2023年英语专八考试真题及答案.docx

QUESTION BOOKLET
TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2023)
-GRADE EIGHT-
TIME LIMIT: 150 MIN
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.
Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interview and the questions will be spoken ONCE ONLY. After each question there will be a ten-second pause. During the pause, you should read the four choices of A, B, C and D, and mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
You have THIRTY seconds to preview the questions.
Now, listen to the Part One of the interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on Part One of the interview.
A. Maggie’s university life.
B. Her mom’s life at Harvard.
C. Maggie’s view on studying with Mom.
D. Maggie’s opinion on her mom’s major.
A. They take exams in the same weeks.
B. They have similar lecture notes.
C. They apply for the same internship.
D. They follow the same fashion.
A. Having roommates.
B. Practicing court trails.
C. Studying together.
D. Taking notes by hand.
A. Protection.
B. Imagination.
C. Excitement.
D. Encouragement.
Now, listen to the Part Two of the interview. Questions 6 to 10 are based on Part Two of the interview.
A. Because parents need to be ready for new jobs.
B. Because parents love to return to college.
C. Because kids require their parents to do so.
D. Because kids find it hard to adapt to college life.
A. Real estate agent.
B. Financier.
C. Lawyer.
D. Teacher.
A. Delighted.
B. Excited.
C. Bored.
D. Frustrated.
A. How to make a cake.
B. How to make omelets.
C. To accept what is taught.
D. To plan a future career.
A. Unsuccessful.
B. Gradual.
C. Frustrating.
D. Passionate.
SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
In this section there are three 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 and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
PASSAGE ONE
(1)There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes（滑水板）over cataracts of foam. On weekends Mr. Gatsby’s Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with scrubbing-brushes and hammer and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.
(2)Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in – every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb.
(3)At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre（冷盘）, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials（加香甜酒）so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.
(5)The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.
(7)Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the Folies. The party has begun.
(8)I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to and somehow they ended up at Gatsby’s door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.
(11)As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table – the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone.
It can be inferred form . 1 that Mr. Gatsby ______ through the summer.
entertained guests from everywhere every weekend
invited his guests to ride in his Rolls-Royce at weekends
liked to show off by letting guests ride in his vehicles
indulged himself in parties with people from everywhere
In Para.4, the word “permeate” probably means ______.
perish
push
penetrate
perpetrate
It can be inferred form . 8 that ______.
guests need to know Gatsby in order to attend his parties
people somehow ended up in Gatsby’s house as guests
Gatsby usually held garden parties for invited guests
guests behaved themselves in a rather formal manner
According to . 10, the author felt ______ at Gatsby’s party.
dizzy
dreadful
furious
awkward
What can be concluded from Para.11 about Gatsby?
He was not expected to be present at the parties.
He was busy receiving and entertaining guests.
He was usually out of the house at the weekend.
He was unwilling to meet some of the guests.
PASSAGE TWO
(5)Securing cyberspace is hard because the architecture of the internet was designed to promote connectivity, not security. Its founders focused on getting it to work and did not worry much about threats because the network was affiliated with ’s military. As hackers turned up, layers of security, from antivirus programs to firewalls, were added to try to keep them at bay. Gartner, a research firm, reckons that last year organizations around the globe spent $67 billion on information security.
Cyberspace is described by William Gibson as ______.
a representation of data from the human system
an important element stored in the human system
Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the meaning of the first four paragraphs?
Cyberspace has more benefits than defects.
Cyberspace is like a double-edged sword.
Cyberspace symbolizes technological advance.
Cyberspace still remains a sci-fi notion.
According to . 5, the designing principles of the internet and cyberspace security are ______.
controversial
contradictory
congruent
What could be the most appropriate title for the passage?
Cyber Crime and Its Prevention.
The Origin of Cyber Crime.
How to Deal with Cyber Crime.
The Definition of Cyber Crime.
PASSAGE THREE
(2)True, the economic pressures – from the Ivy League to state systems – are intense. Last year, nearly two-thirds of schools had to make midyear spending cuts to stay within their budgets. It is also true (as university presidents and deans argue) that relieving those pressures merely by raising tuitions and cutting courses will make matters worse. Students will pay more and get less. The university presidents and deans want to be spared from further government budget cuts. Their case is weak.
(3)Higher education is a bloated enterprise. Too many professors do too little teaching to too many ill-prepared students. Costs can be cut and quality improved without reducing the number of graduates. Many colleges and universities should shrink. Some should go out of business. Consider:
Except for elite schools, admissions standards are low. About 70 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges and universities attend their first-choice schools. Roughly 20 percent go to their second choices. Most schools have eagerly boosted enrollments to maximize revenues (tuition and state subsidies).
