英语专业八级考前拉力赛（4）_TEM8试题
proofread the given passage on answer sheet two as instructed.
part Ⅲ reading comprehension ［40 min.］
section a reading comprehension［30 min.］
in this section there are six reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice questions.read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
text a
a questionable conclusion
in the two decades between 1910 and 1930,over ten percent of the black population of the united states left the south,where the preponderance of the black population had been located,and migrated to northern states,with the largest number moving,it is claimed,between 1916 and 1918.it has been frequently assumed,but not proved,that the majority of the migrants in what has come to be called the great migration came from rural areas and were motivated by two concurrent factors:the collapse of the cotton industry following the boll weevil infestation,which began in 1898,and increased demand in the north for labor following the cessation of european immigration caused by the outbreak of the first world war in 1914.this assumption has led to the conclusion that the migrants’ subsequent lack of economic mobility in the north is tied to rural background,a background that implies unfamiliarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills.
but the question of who actually left the south has never been rigorously investigated.although numerous investigations document an exodus from rural southern areas to southern cities prior to the great migration,no one has considered whether the same migrants then moved on to northern cities.in 1910 over 600,000 black workers,or ten percent of the black work force,reported themselves to be engaged in “manufacturing and mechanical pursuits,”the federal census category roughly encompassing the entire industrial sector.the great migration could easily have been made up entirely of this group and their families.it is perhaps surprising to argue that an employed population could be enticed to move,but an explanation lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the south.
about thirty-five percent of the urban black population in the south was engaged in skilled trades.some were from the old artisan class of slavery blacksmiths,masons,carpenters which had had a monopoly on certain trades,but they were gradually being pushed out by competition,mechanization,and obsolescene.the remaining sixty-five percent,more recently urbanized,worked in newly developed industries—tobacco,lumber,coal and iron manufacture,and railroads.wages in the south,however,were low,and black workers were aware,through labor recruiters and the black press,that they could earn more even as unskilled workers in the north than they could as artisans in the south.after the boll weevil infestation,urban black workers faced competition from
the continuing influx of both black and white rural workers,who were driven to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs.thus,a move north would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already urbanized and steadily employed,and the easy conclusion tying their subsequent economic problems in the north to their rural background comes into question.
16.the primary purpose of the passage is to .
a.challenge a widely accepted explanation
b.introduce a recently discovered source of information
c.argue that a discarded theory deserves new attention
d.support an alternative to an accepted methodology
17.the author cites each of the following as possible influences in a black worker’s decision to migrate north in the great migration except
text b
life stories
at the end of the nineteenth century,a rising interest in native american customs and an increasing desire to understand native american culture prompted ethnologists to begin recording the life stories of native american.ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories:they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations,and they believed that the personal stories,even of a single individual,could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without.in addition, many ethnologists at the turn of the century believed that native american manners and customs were rapidly disappearing,and that it was important to preserve for posterity as much information as could be adequately recorded before the cultures disappeared forever.
there were,however,arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information.franz boas,for example,described autobiographies as being “of limited value,and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,”while paul radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing,and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable.
even more importantly,as these life stories moved from the traditional oral mode to recorded written form,much was inevitably lost.editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe.native americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in english and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers.indeed,the very act of telling their stories could force native american narrators to distort their cultures,as taboos had to be broken to speak the names of dead relatives crucial to their family stories.
despite all of this,autobiography remains a useful tool for ethnological research:such personal reminiscences and impressions,incomplete as they may be,are likely to throw more light on the working of the&nbs
p;mind and emotions than any amount of speculation from an ethnologist or ethnological theorist from another culture.
18.the author writes the passage to____ .
a.correct a misconception b.question an explanation
c.clarify an ambiguity d.critique a methodology
19.according to this passage,which of the following can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?
a.the length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study.
b.the verifiability of the information provided by the research informants.
c.the number of life stories collected by the researchers.
d.the informants’ social standing within the culture.
text c
three groups of consumers
it can be argued that much consumer dissatisfaction with marketing strategies arises from an inability to aim advertising at only the likely buyers of a given product.there are three groups of consumers who are affected by the marketing process.first,there is the market segment-people who need the commodity in question.second,there is the program target-people in the market segment with the “best fit” characteristics for a specific product.lots of people may need trousers,but only a few quality as likely buyers of very expensive designer trousers.finally,there is the program audience—all people who are actually exposed to the marketing program without regard to whether they need or want the product.
