on the moon. Influential as it is upon us, however, ambition must be channeled in the right direction. If wrongly directed, one‘s ambition may bring havoc on him and others. Hitler, whose ambition was to conquer Europe by whatever evil means, finally turned him into a demon. It was this demon that almost cast Europe into an unfathomable abyss of anguish and suffering. Another case is Macbeth whose ambition was to become the king of Scotland. However, his ambition was materialized by the murder of King Duncan. Consequently, unbearable guilt and psychological agony drove him to his tragic doom. To sum up, ambition can benefit us tremendously if wisely and correctly channeled, otherwise it may ruin others and ourselves. A poet says: life can be bad; life can be good; life can be dirty; life can be sad,; life can even be painful. In my mind‘s eye, a person can make his life beautiful, meaningful and rewarding and stand out as a respectable personage if he is motivated by a well-orientated ambition. 7 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 2006专业八级(TEM8)听力原文 SECTION A MINI-LECTURE PART I: LISTENING COMPREHENSION— Good morning, in today‘s lecture we shall discuss what meaning is in literary works. When we read novels, poems etc. we invariably ask ourselves a question, that is, what does the writer mean here. In other words, we are interested in finding out the meaning. But meaning is a difficult issue in literature. How do we know what a work of literature is supposed to mean, or what its real meaning is. I‘d like to discuss three ways to explain what meaning is. No.1: meaning is what is intended by the author; No.2: meaning is created by and contained in the text itself; and No.3: meaning is created by the reader. Now let‘s take a look at the first approach, that is, meaning is what is intended by the author. Does a work of literature mean what the author intended to mean? And, if so, how can we tell? If all the evidence we have is the text itself and nothing else, we can only guess what ideas the author had according to our understanding of literature and the world. In order to have a better idea of what one particular author means in one of his works, I suggest that you do the following: First, go to the library and read the other works by the same author. Second, get to know something about what sort of meanings seem to be common in literary works in that particular tradition, and at that time. In other words, we need to find out what the literary trends were in those days. At last, get to know what were the cultural values and symbols of that time. I guess you can understand the author‘s meaning much more clearly after you do the related background research. Now let‘s move onto the second approach to meaning, that is, meaning is created by and contained in the text itself. Does the meaning exist in the text? Some scholars argue that the formal properties of the text, like grammar, diction, uses of image and so on and so forth, contain and produce the meaning. So that any educated or competent reader will inevitably come to more or less the same interpretation as any other. As far as I am concerned, the meaning is not only to be found in the literary traditions and grammatical conventions of meaning, but also in the culture codes, which have been handed down from generation to generation. So when we and other readers, including the author as well, are said to come up with the similar interpretations. That kind of agreement could be created by common traditions and conventions of usage, practice and interpretation. In other words, we have some kind of share bases for the some interpretation. But, that does not mean that readers agree on the meaning all the time. In different time periods, with different culture perspectives, including class, belief, and world view, readers, I mean, competent readers, can arrive at different interpretations of texts. So, meaning in the text is determined by how readers see it. It is not contained in the text in a fixed way. Now, the third approach to meaning, that is, meaning is created by the reader. Does the meaning then exist in the reader‘s response? In a sense, this is inescapable, meaning exist only in so far as it means to someone, and literature works are written in order to evoke sets of responses in the reader. This leads us to consider three essential issues. The first is, meaning is social, that is, language and conventions work only as shared meaning. And our way of viewing the world can exist only as shared or sharable. Similarly, when we read a text, we are participating in social or cultural meaning. So, response to a piece of literary work is not merely an individual thing, but is part of culture and history. Second, meaning is contextual, if you change the context, you often change the meaning. And last, meaning requires reader competency. Texts constructed as literature have their own ways of expressions, or sometimes we say styles. And the more we know of them, the more we can understand the text. Consequently, there is, and regard to the question of meaning, the matter of reader competency. As it is called, the experience and knowledge of comprehending literary texts. Your professors might insist that you practice and improve competency in reading. And they might also insist that you interpret meaning in the context of the whole work. But you may have to learn other competencies too. For instance, in reading Mulk Raj Anand‘s the untouchables, you might have to learn what the social structure of India was like at that time, what traditions of writing were in practice in India in the early 1930s, what political, cultural and personal influences Mulk Raj Anand came under when constructing the imaginative world of the short novel. OK, you may see that this idea, that meaning requires competency in reading, in fact, brings us back to the historically situated understandings of an author and his works, as we mentioned earlier in this lecture. To different conventions and ways of reading and writing, and to the point, that meaning requires a negotiation between cultural meanings across time, culture, class etc. As readers, you have in fact acquired a good deal of competency already, but you should acquire more. The essential point of this lecture is that meaning in literature is the phenomenon that is not easily located, that meaning is historical, social, and derive from the traditions of reading and thinking and understanding of the world that you are educated about. Thank you for your attention. SECTION B INERVIEW M: Well, I see from you resume, Ms GREEN, that you studied at University College. How did you find it there? W: I had a great time. The teaching there was good, and I made a lot of friends. The psychology department was a great place to be. M: How come you chose psychology? W: Well, at first I didn‘t have any clear idea of what I want to do after university. I guess I have just always been interested in people, and the way they act. I want to know why people think and act the way they do. It‘s a fascinating area. M: And what