1、专业八级-553 及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、PART LISTENING COM(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、SECTION A(总题数：1，分数：15.00)Literary Movements in United States HistoryThe topic is about different movements in the history of American literature and the origins and common beliefs of each movement: . Transcendentalism Time Peri
2、od: 1830s1860s Origins: 1 Core Beliefs and Important Figures: People can achieve spirituality without 2 . People are responsible for their own development. Ralph Waldo Emerson: published Nature in 3 . . Romanticism Time Period: 1830s1870s Origins: 4 and Germany Core Beliefs and Important Figures: Fo
3、cus on imagination and strong emotions. American works also typically include the supernatural and focus on human 5 . Edgar Allen Poe: best known for tales of 6 . . Realism Time Period: 7 1920s Origins: France Core Beliefs and Important Figures: Focus on events that were 8 and typical rather than ex
4、traordinary. Mark Twain wrote about ordinary life in the 9 part of America. Many writers were also concerned with social change like giving workers 10 . . Naturalism Time Period: 1890s1920s Origins: 11 Core Beliefs and Important Figures: A person can not escape 12 . A person“s behaviour is influence
5、d by that person“s 13 . Jack London: Humans behave like animals in extreme circumstances. . Modernism Time Period: 1890s1940s Origins: Europe Core Beliefs and Important Figures: Focus on 14 . Finding out what doesn“t work and replacing it. Ezra Pound: Completely changed 15 . （分数：15.00）填空项 1:_三、SECTI
6、ON B(总题数：2，分数：10.00)（分数：5.00）A.Better educationgreater mobilitymore choices.B.Better educationmore choicesgreater mobility.C.Greater mobilitybetter educationmore choices.D.Greater mobilitymore choicesbetter education.A.To figure out job features that were particularly important to workers.B.To work
7、out issues which caused workers“ low efficiency.C.To arouse public awareness of workers“ dilemma.D.To help workers reduce working stress.A.Important and meaningful work.B.High income.C.Chances for advancement.D.Recruitment criteria.A.Shorter work hours was least chosen for being most important.B.Cha
8、nces for advancement might have been favoured by young people.C.High income failed to come on top for being most important.D.Job security came second according to the poll results.A.The type of respondents who were invited.B.The way in which the questions were designed.C.The content area of the ques
9、tions.D.The number of poll questions.（分数：5.00）A.62%.B.78%.C.68%.D.53%.A.Recognition from colleagues.B.Learning new skills.C.Promotion.D.Interesting work.A.Recognition from colleagues should be given less importance.B.Workers are always willing and ready to learn more new skills.C.Psychological rewar
10、d is more important than material one.D.Work will have to be made interesting to raise efficiency.A.Contact with many people.B.Chances for advancement.C.Appreciation from coworkers.D.Chances to learn new skills.A.Because they could make their workers satisfied through polls.B.Because they could save
11、 costs by using the poll results.C.Because they could improve workers“ activity.D.Because they could increase workers“ efficiency.四、PART READING COMPR(总题数：1，分数：22.00)SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions. For eac
12、h multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE Judging by the wildly cheering audience at the orgy of consumerism that was Oprah Winfrey“s “Ultimate Favourite T
13、hings“ show, American women have lost none of their enthusiasm for the finest stuff money can buy. (The handful of men in the audience seemed to share the feeling.) The show, screened in two parts just before Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, ended with each audienc
14、e member going home with products ranging from a set of Oprah-branded Le Creuset pots to an iPad, some sparkling Ugg boots and a new car. Retailers must hope that the public will be as enthusiastic about such products when they have to pay for them as the audience was when getting them free. They ar
15、e certainly competing harder than ever to lure shoppers into their stores. Many are opening before sunrise on Black Friday, as the day after Thanksgiving is known (supposedly because it is the point in the financial year when retailers edge into the black). Wal-Mart was due to open most of its store
16、s at the stroke of midnight. Sears decided to open on Thanksgiving Day itself for the first time, though still holding back its best bargains for Black Friday. In the hope that this will be a merrier festive season than last year, retailers have been hiring lots of temporary staff: in October those
17、in areas other than the car trade added around 20,000 posts. David Resler of Nomura, a stockbroker, says October“s hiring figures are usually a good predictor of how sales in the holiday season will turn out. In recent months sales have been picking up. Consumer spending rose in each of the five mon
