[考研类试卷]英语专业（基础英语）模拟试卷8及答案与解析.doc

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1、英语专业（基础英语）模拟试卷 8 及答案与解析一、阅读理解0 Please read the following passages and choose A, B, C or D to best complete the statements about them.English is ComingLAST summer, on the Atlantic coast of France, Charlemagne was introduced to a fine beach game: building big sand-walls near the shoreline in the face

2、of a rising tide. It is a more thought-provoking activity than building sandcastles, with a nice melancholic tinge. The walls last a surprisingly long time, resisting the lapping tide with the help of energetic patching and fresh buckets of dry sand. But when they fail, they fail quickly. It takes j

3、ust two or three big waves to signal doom: once water flows behind the defences, even the thickest ramparts are swift to collapse.European efforts to resist the rise of the English language have now reached the same point. The latest Anglo-surge comes from the European press, with a dramatic increas

4、e in the number of heavyweight publications launching English-language websites, offering translated news stories and opinion pieces.English-language publications aimed at expatriates and tourists have been common for years. But the new development involves big, established national journals, whose

5、bosses want to be more visible in English. Der Spiegel, a German newsweekly, has founded a pan-European “network“ linking up such websites. A Dutch daily, NRC Handelsblad, joined a few months ago, followed by Politiken from Denmark. The trio are in talks with newspapers in France and Spain. They are

6、 eager to expand into eastern Europe, though the credit crunch is likely to slow progress(an online English edition can cost half a million euros a year in translation fees). Beyond this network, a non-exhaustive trawl finds English-language websites of big newspapers in Germany, Italy, Finland, Gre

7、ece, Spain, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Turkey. Many are recent ventures.Editors motives are a mix of idealism and commercial ambition. Bosses at Spiegel have a political dream to create a platform where “Europeans can read what other Europeans think about the world,“ says Daryl Lindsey, who runs

8、the magazines international edition. But an English presence is also a “calling card“ when pitching to international advertisers. It has proved helpful to journalists seeking interviews with world leaders. Kees Versteegh of NRC Handelsblad talks of creating a European “demos“, but also admits to fru

9、stration at publishing some “very fine pieces“ in Dutch that the rest of the world never notices.The evidence points to the imminent collapse of the European Unions official language policy, known as “mother tongue plus two“, in which citizens are encouraged to learn two foreign languages as well as

10、 their own(ie, please learn something besides English). Among Europeans born before the second world war, English, French and German are almost equally common. But according to a Eurobarometer survey, 15-to-24-year-olds are five times more likely to speak English as a foreign language than either Ge

11、rman or French. Add native speakers to those who have learnt it, and some 60% of young Europeans speak English “well or very well“.This is a clear win for English. But paradoxically, it does not amount to a win for Europes native English-speakers. There are several reasons for this. Start with a pol

12、itical one. European politicians long feared that the use of English in the EU would lead to the dominance of Anglo-Saxon thinking. They were wrong. The example of newspapers is instructive: thanks to English(and the internet), a genuinely pan-European space for political debate is being created. It

13、 has never been easier for other Europeans to know what Poles think about the credit crunch, Germans about the Middle East or Danes about nuclear power. English is merely “an instrument“, says Mr Versteegh of NRC Handelsblad, not “a surrender to a dominant culture.“There is a second reason why Anglo

14、phones are not about to dominate European debate: they do not want to. British readers have access to an unprecedented range of news and ideas from Europe in their mother tongue. They show little interest. Only 5% of Spiegel Internationals readers are from Britain(though half are from North America)

15、. In recent years, British newspapers have withdrawn staff reporters right across Europe, and not only to save money. Britains daily newspapers are less and less interested in European politics and policy. Light, sensational stuff is what editors choose for publication, plus tales of British tourist

16、s and expatriates in trouble(a genre known as “Brits in the shit“).Such parochialism may be linked to a fall in language-learning, accelerated since 2003, when foreign languages became voluntary in England and Wales for pupils over 14. That robs them of such benefits as the humility and respect for

17、others that come from learning another language. But given the rise of English, it is rational, says Philippe van Parijs, a Belgian academic.Under his “maxi-min rule“, Mr van Parijs observes that speakers at EU meetings automatically choose the language that excludes the fewest people in the room. T