was the course like? W: Good, the teachers were all really nice, and they had the special approach to teaching. You know, they didn‘t just give us lectures and tell us to read books like they might do in some more traditional places, the whole course was based on a problem-solving approach. You know, they‘d describe particular situations to us, and we‘d discuss what might happen, and after that, we‘d do some reading and see if it confirmed our own ideas. That‘s what I like best, the really practical orientation of the course. I learned very well with that style, so for me it was just great. M: I see from your resume that you graduated about four years ago and after that, let me see… 8 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 W: I got a job with the department of employment; it was only a temporary thing for about five months. I was a researcher in the department. We designed survey, go out to the factories, and ask all the questions to the workers and the management, then go back to the office, analyze all the data and produce a report. It was quite interesting, and I guess the psychology course at college helped me a lot. M: And after that, you worked for three years in an advertising agency. That must have been a bit of change from the department of employment, wasn‘t it? W: Well, not really. I suppose the office furnishings were a bit more sophisticated but the work was quite similar. I was basically still doing the same thing, designing questionnaires, going our, asking questions and writing reports. The only difference was that this time I wasn‘t asking people about their work. I was asking them what kind of shampoo they their advertising campaigns, I enjoyed my work a lot. M: So why did you decide to leave? W: Three years is a long time to be asking people those sort of questions about shampoo and drinks. No, seriously, after two years, I was in charge of the research department of the agency, and I had one assistant researcher, I guess after two years of doing that, I suppose I felt, you know, I can do this well and now I want to do something else that‘s a little different, and there was nowhere for me to go inside the company. It just wasn‘t challenging for me anymore, and because I needed challenge, I decided to move on. When I heard about the position of senior researcher here, I thought, that‘s exactly what I want, the chance to combine my management skills and my research interests, working in a much larger department with more varied work. M: And you felt that the job description in our advertisement will offer you the kink of challenge you looking for? W: Exactly. Yes, as I said, management in a large organization and research combined, also, to be honest with you, I heard about the job before it was advertised, a friend of mine who works here, Mark Aston, told me a few weeks ago that you were looking for someone to take over the job. He described the position to me in quite a bit of detail, and I thought, well, that‘s exactly what I am looking for. So really, I‘d written my letter of application before the job was even advertised. M: I should tell you that with the present cutbacks, we‘ve only got one full-time administered assistant in the section. How would you feel about doing your own word-processing, photo copying, that sort of things? W: Oh, I am used to that. I‘ve done all my own word processing for ages. It‘s the only way to write really, isn‘t it? I can type well, about sixty words a minute. I did the secretarial course after I left school so I learned typing in a short hand, then a few years later I bought a PC, and I learned how to do word-processing too. M: Well, that‘s handy. Now, in the position you‘ve applied for, and you‘d have five assistant researchers responsible to you. That‘s considerably more responsibility than you have had before, so you are obviously ambitious, and as you said you like a challenge. I was wondering, what you see yourself doing in, say, five or ten years down the track? W: Oh, that‘s a difficult question. Let me try to answer your question this way. I am particularly interested in experimental design and also in teaching, I‘d like to continue organization in planning side of the research, but do some teaching too. I know that you have lecturers here who do just that sort of thing, some practical work and some undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. So that‘ s what I really be aiming for, to be a lecturer here as well. M: Well, that‘s certainly a career path we‘d encourage you to follow, but of course it might be necessary to upgrade your present qualifications first. I see from your resume that you‘ve enrolled in a MA in experimental psychology, could tell me a bit about the courses you‘re planning to take? SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST 1 A man stole a small aircraft at gunpoint Sunday and flew it over downtown Frankfurt. Circling skyscrapers and threatening to crash into the European central bank. He landed safely after about two hours and was arrested. The man told television station he wanted to call attention to Judy Resnick, a Us astronaut killed in the 1986 post-launch explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Military jets chase the stolen two seat motorized gilder as the man began circling slowly above Frankfurt‘s banking district. Thousands of people were evacuated from the main railway station, two opera houses and several skyscrapers. Police identified the man as the 31-year-old German student from Darmstadt, a city about 25 miles south of Frankfurt. In radio contact with air-traffic controllers, the man threatened to crash into the European central bank headquarters, unless he was allowed the TV interview, as well as a call to Baltimore. He later said, he wanted to commit suicide by plunging the plane into the Main River. It was unclear if the man was forced to land, or talked down. Air-traffic controllers and police psychologists had been in contact with him. 2 Shanghai plans to build a vast underground network of malls, restaurants and parking lots, to make up for a lack of space above ground, according to a recent government report. The development will cover 600,000 square meters. The equivalent of 120 soccer fields, spread across four underground floor, the city government reported on its website. The city is accepting bids from builders. Shanghai has about 20 million people, plus factories, office towers and high-rise apartments, crowded into a small triangular territory near the mouth of the Yangtze River. The plans call for the project, due to be finished by 2006, to expand the existing facilities scattered along Shanghai‘s subway system. The project will need a Vanced technology to supply fresh air and ensure safety. But the biggest concern is the stability of the soil under the city Shanghai is sinking by 1.5 cm a year, land subsidence has been aggravated by over-pumping of underground water, and the construction of thousands of high-rise buildings. Shanghai‘s foundations are built on soft soil, so building multi-story spaces underground would be like