TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2014)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening,take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them tocomplete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given twominutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task onANSWER SHEET ONE, using no more than three words in each gap. Make sure the word(s) youfill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to your notes whilecompleting the task. Use the blank sheet for note-taking. Now listen to the mini-lecture.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer thequestions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
1.What is the main purpose of Angelina's visit to Iraq?
[A] To draw attention to the refugee crisis.
[B] To look after refugees in Iraq.
[C] To work for U.N.H.C.R.
[D] To work out a plan for refugees.
2.From the interview we know that Angelina _________.
[A] was strongly opposed to officials’ opinions
[B] thought young kids should be given priority
[C] was much worried about the lack of action
[D] proposed that policies be made promptly
3.Which of the following BEST explains what the global community should do?
[A] To supervise the construction of schools.
[B] To take prompt and effective actions.
[C] To provide water and power supply.
[D] To prevent instability and aggression.
4.According to Angelina, what is the key issue in solving the refugee problem?
[A] The current situation in Iraq.
[B] The politics in the Middle East
[C] Refugees returning to normal life.
[D] International and domestic efforts.
5.Angelina saw her trip to Iraq significant because she could_________.
[A] help others know where the problems were
[B] help bring NGOs back to the region
[C] talk to different people there
[D] read the official papers
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer thequestions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
Question 6 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10seconds to answer the question.
Now listen to the news.
6.What is the main idea of the news item?
[A] Alitalia's attempt to help Wind Jet out.
[B] Cancellation of flights at Rome Airport
[C] Problems caused by Wind Jet's cash shortage.
[D] Expected changes of Wind Jet’s flight destinations.
Question 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will begiven 20 seconds to answer the question.
Now listen to the news.
7.What did the researchers discover in northern Kenya?
[A] A human tooth.
[B] A human skull.
[C] Three species of humans.
[D] Three human fossils.
8.What was the significance of the discovery?
[A] The findings were published in Nature.
[B] It supported an existing assumption.
[C] Most research questions were answered.
[D] More research efforts were encouraged.
Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will begiven 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
9.The airport originally decided to cover up the poster because __________
[A] some international travellers complained
[B] the art exhibition was to be postponed
[C] other artists works were absent from ads
[D] real-life models would appear on the scene
10.What was the reaction of the National Galleries of Scotland?
[A]Horrified.
[B] Indignant.
[C] Surprised.
[D] Outraged.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this section there are four reading passages followed be a total of 20 multiple-choicequestions. Read the passages and then mark the best answer to each question on ANSWERSHEER TWO.
TEXT A
My class at Harvard Business School helps students understand what good managementtheory is and how it is built. In each session, we look at one company through the lenses ofdifferent theories, using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examinewhat action will yield the needed results. On the last day of class, I asked my class to turnthose theoretical lenses on themselves to find answers to two questions: First, How can I besure I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure my relationships with my spouseand my family will become an enduring source of happiness? Here are some management toolsthat can be used to help you lead a purposeful life.
1. Use Your Resources Wisely. Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, andtalent shape your life’s strategy. I have a bunch of “businesses” that compete for theseresources:I’m trying to have a rewarding relationship with my wife, raise great kids,contribute to my community, succeed in my career, and contribute to my church. And I haveexactly the same problem that a corporation does. I have a limited amount of time, energyand talent. How much do I devote to each of these pursuits?
Allocation choices can make your life turn out to very different from what youintended.Sometimes that’s good: opportunities that you have never planned for emerge. Butif you don’t invest your resources wisely, the outcome can be bad. As I think about people whoinadvertently invested in lives of hollow unhappiness, I can’t help believing that their troublesrelated right back to a short-term perspective.
When people with a high need for achievement have an extra half hour of time or an extraounce of energy, they’ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangibleaccomplishments. Our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re movingforward.You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale teach aclass, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and energy in yourrelationships with your spouse and children typically doesn’t offer the same immediate senseof achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It’s really not until 20 years down the road thatyou can say,“I raised a good son or a good daughter.” You can neglect your relationship withyour spouse and on a daily basis it doesn’t seem as if thing are deteriorating. People who aredriven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families andoverinvest in their careers, even though intimate and loving family relationships are the mostpowerful and enduring source of happiness.
