专业八级-616及答案解析.doc

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1、专业八级-616 及答案解析(总分：100.10，做题时间：90 分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：2，分数：100.00)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 t

2、he one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. Passage One Cruelty to animals, it is said, is often a precursor to graver crimes. So would there not be some usefulness to a registry of individuals convicted of felony animal abuse? Legislators in California want t

3、he Golden State to be the first to establish such a recordjust as California was the first in the nation to create a registry of sex offenders. The goal of the registry, which would list crimes against both pets and farm animals, is to make it easier for shelters and animal-adoption groups to identi

4、fy people who shouldn“t be allowed access to animals. It would also be a boon to law enforcement because animal abuse, the bill“s authors“ say, often escalates to violence against people. Abuses covered in the bill would include the malicious and intentional maiming, mutilation, torture, wounding or

5、 killing of a living animal. It would also target pet hoarders and operators of animal-fighting rings (such as dog-baiting and cockfighting) who have felony convictions. “We think California is primed for this kind of a bill,“ says state senate majority leader Dean Florez, who introduced the bill in

6、 late February. “We“ve progressed to the point where we as a legislature are moving in a direction of this bill, which is ultimately, how do we in essence prevent repeat offenses when it comes to cruelty to animals in the state of California?“ It is an issue that, Florez says, Californians care for

7、deeply. About 60% of California residents own pets, he says; add in farm animals, and 80% of the population has some kind of ownership of animals. The bill“s biggest stumbling block may be the funding it would require. Created with the assistance of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the bill would rais

8、e the approximately $500,000 to $1 million necessary for its launch through a 2- or 3-cent tax per pound of pet food, says Florez, a Democrat who is chairman of the Food and Agriculture Committee. He estimated that after it“s launch, the project could cost between $300,000 to $400,000 a year to main

9、tain. Yet even that relatively small amount has some organizations, including a national pet-product trade group and even the Humane Society, raising concerns. Jennifer Fearing, California senior state director and chief economist for the US Humane Society, supports the measure“s aims but worries ab

10、out whether it can get passed. Says Fearing: “I would be shocked if this legislature is prepared to enact any tax this year, much less one levied on pet owners who are struggling to care for their animals, when many of them are dropping them off at shelters.“ Ed Rod, vice President of government aff

11、airs for the American Pet Products Association, says the proposal is inherently inequitable. “You“re looking at pet owners paying for something that“s really going to benefit everyone,“ says Rod. “And animal abuse certainly affects pets, but it also affects agricultural animals as well, and in this

12、case I don“t believe there is any provision to impose a fee on livestock feed. The goal we support, certainly, but we think this is kind of a blunt instrument to reach that goal.“ There may be other ways to fund the registry. Fearing says the Humane Society supported a similar law in Tennessee that

13、called for those convicted of animal abuse to pay $50 toward the cost of an animal-abusers registry. The bill, however, was defeated. Florez says having offenders pay a fee toward the operation of the registry is also under consideration in the California legislation. Even if those convicted of anim

14、al-abuse felonies were charged a fee, however, that may not be enough to cover the cost of the registry, since only a small percentage of animal-abuse cases result in felony charges, according to Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. “The

15、bottom line is that there aren“t a lot of felony convictions for animal abuse in the state of California,“ says Bernstein. The proposal also puts an added burden on local policeoperating at a time of state funding cutsby requiring them to gather registry information on convicted felons and transfer

16、the information to the Department of Justice within three days of collection. Despite the obstacles, Florez expects to push the legislation as far as it can go. Could he get the two-thirds majority required to turn the bill into lawparticularly from the Republican minority that pledged not to raise

17、taxes? “In this case,“ he says, “the issue is simple. Do Republican members really want to be seen on the side of animal abuse? I don“t think they do.“ (此文选自 Time ) Passage Two You and I, and everyone else in America, own the most stunning oceanfront property, the most amazing mountain ranges, the h