these three groups are rarely identical.an exception occurs occasionally in cases where customers for a particular industrial product may be few and easily identifiable.such customers,all sharing a particular need,are likely to form a meaningful target,for example,all companies with a particular application of the product in question,such as high-speed fillers of bottles at breweries.in such circumstances,direct selling (marketing that reaches only the program target) is likely to be economically justified,and highly specialized trade media exist to expose members of the program target—and only members of the program target—to the marketing program.
most consumer-goods markets are significantly different.typically,there are many rather than few potential customers.each represents a relatively small percentage of potential sales.rarely do members of a particular market segment group themselves neatly into a meaningful program target.there are substantial differences among consumers with similar demographic characteristics.even with all the past decade's advances in information technology,direct selling of consumer goods is rare,and mass marketing—a marketing approach that aims at a wide audience—remains the only economically feasible mode.unfortunately,there are few media that allow the marketer to direct a marketing program exclusively to the program target.inevitably,people get exposed to a great deal of marketing for products in which they have no interest and so they become annoyed.
20.the passage suggests which of the following about highly specialized trade media?
a.they are used only for very expensive products.
b.they should be used only when direct selling is not economically feasible.
c.they can be used to exclude from the program audience people who are not part of the program target.
d.they are used only when direct selling has not reached the appropriate market segment.
21.which of the following best exemplifies the situation described in the last two sentences of the passage?
a.a product suitable for men aged 60 and over is advertised in a magazine read by adults of all ages.
b.a product suitable for women aged 21-30 is marketed at meetings attended only by potential customers.
c.a new product is developed and marketers collect demographic data on potential consumers before developing a specific advertising campaign.
d.a company develops a new product and must develop an advertising campaign to creat a market for it.
22.it can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true for most consumer-goods markets?
a.the program audience is smaller than the market segment.
b.the program target is larger than the market segment.
c.the market segment and the program target are usually identical.
d.the program target and the program audience are not usually identical.
text d
temporary employment
some observers have attributed the dramatic growth in temporary employment that occurred in the united states during the 1980's to increased participation in the workforce by certain groups,such as firsttime or reenter
ing workers,who supposedly prefer such arrangements.however,statistical analyses reveal that demographic changes in the workforce did not correlate with variations in the total number of temporary workers.instead,these analyses suggest that factors affecting employers account for the rise in temporary employment.one factor is product demand:temporary employment is favored by employers who are adapting to fluctuating demand for products while at the same time seeking to reduce overall labor costs.another factor is labor's reduced bargaining strength,which allows employers more control over the terms of employment.given the analyses,which reveal that growth in temporary employment now far exceeds the level explainable by recent workforce entry rates of groups said to prefer temporary jobs,firms should be discouraged from creating excessive numbers of temporary positions.government policymakers should consider mandating benefit coverage for temporary employees,promoting pay equity between temporary and permanent workers,assisting labor unions in organizing temporary workers,and encouraging firms to assign temporary jobs primarily to employees who explicitly indicate that preference.
23.the first sentence in the passage suggests that the observers mentioned in line 1 would be most likely to predict which of the following?
a.that the total number of temporary positions would increase as fewer workers were able to find permanent positions
b.that employers would have less control over the terms of workers' employment as workers increased their bargaining stre-ngth.
c.that more workers would be hired for temporary positions as product demand increased.
d.that the number of workers taking temporary positions would increase as more workers in any given demographic group entered the workforce.
24.the passage mentions each of the following as an appropriate kind of governmental action except____.
a.encouraging equitable pay for temporary and permanent employees
b.getting firms to offer temporary employment primarily to a certain group of people
c.ensuring that temporary workers obtain benefits from their employers
d.faciliating the organization of temporary workers by labor unions
text e
policeman as a writer
i decided to begin the term's work with the short story since that form would be the easiest for the police officers,not only because most of their reading up to then had probably been in that genre,but also because a study of the reaction of people to various situations was something they relied on in their daily work.for instance,they had to be able to predict how others would react to their directives and interventions before deciding on their own form of action;they had to be able to take in the details of a situation quickly and correctly before intervening.no matter how factual and sparse police reports may seem to us,they must make use of a selection of vital detail,similar to that which a writer of a short story has to make.