If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find thispredisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personallives through that lens,you’ll see that same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocatingfewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most.
2. Create A Family Culture. It’s one thing to see into the foggy future with a acuity and chartthe course corrections a company must make. But it’s quite another to persuade employees toline up and work cooperatively to take the company in that new direction.
When there is little agreement, you have to use “power tools”– coercion, threats,punishments and so on, to secure cooperation. But if employee’s ways of working togethersucceed over and over, consensus begins to form. Ultimately, people don ‘t even think aboutwhether their way yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinctand assumption rather than by explicit decision, which means that they’ve created a culture.Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods bywhich member s of a group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the prioritygiven to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool.
I use this model to address the question, How can I be my family becomes an enduringsource of happiness? My students quickly see that the simplest way parents can elicitcooperation from children is to wield power tools. But there comes a point during the teenyears when power tools no longer work. At that point, parents start wishing they had begunworking with their children at a very young age to build a culture in which children instinctivelybehave respectfully toward one another, obey their parents, and choose the right thing to do.Families have cultures, just as companies do. Those cultures can be built consciously.
If you want your kids to have strong self-esteem and the confidence that they can solve hardproblems, those qualities won’t magically materialize in high school. You have to design theminto your family’s culture and you have think about this very early on. Like employees, childrenbuild self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.
11. According to the author, the key to successful allocation of resources in your life dependson whether you ________.
A. can manage your time well
B. have long-term planning
C. are lucky enough to have new opportunities
D. can solve both company and family problems
12. What is the role of the statement “Our careers provide the most concrete evidence thatwe’re moving forward” with reference to the previous statement in the paragraph?
A. To offer further explanation
B. To provide a definition
C. To present a contrast
D. To illustrate career development
13. According to the author, a common cause of failure in business and family relationships is________.
A. lack of planning
B. short-sightedness
C. shortage of resources
D. decision by instinct
14. According to the author, when does culture begin to emerge ________.
A. When people decide what and how to do by instinct
B. When people realize the importance of consensus
C. When people as a group decide how to succeed
D. When people use “power tools” to reach agreement
15. One of the similarities between company culture and family culture is that ________.
A. problem-solving ability is essential
B. cooperation is the foundation
C. respect and obedience are key elements
D. culture needs to be nurtured
Text B
It was nearly bedtime and when they awoke next morning land would be in sight. Dr. Macphail lithis pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the heavens for the Southern Cross. After twoyears at the front and a wound that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad tosettle down quietly at Apia (阿皮亚，西萨摩亚首都) for twelve months at least, and he felt alreadybetter for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next day they hadhad a little dance that evening and in his ears hammered still the harsh notes of themechanical piano. But the deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long chairtalking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat down under the light andtook off his hat you saw that he had very red hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and thered, freckled skin which accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face,precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very low, quiet voice.
Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there had arisen theintimacy of shipboard, which is due to proximity rather than to any community of taste.Their chief tie was the disapproval they shared of the men who spent their days and nights inthe smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flatteredto think that she and her husband were the only people on board with whom the Davidsonswere willing to associate,and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciouslyacknowledged the compliment. It was because he was of an argumentative mind that in theircabin at night he permitted himself to carp (唠叨).
‘Mrs. Davidson was saying she didn’t know how they’d have got through the journey if it hadn’tbeen for us,’ said Mrs. Macphail, as she neatly brushed out her transformation (假发).‘Shesaid we were really the only people on the ship they cared to know.’
‘I shouldn’t have thought a missionary was such a big bug (要人、名士) that he could afford toput on frills (摆架子).’
‘It’s not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn’t have been very nice for theDavidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot in the smoking-room.’
‘The founder of their religion wasn’t so exclusive,’ said Dr. Macphail with a chuckle.
‘I’ve asked you over and over again not to joke about religion,’ answered his wife.‘I shouldn’tlike to have a nature like yours, Alec. You never look for the best in people.’
He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not reply. After many years ofmarried life he had learned that it was more conducive to peace to leave his wife with the lastword.He was undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled down toread himself to sleep.