18、ighest free-falling waterfall on the continent, and the most spectacular collection of geothermal features on the planet. I knew the national parks were beautiful and that there must be interesting human stories behind their creation. But I was unprepared for how they touched some of the deepest emo

19、tions I“ve ever felt. The parks can be simultaneously humbling and ennobling. We“re aware of our insignificance, yet we feel part of the larger order of things. It“s a spiritual, transcendental experiencegives it whatever name you want. It“s why people sometimes use biblical references to describe Y

20、osemite, first set aside in 1864, or Yellowstone, our first truly “national“ park, or the Grand Canyon, essentially a geological library and the greatest canyon on the face of the earth. My crew and I have been literally brought to tears as we worked on this project, as have many other people over t

21、he years. As one man encountering Yosemite Falls for the first time said to his companions, “Now let me die, for I am happy.“ The historical figures we studied, the consultants who helped us understand those men and women, and the people we“ve been sharing the parks with today have all had that mome

22、nt when suddenly they felt connected to everything else in the universe. That isn“t bad for a day“s work. The real secrets of the parks are their little-known places and unseen wonders. When we were floating down the Colorado River during filming and going over those dramatic rapids, every little si

23、de canyon that we didn“t have the benefit of seeing from the rim of the Grand Canyon had its own wonders. The way the light struck in the back, the way the water fell, the way new waterfalls sprouted up in the spring because the melting snow needed a place to gofor me, the most marvelous point about

24、 the parks is their hidden and beautiful layers. Every park is like an onion. The layers are sometimes very subtle, and each layer takes time to explore. A very nice old ranger at Zion told us, “You could be a ranger here if you knew the answer to three questions. Where“s the bathroom? How far is it

25、 to Las Vegas? And what“s the fastest way out of here?“ But the tourist who has the casual “windshield experience“ by driving to Yosemite“s Inspiration Point can still take a picture that looks awfully like an Ansel Adams shot. The person who parks the car and hikes half a mile in has a better exper

26、ience than the person who drives through. The person who hikes two miles in gets an even better experience. And the person who backpacks in and spends two weeks immersed in the high country is, of course, delivered an ecstatic religious experience on the par of naturalist John Muir“s. Muir was, to m

27、e, the most colorful character in the history of the parks. A Scottish-born wanderer, he fell in love with Yosemite when he first walked into it, and for a while he worked there at a sawmill. Muir could have become a titan of industry, but the backpack of civilization slipped off him, to paraphrase

28、Ralph Waldo Emerson. He became an apostle, a prophet, of a new kind of Americanism. Muir woke us up to the fact that all this beauty would be lost to development unless it was championed. The man did unbelievably bizarre and rapturous things in California“s High Sierra in the name of the national pa

29、rks. He would claw his way up into a big pine tree in the middle of a raging thunderstorm to find out what a tree felt like during a storm. He would soak sequoia cones in water and drink the purple liquid that seeped out so he could become tree-wise and “sequoical,“ as he put it. He would watch a li

30、chen on a rock for an entire day; he would contemplate the life of a raindrop. He would climb mountains with very little equipment to speak of, except perhaps for nails hammered into the soles of his shoes, and he would think nothing of covering 50 miles in a two-day excursion with just crackers, oa

31、tmeal, and tea for nourishment. Everywhere he turned, Muir believed he was witnessing the work and presence of God. So enspirited was he that I think he must have struck people, as William Cronon, the historian, says in our film, as “an ecstatic holy man.“ (此文选自 Reader“s Digest)Passage Three Despite

32、 the clear-cut technological advantages, the railroad didn“t become the primary means of transportation for nearly 20 years after the first pioneering American railroads were introduced in the early 1830s. Besides the stiff competition of water transport, an important hindrance to railroad developme

33、nt was public antipathy, which had its roots in ignorance, conservatism, and vested interest. People thought that speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour would be physically harmful to passengers. Many honestly believed that the railroad would prove to be impractical and uneconomical and would not provide