digging holes in a piece of bean curd, the government report said. The difficulties are easy to see. 3 A credit card that only works when it hears its owner‘s voice has been developed by US scientists. Researchers hope that the device, which comes with the built-in voice-recognition chip, and microphone, will be a weapon in the battle against credit card fraud. Even if thieves know a card‘s password and personal identification number, they will still have to copy the owner‘s voice accurately. The trial card was created by scientists at ?B-card‘, in California US. The first version is three times as thick as a 9 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 normal credit card, but researchers believe smaller chips will allow the card to slim down to a more conventional size. The card is apparently the first to put voice-recognition chip, microphone, speaker, and battery into a credit card. To use the card, the owner first presses a button, and hears the prompt:‘ say your password‘, if the password is correct, and spoken by the right person, the card emits an identification signal, which is processed by a computer connected to the Internet. Researchers hope to get the card to handle 10 transactions per day, for two years, before its non-replaceable battery runs out. 10 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2005) -GRADE EIGHT- TIME LIMIT: 195 MIN 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 a Research Paper I. Research Papers and Ordinary Essay A. Similarity in (1) __________: e.g. (1) __________ —choosing a topic —asking questions —identifying the audience B. Difference mainly in terms of (2) ___________ (2) __________ 1. research papers: printed sources 2. ordinary essay: ideas in one's (3) ___________ (3) __________ II. Types and Characteristics of Research Papers A. Number of basic types: two B. Characteristics: 1. survey-type paper: —to gather (4) ___________ —to quote (4) __________ —to (5) _____________ (5) __________ The writer should be (6) ___________. (6) __________ 2. argumentative (research) paper: a. The writer should do more, e.g. —to interpret —to question, etc. b. (7) _________varies with the topic, e.g. (7) __________ —to recommend an action, etc. III. How to Choose a Topic for a Research Paper In choosing a topic, it is important to (8) __________. (8) __________ Question No. 1: your familiarity with the topic Question No. 2: Availability of relevant information on the chosen topic Question No. 3: Narrowing the topic down to (9) _________ (9) __________ Question No. 4: Asking questions about (10) ___________ (10) __________ The questions help us to work out way into the topic and discover its possibilities. SECTION B INTERVIEW /CONVERSATION 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. What is the purpose of Professor McKay's report? A. To look into the mental health of old people. B. To explain why people have negative views on old age. C. To help correct some false beliefs about old age. D. To identify the various problems of old age 2. Which of the following is NOT Professor McKay's view? A. People change in old age a lot more than at the age of 21. B. There are as many sick people in old age as in middle age. C. We should not expect more physical illness among old people. D. We should not expect to find old people unattractive as a group. 3. According to Professor McKay's report, A. family love is gradually disappearing. B. it is hard to comment on family feeling. C. more children are indifferent to their parents. D. family love remains as strong as ever. 4. Professor McKay is ________ towards the tendency of more parents living apart from their children. A. negative B. positive C. ambiguous D. neutral 5. The only popular belief that Professor McKay is unable to provide evidence against is A. old-age sickness. B. loose family ties. C. poor mental abilities. D. difficulities in maths. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your coloured answer sheet. Question 6 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. 11 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 6. Scientists in Brazil have used frog skin to A. eliminate bacteria. B. treat burns. C. Speed up recovery. D. reduce treatment cost. Question 7 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. 7. What is NOT a feature of the new karaoke machine? A. It is featured by high technology. B. It allows you to imitate famous singers. C. It can automatically alter the tempo and tone of a song. D. It can be placed in specially designed theme rooms. Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. 8. China's Internet users had reached _________ by the end of June. A. 68 million B. 8.9 million C. 10 million D. 1.5 million Question 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. 9. According to the WTO, Chinese exports rose _________ last year. A. 21% B. 10% C. 22% D. 4.73 10. According to the news, which trading nation in the top 10 has reported a 5 per cent fall in exports? A. The UK. B. The US. C. Japan. D. Germany. PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30MIN) 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 I remember meeting him one evening with his pushcart. I had managed to sell all my papers and was coming home in the snow. It was that strange hour in downtown New York when the workers were pouring homeward in the twilight. I marched among thousands of tired men and women whom the factory whistles had unyoked. They flowed in rivers through the clothing factory districts, then down along the avenues to the East Side. I met my father near Cooper Union. I recognized him, a hunched, frozen figure in an old overcoat standing by a banana cart. He looked so lonely, the tears came to my eyes. Then he saw me, and his face lit with his sad, beautiful smile -Charlie Chaplin's smile. "Arch, it's Mikey," he said. "So you have sold your papers! Come and eat a banana." He offered me one. I refused it. I felt it crucial that my father sell his bananas, not give them away. He thought I was shy, and coaxed and joked with me, and made me eat the banana. It smelled of wet straw and snow. "You haven't sold many bananas today, pop," I said anxiously. He shrugged his shoulders. "What can I do? No one seems to want them." It was true. The work crowds pushed home morosely over the pavements. The rusty sky darkened over New York building, the tall street lamps were lit, innumerable trucks, street cars and elevated trains clattered by. Nobody and nothing in the great city stopped for my father's bananas. "I ought to yell," said my father dolefully. "I ought to make a big noise like other peddlers, but it makes my throat sore. Anyway, I'm ashamed of yelling, it makes me feel like a fool. " I had eaten one of his bananas. My sick conscience told me that I ought to pay for it somehow. I must remain here and help my father. "I'll yell for you, pop," I volunteered. "Arch, no," he said, "go home; you have worked enough today. Just tell momma I'll be late." But I yelled and yelled. My father, standing by, spoke occasional words of praise, and said I was a