When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at it with greedyeyes.There was a thin strip of silver beach rising quickly to hills covered to the top withluxuriant vegetation. The coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water’s edge, andamong them you saw the grass houses of the Samoaris (萨摩亚人); and here and there,gleaming white, a little church. Mrs. Davidson came and stood beside him. She was dressed inblack, and wore round her neck a gold chain, from which dangled a cross. She was a littlewoman, with brown, dull hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyesbehind invisible pince-nez (夹鼻眼镜). Her face was long, like a sheep’s, but she gave noimpression of foolishness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the quick movements of abird. The most remarkable thing about her was her voice, high, metallic, and without inflection;it fell on the ear with a hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamor of thepneumatic drill.
‘This must seem like home to you,’ said Dr. Macphail, with his thin, difficult smile.
‘Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are volcanic. We’ve got anotherten days' journey to reach them.’
‘In these parts that’s almost like being in the next street at home,’ said Dr. Macphail facetiously.
‘Well, that’s rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does look at distances differentlyin the J South Seas. So far you’re right.’
Dr. Macphail sighed faintly.
16. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that Dr. Macphail ________.
A. preferred quietness to noise
B. enjoyed the sound of the mechanical piano
C. was going back to his hometown
D. wanted to befriend the Davidsons
17. The Macphails and the Davidsons were in each other’e company because they ________.
A. had similar experience
B. liked each other
C. shared dislike for some passengers
D. had similar religious belief
18. Which of the following statements BEST describes Mrs. Macphail?
A. She was good at making friends
B. She was prone to quarrelling with her husband
C. She was skillful in dealing with strangers
D. She was easy to get along with.
19. All the following adjectives can be used to depict Mrs. Davidson EXCEPT ________.
A. arrogant
B. unapproachable
C. unpleasant
D. irritable
20. Which of the following statements about Dr. Macphail is INCORRECT?
A. He was sociable.
B. He was intelligent.
C. He was afraid of his wife.
D. He was fun of the Davidsons.
Text C
Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles. We're told that to begreat is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts —which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. One-third to one-half of Americans areintroverts — in the other words, one out of every two or three people you know. If you're notan introvert yourself, you are surely raising,managing, married to, or coupled with one.
If these statistics surprise you, that's probably because so many people pretend to beextroverts.Closet introverts pass undetected on playgrounds, in high school locker rooms, andin the corridors of corporate America. Some fool even themselves, until some life event — alayoff, an empty nest, an inheritance that frees them to spend time as they like — jolts theminto taking stock of their true natures. You have only to raise this subject with your friends andacquaintances to find that the most unlikely people consider themselves introverts.
It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themselves. We live with a value systemthat I call the Extrovert Ideal— the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha,and comfortable in the spotlight. The archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemplation,risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk ofbeing wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups. We like to think that we valueindividuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual — the kind who's comfortable"putting himself out there." Sure, we allow technologically gifted loners who launch companiesin garages to have any personality they please, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, andour tolerance extends mainly to those who get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doingso.
Introversion — along with its cousin’s sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness — is now asecond-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounted becauseof a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealingpersonality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel wemust conform.
The Extrovert Ideal has been documented in many studies, though this research has neverbeen grouped under a single name. Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarter, better-looking,more interesting, and more desirable as friends. Velocity of speech counts as well asvolume: we rank fast talkers as more competent and likable than slow ones. Even the wordintrovert is stigmatized — one informal study, by psychologist Laurie Helgoe, found thatintroverts described their own physical appearance in vivid language, but when asked todescribe generic introverts they drew a bland and distasteful picture.
But we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Ideal so unthinkingly. Some of ourgreatest ideas, art, and inventions — from the theory of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers tothe personal computer — came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in totheir inner worlds and the treasures to be found there.
21. According to the author, there exists, as far as personality styles are concerned, adiscrepancy between ________.
A. what people say they can do and what they actually can
B. what society values and what people pretend to be
C. what people profess and what statistics show
D. what people profess and what they hide from others
22. The ideal extrovert is described as being all the following EXCEPT ________.
A. doubtful
B. sociable
C. determined
D. bold
23. According to the author, our society only permits ________ to have whatever personalitythey like.
A. the young
B. the ordinary
C. the artistic
D. the rich
24. According to the passage, which of the following statements BEST reflects the author’sopinion?
A. Introversion is seen as an inferior trait because of its association with sensitivity.
B. Extroversion is arbitrary forced by society as a norm upon people.
C. Introverts are generally regarded as either unsuccessful or as deficient.
D. Extroversion and introversion have similar personality trait profiles.
25. The author winds up the passage with a ________ note.
A. cautious
B. warning
C. positive
D. humorous
Text D
Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasinglyglobalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages ofbilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range ofpeople.Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on yourbrain,improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia（痴呆） in old age.