18、hey do not use the language best known, on average, by those present(which in some meetings will still be French). Instead, they seek the language that is understood, at least minimally, by all. Thanks to EU enlargement to the east(and poor language skills among British and Irish visitors to Brussel

19、s), this is almost always English. That means Britons find it ever harder to justify learning other languages. Even when they do, they have to speak other languages extremely well to avoid inflicting halting French, say, on rooms of fluent English-speakers. And it carries other costs. In Brussels, n

20、ative English-speakers are notoriously hard for colleagues to understand: they talk too fast, or use obscure idioms.Mr van Parijs has a prediction: Europeans will become bilingual, except for Anglophones, who are becoming monolingual. In other words, just when the British should be happy, some nasty

21、 storm clouds are gathering. You could say it sounds rather like a day at the British seaside.1 What is the authors attitude toward the rising of English?（A）Panic.（B） Worried.（C） Proud.（D）Indifferent.2 What is the main idea of the passage?（A）English is an overwhelming language whose force cannot be

22、resisted by European governments.（B） Introducing the adverse side-effects of growing dominance of English.（C） Britain students should have learn a foreign language.（D）European government should have enforce the “mother-tongue-plus-two“ policy.3 In the sand wall building story, what does author compa

23、res English to?（A）The sand walls.（B） The waves.（C） The energetic patching.（D）The fresh buckets of dry sand.4 For what reason, does the author call the English presence as “calling card“?（A）It arouses the idea of Europeans.（B） It calls the attention of the whole Europe.（C） It can bring profit.（D）It a

24、ttracts English readers.5 Which of the following statements can be implied from the passage?（A）It is hard for Briton to learn French than the French to learn English.（B） The author believes that the common use of English at the EU conference will lead to dominance of Anglo-Saxon thinking.（C） The aut

25、hor thinks the failed resistance of Englishs rising is a collapse with a melancholic tinge.（D）Dutch culture is losing because of the rising of English.6 Which of the following statements is NOT the opinion of Mr. Van Parijs?（A）Britons neednt to learn any foreign language.（B） At EU conference, speake

26、rs will choose the language used by most present.（C） At EU conference, speakers will not use the languages well known by the present.（D）English speakers have to learn excellent French for the EU conference.7 According to the author the British will feel “some nasty storm clouds are gathering“ becaus

27、e_.（A）they have to learn a second language（B） the have no chance to practice other languages（C） they are mocked for talking too fast or using obscure idioms（D）they cannot speak any foreign language7 Overland transport in the United States was still extremely primitive in 1790. Roads were few and sho

28、rt, usually extending from inland communities to the nearest river town or seaport. Nearly all interstate commerce was carried out by sailing ships that served the bays and harbors of the seaboard. Yet, in 1790 the nation was on the threshold of a new era of road development. Unable to finance road

29、construction, states turned for help to private companies, organized by merchants and land speculators who had a personal interest in improved communications with the interior. The pioneer in this move was the state of Pennsylvania, which chartered a company in 1792 to construct a turnpike, a road f

30、or the use of which a toll, or payment, is collected, from Philadelphia to Lancaster. The legislature gave the company the authority to erect tollgates at points along the road where payment would be collected, though it carefully regulated the rates.(The states had unquestioned authority to regulat

31、e private business in this period.)The company built a gravel road within two years, and the success of the Lancaster Pike encouraged imitation. Northern states generally relied on private companies to build their toll roads, but Virginia constructed a network at public expense. Such was the road bu

32、ilding fever that by 1810 New York alone had some 1, 500 miles of turnpikes extending from the Atlantic to Lake Erie.Transportation on these early turnpikes consisted of freight carrier, wagons and passenger stagecoaches. The most common road freight carrier was the Conestoga wagon, a vehicle develo

33、ped in the mid-eighteenth century by German immigrants in the area around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It featured large, broad wheels able to negotiate all, but the deepest ruts and holes, and its round bottom prevented the freight from shifting on a hill. Covered with canvas and drawn by four to six h

