2023年专八真题语言知识.doc

1995-2023年英语专业八级改错真题及答案
2023年真题
Mass media is media that is intended for a large audience. It may
take the form of broadcast media, as in case of television and radio, 1._____
or print media, as newspapers and magazines. 2._____
Usually, mass media aims to reach a very large market, such as
the entire population of a country. By contrast, local media covers
a much small population and area, focusing on regional news of 3._____
interest, specialty media is provided for particular demographic groups. 4._____
Some local media outlets that cover state or provincial news may raise to 5._____
prominence thanks to their investigative journalism, and to the clout that
their particular regions have in national politics.
People often think of mass media as the news, it also includes 6._____
entertainment like television shows, books, and films. It may also be
educational in the nature, as in the instance of public broadcasting stations 7._____
that provide educational programming to a national audience. Political
communications including propaganda are also frequently distributed
through the media, as were public service announcements and 8._____
emergency alerts.
When elitists may be tempted to sneer at the mass media, referring to it 9._____
as the “opiate of the masses,” it is a critical part of human societies.
Understand mass media is usually key to understand a population 10._____
and culture, which is why the field of media studies is so huge.
2023年真题
The ability to communicate is the primary factor that distinguishes human
beings from animals. And it is the ability to communicate well which 1._______
distinguishes one individual from another.
The fact is that apart from the basic necessities, one needs to
be equipped with habits for good communication skills, thus this is 2._______
what will make one a happy and successful social being.
In order to develop these habits, one needs to first acknowledge
the fact that they need to improve communication skills from time to time.
They need to take stock of the way how they interact and the direction 3._______
in which their work and personal relations are going. The only constant
in life is change, the more one accepts one’s strengths and works 4._______
towards dealing with their shortcomings, specially in the area of 5._______

communication skills, the better will be their interactions and
the more their social popularity.
The dominated question that comes here is: How to improve 6._______
communication skills? The answer is simple. One can find
plenty of literature on this. There are also experts, who conduct