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism throughmuch of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a secondlanguage to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic andintellectual development.
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’sbrain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creatingsituations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers arefinding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolveinternal conflict,giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.
The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experienceimproves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs theattention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various othermentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused,switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind ? likeremembering a sequence of directions while driving.
Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve theseaspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmedprimarily from ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing onelanguage system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind toignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to beinadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals evenat tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series ofnumbers scattered randomly on a page.
The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened abilityto monitor the environment.“Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often? You may talkto your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, aresearcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain.“It requires keeping track of changesaround you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a studycomparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costaand his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they alsodid so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they weremore efficient at it.
The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age, and there isreason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life.
26. According to the passage, the more recent and old views of bilingualism differ mainly in________.
A. its practical advantages
B. its role in cognition
C. perceived language fluency
D. its role in medicine
27. The fact that interference is now seen as a blessing in disguise means that ________.
A. it has led to unexpectedly favorable results
B. its potential benefits have remained undiscovered
C. its effects on cognitive development have been minimal
D. only a few researchers have realized its advantages
28. What is the role of Paragraph Four in relation to Paragraph Three?
A. It provides counter evidence to Paragraph Three.
B. It offers another example of the role of interference.
C. It serves as a transitional paragraph in the passage.
D. It further illustrates the point in Paragraph Three.
29. Which of the following can account for better performance of bilinguals in doing non-inhibition tasks?
A. An ability to monitor surroundings.
B. An ability to ignore distractions.
C. An ability to perform with less effort.
D. An ability to exercise suppression.
30. What is the main theme of the passage?
A. Features of bilinguals and monolinguals.
B. Interference and suppression.
C. Bilinguals and monitoring tasks.
D. Reasons why bilinguals are smarter.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (10 MIN)
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section. Mark the best answer to each questionon ANSWER SHEET TWO.
31. Which of the following is the French-speaking city in Canada?
A. Vancouver
B. Ottawa
C. Montreal
D. Toronto
32. Which of the following are natives of New Zealand?
A. The Maoris
B. The Aboriginals
C. The Red Indians
D. The Eskimos
33. The established or national church in England is ________.
A. the Roman Catholic Church
B. the United Reformed Church
C. the Anglican Church
D. the Methodist Church
34. The thirteen former British colonies in North America declared independence from GreatBritain in ________.
A. 1774
B. 1775
C. 1776
D. 1777
35. “Grace under pressure” is an outstanding virtue of ________ heroes.
A. Scott Fitzgerald’s
B. Ernest Hemingway’s
C. Eugene O’Neill’s
D. William Faulkner’s
36. Widowers’ House was written by ________.
A. John Galsworthy
B. George Bernard Shaw
C. William Butler Yeats
D. T. S. Eliot
37. Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?
A. William Shakespeare
B. William Blake
C. Geoffrey Chaucer
D. John Donne
38. Which of the following pairs of words are homophones?
A. wind (v.) / wind (n.)
B. suspect (v.) / suspect (n.)
C. convict (v.) / convict (n.)
D. bare (adj.) / bear (v.)
39. Which of the following sentences has the “S+V+O” structure?
A. He died a hero.
B. I went to London.
C. Mary enjoyed parties.
D. She became angry.
40. Which of the following CAN NOT be used as an adverbial?
A. The lion’s share
B. Heart and soul.
C. Null and void.
D. Hammer and tongs.
PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION (15 MIN)
The passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of one error. In eachcase, only ONE word is involved. You should proof-read the passage and correct it in thefollowing way:
For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided atthe end of the line.
For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a “^” sign and write the wordyou believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line.
For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash “/” and put the word inthe blank provided at the end of the line.