wonderful yeller. Nobody else paid attention. The workers drifted past us wearily, endlessly; a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home. Elevated trains crashed; the Cooper Union clock burned above us; the sky grew black, the wind poured, the slush burned through our shoes. There were thousands of strange, silent figures pouring over the sidewalks in snow. None of them stopped to buy bananas. I yelled and yelled, nobody listened. My father tried to stop me at last. "Nu," he said smiling to console me, "that was wonderful yelling. Mikey. But it's plain we are unlucky today! Let's go home." I was frantic, and almost in tears. I insisted on keeping up my desperate yells. But at last my father persuaded me to leave with him. 11. "unyoked" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to ______. A. sent out B. released C. dispatched D. removed 12. Which of the following in the first paragraph does NOT indicated crowds of people? A. Thousands of B. Flowed C. Pouring D. Unyoked 13. Which of the following is intended to be a pair of contrast in the passage? A. Huge crowds and lonely individuals. B. Weather conditions and street lamps. C. Clattering trains and peddlers' yells. D. Moving crowds and street traffic. 14. Which of the following words is NOT suitable to describe the character of the son? A. Compassionate B. Responsible C. Shy D. Determined 12 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 15. What is the theme of the story? A. The misery of the factory workers. B. How to survive in a harsh environment. C. Generation gap between the father and the son. D. Love between the father and the son. 16. What is the author's attitude towards the father and the son? A. Indifferent B. Sympathetic C. Appreciative D. Difficult to tell TEXT B When former President Ronald Reagan fell and broke his hip two weeks ago, he joined a group of more than 350,000 elderly Americans who fracture their hips each year. At 89 and suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease, Reagan is in one of the highest-risk groups for this type of accident. The incidence of hip fractures not only increases after age 50 but doubles every five to six years as the risk of falling increases. Slipping and tumbling are not the only causes of hip fractures; weakened bones sometimes break spontaneously. But falling is the major cause, representing 90% of all hip fractures. These injuries are not to be taken lightly. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, only 25% of those who suffer hip fractures ever fully recover; as many as 20% will die within 12 months. Even when patients do recover, nearly half will need a cane or a walker to get around. When it comes to hip fractures, the most dangerous place for elderly Americans, it turns out, is their homes; nearly 60% of these dangerous spills will occur in ore around the patient's domicile. This isn't all bad news, however, because a few modifications could prevent a lot of accidents. The first thing to do is to get rid of those throw rugs that line hallways and entrances. They often fold over or bunch up, turning them into booby traps for anyone shuffling down the hall. Entering and leaving the house is a particularly high-risk activity, which is why some experts suggest removing any doorsills higher than 1/2 in. if the steps are bare wood, you can increase traction by applying non-slip treads. Because many seniors suffer from poor balance (whether from neurological deficits or from the inner-ear problems that increase naturally with aging), it also helps to install grab bars and handrails in bathrooms and along hallways. The bedroom is another major hazard area that can be made much safer with a few adjustments. Avoid stain sheets and comforters, and opt for non-slip material like wool or cotton. Easy access to devices is important, so place a lamp, telephone and flashlight near the bed within arm's reach. Make sure the pathway between the bedroom and bathroom is completely clear, and install a night-light along the route for those emergency late-night trips. It's a good idea to rearrange the furniture throughout the house, so that the paths between rooms are free of obstructions. Also, make sure telephone and appliance cords aren't strung across common walkways, where they can be tripped over. In addition to these physical precautions, there are the health precautions every aging body should take. Physical and eye examinations, with special attention to cardiac and blood-pressure problems, should be performed annually to rule out serious medical conditions. Blood pressure that's too low or an irregular heartbeat can put you at risk for fainting and falling. Don't forget to take calcium and vitamin D, two critical factors in developing strong bones. Finally, enrolling in an exercise programme at your local gym can improve agility, strength, balance and coordination - all important skills that can keep you on your feet and off the floor. 17. The following are all specific measures to guard against injuries with the EXCEPTION of _______. A. removal of throw rugs. B. easy access to devices C. installation of grab bars D. re-arrangement of furniture 18. In which paragraph does the author state his purpose of writing? A. The third paragraph B. The first paragraph C. The last paragraph D. The last but one paragraph 19. The main purpose of the passage is to ______. A. offer advice on how to prevent hip fractures B. emphasize the importance of health precautions C. discuss the seriousness of hip fractures. D. identify the causes of hip fractures. TEXT C In his classic novel, "The Pioneers", James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, take his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a teeming metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest. "Where are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?" she asks. He's astonished she can't see them. "Where! Everywhere," he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has built them in his mind, and they as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished. Cooper was illustrating a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, "Life for the American is always becoming, never being."... ... 20. The third paragraph examines America's future-mindedness from the _________ perspective. A. future B. realistic C. historical D. present 21. