1、06 英语专业八级真题及答案2006-4-19 9:17 【大 中 小】【打印】【我要纠错】PART II READING COMPREHENSION(30MIN)In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions.Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.TEXT AThe University in transformation, edi
2、ted by Australian futurists Sohail Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley, presents some 20 highly varied outlooks on tomorrows universities by writers representing both Western and mon-Western perspectives. Their essays raise a broad range of issues, questioning nearly every key assumption we have about h
3、igher education today.The most widely discussed alternative to the traditional campus is the Internet University - a voluntary community to scholars/teachers physically scattered throughout a country or around the world but all linked in cyberspace. A computerized university could have many advantag
4、es, such as easy scheduling, efficient delivery of lectures to thousands or even millions of students at once, and ready access for students everywhere to the resources of all the worlds great libraries.Yet the Internet University poses dangers, too. For example, a line of franchised courseware, pro
5、duced by a few superstar teachers, marketed under the brand name of a famous institution, and heavily advertised, might eventually come to dominate the global education market, warns sociology professor Peter Manicas of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Besides enforcing a rigidly standardized curr
6、iculum, such a “college education in a box“ could undersell the offerings of many traditional brick and mortar institutions, effectively driving then out of business and throwing thousands of career academics out of work, note Australian communications professors David Rooney and Greg Hearn.On the o
7、ther hand, while global connectivity seems highly likely to play some significant role in future higher education, that does not mean greater uniformity in course content - or other dangers - will necessarily follow. Counter-movements are also at work.Many in academia, including scholars contributin
8、g to this volume, are questioning the fundamental mission of university education. What if, for instance, instead of receiving primarily technical training and building their individual careers, university students and professors could focus their learning and research efforts on existing problems i
9、n their local communities and the world? Feminist scholar Ivana Milojevic dares to dream what a university might become “if we believed that child-care workers and teachers in early childhood education should be one of the highest (rather than lowest) paid professionals?“Co-editor Jennifer Gidley sh
10、ows how tomorrows university faculty, instead of giving lectures and conducting independent research, may take on three new roles. Some would act as brokers, assembling customized degree-credit programmes for individual students by mixing and matching the best course offerings available from institu
11、tions all around the world. A second group, mentors, would function much like todays faculty advisers, but are likely to be working with many more students outside their own academic specialty. This would require them to constantly be learning from their students as well as instructing them.A third
12、new role for faculty, and in Gidleys view the most challenging and rewarding of all, would be as meaning-makers: charismatic sages and practitioners leading groups of students/colleagues in collaborative efforts to find spiritual as well as rational and technological solutions to specific real-world
13、 problems.Moreover, there seems little reason to suppose that any one form of university must necessarily drive out all other options. Students may be “enrolled“ in courses offered at virtual campuses on the Internet, between -or even during - sessions at a real-world problem-focused institution.As
14、co-editor Sohail Inayatullah points out in his introduction, no future is inevitable, and the very act of imagining and thinking through alternative possibilities can directly affect how thoughtfully, creatively and urgently even a dominant technology is adapted and applied. Even in academia, the fu
15、ture belongs to those who care enough to work their visions into practical, sustainable realities.11. When the book reviewer discusses the Internet University,A. he is in favour of it.B. his view is balanced.C. he is slightly critical of it.D. he is strongly critical of it.12. Which of the following
16、 is NOT seen as a potential danger of the Internet University?A. Internet-based courses may be less costly than traditional ones.B. Teachers in traditional institutions may lose their jobs.C. internet-based courseware may lack variety in course content.D. The Internet University may produce teachers
17、 with a lot of publicity.13. According to the review, what is the fundamental mission of traditional university education?A. Knowledge learning and career building.B. Learning how to solve existing social problems.C. Researching into solutions to current world problems.D. Combining research efforts
18、of teachers and students in learning.14. Judging from the Three new roles envisioned for tomorrows university faculty, university teachersA, are required to conduct more independent research.B. are required to offer more course to their students C. are supposed to assume more demanding duties.D. are
19、 supposed to supervise more students in their specialty.15. Which category of writing does the review belong to?A. Narration.B. DescriptionC. persuasionD. Exposition.TEXT BEvery street had a story, every building a memory, Those blessed with wonderful childhoods can drive the streets of their hometo
20、wns and happily roll back the years. The rest are pulled home by duty and leave as soon as possible. After Ray Atlee had been in Clanton (his hometown) for fifteen minutes he was anxious to get out.The town had changed, but then it hadnt. On the highways leading in, the cheap metal buildings and mob
21、ile homes were gathering as tightly as possible next to the roads for maximum visibility. This town had no zoning whatsoever. A landowner could build anything wiih no permit no inspection, no notice to adjoining landowners. nothing. Only hog farms and nuclear reactors required approvals and paperwor
22、k. The result was a slash-and-build clutter that got uglier by the year.But in the older sections, nearer the square, the town had not changed at all The long shaded streets were as clean and neat as when Kay roamed them on his bike. Most of the houses were still owned by people he knew, or if those
23、 folks had passed on the new owners kept the lawns clipped and the shutters painted. Only a few were being neglected. A handful had been abandoned.This deep in Bible country, it was still an unwritten rule in the town that little was done on Sundays except go to church, sit on porches, visit neighbo
24、urs, rest and relax the way God intended.It was cloudy, quite cool for May, and as he toured his old turf, killing time until the appointed hour for the family meeting, he tried to dwell on the good memories from Clanton. There was Dizzy Dean Park where he had played little League for the Pirates, a