34、 service as dependable as that of the waterways. Unsurprisingly, the most vigorous opposition to railroads came from groups whose economic interests suffered from the competition of the new industry. Millions of dollars had been spent on canals, rivers, highways, and plank roads, and thousands of pe

35、ople depended on these transportation enterprises for their livelihood. Tavern keepers feared their businesses would be ruined, and farmers envisioned the market for hay and grain disappearing as the “iron horse“ replaced the flesh-and-blood animal that drew canal boats and pulled wagons. Competitiv

36、e interests joined to embarrass and hinder the railroads, causing several states to limit traffic on them to passengers and their baggage or to freight hauled only during the months when canal operations ceased. One railroad company in Ohio was required to pay for any loss in canal traffic attribute

37、d to railroad competition. Other railroads were ordered to pay a tonnage tax to support the operation of canals. These sentiments, however amusing today, were seriously espoused by national leaders, as seen in a 1829 letter from Martin Van Buren, then governor of New York, to President Andrew Jackso

38、n. Despite the opposition of those who feared the railroads, construction went on. In sections of the country where canals could not be built, the railroad offered a means of cheap transportation for all kinds of commodities. In contrast to the municipality that wished to exclude the railroad, many

39、cities and towns, as well as their state governments, did much to encourage railroad construction. And the federal government provided tariff exemptions on railroad iron. By 1840, railroad mileage in the United States was within 1,000 miles of the combined lengths of all canals, the volume of goods

40、carried by water still exceeded that transported by rail. After the depression of the early 1840s, rail investments continued, mostly government assisted, and by 1850,the country had 9,000 miles of railroads, and the railroad“s superiority was clear. With the more than 20,000 miles of rails added to

41、 the transportation system between 1850 and 1860, total trackage surpassed 30,000 at the end of the decade, and the volume of freight traffic equaled that of canals. All the states east of the Mississippi were connected during this decade. The eastern seaboard was linked with the Mississippi River s

42、ystem, and the Gulf and South Atlantic states could interchange traffic with the Great Lakes. Growing trunk lines like the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio completed construction of projects that had been started in the 1840s,and combinations of short lines provided new through rou

43、tes. By the beginning of the Civil War, the eastern framework of the present rail-transportation system had been erected, and it was possible to travel by rail the entire distance from New York to Chicago to Memphis and back to New York. Many modifications and improvements occurred, and total factor

44、 productivity in railroads more than doubled in the two decades before the Civil War. Technological advances were reflected in the fact that the average traction force of locomotives more than doubled in these two decades. Freight car sizes also increased, with eight-wheel cars being common by 1859.

45、 Most of the productivity rise, however, resulted from increased utilization of existing facilities. The stock of capitaland other inputsgrew, but output grew much faster as the initial input became more fully utilized. (此文选自 Popular Mechanics)Passage Four The term “folk custom“ is very broad, but i

46、t has been used by folklorists to refer to those shared patterns of behaviors in a particular folk group. Those patterns of behaviors are regarded as the traditional and established ways of members of the particular folk group. Folk custom is transmitted by word of mouth, demonstration or imitation.

47、 The folklore and folk customs of England are rich and varied. Many customs are ancient, passed down, generation to generation from our Germanic and Celtic ancestors. Others are more modern creations. One of the greatest problems in assessing most accounts of folk customs is that they tend to give o

48、nly the antiquary“s point of view. After all, to most observers, the people they were looking at were simple and illiterate, unmindful of the true significance of the customs they had preserved. Why question them at length if they didn“t understand the essential nature of what they were doing? So a

49、folklorist is likely to emphasize aspects of a tradition which reflect his or her own interests or which fit in with preconceived ideas, while possibly ignoring or giving only passing mention to aspects which may, in fact, be of equal importance. One aspect which generally gets left out of accounts is the viewpoint of the participants themselves: for instance, why they indulge in a particular activity at a particular time of year or of their lives and what feelings they experience while doing so. And now, ideas deriving from folklore studies are so widespread that they may easily have