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) ______
l Is it possible to acquire an additional language in the
same sense one acquires a first language?(3) ______
l What is the explanation for the fact adults have (4)______
more difficulty in acquiring additional languages than children have?
l What motivates people to acquire additional language?
l What is the role of the language teaching in the (5)______
acquisition of additional languages?
l What social-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) ______
PART V TRANSLATION (60 MIN)
SECTION A CHINESE TO ENGLISH
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English. Write your translation onANSWER SHEET THREE.
当我在小学毕了业的时候，亲友一致的愿意我去学手艺，好帮助母亲。我晓得我应当去找饭吃，以减轻母亲的勤劳困苦。可是，我也愿意升学。我偷偷地考入了师范学校——制服，饭食，书籍，宿处，都由学校供给。只有这样，我才敢对母亲提升学的话。入学，要交十元的保证金。这是一笔巨款!母亲作了半个月的难，把这巨款筹到，而后含泪把我送出门去。她不辞劳苦，只要儿子有出息。当我由师范毕业，而被派为小学校长，母亲与我都一夜不曾合眼。我只说了句：“以后，您可以歇一歇了!”她的回答只有一串串的眼泪。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.
The physical distance between speakers can indicate a number of things and can also be usedto used to consciously send messages about intent. Closeness, for example, indicatesintimacy or threat to many speakers whilst distance may denote formality or a lack ofinterest. Proximity is also both a matter of personal style and is often culture-bound so thatwhat may seem normal to a speaker from one culture may appear unnecessarily close or distantto a speaker from another.And standing close to someone may be quite appropriate in somesituations such as an informal party, but completely out of place in others, such as meetingwith a superior.
Posture can convey meaning too. Hunched shoulders and a hanging head give a powerfulindication of mood. A lowered head when speaking to a superior (with or without eye contact)can convey the appropriate relationship in some cultures.
Part VI WRITING
Nowadays, some companies have work-from-home or remote working policies, which meansthat their employees do not have to commute to work every day. Some people think that thiscan save a lot of time travelling to and from work, thus raising employees’ productivity.However, others argue that in the workplace, people can communicate face to face, whichvastly increase the efficiency of coordination and cooperation. What is your opinion?
Write an essay of about 400 words on the following topic:
My Views on Working from Home
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the secondpart you should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you shouldbring what you have written to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure tofollow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
Section A Mini-lecture
1. physical
2. a demand
3. blood pressure
4. Category
5. a job
6. signals
7. body or mind
8. advantage
9. accept
10. reasonable speed
Section B Interview
1-5 DCBCC
Section C News Broadcast
6-10 BDBAC
听力原文
Part 1, Listening Comprehension
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
How to Reduce Stress
Good morning! Today we look at how to reduce stress. As you all know, life always hasstresses, Ur, things which are causing us stress and living without stress is virtuallyimpossible. So, if we have to live with stress, we may as well find out more about what it is,how we can deal with it and so on. What is stress, then? The term was originally used inphysics to describe the force exerted between two touching bodies. That was strictly a termdescribing a physical reaction. Then in the 1930s, a doctor named Hans Selye, S-E-L-Y-E, firstused this term to describe a human’s reaction to a demand placed on it, pleasant or not. Andhe included in this response, things like accelerated breathing, accelerated heart rate, increasedblood pressure, muscle tension and so on.
Now, please notice that I said that stress can be pleasant or not, this response can also bepleasant or not. And stress can be both negative and positive. Let’s take a look at positivestress. Positive stress occurs in a life situation towards which one feels positively, things likeChristmas or getting married are usually positive events, but still stressful, nonetheless.Another example is the pressure in a job can give some people incentive to work andexcitement, but it still is stress. Negative stress is what most of us think of when we think ofstress. And negative stress occurs logically enough in situations towards which one feelsnegatively. And those examples could be test-taking, a friend’s death and so on. But here athing to remember is that stress in itself is not hazardous. Rather, the danger is in theindividual’s reaction to the stress. So psychologists have found that if we developappropriate ways to cope with stressful situations, individuals can reduce the physiologicalharm which is caused by stress, or which can be caused by stress. And that’s what I want totalk a bit about today – what are these appropriate ways to deal with stress, how to minimizeany negative reactions. The first thing that most psychologists suggest is to learn torecognize your own stress signals. We all have different types of stress signals, butindividuals should monitor themselves for stress signals, so that they can focus on minimizingor acknowledging the stress before it gets out of control. And common early signs for manypeople include irritability, insomnia, weight loss or even weight gain, smoking, drinking,increases in small errors, all kinds of things that people get which could be an early signal ofstress.