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT brought about by future-mindedness? A. Economic stagnation B. Environmental destruction C. High divorce rates D. Neglect of history 22. The word "pooh-pooh" in the sixth paragraph means ______. A. appreciate B. praise C. shun D. ridicule 23. According to the passage, people at present can forecast ________ of a new round of future-mindedness. A. the nature B. the location C. the variety D. the features 13 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 24. The author predicts in the last paragraph that the study of future-mindedness will focus on _____. A. how it comes into being B. how it functions C. what it brings about D. what it is related to. TEXT D "In every known human society the male's needs for achievement can be recognized... In a great number of human societies men's sureness of their sex role is tied up with their right, or ability, to practice some activity that women are not allowed to practice. Their maleness in fact has to be underwritten by preventing women from entering some field or performing some feat." This is the conclusion of the anthropologist Margaret Mead about the way in which the roles of men and women in society should be distinguished. If talk and print are considered it would seem that the formal emancipation of women is far from complete. There is a flow of publications about the continuing domestic bondage of women and about the complicated system of defences which men have thrown up around their hitherto accepted advantages, taking sometimes the obvious form of exclusion from types of occupation and sociable groupings, and sometimes the more subtle form of automatic doubt of the seriousness of women's pretensions to the level of intellect and resolution that men, it is supposed, bring to the business of running the world. There are a good many objective pieces of evidence for the erosion of men's status. In the first place, there is the widespread postwar phenomenon of the woman Prime Minister, in India, Sri Lanka and Israel. Secondly, there is the very large increase in the number of women who work, especially married women and mothers of children. More diffusely there are the increasingly numerous convergences between male and female behaviour: the approximation to identical styles in dress and coiffure, the sharing of domestic tasks, and the admission of women to all sorts of hitherto exclusively male leisure-time activities. Everyone carries round with him a fairly definite idea of the primitive or natural conditions of human life. It is acquired more by the study of humorous cartoons than of archaelology, but that does not matter since it is not significant as theory but only as an expression of inwardly felt expectations of people's sense of what is fundamentally proper in the differentiation between the roles of the two sexes. In this rudimentary natural society men go out to hunt and fish and to fight off the tribe next door while women keep the fire going. Amorous initiative is firmly reserved to the man, who sets about courtship with a club. 25. The phrase "men's sureness of their sex role" in the first paragraph suggests that they _______. A. are confident in their ability to charm women. B. take the initiative in courtship. C. have a clear idea of what is considered "manly". D. tend to be more immoral than women are. 26. The third paragraph does NOT claim that men _______. A. prevent women from taking up certain professions. B. secretly admire women's intellect and resolution. C. doubt whether women really mean to succeed in business. D. forbid women to join certain clubs and societies. 27. The third paragraph _______. A. generally agrees with the first paragraph B. has no connection with the first paragraph C. repeats the argument of the second paragraph D. contradicts the last paragraph 28. At the end of the last paragraph the author uses humorous exaggeration in order to ______. A. show that men are stronger than women B. carry further the ideas of the earliest paragraphs C. support the first sentence of the same paragraph D. disown the ideas he is expressing 29. The usual idea of the cave man in the last paragraph _________. A. is based on the study of archaeology B. illustrates how people expect men to behave C. is dismissed by the author as an irrelevant joke D. proves that the man, not woman, should be the wooer 30. The opening quotation from Margaret Mead sums up a relationship between man and woman which the author A. approves of B. argues is natural C. completely rejects D. expects to go on changing PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE(10 MIN) There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Choose the best answers to each question. Mark your answers on your colored answer sheet. 31. ______ is the capital city of Canada. A. Vancouver B. Ottawa C. Montreal D. York 32. U.S. presidents normally serves a (an) _________term. A. two-year B. four-year C. six-year D. eight-year 33. Which of the following cities is NOT located in the Northeast, U.S.? A. Huston. B. Boston. C. Baltimore. D. Philadelphia. 34. ________ is the state church in England. A. The Roman Catholic Church. B. The Baptist Church C. The Protestant Church D. The Church of England 35. The novel Emma is written by _____. A. Mary Shelley. B. Charlotte Brontë. C. Elizabeth C. Gaskell. D. Jane Austen. 36. Which of following is NOT a romantic poet? A. William Wordsworth. B. George Elliot. C. George G. Byron. D. Percy B. Shelley. 37. William Sidney Porter, known as O. Henry, is most famous for ______. A. his poems. B. his plays. C. his short stories. D. his novels 38. Syntax is the study of ________. A. language functions. B. sentence structures. C. textual organization. D. word formation. 39. Which of the following is NOT a distinctive feature of human language? 14 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 A. Arbitrariness. B. Productivity. C. Cultural transmission. D. Finiteness. 40. The speech act theory was first put forward by A. John Searle. B. John Austin. C. Noam Chomsky. D. M.A.K. Halliday. PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN) The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved You should proof, read 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 pro-vided 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)________ it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2)________ them on the wall. When a natural history museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3)________ The University as Business A number of colleges and universities have announced steep tuition increases for next year much steeper than the current, very low, rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed because of a loss in value of university endowments' heavily investing in common (1)________ stock. I am skeptical. A business firm chooses the price that maximizes its net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in income; and increasingly the (2)________ outlook of universities in the United States is indistinguishable from those of (3)________ business firms. The rise in tuitions mayreflect the fact economic uncertainty (4)________ increases the demand for education. The biggest cost of being in the school is foregoing income from a job (this isprimarily a factor in (5)________ graduate and professional-school tuition); the poor one' s job prospects, (6)________ the more sense it makes to reallocate time from the job market to education, in order to make oneself more marketable. The ways which universities make themselves attractive to students (7)________ include soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, giving students a governance role, and eliminate required courses. (8)________ Sky-high tuitions have caused universities to regard their students as customers. Just as business firms sometimes collude to shorten the (9)________ rigors of competition, universities collude to minimize the cost to them of the athletes whom they recruit in order to stimulate alumni donations, so the best athletes now often bypass higher education in order to obtain salaries earlier from professional teams. And until they were stopped by the antitrust authorities, the Ivy League schools colluded to limit competition for the best students, by agreeing not to award scholarships on the basis of merit rather than purely of need-just like business firms agreeing not to give discounts on their best customer. (10)________ PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN) SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE. 