25、nd (here was the public pool hed swum in every summer except 1969 when the city closed it rather than admit black children. There were the churches - Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian - facing each other at the intersection of Second and Elm like wary sentries, their steeples competing for height
26、. They were empty now, hut in an hour or so the more faithful would gather for evening services.The square was as lifeless as the streets leading to it. With eight thousand people, Clanton was just large enough to have attracted the discount stores that had wiped out so many small towns. But here th
27、e people had been faithful to their downtown merchants, and there wasnt s single empty or boarded-up building around the square - no small miracle. The retail shops were mixed in with the banks and law offices and cafes, all closed for the Sabbath.He inched through the cemetery and surveyed the Atle
28、e section in the old part, where the tombstones were grander. Some of his ancestors had built monuments for their dead. Ray had always assumed that the family money hed never seen must have been buried in those graves. He parked and walked to his mothers grave, something he hadnt done in years. She
29、was buried among the Atlees, at the far edge of the family plot because she had barely belonged.Soon, in less than an hour, he would be sitting in his fathers study, sipping bad instant tea and receiving instructions on exactly how his father would be laid to rest. Many orders were about to be give,
30、 many decrees and directions, because his father(who used to be a judge) was a great man and cared deeply about how he was to be remembered.Moving again, Ray passed the water tower hed climbed twice, the second time with the police waiting below. He grimaced at his old high school, a place hed never
31、 visited since hed left it. Behind it was the football field where his brother Forrest had romped over opponents and almost became famous before getting bounced off the team.It was twenty minutes before five, Sunday, May 7. Time for the family meeting.16. From the first paragraph, we get the impress
32、ion thatA. Ray cherished his childhood memories.B. Ray had something urgent to take care of.C. Ray may not have a happy childhood.D. Ray cannot remember his childhood days.17. Which of the following adjectives does NOT describe Rays hometown?A. Lifeless.B. Religious.C. Traditional.D. Quiet.18. Form
33、the passage we can infer that the relationship between Ray and his parents wasA. close.B. remote.C. tense.D. impossible to tell.19. It can be inferred from the passage that Rays father was all EXCEPTA. considerate.B. punctual.C. thrifty.D. dominant.TEXT CCampaigning on the Indian frontier is an expe
34、rience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find their counterparts in any other portion of the globe. Valley walls rise steeply five or six thousand feet on every side. The columns crawl through a maze of giant corridors down which fierce snow-fed torrents foam under skies of brass. Amid
35、 these scenes of savage brilliancy there dwells a race whose qualities seem to harmonize with their environment. Except at harvest-time, when self-preservation requires a temporary truce, the Pathan tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theolo
36、gian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress made, it is true, only of sun-baked clay, but with battlements, turrets, loopholes, drawbridges, etc. complete. Every village has its defence. Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud. The numerous tribes and combinations of tribes
37、all have their accounts to settle with one another. Nothing is ever forgotten, and very few debts are left unpaid. For the purposes of social life, in addition to the convention about harvest-time, a most elaborate code of honour has been established and is on the whole faithfully observed. A man wh
38、o knew it and observed it faultlessly might pass unarmed from one end of the frontier to another. The slightest technical slip would, however, be fatal. The life of the Pathan is thus full of interest; and his valleys, nourished alike by endless sunshine and abundant water, are fertile enough to yie
39、ld with little labour the modest material requirements of a sparse population.Into this happy world the nineteenth century brought two new facts: the rifle and the British Government. The first was an enormous luxury and blessing; the second, an unmitigated nuisance. The convenience of the rifle was
40、 nowhere more appreciated than in the Indian highlands. A weapon which would kill with accuracy at fifteen hundred yards opened a whole new vista of delights to every family or clan which could acquire it. One could actually remain in ones own house and fire at ones neighbour nearly a mile away. One
41、 could lie in wait on some high crag, and at hitherto unheard-of ranges hit a horseman far below. Even villages could fire at each other without the trouble of going far from home. Fabulous prices were therefore offered for these glorious products of science. Rifle-thieves scoured all India to reinf
42、orce the efforts of the honest smuggler. A steady flow of the coveted weapons spread its genial influence throughout the frontier, and the respect which the Pathan tribesmen entertained for Christian civilization was vastly enhanced.The action of the British Government on the other hand was entirely
43、 unsatisfactory. The great organizing, advancing, absorbing power to the southward seemed to be little better than a monstrous spoil-sport. If the Pathan made forays into the plains, not only were they driven back (which after all was no more than fair), but a whole series of subsequent interference
44、s took place, followed at intervals by expeditions which toiled laboriously through the valleys, scolding the tribesmen and exacting fines for any damage which they had done. No one would have minded these expeditions if they had simply come, had a fight and then gone away again. In many cases this
45、was their practice under what was called the “butcher and bolt policy“ to which the Government of India long adhered. But towards the end of the nineteenth century these intruders began to make roads through many of the valleys, and in particular the great road to Chitral. They sought to ensure the
46、safety of these roads by threats, by forts and by subsidies. There was no objection to the last method so far as it went. But the whole of this tendency to road-making was regarded by the Pathans with profound distaste. All along the road people were expected to keep quiet, not to shoot one another,
47、 and above all not to shoot at travellers along the road. It was too much to ask, and a whole series of quarrels took their origin from this source.20. The word debts in “very few debts are left unpaid“ in the first paragraph meansA loans. B accounts Ckillings Dbargains.21. Which of the following is
48、 NOT one of the geographical facts about the Indian frontier?A. Melting snows. B. Large population.C. Steep hillsides. D. Fertile valleys.22. According to the passage, the Pathans welcomedA. the introduction of the rifle.B. the spread of British rule.C. the extension of luxuriesD. the spread of trade.23. Building roads by the BritishA. put an end to a whole series of quarrels.B. prevented the Pathans from earning on feuds.C. lessened the subsidies paid to the Pathans.D. gave the Pathans a much quieter life.24. A suitable title for the passage would beA. Campaigning on the Indian frontier.B. W