You can consider ways to protect yourself when you start seeing these signs coming on. Soyou might decide to withdraw from a stressful situation or reward yourself with equalamounts of low stress activity time. That’s really the first important way to deal with stressappropriately. The second important way to deal with stress is to pay attention to your body’sdemands. Most psychologists are finding that a good exercise program, good nutrition,decreases the amount of stress, or the effect of stress on the body or in the mind. And thisseems quite apparent because exercise can provide a stress-free environment away fromyour usual stresses and it keeps your body busy and preoccupied with non-stressful things.OK, the third thing to reduce stress is to make plans and act when appropriate. What issuggested is that rather than wasting energy on worrying, an individual can direct his or herenergy to plan the steps and act. And often, just the planning of the action helps to reduce thestress, because it reduces the worrying. And also the results of the plans or action may serveto remove or weaken the original cause of the stress. Please notice that I just now said“when appropriate”. And this next suggestion has to do with that idea of when appropriate.The third suggestion was to make plans and act when appropriate, rather than just sit aroundand worry. But the fourth plan, or fourth idea, says to learn to accept situations which are outof your control. These two then go hand in hand. You can make plans and act when it’sappropriate, but when it’s not appropriate, or when it’s impossible, the only way is to learnto accept that some things are unchangeable and out of your hands.
So, for example, if you are in traffic, lateness caused by traffic is out of your hands. There’s nosense in getting really crazy about that. If you do so, it only increases your stress to wasteenergy trying to resist what’s inevitable or what can’t be avoided. The last item thatpsychologists suggest is to pace your activities. By “pace”, I mean giving yourself somemanageable tasks to do at a reasonable speed. That is, you go at a speed that you canhandle, break your task into manageable parts, rather than try to deal with the whole task allat once. So, as an example in your lives as students, a whole term paper might feeloverwhelming. But if you say to yourself, today I’m going to the library and gatherresources, tomorrow, I’m going to read three articles, and so on, you’ll have broken this onelarge task, that’s writing a term paper, down into many smaller and more manageable tasks.This will certainly reduce your stress. Ok. Having said all these, I want you to remember thatthe problem is not in the stressful experiences themselves. We all experience stress andstressful events. The problem is in our reactions to these experiences. And each of us has ourown limits for stress and our own ways of coping with stress. So long as we have our ownappropriate ways, stress or stressful situations can certainly be dealt with. Ok. That’s all fortoday’s lecture. See you next week.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Damon: First of all, thank you obviously for your time, Angelina.You are now in Iraq. So what isyour main aim in this visit? Whatare you trying to accomplish while you are out here?
Jolie: Well, I came to the region about 6 months ago. I first wentto Syria because I work withU.N.H.C.R. and there are 1.5 millionrefugees in Syria alone from Iraq and while I was there, Iwent inside and met with some internallydisplaced people. You know, these are the people madehomeless because of the war. They arerefugees. And this trip is to get a better picture of theinternally displaced people and to discuss thesituation with the local government, with ourgovernment, with the NGOs and with local people,and try to understand what is happening,because there are over 2 million internally displacedpeople and there doesn't seem to be a realcoherent plan to help them and there's lots of good willand lots of discussion, but just a lot oftalk at the moment and a lot of pieces need to be puttogether. So, trying to figure out whatthey are.
Damon: What kind of sense have you been able to get so far in terms of how severe the crisisisand what actually needs to be done to help out?
Jolie: Well, I, in my research before I came here, I looked at the numbers and there areover4million people displaced and of the 2 million internally displaced, it's estimated that 58percent areunder 12 years old. So it's a very high number of people in a very, very vulnerablesituation and alot of young kids. So far the different officials I've met with and different localpeople I've met withall have shared concerns and very strongly, you know, they have spokenout about thehumanitarian crisis but um, there seems to be a block in. I'm not good at policyand fixing all thisand saying what's wrong, but I do know that, for example, U.N.H.C.R. needsto be more activeinside Iraq.
Damon: How do you think U.N.H.C.R. should be doing?