this was taught to me by one of my students,a captain,at the end of the term.i had begun the study of the short story by stressing the differences between a factual report,such as a scientist's or a policeman's report,and the presentation of a creative writer.while a selection of necessary details is involved in both,the officer must remain neutral and clearly try to present a picture of the facts,while the artist usually begins with a preconceived message or attitude which is then transmitted through the use of carefully selected details of action described in words intended to provoke associations and emotional reactions in the reader.only at the end of the term did the captain point out to me that he and his men also try to evaluate the events they describe and that their description of a sequence of events must of necessity be structured and colored by their understanding of what has taken place.
the policemen's reactions to events and characters in the stories were surprisingly unprejudiced...they did not object to writers whose stories had to do with their protagonist's rebellion against society's accepted values.nor did stories in which the strong father becomes the villain and in which our usual ideals of manhood are turned around offend them.the many hunters among my students readily granted the message in those hunting tales in which sensitivity triumphs over male aggressiveness,stories that show the boy becoming a man because he fails to shoot the deer,goose,or catbird.the only characters they did object to were those they thought unrealistic.as the previous class had done,this one also excelled in interpreting the ways in which characters reveal themselves,subtly manipulate and influence each other;they,too,understood how the story usually saves its insight,its revelation,for the end.
this almost instinctive grasp of the writing of fiction was revealed when the policemen volunteered to write their own short st
ories.they not only took great pains with plot and character,but with style and language.the stories were surprisingly well written,revealing an understanding of what a solid short story must contain:the revelation of character,the use of background description and language to create atmosphere and mood,the need to sustain suspense and get make each event as it occurs seem natural,the insight achieved either by the characters in the story or the reader or both.they tended to favor surprise endings.some stories were sheer fantasies,or derived from previous reading,films,or television shows.most wrote stories,obviously based on their own experiences,that revealed the amazing distance they must put between their personal lives and their work,which is part of the training for being a good cop.these stories,as well as their discussions of them,showed how coolly they judged their own weaknesses as well as the humor with which they accepted some of the difficulties or injustices of existence.despite their authors' unmistakable sense of irony and awareness of corruption,these stories demonstrated how clearly,almost naively,these police men wanted to continue to believe in some of the so-called american virtues—that courage is worth the effort and will be admired;that hard work will be rewarded;that life is somehow good;and that,despite the weariness,boredom,and occasional ugliness and danger,despite all their dislike of most of their routine and despite their own occasional grousing and complaints,they somehow did like being cops;that life,even in a chaotic and violent world,is worth it after all.
25.compared to the artist,the policeman is____.
a.aggressive and not passive b.factual and not fanciful
c.neutral and not prejudiced d.a man of action,not words
26.like writers,poliemen must____.
a.analyze situations b.have an artistic bent
c.behave coolly d.intervene quickly
27.according to the author,policemen view their profession as ____.
a.dangerous but adventuresome b.full of corruption
c.full of routine d.worth the effort
text f
business in literature
literature is at once the most intimate and the most articulate of the arts.it cannot impart its effect through the senses or the nerves as the other arts can;it is beautiful only through the intelligence;it is the mind speaking to the mind;until it has been put into absolute terms,of an invariable significance,it does not exist at all.it cannot awaken this emotion in one,and that in another;if it fails to express precisely the meaning of the author,if it does not say him,it says nothing,and is nothing.so that when a poet has put his heart,much or little,into a poem,and sold it to a magazine,the scandal is greater than when a painter has sold a picture to a patron,or a sculptor has modelled a statue to order.these are artists less articulate and less intimate than the poet;they are more exterior to their work;they are less personally in it;they part with less of themselves in the dicker.it does not change the nature of the case to say that tennyson and longfellow and emerson sold the poems in which they couched the most mystical messages their genius was charged to bear mankind.they submitted to the conditions which none can escape;but that does not justify the conditions,which are none the less the conditions of hucksters because they are imposed upon poets.if it will serve to make my meaning a little clearer,we will suppose that a poet has been crossed in love,or has suffered some real sorrow,like the loss of a wife or child.he pours out his broken heart in verse that shall bring tears of sacred sympathy from his readers,and an editor pays him a hundred dollars for the right of bringing his verse to their notice.it is perfectly true that the poem was not written for these dollars,but it is perfectly true that it was sold for them.the poet must use his emotions to pay his provision bills;he has no other means;society does not propose to pay his bills for him.yet,and at the end of the ends,the unsophisticated witness finds the transaction ridiculous,finds it repulsive,finds it shabby.somehow he knows that if our huckstering civilization did not at every moment violate the eternal finess of things,the poet's song would have been given to the world,and the poet would have been cared for by the whole human brotherhood,as any man should be who does the duty that every man owes it.