一个人的生命究竟有多大意义，这有什么标准可以衡量吗,提出一个绝对的标准当然很困难;但是，大体上看一个 人对待生命的态度是否严肃认真，看他对待劳动、工作等等的态度如何，也就不难对这个人的存在意义做出适当估计了。 古来一切有成就的人，都很严肃地对待自己的生命，当他活着一天，总要尽量多劳动、多工作、多学习，不肯虚度 年华，不让时间白白地浪费掉。我国历代的劳动人民及大政治家、大思想家等等都莫不如此。 SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE Translate the following underlined part of the text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE. 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 and divided minds, 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 all such preconception when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve 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 finess, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite. 15 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 PART VI WRITING (45 MIN) Interview is frequently used by employers as a means to recruit prospective employees. As a result, there have been many arguments for or against the interview as a selection procedure. What is your opinion? Write an essay of about 400 words to state your view. In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your opinion in response to Epstein‘s view, and in the second part you should support your opinion with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary. Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.. 16 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS(2005)-GRADE EIGHT-2005年英语专业八级参考答案 Section A Mini-lecture 1. basic (writing) steps 2. raw materials 3. head/mind Part I Listening Comprehension— 4. facts/opinions/information 5. summarize/paraphrase/sum up/explain 6. objective 7. purpose 8. ask questions 9. a manageable size 10. the topic (itself) Section B Interview 1-5 CADBD Section C News Broadcast 6-10 BCACB Part II Reading Comprehension 11-15 BDACD 16-20 BDAAC 21-25ADBAC 26-30 BACBA PART IV Proofreading & Error Correction 1.investing改成invested 2.在irrespective后加上of 3.those改成that 4.在fact后加上that 5.去掉the 6.poor改成poorer 7.在ways后加上in 8. eliminate改成eliminating 9. shorten改成reduce 10.on改成to PART V Translation—Section A Chinese to English What is the significance of life? Is there any gauge to measure it? It would be very difficult, of course, trying to propose an absolute standard. However, the significance of one's existence can more or less be evaluated by examining his attitude toward life and work. Since ancient times, all people of accomplishment have been very serious about their lives. While they are alive, even if there is only one day left to live, they try to work as hard as they can and learn as much as possible, never letting a single day slip by without any gain. This is true of the working people as well as of the great statesmen and great thinkers in our history. Section B English to Chinese 但是，极少有人在读书时曾想过书能赋予我们什么。最普遍的现象是，我们拿起书时想法模糊，三心二意。我们要 求小说叙述真人实事，要求诗歌展现虚拟世界，要求传记作品歌功颂德，要求历史书籍能证实我们的偏见。如果我们能 在打开书本之前摒除这些先入为主的想法，那将是个值得欣慰的好开端。我们不要对作者指手画脚，要设身处地去替他 着想，做他的合作伙伴或同伙。如果你一开始便采取退缩矜持、有所保留或批评指责的态度，那你就在为自己设置障碍， 使自己不能从书中获到最大益处。然而，如果你没有先入之见，胸襟坦荡，那么，当你打开书，从映入眼帘的隐晦曲折 的字里行间，那些难以察觉的迹象和暗示便会向你展示一个与众不同的人。 PART VI Writing An interview for college students In recent years, it is commonly acceptable to many college students that an interview is indispensable for their future jobs. As far as I am concerned, an interview requires a series of qualities and quite a few skills for the candidates of the employment market. Most importantly, an interviewee must be very knowledgeable about his field. The better understanding he has of the field as a whole, the more able he will be to anticipate problems and deal with unexpected events. Another important quality is the ability to delegate. A good interviewee must be willing to fulfill some tasks rather than try to control every detail. This will not only enrich experiences, but also offer him enough room to develop a variety of skills. Last but not least, a good interviewee must be even-tempered and able to offer constructive criticism. It is of no use to blame an employee for his failure without offering any useful suggestions for improvement. An interviewee will never be able to predict all the questions he may be asked. However, he should do some role reversals and place an interviewee's self in the interviewer's shoes. Try to predict the type of questions the owner may ask; the majority will be around the job requirements as to whether an interviewee has the necessary skills and experiences to match the position. An interviewee's success depends on his flexible reactions to specific situations, either being polite or remaining professional. It is important for college students to get to know as much as possible about the world outside the campus. One reason is that knowledge without practical experience is like trying to walk on one leg. Activities outside the campus can keep a person's studies based on practical reality. Another reason is that maintaining contact with the world outside the campus helps the student become mature and responsible. There are many ways in which a student can get to know the outside world. First, the mass media can keep the student up-to-date on political, cultural and sporting events, as well as the latest development in science and technology. Secondly, voluntary social services, private teaching and surveys of factories or farms offer the student wide opportunities to get to know how ordinary people live. Personally, I intend to study hard to give myself a good foundation for my future career. At the same time, I will take every opportunity to gain experience about the world beyond the campus by doing part-time jobs. How does an interviewee answer an awkward question without telling the interviewer a complete lie? Obviously lying to an interviewer is not a very smart approach and is sure to be found out, at which point the credibility an interviewee has developed will be completely destroyed. Instead of lying and as part of the extensive preparation an interviewee is doing, he must sit down and anticipate the awkward questions an interviewer is likely to ask. Preparing a set of glib answers very rarely works well and will do no good to the interviewee. An interviewer will see through this practice very quickly and continue to throw tough questions at the interviewee to see how he will respond. A thorough interview preparation should not be dismissed as a myth; it is a far more effective way to spend the precious time as opposed to making up or memorizing answers in anticipation of an interview. To sum up, there is nothing more important than an interview for college students. With the above qualities and skills, I believe that an interviewee can perform his job well and inspire his spirits and courage to seek an ideal future employer. In this way the interview will be efficient, effective and, no doubt, successful. 