Jolie: Well, I don't have the answers, but I know that this is one thing that needs to beaddressedand solved because there does need to be a real presence here to help count thepeople andregister the people.
Damon: Do you think that the global community has a responsibility to address that?
Jolie: Well I think the global community always has a responsibility to any humanitarian crisis.And Ithink it's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale becausedisplacement canlead to a lot of instability and aggression. We certainly don't want that. A lotof people feel it's a littlecalmer now. This is the time to really discuss and try to get thesecommunities back together. Butif these communities don't start coming back together properly,if we don't start really countingthe people, understanding where they are, what they need,making sure the schools are beingbuilt, making sure the electricity, the water and all theseneeds are being met and alsounderstanding that a lot of the people that will return are going tocome back to houses that areoccupied or destroyed and bombed out. It's going to be a bigoperation to understand the needs,to address it to help people put the pieces of their lifeback together and return to theircommunities. So it's really just getting the plan together,getting the group together andeverybody actively focused on helping the refugees.
Damon: What would be the message that you would want to carry out of here back homeoreven the message that you would want to get out internationally in terms of what'shappeninghere, the refugee crisis, the consequences that could happen in the future if it's notproperlyaddressed.
Jolie: I always hate speculation on the news, so I don't want to be somebody who speculates.Umbut I think it's clear that a displaced unstable population is what happens in Iraq, andhow Iraqsettles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East. And a big part ofwhat is goingto affect how it settles is how these people are returned and settled into theirhomes into theircommunity and brought back together and whether they can live together andwhat theircommunities look like, so it does have broad implications.
Damon: On a personal level why is this so important to you? You are willing to come here andriskyour life.
Jolie: Uh, it was an easy choice to make. I felt I had to come here because it is very difficult togetanswers about especially the internally displaced people. It's as I said even U.N.H.C.R. whoItraditionally work with, they are not able to be inside at the moment and so I was veryfrustratedand just getting a bunch of ideas and papers but not knowing what's really going on,so today I'mable to talk to all different people from our government and their government andreally get someanswers as to what is holding up the processes to really assist these peopleproperly.
Damon: Do you think that you in your position can try to push this process forward but,pressureperhaps on our government?
Jolie: To put pressure on our government?
Damon: Yes, so try to just put pressure in general create awareness?
Jolie: I certainly think creating awareness. I spoke to the officials from our governmenttodayabout meeting our goal, and they still intend to reach that goal. You know there are manydifferentpeople who can be cynical or say well how are they going to do it, and I will ask themhow are yougoing to do it and is there some way we can help to ... you know ...
Damon: Ok. Thank you, Angelina, for talking to us.
Jolie: Pleasure.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
News 1:
An Italian cash-strapped budget airline, Wind Jet,has suspendedall its flights, leaving hundredsof passengers stranded. At Romeairport, some200 Israeli nationals ─ who had been due to flytoTel Aviv ─ spent the night at the terminal.Another five flights todestinations across Italywere cancelled as well. Further chaos isexpected as some 300,000 passengers across Italyhavebooked tickets with Wind Jet incoming weeks. Alitalia, Italy's national airline,says it will helpWind Jetpassengers to find alternative flights, but only on payment of supplements.
News 2:
Researchers studying fossils from northern Kenya have identified a new species of humanthat livedtwo million years ago. The discoveries suggest that at least three distinct species ofhumans co-existed in Africa. The research has been published in the journal Nature.Anthropologists havediscovered three human fossils that are between 1.78 and 1.95 millionyears old. The specimensare of a face and two jawbones with teeth. The discoveries back theview that a skull found in1972 is of a separate species of human, known as Homorudolfensis.The skull was markedlydifferent to any others from that time. It had a relatively large brain andlong flat face. But for 40years the skull was the only example of the creature and so it wasimpossible to say for surewhether the individual was an unusual specimen or a member of anew species. With the discoveryof the three new fossils researchers can say with morecertainty that Homorudolfensis really was aseparate type of human that existed around twomillion years ago alongside other species ofhumans.
