1、专业八级-405 及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Passage 1(总题数：1，分数：20.00)The opening and closing of doors are the most significant actions of man“s life. What a mystery lies in doors! No man knows what awaits him when he opens a door. Even the most familiar room, where the
2、 clock ticks and the hearth glows red at dusk, may harbor surprises. The plumber may actually have called (while you were out) and fixed that leaking faucet. The cook may have had a fit of the vapors and demanded her passports. The wise man opens his front door with humility and a spirit of acceptan
3、ce. Which one of us has not sat in some anteroom and watched the inscrutable panels of a door that was full of meaning? Perhaps you were waiting to apply for a job; perhaps you had some “deal“ you were ambitious to put over. You watched the confidential stenographer flit in and out, carelessly turni
4、ng that mystic portal which, to you, revolved on hinges of fate. And then the young woman said, “Mr. Cranberry will see you now.“ As you grasped the knob the thought flashed, “When I open this door again, what will have happened?“ There are many kinds of doors, such as revolving doors for hotels, sh
5、ops, and public buildings. These an typical of the brisk, bustling ways of modem life. Can you imagine John Milton or William Penn skipping through a revolving door? Then there are the curious little slatted doors that still swing outside denatured bar rooms and extend only from shoulder to knee. Th
6、ere are trapdoors, sliding doors, double doors, stage doors prison doors, glass doors. But the symbol and mystery of a door resides in its quality of concealment. A glass door is not a door at all, but a window. The meaning of a door is to hide what lies inside, and to keep the heart in suspense. Al
7、so, there are many ways of opening doors. There is the cheery push of elbow with which the waiter shoves open the kitchen door when he bears in your try of supper. There is the sympathetic and awful silence of the dentist“s maid who opens the door into the operating room, and, without speaking, impl
8、ies that the doctor is ready for you. There is the brisk cataclysmic opening of a door when the nurse comes in very early in the morning“It“s a boy!“ Doors are the symbol of privacy, of retreat, of the mind“s escape into blissful quietude or sad secret struggle. A room without doors is not a room, b
9、ut a hallway. No matter where he is, a man can make himself at home behind a closed door. The mind works best behind closed doors. Men are not horses to be herded together. Dogs know the meaning and anguish of doors. Have you ever noticed a puppy yearning at a shut portal? It is a symbol of human li
10、fe. The opening of doors is a mystic act: it has in it some flavor of the unknown, some sense of moving into a new moment, a new pattern of the human rigmarole. It includes the highest glimpses of mortal gladness; reunions, reconciliations, the bliss of lovers long parted. Even in sadness, the openi
11、ng of a door may bring relief: it changes and redistributes human forces. But the closing of doors is far more terrible. It is a confession of finality. Every door closed brings something to an end. And there are degrees of sadness in the closing of doors. A door slammed is a confession of weakness.
12、 A door gently shut is often the most tragic gesture in life. Every one knows the seizure of anguish that comes just after the closing of a door, when the loved one is still near, within sound of voice, and yet already far away. The opening and closing of doors is a part of the stem fluency of life.