18、ths to October, with even discretionary items like sports goods showing improved sales. However, sales of durable goods (washing machines and so forth) were unexpectedly weak in October, a sign of residual caution among households. Retailers are making more use of social-networking sites such as Fac
19、ebook to promote deals and build communities of like-minded shoppers. Sears, for example, has been getting customers to share their shopping tales through a “Be the Santa you want to be“ competition. This has been the breakthrough year for Groupon, which uses social networking to let consumers earn
20、discounts by recruiting their friends (the more people who sign up for an offer, the bigger the discount). But the internet is not always a retailer“s best friend. A plethora of new shopping-information websites, such as , is forcing prices down and making it harder for store chains to differentiate
21、 their offerings. Wal-Mart, the biggest retailer, is adding to the pressures on its rivals by offering to match any Black Friday deal they offer. Shares in Sears are still trading well below where they were last November. Wal-Mart“s share price is around where it was 12 months ago, though up sharply
22、 from its low earlier this year. Overall, retailers“ shares have been unusually volatile in the past year or so as consumer confidence has fluctuated, refusing to form any sort of trend. How this holiday season turns out will certainly move the marketas well as determining whether shareholders appro
23、ve the $3 billion sale announced on November 23rd of J.Crew, a clothing chain, to a group of private-equity firms. The vote will take place on January 15th; until then, J.Crew will continue to seek other buyers. Private-equity firms have become keen on retailers with strong brands because the recess
24、ion has forced weaker ones out of business, leaving more space for the survivors. Productivity in retailing has also improved, in part through the better use of technology. So there is the prospect of strong profit growth as and when the recovery gets into full swing. Stores that cater to well-off w
25、omen have perhaps the best prospects this season. Such shoppers are “ready to declare the recession over“, says Michael Silverstein, the author of “Women Want More“, a book charting their growing spending- power. “They have worn through their unused inventory of apparel, fashion accessories and jewe
26、llery and are actively expanding their purchases,“ he says, predicting that retailers who serve them could enjoy a sales boost of as much as 10% compared with last year“s holiday season. Things may be very different for the bottom 40% of households, still committed to recession-inspired prudence. Mr
27、 Silverstein says that in many such families the woman has hung on to her job but is now the sole breadwinner. Such households “are going to hunt for bargains, recognise the holiday, but continue their frugal ways,“ he predicts. Retailers will be hoping that Oprah and all her glitzy goodies will tem
28、pt them to change their minds. But for a large proportion of Americans, window-shopping may be the nearest they get to such desirable items. PASSAGE TWO From Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa capital at 12,000 feet, the long line threaded south, dropping 2,000 feet to the valley floor, then trudged down the
29、 huge Sola-Khumbu canyon until it opened out to the lush but still daunting foothills of Central Nepal. It was here at Namche that one man broke rank and leaned north, slowly and arduously climbing the steep walls of the natural amphitheater behind the scatter of stone huts, then past Kunde and Khum
30、jong. Despite wearing a balaclava on his head, he had been frequently recognized by the Tibetans, and treated with the gravest deference and respect. Even among those who knew nothing about him, expressions of surprise lit up their dark, liquid eyes. He was a man not expected to be there. Not only w
31、as his stature substantially greater than that of the diminutive Tibetans, but it was also obvious from his bearingand his new broadcloak, which covered a much-too-tight army uniformthat he came from a markedly loftier station in life than did the average Tibetan. Among a people virtually bereft of
32、possessions, he had fewer still, consisting solely of a rounded bundle about a foot in diameter slung securely by a cord over his shoulder. The material the bundle was wrapped in was of a rough Tibetan weave, which did not augur that the content was of any greater valueexcept for the importance he s
33、eemed to ascribe to it, never for a moment releasing his grip. His objective was a tiny huddle of buildings perched halfway up an enormous valley wall across from him, atop a great wooded spur jutting out from the lower lap of the 22,493-foot Ama Dablum, one of the most majestic mountains on earth.