Dropout rates are high. Half or more of freshmen don’t get degrees. A recent study of PhD programs at 10 major universities also found high dropout rates for doctoral candidates.
The attrition among undergraduates is particularly surprising because college standards have apparently fallen. One study of seven top schools found widespread grade inflation. In 1963, half of the students in introductory philosophy courses got a B – or worse. By 1986, only 21 percent did. If elite schools have relaxed standards, the practice is almost surely widespread.
Faculty teaching loads have fallen steadily since the 1960s. In major universities, senior faculty members often do less than two hours a day of teaching. Professors are “socialized to publish, teach graduate students and spend as little time teaching (undergraduates) as possible,” concludes James Fairweather of in a new study. Faculty pay consistently rises as undergraduate teaching loads drop.
Universities have encouraged an almost mindless explosion of graduate degrees. Since 1960, the number of masters’ degrees awarded annually has risen more than fourfold to 337,000. Between 1965 and 1989, the annual number of MBAs (masters in business administration) jumped from 7,600 to 73,100.
(5)You won’t hear much about this from college deans or university presidents. They created this mess and are its biggest beneficiaries. Large enrollments support large faculties. More graduate students liberate tenured faculty from undergraduate teaching to concentrate on writing and research: the source of status. Richard Huber, a former college dean, writes knowingly in a new book (“How Professors Play the Cat Guarding the Cream: Why We’re Paying More and Getting Less in Higher Education”): Presidents, deans and trustees ... call for more recognition of good teaching with prizes and salary incentives.
(6)The reality is closer to the experience of ’s distinguished paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould: “To be perfectly honest, though lip service is given to teaching, I have never seriously heard teaching considered in any meeting for promotion... Writing is the currency of prestige and promotion.”
It can be concluded from Para.3 that the author was ______ towards the education.
indifferent
neutral
positive
negative
The following are current problems facing all American universities EXCEPT ______.
high dropout rates
low admission standards
low undergraduate teaching loads
explosion of graduate degrees
In order to ensure teaching quality, the author suggests that the states do all the following EXCEPT ______.
set entrance requirements
raise faculty teaching loads
increase undergraduate programs
reduce useless graduate programs
“Prime candidates” in . 10 is used as ________.
euphemism
metaphor
analogy
personification
What is the author’s main argument in the passage?
American education can remain excellent by ensuring state budget.
Professors should teach more undergraduates than postgraduates.
Academic standard are the main means to ensure educational quality.
American education can remain excellent only by raising teaching quality.
SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
In this section there are eight short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. Answer each question in NO more than 10 words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
PASSAGE ONE
From the description of the party preparation, what words can you see to depict Gatby’s party?
How do you summarize the party scene in . 6?
PASSAGE TWO
What do the cases of Target, Adobe and eBay in . 3 show?
What is the conclusion of the whole passage?
PASSAGE THREE
What does the author mean by saying “Their case is weak” in . 2?
What does “grade inflation” in . 3 mean?
What does the author mean when he quotes Richard Huber in . 5?
The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved. You should proof-read the passage and correct it in the following way:
Example
When∧art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) an
it never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) never
them on the wall. When a natural history museum
wants an exhibition, it must often build it. (3) exhibit
Proofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET THREE as instructed.
Translate the underlined part of the following text from Chinese into English. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
流逝，体现了南国人对时间最早旳感觉。“子在川上曰：逝者如斯夫。”他们发现无论是潺潺小溪，还是浩荡大河，都一去不复返，流逝之际青年变成了老翁而绿草转眼就枯黄，很自然有错阴旳紧迫感。流逝也许是缓慢旳，但无论怎样缓慢，对流逝旳恐惊使人们必须用“流逝”这个词来时时警戒后人，必须急匆匆地行动，给这个词灌注一种紧张感。
The following two excerpts are about Ice Bucket Challenge, an activity initiated to raise money and awareness for the disease ALS (渐冻症). From the excerpts, you can find that the activity seems to have achieved much success, but there have also been doubt and criticism.
Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
summarize the development of ice bucket challenge activity, and then
express your opinion towards the activity, especially whether the problem found with this kind of activity will finally undermine its original purpose.
Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality.
Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your article on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
Excerpt 1
Excerpt 2
--THE END--
____年3月英语专业8级考试真题答案
PartⅠ LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
1. the dialectical model
3. premises
4. opposition/arguing
5. arguments as performances/the rhetorical model
6. participating
7. convince
8. how we argue
9. tactics
10. negotiation and collaboration
11. they’re dead ends
12. learning with losing
13. questions
14. achieve positive effects
15. be self-supported
SECTION B INTERVIEW
What is the topic of the interview?
答案：C. Maggie’s view on studying with Mom.
Which of the following indicates that they have the same study schedule?
答案：A. They take exams in the same weeks.
答案：D. Taking notes by hand.