1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 108及答案与解析 SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple-choice questions. For each multiple-choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A , B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer. 0 (1)I
2、went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before. It seemed more tranquil than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of paint had been put ove
3、r everything for better preservation. But, of course, fifteen years before there had been a war going on Perhaps the school wasnt as well kept up in those days; perhaps paint along with everything else, had gone to war. (2)I didnt entirely like this glossy new surface, because it made the school loo
4、k like a museum, and thats exactly what it was to me, and what I did not want it to be. In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I was a student there, and then bl
5、inked out like a candle the day I left. (3)Now here it was after all, preserved by some considerate hand with paint and wax. Preserved along with it, like stale air in an unopened room, was the well known fear which had surrounded and filled those days, so much of it that I hadnt even known it was t
6、here. Because, unfamiliar with the absence of fear and what that was like, I had not been able to identify its presence. (4)Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertak
7、ing: I must have made my escape from it. (5)I felt fears echo, and along with that I felt the unhinged, uncontrollable joy which had been its accompaniment and opposite face, joy which had broken out sometimes in those days like Northern Lights across black sky. (6)There were a couple of places now
8、which I wanted to see. Both were fearful sites, and that was why I wanted to see them. So after lunch at the Devon Inn I walked back toward the school. It was a raw, nondescript time of year, toward the end of November, the kind of wet, self-pitying November day when every speck of dirt stands out c
9、learly. Devon luckily had very little of such weather the icy clamp of winter, or the radiant New Hampshire summers, were more characteristic of it but this day it blew wet, moody gusts all around me. (7)I walked along Gilman Street, the best street in town. The houses were as handsome and as unusua
10、l as I remembered. Clever modernizations of old Colonial manses, extensions in Victorian wood, capacious Greek Revival temples lined the street, as impressive and just as forbidding as ever. I had rarely seen anyone go into one of them, or anyone playing on a lawn, or even an open window. Today with
11、 their failing ivy and stripped, moaning trees the houses looked both more elegant and more lifeless than ever. (8)Like all old, good schools, Devon did not stand isolated behind walls and gates but emerged naturally from the town which had produced it. So there was no sudden moment of encounter as
12、I approached it; the houses along Gilman Street began to look more defensive, which meant that I was near the school, and then more exhausted, which meant that I was in it. (9)It was early afternoon and the grounds and buildings were deserted, since everyone was at sports. There was nothing to distr
13、act me as I made my way across a wide yard, called the Far Commons, and up to a building as red brick and balanced as the other major buildings, but with a large dome and a bell and a clock and Latin over the doorway the First Academy Building. (10)In through swinging doors I reached a marble foyer,
14、 and stopped at the foot of a long white marble flight of stairs. Although they were old stairs, the worn moons in the middle of each step were not very deep. The marble must be unusually hard. That seemed very likely, only too likely, although with all my thought about these stairs this exceptional
15、 hardness had not occurred to me. It was surprising that I had overlooked that, that crucial fact. (11)There was nothing else to notice; they of course were the same stairs I had walked up and down at least once every day of my Devon life. They were the same as ever. And I? Well, I naturally felt ol
16、der I began at that point the emotional examination to note how far my convalescence had gone I was taller, bigger generally in relation to these stairs. I had more money and success and “security“ than in the days when specters seemed to go up and down them with me. (12)I turned away and went back
17、outside. The Far Common was still empty, and I walked alone down the wide gravel paths among those most Republican, bankerish of trees, New England elms, toward the far side of the school. (13)Devon is sometimes considered the most beautiful school in New England, and even on this dismal afternoon i