13、 Life will not stay still and let us alone. We are continually opening doors with hope, closing them with despair. Life lasts not much longer than a pipe of tobacco, and destiny knocks us out like the ashes. The closing of a door is irrevocable. It snaps the pack-thread of the heart. It is no avail
14、to reopen, to go back. Pinero spoke nonsense when he made Paula Tanqueray say, “The future is only the past entered through another gate.“ Alas, there is no other gate. When the door is shut, it is shut forever. There is no other entrance to that vanished pulse of time. “The moving finger writes, an
15、d having written.“ There is a certain kind of door-shutting that will come to us all. The kind of door-shutting that is done very quietly, with the sharp click of the latch to break the stillness. They will think then, one hopes, of our unfulfilled decencies rather than of our pluperfect misdemeanor
16、s. Then they will go out and close the door.（分数：20.00）(1).What does the first sentence in the third paragraph indicate?（分数：4.00）A.We don“t know whether we will succeed or not.B.No man knows what awaits him behind the door.C.The meaning of the door is usually inexplicable.D.People may inevitably enco
17、unter varied doors.(2).John Milton and William Penn couldn“t have seen（分数：4.00）A.revolving doors.B.slatted doors.C.stage doors.D.prison doors.(3).The relationship between the fourth and fifth paragraphs is that（分数：4.00）A.both present the meaning of opening doors.B.the fourth generalizes and the fift
18、h gives examples.C.each presents one side of the picture.D.the fifth is the logical result of the fourth.(4).The closing of doors may imply all the following EXCEPT（分数：4.00）A.end.B.sadness.C.relief.D.distance.(5).Which of the following idioms can be inferred from the last three paragraphs?（分数：4.00）A
19、.Birds of a feather flock together.B.No pains, no gains.C.Chance favors the prepared mind.D.Time goes never to return.三、Passage 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)As we hurtle towards the new millennium, what is the better symbol of the relentless passage of time than the ancient sundial? Sundials come in many forms,
20、 but horizontal ones are by far the most common. Usually set on a pedestal, they consist of a flat dial face and a gnomonthe slanting piece of metal that casts the shadow. Believe it or not, interest in sundials is increasing in the west. A quick glance at the Internet reveals burgeoning sundial soc
21、ieties all over the world for the scientifically inclined and even detailed sundial trials for those who want to check out the dials in gardens in the United States, France or Britain. This is time travel with a difference. Quotes or mottoes have traditionally been inscribed on sundials to promote r
22、eflection and thought, and these sayings are repeated on the modem versions of the old timepiece. The philosophical sayings add to the image of the timelessness of sundials, but are also reminders in the great poetic traditions of the transient nature of human life. “Time began in a garden“ is a quo
23、tation referring to the Christian Bible legend of the Garden of Eden where, Christian belief says, human life began at the dawn of Creation, and from having been eternal, humans became subject to the decay of time. “I am a shadow. So are you“ reminds the observer that a passing life can be as swift
24、and transitory as the shadow that drifts over the face of a sundial, while the enigmatic “I make timeDost thou?“ plays on the double meaning of the English words for marking or keeping time, like a clock, and marking time by failing to make progress. Sundials have long been beautifully crafted but n
25、ow some innovative Western Sculptors are creating dramatic new variations on the theme, such as a vertical or wall dial from a modem courtyard setting. Bold colorful sun designs or simple minimalist wall plaques are available, and there is even a water fountain dial where the water jet replaces the
26、gnomon (finger) as marker of time. Clever designs playing with the sun and resulting shadow forms also use stark hunks of rough-hewn stone, taking us back to those pointers of old, or employ reflective materials like glass. The earliest sundials are recorded in use around 300 BC. They come from the
27、stage in ancient times when men and women began to use simple sticks and markers to show the time of day as the shadows progressed. Such devices grew steadily more complex until by Roman times no fewer than 12 types of sundial were recorded, including a sophisticated portable version. More than mere
28、 markers of time, such dials served for centuries to indicate mankind“s understanding of the complexities of the heavens. Somewhere along the line, someone realized that a slanting object would cast a more accurate shadow than a vertical one for the purposes of keeping time. The problem of seasonal
29、changes was removed by placing the slanting object parallel to the Earth“s axis. Even after clocks and watches were invented, their reliability was questionable and sundials still had to be used to check their accuracy. But eventually, as the 18th and 19th centuries progressed, and coinciding with t
30、he era of “picturesque“ or idealized landscape gardening in Britain and Europe, sundials became garden ornaments first and timekeepers second. Their value in this area has never been questioned, as successful gardens often rely on such focal points for impact. With their inherent dignity and image o
31、f scientific order triumphing over chaos, sundials provide the perfect centerpiece for herb gardens, historic gardens, hospitals, schools, riversides churches (set in thyme of cause), knot gardens, memorial gardens, cemeteries and civic gardens. Armillary sundials are especially aesthetically pleasi
