专四专八考试 题目列表
Ask an American schoolchild what he or she is learning in school these days and you might even get a reply, provided you ask it in Spanish. But don't bother, here's the answer: Americans nowadays are not learning any of the things that we learned in our day, like reading and writing. Apparently these are considered fusty old subjects, invented by white males to oppress women and minorities.What are they learning? In a Vermont college town I found the answer sitting in a toy store book rack, next to typical kids' books like Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy Is Dysfunctional. It's a teacher's guide called Happy To Be Me, subtitled Building Self Esteem.Self-esteem, as it turns out, is a big subject in American classrooms. Many American schools see building it as important as teaching reading and writing. They call it "whole language" teaching, borrowing terminology from the granola people to compete in the education marketplace.No one ever spent a moment building my self-esteem when I was in school. In fact, from the day I first stepped inside a classroom my self-esteem was one big demolition site. All that mattered was "the subject", be it geography, history, or mathematics. I was praised when I remembered that "near", "fit", "friendly", "pleasing", "like" and their opposites took the dative case in Latin. I was reviled when I forgot what a cosine was good for. Generally I lived my school years beneath a torrent of castigation so consistent I eventually ceased to hear it, as people who live near the sea eventually stop hearing the waves.Schools have changed. Reviling is out, for one thing. More important, subjects have changed. Whereas I learned English, modern kids learn something called "language skills." Whereas I learned writing, modern kids learn something called "communication". Communication, the book tells us, is seven per cent words, 23 per cent facial expression, 20 per cent tone of voice, and 50 per cent body language. So this column, with its carefully chosen words, would earn me at most a grade of seven per cent. That is, if the school even gave out something as oppressive and demanding as grades.The result is that, in place of English classes, American children are getting a course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Consider the new attitude toward journal writing: I remember one high school English class when we were required to keep a journal. The idea was to emulate those great writers who confided in diaries, searching their souls and honing their critical thinking on paper."Happy To Be Me" states that journals are a great way for students to get in touch with their feelings. Tell students they can write one sentence or a whole page. Reassure them that no one, not even you, will read what they write. After the unit, hopefully all students will be feeling good about themselves and will want to share some of their entries with the class.There was a time when no self-respecting book for English teachers would use "great" or "hopefully" that way. Moreover, back then the purpose of English courses (an antique term for "Unit") was not to help students "feel good about themselves." Which is good, because all that reviling didn't make me feel particularly good about anything.Which of the following is the author implying in paragraph 5?A．Self-criticism has gone too far.B．Communication is a more comprehensive category than language skills.C．Evaluating criteria are inappropriate nowadays.D．This column does not meet the demanding evaluation criteria of today.
Charles does not like customers who ______.A．are very rudeB．keep talking to him when he is busyC．only buy small thingsD．bargain with him too much
According to Charles, people send messages via facsimile because ______.A．it is cheaper and faster than ordinary mailB．it can send things that could not be expressed by telexC．it is faster and not much more expensive than mailD．the Royal Mail could not reach places abroad
Judging from the passage, the author ______.A．suggests that New Castle is fortunateB．wonders at Wilmington's prosperityC．regrets that the two places should have become so differentD．thinks that Wilmington should not tear down old houses
He bought a photocopier ______.A．by accidentB．because he couldn't find a place to make a photocopyC．because there was no place nearby to provide the photocopy serviceD．because all sorts of people need it
What is Wilmington like now?A．It's a prosperous city.B．It has many veterans of war.C．Its pretty buildings have been torn down.D．It is no longer an agreeable place.