the instinctive sense of the dishonor which money purchase does to art is so strong that sometimes a man of letters who can pay his way otherwise refuses pay for his work,as lord bryron did,for a while,from a noble pride,and as count tolstoy has tried to do,from a noble conscience.but byron's publisher profited by a generosity which did not reach his readers;and the countess tolstoy collects the copyright which her husband foregoes;so that these two eminent instances of protest against business in literature may be said not to have shake
n its money basis.i know of no others;but there may be many that i am culpably ignorant of.still,i doubt if there are enough to affect the fact that literature is bussiness as well as art,and almost as soon.at present business is the only human solidarity;we are all bound together with that chain,whatever interests and tastes and principles separate us.
28.the author implies that writers are____.
a.hucksters b.profiting against their will
c.incompetent businessmen d.not sufficiently paid for their work
29.according to the author,lord byron.
a.refused payment for his work b.was well known in the business community
c.did not copyright his work d.combined business with literature
30.the author of the passage implies that.
a.writers should rebel against the business system
b.writers should not attempt to change society
c.society should subsidize artists and writers
d.more writers should follow the example set by lord byron
paper two
time limit：［120 min.］
part Ⅳ translation ［60 min.］
section a chinese to english
translate the following underlined part of the text into english.write your translation on answer sheet three.
藏文翻译事业随着西藏改革开放和现代化建设事业的发展而得到迅速发展。1993年成立了西藏翻译工作者协会，并先后成立了拉萨市和日喀则地区分会；共举办了7期翻译培训班，培训337人次；1994年在西藏举办了全国第二次暨西藏首届藏翻译学术研讨会，并先后派人员参加了在北京、青海、甘肃、新疆等地举办的全国性翻译学术研讨会和在澳大利亚、韩国等国举办的世界翻译大会以及亚洲翻译论坛等学术活动。据不完全统计，目前西藏从事藏文翻译工作的有1000人左右，担负着法律、新闻、、科技、、文学、医学、影视等多种学科领域的繁重翻译任务，每年要完成3000多万字的翻译量。翻译工作在西藏各项事业中发挥着不可替代的作用，有力地捉进了藏的学习、使用和发展。
section b english to chinese
translate the following underlined part of the text into chinese.write your translation on answer sheet three.
before keynes,economists were gloomy naysayers.“nothing can be done”，“ don't interfere,” “it will never work,”they intoned with eeyore——like pessimism.but keynes was an unswerving optimist.of course we can lick unemployment!there is no reason to put up with recessions and depressions!the “economic problem is not ——if we look into the future——the permanent problem of the human race,”he wrote.
keynes was born in cambridge,england,in 1883.his father john neville keynes was a noted cambridge economist.his mother florence ada keynes became mayor of cambridge.young john was a brilliant student but didn't immediately aspire to either acadmic or public life.he wanted to run a railroad.“it is so easy... and fascinating to master the principles of these things,”he told a friend,with his usual modesty.but no railroad came along,and keynes ended up taking the civil service exam.his lowest mark was in economics.“i evidently knew more about economics than my examiners.”he later explained.
keynes was posted to the india office,but the civil service proved deadly dull,and he soon left.he lectured at cambridge,edited an influential journal and socialized with his bloomsbury friends,surrounded himself with artists and writers and led an altogether dilettantish life until archduke francis ferdinand of austria was assassinated in sarajevo, and europe was plunged into world war i.keynes was called to britain's treasury to work on overseas finances,where he quickly shone.even his artistic tastes came in handy.he figured a way to balance the french accounts by having britain's national gallery buy paintings by manet,corot and delacroix at bargain prices.
part Ⅴ writing［60 min.］
nowadays,it's a quite common phenomenon that people dining out in restaurants tend to order more food than they can eat to show their generosity or hospitality.
you are to write a composition in no less than 300 words,on the above topic.marks will be awarded for content,organization,grammar and appropriatness.write your response on answer sheet four.