32、ng, with their circular or spherical shape and make superb garden ornaments. Consisting of several rings, they revolved from the celestial globes used by ancient astronomers to plot the position of the stars. The word armillary comes from the Latin armillarya bracelet or ring. One ring representing
33、the equator has the hours walked on it, a second stands for the meridian, and a third the horizon. The rod through the centre representing the earth“s axis shows the time by casting its shadow on to the hour times marked on the equatorial ring. Sun time is not the same as watch time because it measu
34、res time as it is, not as we would like it to be, with noon today exactly 24 hours away from noon tomorrow. Before the world became a small place and people didn“t move around very much, local time was a perfectly satisfactory measurement. But as modern communication and means of travel grew more so
35、phisticated standard time zones were adopted. As a result, your sundial will agree with your watch only on four days of the year, not because it is inaccurate but because it is measuring a different kind of time. Adjustments for “daylight saving“ time throw yet another spoke in the wheel. There“s a
36、new kind of tour for youtime travel. It couldn“t catch on.（分数：20.00）(1).Nowadays, the sundial is popular again in the West because（分数：4.00）A.many quotes or mottoes promote people“s reflection of the use of sundials.B.sundials can be used as a tool to check the accuracy of clocks and watches.C.sundia
37、l can be a perfect ornament with its dignity and image of scientific order.D.many nations in the West begin to rely on the sundial for making the time.(2).The relationship between the seventh and eighth paragraphs is that（分数：4.00）A.the seventh generalizes and the eighth gives examples.B.each present
38、s one side of the sundials.C.the eighth is the logical result of the seventh.D.the eighth is the transitional result of the seventh.(3).According to the passage, armillary sundials（分数：4.00）A.consists of at least three rings with different meanings.B.can not be used to mark the time at that time.C.ar
39、e used purely as a kind of garden ornaments.D.are a kind of bracelets representing the equator.(4).According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?（分数：4.00）A.According to the historical record, people began to use sundials around 300 BC.B.The quotes or mottoes now are inscribed on sundi
40、als to promote thought.C.Sundials are set on a pedestal, consisting of a dial face and a piece of metal.D.Sundials have been beautifully crafted and modified since its existence.(5).The reason why sun time is different from watch time is that（分数：4.00）A.watch time measures time as people wish it to b
41、e.B.watch time is the best way to measure time.C.sun time measures time as people would like it to be.D.sun time can measure different kinds of time.四、Passage 3(总题数：1，分数：20.00)It is mid-September, the heat is just leaking out of the end of summer, and Japan is enjoying a rare public holiday. A holid
42、ay, that is, in the uniquely Japanese sense of the word, which means the GPS hardwired into every citizen is sending thousands upon thousands to the same fashionable boutiques near my home in Tokyo to shoo. It is more crowded than a commuter train at rush hour. Policemen shepherd the multitude along
43、 the streets with flashing orange batons. Yet there is something peaceful about the way the Japanese drift together in a crowd; they carry a tiny aura of personal space with them, no bigger than one of their Louis Vuitton handbags, and every bit as precious. They hardly touch, like those shoals of t
44、ranslucent fish that dart from one direction to another without colliding. The policemen use their batons like conductors, keeping everything harmonious. But if you try to defy them, those batons will block your way faster than they can say “Dame desu“ which is about as final as “Not on your life.“
45、Such are the means by which order and harmony are maintained in Japan. There is a deep-rooted respect for others, so ingrained that ground staff at Narita airport bow to departing planes as they taxi to the runway. And there is a subtle coercion, like an invisible hand on society“s collar, based on
46、centuries of ancestor worship that has made many customs immutable. The attitudes have been shaped partly by the physical landscape of Japan, which packs one of the most crowded populations on earth onto narrow plains, bounded by sea and inhospitable mountains. For centuries the main activity has be
47、en rice farming, which requires communal planting, weeding, watering and harvesting, rather than the rugged individualism of American and European agriculture. I have been captivated by life here since I arrived a year ago, floating on a wave of adoration of most things Japanese, yet getting in ever
48、yone“s way and doing everything wrong. I would jog around the Imperial Palace in a clockwise direction, only to find everyone else running anti-clockwise, bearing down on me as if I didn“t exist. I wore short sleeves in early autumn, and couldn“t work out why, when it was still blazing hot outside,
49、everyone had put on their jackets and ties again. After swimming with dolphins on the island of Mikurajima this summer, my family and I went to a caf to have lunch, still in our damp bathing costumes. Our hostess was so livid that at first I thought we must have set the place alight, not left a few damp seats where our bottoms had been. Living as a foreigner in Japan, for all its attractions, has many such small humiliations. You may be on a noble quest to plumb the depths of the Japanese soul, but you will take so many wrong turns you end up wondering whether you are indeed too brutish