34、orses, the Conestoga wagon rivaled the log cabin as the primary symbol of the frontier. Passengers traveled in a variety of stagecoaches, the most common of which had four benches, each holding three persons. It was only a platform on wheels, with no springs; slender poles held up the top, and leath

35、er curtains kept out dust and rain.8 Paragraph 1 discusses early road building in the United States mainly in terms of the_.（A）popularity of turnpikes（B） financing of new roads（C） development of the interior（D）laws governing road use 9 In 1790 most roads connected towns in the interior of the countr

36、y with_.（A）other inland communities（B） towns in other states（C） river towns or seaports（D）construction sites10 The phrase “on the threshold of in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to_.（A）in need of（B） in place of（C） at the start of（D）with the purpose of11 According to the passage, why did states wan

37、t private companies to help with road building?（A）The states could not afford to build roads themselves.（B） The states were not as well equipped as private companies.（C） Private companies could complete roads faster than the states.（D）Private companies had greater knowledge of the interior.12 Virgin

38、ia is mentioned as an example of a state that_.（A）built roads without tollgates（B） built roads with government money（C） completed 1,500 miles of turnpikes in one year（D）introduced new law restricting road use13 The “large, broad wheels“ of the Conestoga wagon are mentioned in the last paragraph as a

39、n example of a feature of wagons that was_.（A）unusual in mid-eighteenth century vehicles（B） first found in Germany（C） effective on roads with uneven surfaces（D）responsible for frequent damage to freight二、判断题13 Read the following passage carefully and then decide whether the statements which follow a

40、re true(T)or false(F)or not given(NG).Secrets of the ForestIn 1942 Allan R Holmberg, a doctoral student in anthropology from Yale University, USA, ventured deep into the jungle of Bolivian Amazonia and searched out an isolated band of Siriono Indians. The Siriono, Holmberg later wrote, led a “striki

41、ngly backward“ existence. Their villages were little more than clusters of thatched huts. Life itself was a perpetual and punishing search for food: some families grew manioc and other starchy crops in small garden plots cleared from the forest, while other members of the tribe scoured the country f

42、or small game and promising fish holes. When local resources became depleted, the tribe moved on. As for technology, Holmberg noted, the Siriono “may be classified among the most handicapped peoples of the world“. Other than bows, arrows and crude digging sticks, the only tools the Siriono seemed to

43、 possess were “two machetes worn to the size of pocket-knives“.Although the lives of the Siriono have changed in the intervening decades, the image of them as Stone Age relics has endured. Indeed, in many respects the Siriono epitomize the popular conception of life in Amazonia. To casual observers,

44、 as well as to influential natural scientists and regional planners, the luxuriant forests of Amazonia seem ageless, unconquerable, a habitat totally hostile to human civilization. The apparent simplicity of Indian ways of life has been judged an evolutionary adaptation to forest ecology, living pro

45、of that Amazonia could not - and cannot - sustain a more complex society. Archaeological traces of far more elaborate cultures have been dismissed as the ruins of invaders from outside the region, abandoned to decay in the uncompromising tropical environment.The popular conception of Amazonia and it

46、s native residents would be enormously consequential if it were true. But the human history of Amazonia in the past 11,000 years betrays that view as myth. Evidence gathered in recent years from anthropology and archaeology indicates that the region has supported a series of indigenous cultures for

47、eleven thousand years; an extensive network of complex societies - some with populations perhaps as large as 100,000 - thrived there for more than 1,000 years before the arrival of Europeans.(Indeed, some contemporary tribes, including the Siriono, still live among the earthworks of earlier cultures

48、.)Far from being evolutionarily retarded, prehistoric Amazonian people developed technologies and cultures that were advanced for their time. If the lives of Indians today seem “primitive“, the appearance is not the result of some environmental adaptation or ecological barrier; rather it is a compar

49、atively recent adaptation to centuries of economic and political pressure. Investigators who argue otherwise have unwittingly projected the present onto the past.The evidence for a revised view of Amazonia will take many people by surprise. Ecologists have assumed that tropical ecosystems were shaped entirely by natural forces and they have focused their research on habitats they believe have escaped human influence. But as the University of Florida ecologist, Peter Feinsinger, has noted, an approach that leaves people out of the equation is no longer