17 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 2005专业八级(TEM8)听力原文 SECTION A MINI-LECTURE PART I: LISTENING COMPREHENSION— I think as seniors, you are often required by your instructors to do some library research on this topic or that. And, in the end, you have to write a research paper, right? Then what is writing a research paper like? How are we going to write one? What are the steps in producing a research paper and what are the points we need to take care of? In today‘s lecture, I‘ll try to answer these questions. First of all, what is writing a research paper like? We may start by comparing it to an ordinary essay, a form of writing you are very familiar with. Writing a research paper is much like writing an essay. Both kinds of writing involve many of the same basic steps. That is, choosing a topic, asking questions to define and develop the topic, identifying the audience, getting raw material to work with, outlining the paper, writing it, and, finally, revising it. These are the steps shared between research paper writing and essay writing. Is there any difference, you may ask. Yes. What makes a research paper different is that much of your raw material comes not from your own head, but from printed sources: mainly books and periodicals in the library. Collecting raw material, that is reading books and taking notes, is very much like the process of brainstorming at the prewriting stage of an ordinary essay. Generally speaking, there are two basic types of research papers, and a paper may belong to either type. It may be a survey of facts and opinions available on a given topic or an analytical argument that uses those facts and opinions to prove a point. Your instructor may tell you which kind of paper you are expected to write. If not, you yourself should eventually choose between surveying and arguing. You will then have a definite way of managing your sources. Now, let‘s take a look at how you are going to write a survey-type research paper or an argumentative research paper. In a survey-type research paper, you gather facts and a variety of opinions on a given topic. You make little attempt to interpret or evaluate what your sources say or to prove a particular point. Instead, through quotation, summary, and paraphrase, you try to provide a representative sampling of facts and opinions to give an objective report on your topic. You explain the pros and cons of various attitudes or opinions, but you don‘t side definitely with any one of them. While in an argumentative research paper, you do considerably more. You do not simply quote, paraphrase, and summarize as you do in a survey-type paper. You interpret, question, compare, and judge the statements you cite. You explain why one opinion is sound and another is not; why one fact is relevant and another is not; why one writer is correct and another is mistaken. What‘s more, your purpose may vary with your topic. You may try to explain a situation to recommend a course of action, to reveal the solution to a problem, or to present and defend a particular interpretation of a historical event or a work of art. But whether the topic is space travel or trends in contemporary American literature, an argumentative research paper deals actively – I say it again, actively – with the statements it cites. It makes these statements work together in an argument that you create, that is, to an argument leading to a conclusion of your own. In the next part of the lecture, I‘d like to talk about one of the basic steps in writing I mentioned earlier in the lecture. That is how to choose a topic. Choosing a topic for a research paper is in some ways like choosing a topic for an ordinary essay, but there are some differences. As you think about your topic, ask yourself these questions: Question number one: Do you really want to know more about this topic? This is the initial question you have to ask yourself, because research on any subject will keep you busy for weeks. You certainly do not wish to waste your time on something you have little interest in. You do it well only if you expect to learn something interesting or important in the process. Question number tw Are you likely to find many sources of information on this topic? You cannot write a research paper without consulting a variety of sources. If only one source or none at all is readily available, you should rethink your topic or choose another. Question number three: Can you cut the topic down to a manageable size? Be reasonable and realistic about what you can do in a short period, say, two to four weeks. If your topic is ―The American Revolution‖, you‘ll scarcely have time to make a list of books on your subject, let alone read and analyze them. So try to find something specific, such as ―The Role of Thomas Jefferson in the American Revolution‖ or ―The Franco-American Alliance‖ Question number four: What questions can you ask about the topic itself? Questions help you get the topic down to a manageable size, discover its possibilities, and find the goal of your research, that is, the specific problem you want to investigate. Suppose you want to write about the issue of financing a college education – A topic not only current, but also directly linked to the lives of most college students and their families. You could ask at least two or three pointed questions: How much does educational opportunity depend on financial status? Is financial aid going to the students who need it most? How much should universities and colleges charge their students? You can ask yourself these questions or more as you start work on the research paper. Okay. To sum up, in today‘s lecture, we‘ve looked at some of the issues in research paper writing, like the basic steps, types of research paper, and how to choose a topic. In our next lecture, we‘ll concentrate on how to identify the audience, how to work out an outline, and how to edit the draft. SECTION B INERVIEW /CONVERSATION M: Today, we‘ve Professor McKay on our morning talk show. Good morning, Professor McKay. W: Good morning. M: I‘ve heard that you and your team have just completed a report on old age. W: That‘s right. M: Could you tell me what your report is about? W: Well, the report basically looks into the various beliefs that people hold about old age and tries to verify them. M: And what do you think your report can achieve? 