workshops and seminars based on communication skills of men
and women. In fact, a large number of companies are bringing in
trainers to regularly make sessions on the subject, in order to 7._______
help their work force maintain better interpersonal work relations.
Today effective communication skills have become a predominant
factor even while recruiting employees. While interviewing candidates,
most interviewers judge them on the basis of the skills they communicate with.
They believe that some skills can be improvised on the job; but ability to 8.______
communicate well is important, as every employee becomes the
representing face of the company.
There are trainers, who specialized in delivering custom-made 9._______
programs on the subject. Through the sessions they not only facilitate
better communication skills in the workplace, but also look into
the problems in the manner of being able to convey messages effectively. 10._______
2023年真题
All social units develop a culture. Even in two-person relationships,
a culture develops in time. In friendship and romantic relationships, 1._________
for example, partners develop their own history, shared experiences,
language patterns, habits, and customs give that relationship a special 2._________
character—a character that differs it in various ways from 3._________
other relationships. Examples might include special dates, places,
songs, or events that come to have a unique and
important symbolic meaning for the two individuals. Thus, any 4._________
social unit—whether a relationship, group, organization, or
society—develops a culture with the passage of time.
While the defining characteristics of each culture are unique,
all cultures share certain same functions. The relationship between 5.__________
communication and culture is a very complex intimate one. 6.__________
Cultures are created through communication; that is, communication is
the means of human interaction, through it cultural characteristics 7.__________
are created and shared. It is not so much that individuals set out to create a culture when they interact in relationships, groups, organizations, or societies,
but rather than that cultures are a natural by-product of social interaction.8._________
In a sense, cultures are the “residue” of social communication.
Without communication and communication media, it would be impossible to
have and pass along cultural characteristics from one place and time to 9.__________
another. One can say, furthermore, that culture is created, shaped, 10._________
transmitted, and learned through communication.
2023年真题
When I was in my early teens, I was taken to a spectacular show 
on ice by the mother of a friend. Looked round at the luxury of the         1. ________
rink, my friend’s mother remarked on the “plush” seats we had been 
given. I did not know what she meant, and being proud of my                  2.________  
vocabulary, I tried to infer its meaning from the context. “Plush” 
was clearly intended as a complimentary, a positive evaluation; that        3. ________  
much I could tell it from the tone of voice and the context. So I               4. ________ 
started to use the word. Yes, I replied, they certainly are plush, and 
so are the ice rink and the costumes of the skaters, aren’t they? My 
friend’s mother was very polite to correct me, but I could tell from her    5. ________  
expression that I had not got the word quite right. 
Often we can indeed infer from the context what a word roughly 
means, and that is in fact the way which we usually acquire both              6. ________ 
new words and new meanings for familiar words, specially in our            7. ________ 
own first language. But sometimes we need to ask, as I should have 
asked for plush, and this is particularly true in the                                8.________
aspect of a foreign language. If you are continually surrounded by             9________
speakers of the language you are learning, you can ask them directly,  
but often this opportunity does not exist for the learner of English. 
So dictionaries have been developed to mend the gap.                            10. _________
2023年真题
There is widespread consensus among scholars that second language
acquisition (SLA) emerged as a distinct field of research from the late 1950s to
early 1960s.
There is a high level of agreement that the following questions      1.__________
have possessed the most attention of researchers in this area:  2.__________
◆Is it possible to acquire an additional language in the
same sense one acquires a first language?                             3._
◆What is the explanation for the fact adults have                     4.__________
more difficulty in acquiring additional languages than children have?
◆What motivates people to acquire additional languages?
◆What is the role of the language teaching in the                  5.___
acquisition of an additional language?
◆What socio-cultural factors, if any, are relevant in studying the
learning of additional languages?
From a check of the literature of the field it is clear that all            6.__________
the approaches adopted to study the phenomena of SLA so far have
one thing in common: The perspective adopted to view the acquiring
of an additional language is that of an individual attempts to do      7.___________
so. Whether one labels it “learning” or “acquiring” an additional
language, it is an individual accomplishment or what is under              8.___________
focus is the cognitive, psychological, and institutional status of an             
individual. That is, the spotlight is on what mental capabilities are
involving, what psychological factors play a role in the learning          9.___________
or acquisition, and whether the target language is learnt in the
classroom or acquired through social touch with native speakers.  10.___________
2023年真题
Psycho-linguistics is the name given to the study of the psychological processes  involved in language. Psycholinguistics study understanding,  
production and remembering language, and hence are concerned      1.__________
with listening, reading, speaking, writing, and memory for language. 
One reason why we take the language for granted is that it usually    2.________
happens so effortlessly, and most of time, so accurately.                3._________
Indeed, when you listen to someone to speaking, or looking at this page,  4.________
 you normally cannot help but understand it. 
It is only in exceptional  circumstances we might  become aware of 5._________
the complexity involved: if we are searching for a word but cannot 
remember it;  if a relative or colleague has had a stroke which has  6._________
influenced  their language; if we observe a child acquire language;  7._________
if  we try to learn a second language ourselves as an adult; or  if we 
are visually impaired or hearing-impaired or if we meet anyone else  8._________
who is. As we shall see, all these examples of what might be called 
“language in exceptional circumstances”  reveal a great deal about the
 processes evolved in speaking, listening, writing and reading. But  9.__________
given that language processes  were normally so automatic, we also  10.__________
need to carry out careful experiments to get at what is happening.  
2023年真题
The central problem of translating has always been whether to 
translate literally or freely. The argument has been going since at least  1.__________
the first century B.C. Up to the beginning of the 19th century, many 
writers favored certain kind of “free” translation: the spirit, not the  2.__________
letter; the sense not the word; the message rather the form; the matter  3.__________
not the manner. This is the often revolutionary slogan of writers who  4.___________
wanted the truth to be read and understood. Then in the turn of  5.___________
19th century, when the study of cultural anthropology suggested that 
the linguistic barriers were insuperable and that the language was  6.__________
entirely the product of culture, the view translation was impossible  7.__________ 
gained some currency, and with it that, if was attempted at all, it must  8.__________
be as literal as possible. This view culminated the statement of the  9._________ 
extreme “literalists” Walter Benjamin and Vladimir Nobokov.
The argument was theoretical: the purpose of the translation, 
the nature of the readership, the type of the text, was not discussed. 
Too often, writer, translator and reader were implicitly identified with each 
other. Now, the context has changed, and the basic problem remains.  10. _________
2023年真题
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I
knew that when I grew I should be a writer. Between the ages 1._____________
of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this
idea, but I did so with the conscience that I was outraging my 2._____________
true nature and that soon or later I should have to settle down 3._____________
and write books.
I was the child of three, but there was a gap of
five years on either side, and I barely saw my father 4._____________
before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat
lonely, and I soon developed disagreeing mannerisms which 5._____________
made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the
lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding
conversations with imaginative persons, and I think from the 6._____________
very start my literal ambitions were mixed up with the feeling 7
of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility
with words and a power of facing in unpleasant facts, and I 8._____________
felt that this created a sort of private world which I could get 9._____________
my own back for my failure in everyday life. Therefore, the 10.____________
volume of serious — i.e. seriously intended — writing which
I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not
amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem
at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation.

2023年真题
So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally  
complete and perfect as instruments of communication: that is,  
every language appears to be well equipped as any other to say          1____________
the things their speakers want to say.                                                    2________
There may or may not be appropriate to talk about primitive      3_____________peoples or cultures, but that is another matter. Certainly, not all  
groups of people are equally competent in nuclear physics or  
psychology or the cultivation of rice . Whereas this is not the             4___
fault of their language. The Eskimos , it is said, can speak about 
snow with further more precision and subtlety than we can in            5_____________
English, but this is not because the Eskimo language (one of those  
sometimes miscalled 'primitive') is inherently more precise and  
subtle than English. This example does not come to light a defect       6____________
in English, a show of unexpected 'primitiveness'. The position is 
simply and obviously that the Eskimos and the English live in similar  7___________
environments. The English language will be just as rich in terms         8____________
for different kinds of snow, presumably, if the environments in which 
 English was habitually used made such distinction as important.          9___________
Similarly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo language  
could be as precise and subtle on the subject of motor manufacture  
or cricket if these topics formed the part of the Eskimos' life.             10___________
For obvious historical reasons, Englishmen in the nineteenth century could not talk about motorcars with the minute discrimination which is possible today: cars were not a part of