News 3:
Picasso's Nude Woman in a Red Armchair was covered up at the Edinburgh Airport. TheAirporthas reversed its decision to cover up a poster featuring a Picasso nude followingcomplaints. Theposter was advertising the Picasso and Modern British Art Exhibition at theScottish National Galleryof Modern Art. However, the airport decided to cover the image afterseveral complaints frompassengers in international arrivals. After gallery chiefs branded themove"bizarre", the airport hasbacked down and removed the cover. John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries ofScotland, said,"It is obviously bizarre that all kinds of imagesof women in various states of dressand undress can be used in contemporary advertisingwithout comment, but somehow a paintednude by one of the world's most famous artists isfound to be disturbing and has to be removed."I hope that the public will come and see thereal thing, which is a joyous and affectionate portraitof one of Picasso's favorite models, animage that has been shown around the world." AnEdinburgh Airport spokesperson said,"Wehave now reviewed our original decision and reinstatedthe image. And we are more thanhappy to display the image in the terminal and we'd like toapologize, particularly to theexhibition organizers, for the confusion."
人文知识答案
31.Montreal
32.Maoris
33. Anglicanism
34.1776
35.Ernest Hemingway
36.George Bernard Shaw
37.Geoffrey Chaucer
38.bare
39.Mary
40.Lion
1.把of去掉。
2.把possessed 改成 attracted，
3.把a改成 the
4.在 facts 和adults之间加个that，
5.把第二个the 去掉。
6.把第二个of 改成in
7.把attempts改成attempt
8.把or 改成 and
9.what改成 how
10.把touche改成touches
参考译文：
2014年3月专八真题翻译汉译英答案(网友回忆版)
When I was in primary school graduated, relatives and friendsconsistent want me to learnskills, good to help her mother. Iknow I should go to eat, to alleviate the suffering of hard-working mother. However, I would also like to study. I secretlyadmitted to the normal school --uniforms, meals, books,lodging, by the school supply. Only in this way, I dare tomotherascension learn. Admission.
2014年3月专八真题翻译英译汉答案(网友回忆版)
演说者与听众之间的实际距离通常来是用来传送演说内容的最佳途径但是同时可以表明很多问题。就拿距离的远近来说，近距离可以体现演说者和听众的一种亲密程度但同时对于演说者也是一种心灵上的震慑，相反，远距离会是一种较正式的提现但也可说是一种缺乏兴趣的表现。大致距离不仅仅是一种个人风格的提现同时也和个人的文化背景息息相关，因此在一种文化中所体现的演说者与听众之间适宜的距离在另一种文化中可能会被界定成一种过分亲近亦或过分的疏远。再比如，如在非正规的宴会中，双方之间紧贴的距离是一种适宜的表现但是如若是和高层领导洽谈，这样的距离就显得适得其反了。不仅仅是距离，姿势也会透露很多细节。俯身前倾，头部前伸是一种正面情绪的提现。但当和尊者沟通还伴随着时不时的眼神交流时，谦卑的低头在一些文化背景中却也是一种合适的氛围。
作文题目：My Views on Working from Home
作文范文：仅供参考，作文自己写
探讨工作是在家里好还是在办公地点好
按照专八写作的套路我们思路可以如下写作思路提示：文章可分为三部分，第一部分，提出问题，有些公司给员工提出方便，在家任务，在家任务视乎很温馨，自己自由支配时间，但实际上在家任务远没有想象的那么好，第二部分，剖析在家任务的弊病。容易懒散，需求自控才能较强，第三部分指出在单位任务的优点，我们需求与人沟通，协作，需求提升，自己的任务得到别人的认可第四部分总结一下。
范文：
Working from Home
Certain companies, especially some small-scale businesses, start to encourage their staff towork from home or use home as a working base for at least part of the week nowadays. Someoffer some form of remote working support to their work forces, such as equipping them withlaptops and installing broadband, and others pay for the telephone bills for these workers.
This work pattern is popular because it’s clear that there are a number of benefits for thesecompanies. First, it helps retain employees, especially highly- qualified working parents withchildcare responsibilities. Second, it brings higher productivity because the employees havefewer interruptions and less commuting time. Last but not least, it offers savings on premisesand other facilities.
However, there are some potential drawbacks. For one thing, there is difficulty of managinghomeworkers and monitoring their performance, and difficulty of maintaining staffdevelopment and upgrading skills. For another, it may create a sense of isolation among homeworkers and it can be harder to maintain team spirit. Therefore, enterprises should weigh thepros and cons before permitting their employees to work at home.