34、There was situated Tengboche, the most famous Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, its setting unsurpassed for magnificence anywhere on the planet. From the top of the spur, one“s eyes sweep 12 miles up the stupendous Dudh Kosi canyon to the six-mile-long granite wall of cliff of Nuptse at its head.
35、 If Ama Dablum is the Gatekeeper, then the sheer cliff of Nuptse, never less than four miles high, is the Final Protector of the highest and mightiest of them all: Chomolongma, the Mother Goddess of the World, to the Tibetans; Sagarmatha, the Head of the Seas, to the Nepalese; and Everest to the res
36、t of us. And over the great barrier of Nuptse She demurely peaks. It was late in the afternoonwhen the great shadows cast by the colossal mountains were descending into the deep valley floorsbefore he reached the crest of the spur and shuffled to a stop just past Tengboche“s entrance gompa. His ches
37、t heaving in the rarefied air, he removed his hand from the bundlethe first time he had done styand wiped grimy rivulets of sweat from around his eyes with the fingers of his mitted hand. His narrowed eyes took in the open sweep of the quiet grounds, the pagoda-like monastery itself, and the stone b
38、uildings that tumbled down around it like a protective skirt. In the distance the magic light of the magic hour lit up the plume flying off Chomolongma“s 29,029-foot-high rest like a bright, welcoming banner. His breathing calmed, he slowly, stiffly struggled forward and up the rough stone steps to
39、the monastery entrance. There he was greeted with a respectful nameste“I recognize the divine in you“from a tall, slim monk of about 35 years, who hastily set aside a twig broom he had been using to sweep the flagstones of the inner courtyard. While he did so, the visitor noticed that the monk was m
40、issing the small finger on his left hand. The stranger spoke a few formal words in Tibetan, and then the two disappeared inside. Early the next morning the emissarylightened of his loadappeared at the monastery entrance, accompanied by the same monk and the elderly abbot. Aider a bow of his head, wh
41、ich was returned much more deeply by the two ocher- robed residents, he took his leave. The two solemn monks watched, motionless, until he dipped over the ridge on which the monastery sat, and out of sight. Then, without a word, they turned and went back inside the monastery. PASSAGE THREE As does m
42、uch else in the universe, education moves in cycles. The 1960s and 1970s saw a swell of interest in teaching styles that were less authoritarian and hierarchical than the traditional watching of a teacher scribbling on a blackboard. Today, tastes have swung back, and it is fashionable to denigrate t
43、hose alternatives as so much hippy nonsense. But evidence trumps fashionat least, it ought to. And a paper just published in Science by Louis Deslauriers and his colleagues at the University of British Columbia suggests that at least one of the newfangled styles is indeed superior to the traditional
44、 chalk-and-talk approach. Dr Deslauriers“s lab rats were a group of 850 undergraduate engineering students taking a compulsory physics course. The students were split into groups at the start of their course, and for the first 11 weeks all went to traditionally run lectures given by well-regarded an
45、d experienced teachers. In the 12th week, one of the groups was switched to a style of teaching known as deliberate practice, which inverts the traditional university model. Class time is spent on problem-solving, discussion and group work, while the absorption of facts and formulae is left for home
46、work. Students were given reading assignments before classes. Once in the classroom they spent their time in small groups, discussing specific problems, with the teacher roaming between groups to offer advice and respond to questions. At the end of the test week, Dr Deslauriers surveyed the students
47、 and gave them a voluntary test (sold as useful exam practice, and marked on a 12-point scale) to see how much they had learned in that week and what they thought of the new teaching method. The results were striking. The traditionally taught group“s average score was 41%, compared with 74% for the
48、experimental groupeven though the experimental group did not manage to cover all the material it was supposed to, whereas the traditional group did. According to Dr Deslauriers and his team, their result is the biggest performance boost ever documented in educational research, making the new teachin
49、g style more effective even than personal, one-to-one tuitionalthough measuring the effect immediately after the experiment, rather than waiting for end-of-term exam results (as other research often has), may have inflated the number somewhat. The results are especially impressive given that the deliberate-practice method was applied by teachers with little prior experience of using it, whereas the traditionally taught students had the benefit of a seasoned lecturer with a long record of good rat