18 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 W: We hope that it will somehow help people to change their feelings about old age. The problem is that far too many of us believe that most old people are poor, lonely, and unhappy. As a result, we tend to find old people, as a group, unattractive. And this is very dangerous for our society. M: But surely we cannot escape the fact that many old people are lonely and many are sick. W: No, we can‘t. But we must also remember that the proportion of such people is no greater among the 60-70 age group than among the 50-60 age group. M: In other words, there is no more mental illness, for example, among the 60s-70s than among the 50s-60s. W: Right! And why should there be? Why should we expect people to suddenly change when they reach their 60th or 60th birthday any more than they did when they reached their 21st? M: But one would expect there to be more physical illness among old people, surely. W: Why should one expect this? After all, those people who reach the age of 65 or 70 are the strong among us. The weak die mainly in childhood, then in their 40s and 50s. Furthermore, by the time people reach 60 or 65, they have learned how to look after themselves. They keep warm, sleep regular hours, and eat sensibly. Of course, some old people do suffer from physical illnesses, but these do not suddenly develop on their 65th birthday. People who are healthy in middle age tend to be healthy in old age, just as one would expect. M: Do you find that young people these days are not as concerned about their parents as their parents were about theirs? W: We have found nothing that suggests that family feeling is either dying or dead. There do not appear to be large numbers of young people who are trying, for example, to have their dear old mother locked up in a mental hospital. M: Don‘t many more parents live apart from their married children then used to be the case? W: True, but this is because many more young families can afford to own their own homes these days than ever before. In other words, parents and their married children usually live in separate households because they prefer it that way, not because the children refuse to have mum and dad living with them. M: Is this a good thing, do you think? W: I think that it‘s an excellent arrangement. We all like to keep part of our lives private, even from those we love dearly. I certainly don‘t think that it‘s a sign of the increased loneliness of old age. M: Are people‘s mental abilities affected by old age? W: Certain changes do take place as we grow older, but this happens throughout life. These changes are very gradual and happen at different times with different people, but, in general, if you know a person well in his middle age and have seen how he deals with events and problems, you will easily recognize him in old age. M: So that someone who enjoys new experiences, travel, education, and so on in his middle years will usually continue to do so into old age? W: Exactly. We have carried out some very interesting experiments in which a group of people aged 60-70 and a group aged 30-40 had to learn the same things. The first thing we discovered was that the young group tends to be quicker at learning than the old group. However, although the old group took longer to learn, eventually, they performed as well as the young group. And when we tested the two groups several weeks later, there was again no difference between the two groups. M: That‘s very interesting indeed. What else did your experiments show? W: Well, one group of old people agreed to attend evening classes for a year to study English and mathematics. In fact, most of this group became so interested in their studies that they continued them for another year. Anyway, we discovered that they did best in the English classes and that most of them steadily improved their ability to communicate in both the written and the spoken language. M: What about the group who studied mathematics? W: Well, that‘s a different story. There seems to be no doubt that people find maths more difficult as they grow older. Though, why this is so, I cannot say. M: Perhaps pocket calculators will solve this problem. W: I think you‘re right. In fact, I‘m sure that you are. M: Okay. Time for a commercial. Stay tuned; we‘ll be right back. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST 1. Scientists in Brazil claim they‘ve come up with a new way of treating burns. That is, with frog skin. Researchers say it is cheap and effective. The frog skin has components that diminish the growth of bacteria, making the wound heal faster and reducing the amount of time that patient has to stay in hospital. Researchers said the method had already been successfully used in some hospitals in Brazil. 2. Once a source of high-pitched business activity, Japan‘s karaoke industry has slowed down. Japanese have less to sing about amid sustained economic problems. Karaoke firms are now striving to develop new ideas to attract cost-conscious karaoke singers. These include a new, high-tech machine that allows people to sing like famous singers and theme rooms on some of the Asian cartoon figures targeted at younger crowds. The new karaoke machine is being developed by a professor from the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The machine uses a technology called C-Sound that automatically adjusts the speed and tone of any song being played to match the tempo and key the singer is using. The tempo can be adjusted manually on conventional karaoke machines, but the new product is the first machine to do it automatically. 3. The China Internet Network Information Center said this week that the nation‘s online community is expanding at a rapid pace, with 8.9 million users added in the first half of the year, from January to June. China‘s Internet population hit 68 million by the end of June, the world‘s second-largest figure after the United States. The figure was 10 million at the end of 2000 and 1.5 million in 1997. ―Cyberspace is a force to be reckoned with in China,‖ said Chen Hua Lin, a senior Internet analyst at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Netizens between the ages of 18 and 30 are the driving force. They spend 13 hours every week surfing the 19 2005-2006年专业八级(TEM8)真题+答案+听力原文 ants05 Internet, on average. Their major purpose is obtaining information or having fun. At the same time, only 0.2 percent listed online shopping, e-business, and online learning as their main activity. As the number of China‘s Internet users grows, so does the junk mail. 8.3 e-mails out of 16 are junk mail, on average. 4. China has established itself as one of the world's great trading nations, moving past the UK into fifth place. New figures from the World Trade Organization (WTO) show Chinese exports jumping 22% last year to US$ 325.6 billion-worth, and imports rising 21% to US$ 295.2 billion-worth. No other trading nation in the top 10 came close to that level of growth. The world leader, the United States, saw exports fall 5 % in 2002 from the previous year. Exports by third-ranked Japan rose 3 %, while second-ranked Germany reported a 7% rise. In the area of total trade flows of just over US$13.1 trillion, the top 10 traders accounted for US$7.4 trillion, or 56 per cent. The US share is 13.78 per cent, while China has 4.73 per cent. 20