SECTION B INTERVIEWDirections: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.Now listen to the interview.听力原文：Interviewer: Well Charles, I must say that your shop is pretty remarkable. Um, it's basically a sweetshop, but you also do stationery and greeting cards and tobacco and fireworksShopkeeper: And newspapers.Interviewer: And newspapers. Ah. And apart from all that, you've got photocopiers...Shopkeeper: That's right.Interviewer: And a fax machine.Shopkeeper: Indeed.Interviewer: Yes. How did. I mean, why the photocopiers?Shopkeeper: Everything that's happened in my shop has almost happened by accident. But when I got into Clifton, I needed a photocopy one day and no one could tell me where to go. So it struck me that if I didn't know where to go, other people were in the same situation, so that's why I started it. And then I added on a facsimile machine because it seemed like a natural progression at the time. And all sorts of people use it.Interviewer: Yes, who, what sort of people do use it?Shopkeeper: Um, a lot of professional people —surveyors, engineers — particularly people who need to send plans. Because in the past you could send messages via telex, but a telex can't express a plan, whereas facsimile has that dimension, the added dimension.Interviewer: Right. And do people send these fax messages abroad, or is it just to this country?Shopkeeper: Well, it's surprising because when I started, I thought I'd be sending things to London and maybe Birmingham but, in fact, a high percentage of it is sent abroad, because it's immediate, it's very speedy. You can send a message and get an answer back very quickly.Interviewer: And how much would it cost, for example, if I wanted to send a fax to the United States?Shopkeeper: Well, a fax to the United States would cost you five pounds for a page. And when you think that in England by the Royal Mail, it would cost you twelve pounds to send a page by special delivery, it's actually a good value.Interviewer: OK. What about your hours? How long do you have to spend actually in the shop?Shopkeeper: Well, the shop is open from, essentially from eight in the morning until six at night, six days a week, and then a sort of fairly flexible morning on a Sunday. Um, and of those hours, I'm in it quite a lot.Interviewer: And how long have you actually had the shop?Shopkeeper: I started to have my shop in 1982, the 22nd of December, oh, sorry, the 22nd of November. It sticks in my brain.Interviewer: And did you enjoy it?Shopkeeper: Yes, overall I enjoy it. Running a business by yourself is jolly hard work and you never quite like every aspect all the time. 95% of the customers I love. Uh, 2% I really, you know, I'm not too bothered about. And 3% I positively hate.Interviewer: What, What's the problem with those? Are they people who stay around and talk to you when you're busy or complain or what?Shopkeeper: Um, it's bard to categorize really. I find people who are just totally rude, urn, unnecessary, and I don't really need their custom. And I suppose they form. the volume of the people that I don't like. But it's a very, very, very small percentage.Interviewer: But is there a danger that shops like yours will disappear, more and more?Shopkeeper" I think there's a very, very great danger that the majority of them will disappear.Interviewer: Why's that?Shopkeeper: Simply because costs of running a shop have just become very, very high. To give you some example, in the time that I've been there, my rent has quadrupled, the local property tax have doubled, other costs have gone up proportionately. And at the end of the day it is a little bit hard to try to keep uA．cigarettesB．exercise booksC．photocopiersD．chocolates
What does the author mean by the word "progress" in this passage?A．Urbanization.B．Economic growth.C．Cultural development.D．Increase of population.
During the first half of the seventeenth century, when the nations of Europe were quarreling over who owned the New World, the Dutch and the Swedes founded competing villages ten miles apart on the Delaware River. Not long afterward, the English took over both places and gave them new names, New Castle and Wilmington.For a century and a half the two villages grew rapidly, but gradually Wilmington gained all the advantages. It was a little closer to Philadelphia, so when new textile mills opened, they opened in Wilmington, not in New Castle. There was plenty of water power from rivers and creeks at Wilmington, so when young Irenee DuPont chose a place for his gunpowder mill, it was Wilmington he chose, not New Castle. Wilmington became a town and then a city —a rather important city, much the largest in Delaware. And New Castle, bypassed by the highways and waterways that made Wilmington prosperous, slept ten miles south on the Delaware River. No two villages with such similar pasts could have gone such separate ways. Today no two pieces could be more different.Wilmington, with its expressways and parking lots and all its other concrete ribbons and badges, is a tired old veteran of the industrial wars and wears a vacant stare. Block after city block where people used to live and shop is broken and empty.New Castle never had to make way for progress and therefore never had any reason to tear down its seventeenth-and eighteenth-century houses. So they are still here, standing in tasteful rows under ancient elms around the original town green. New Castle is still an agreeable place to live. The pretty buildings of its quiet past make a serene setting for the lives of 4,800 people. New Castle may be America's loveliest town, but it is not an important town at all. Progress passed it by.Poor New Castle.Lucky Wilmington.Which is the major factor that made the difference between Wilmington and New Castle?A．Convenience for traffic.B．The Delaware River.C．The investment of Irenee DuPont.D．The textiles mills.
According to Bloomfield, meaning can be defined in terms of observable stimuli and responses made by participants in specific situations. This view of meaning is known as ______.A．contextualismB．behaviorismC．functionalismD．conceptualism
Which of the following does not contain a non-finite clause?A．He swims in the river every day.B．Do you mind my shutting the door?C．It's been nice talking to you.D．There being nothing to do, he left.