18、ts power was asserted. It is the beauty of small areas of order a large yard, a group of trees, three similar dormitories, a circle of old housesliving together in contentious harmony. You felt that an argument might begin again any time; in fact it had: out of the Deans Residence, a pure and authen
19、tic Colonial house, there now sprouted an ell with a big bare picture window. Some day the Dean would probably live entirely encased in a house of glass and be happy as a sandpiper. Everything at Devon slowly changed and slowly harmonized with what had gone before. So it was logical to hope that sin
20、ce the buildings and the Deans and the curriculum could achieve this, I could achieve, perhaps unknowingly already had achieved, this growth and harmony myself. 1 Which of the following best describes the atmosphere of the Devon school when the author went back? （ A） Quiet. （ B） Forbidding. （ C） Fea
21、rful. （ D） Vibrant. 2 Which of the following statements about the third paragraph is NOT true? （ A） The author had experienced extreme fear as a student at the Devon school. （ B） Now the author could sense the fear he had experienced at the Devon school. （ C） The author was not familiar with what fe
22、ar was like when he was a student there. （ D） The scene of the Devon school reminded the author of his feeling in the past. 3 In Para. 5, “Northern Lights“ is used to imply _. （ A） the uncontrollability of joy （ B） the magnificence of joy （ C） the existence of joy （ D） the transitoriness of joy 4 Wh
23、ich of the following statements about Devons weather is NOT true? （ A） It is usually ice-cold in winter. （ B） There is a lot of sunshine in summer. （ C） It is usually dry in winter. （ D） It is usually windy in winter. 5 According to the passage, which of the following was NOT located in the Devon Sc
24、hool? （ A） The Far Commons. （ B） The First Academy Building. （ C） Greek Revival temples. （ D） A marble foyer. 5 (1)Pessimism about the United States rarely pays off in the long run. Time and again, when Americans have felt particularly glum their economy has been on the brink of a revival. Think of
25、Jimmy Carters cardigan-clad gloom in the inflation-ridden late 1970s, or the fear of competition from Japan that marked the “jobless recovery“ of the early 1990s. Both times the United States bounced back, boosted on the first occasion by Paul Volckers conquest of inflation and on the second by a pr
26、oductivity spurt that sent growth rates soaring in the mid-1990s even as Japan stalled. (2)That record is worth bearing in mind today. Americans are unhappy, and becoming more so, about their countrys prospects and politicians efforts to improve them. In a new New York Times/CBS News poll, seven out
27、 of ten respondents said America is on the wrong track. Almost 60% of Americans disapprove of the Presidents handling of the economy, and three out of four think Congress is doing a lousy job. (3)This unease partly reflects the sluggishness of me recovery. Though unemployment has been falling and sh
28、are prices are close to a three-year high, house prices are still in the dumps and the price of petrol has soared to levels not seen since the summer of 2008. But its not all about oil or indeed the short term. A careful reading of the polls suggests mat Americans worries stretch well beyond the nex
29、t couple of years: about stagnating living standards and a dark future in an economy slow to create jobs, saddled with big government deficits. (4)Are these worries justified? On the plus side, it is hard to think of any large country with as many inherent long-term advantages as America. But it is
30、also plain that the United States does indeed have long-term economic weaknesses and ones that will take time to fix. The real worry for Americans should be that their politicians, not least their president, are doing so little to tackle these underlying problems. (5)The first failing, of which Mr P
31、resident in particular is guilty, is misstating the problem. He likes to frame Americas challenges in terms of “competitiveness“. This is mostly nonsense. Americas prosperity depends not on other countries productivity growth, but on its own(actually pretty fast)pace. (6)Of course, plenty more could
32、 be done to spur innovation. The system of corporate taxation is a mess and deters domestic investment. Mr President is right that Americas infrastructure is creaking. But the solution there has as much to do with reforming Neanderthal funding systems as it does with the greater public spending he a
33、dvocates. Too much of the “competitiveness“ talk is a misconception one mat justifies misguided policies, such as subsidies for green technology, and diverts attention from the countrys real to-do list. (7)High on that list is sorting out Americas public finances. The budget deficit is huge and publ
34、ic debt, at over 90% of GDP when measured in an internationally comparable manner, is high and rising fast. Apart from Japan, America is the only big rich economy that does not have a plan for getting its public finances under control. The good news is that politicians are at last paying attention:
35、deficit reduction is just about all anybody talks about in Washington, DC, these days. The bad news and the second reason for gloom about what the politicians are up to is that neither party is prepared to make the basic compromises mat are essential to a deal. Republicans refuse to accept that taxe
36、s will have to rise, Democrats that spending on “entitlements“ such as health care and pensions must fall. No real progress is likely until after the next presidential election. And the antagonism of todays deficit debate may even harm the economy, as Republicans push for excessive cuts in next year
37、s budget. (8)Meanwhile, the biggest dangers lie in an area that politicians barely mention: the labour market. The recent decline in the jobless rate has been misleading, the result of a surprisingly small growth in the workforce(as discouraged workers drop out)as much as fast job creation. A stubbo
38、rn 46% of Americas jobless, some 6 million people, have been out of work for more than six months. The weakness of the recovery is mostly to blame, but there are signs that America may be developing a distinctly European disease: structural unemployment. (9)Youth unemployment is especially high, and
39、 joblessness among the young leaves lasting scars. Strong productivity growth has been achieved partly through the elimination of many mid-skilled jobs. And what makes this all the more worrying is that, below the radar screen, America had employment problems long before the recession, particularly
40、for lesser-skilled men. These were caused not only by sweeping changes from technology and globalisation, which affect all countries, but also by Americas habit of locking up large numbers of young black men, which drastically diminishes their future employment prospects. America has a smaller fract
41、ion of prime-age men in work and in the labour force than any other G7 economy. Some 25% of men aged 25-54 with no college degree, 35% of high-school dropouts and almost 70% of black high-school dropouts are not working. (10)All this means that grappling with entrenched joblessness deserves to be fa
42、r higher on Americas policy agenda. Unfortunately, the few politicians who acknowledge the problem tend to have misguided solutions, such as trade barriers or industrial policy to prop up yesterdays jobs or to spot tomorrows. That wont work: government has a terrible record at picking winners. Inste
43、ad, America needs to get its macro-medicine right, in particular by committing itself to medium-term fiscal and monetary stability without excessive short-term tightening. But it also needs job-market reforms, from streamlining and upgrading training to increasing employers incentives to hire the lo
44、w-skilled. And stemming the decline in low-skilled mens work will also demand more education reform to boost skills, as well as a saner approach to drugs and imprisonment. 6 The problem occurred in the early 1990s in American economy was solved because _. （ A） inflation had been curbed （ B） producti
45、vity was improving （ C） employment was increasing （ D） taxes had been reduced 7 Which of the following best describes the Americans attitude towards policies adopted by the government? （ A） Discontented. （ B） Supportive. （ C） Indifferent. （ D） Scornful. 8 From the third paragraph, we get the impress
46、ion that American people are worried that _. （ A） stock prices will decline sharply with falling employment （ B） house prices will increase sharply with economic development （ C） oil prices will increase sharply with economic development （ D） employment will be falling with slow economic development
47、 9 The statement “On the plus side“(Para. 4)indicates the _ of American economy. （ A） weakness （ B） strength （ C） prosperity （ D） downhill 10 Which of the following statements is NOT implied in the seventh paragraph? （ A） Both Democrats and Republicans want to reduce budget deficit. （ B） Democrats a
48、nd Republicans have not agreed on how to reduce deficit. （ C） Republicans are not willing to reduce deficit by increasing taxes. （ D） Democrats want to reduce deficit by reducing spending on health care. 10 (1)There are obvious differences, of course. Lady Gagas raw-meat dress would probably not hav
49、e appealed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The pop stars habit of changing from one bizarre costume to another several times a day, and maybe 20 times, might have struck the late nun as extravagant. Mother Teresa wore the same outfit every day: a white sari(印度纱丽 )with three blue stripes, reflecting her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Lady Gaga, by contrast, is not big on chastity. (2)Yet the differences between the two women may matter less than their similarities. Both are venerated. Mother Teresa built her Mi
