2016英语专八

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QUESTION BOOKLET

TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2016) -GRADE EIGHT TIME LIMIT: 150 MIN

PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN] SECTION A MINI-LECTURE

In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY.

While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET

ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you

fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet

for note-taking.

You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check

your work.

SECTION B INTERVIEW

In this section you will hear ONE interview. The interview will be divided into TWO parts. At

the end of each part, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the interview and

the questions will be spoken ONCE ONLY. After each question there will be a ten-second

pause. During the pause, you should read the four choices of A, B, C and D, and mark the best

answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.

You have THIRTY seconds to preview the questions. Now, listen to the Part One of the interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on Part One of the

interview.

1. A. Maggie ’s university life. B. Her mom ’s life at Harvard.

C. Maggie’s view on studying with Mom. D. Maggie ’s opinion on her mom ’s major. 2

2. A. They take exams in the same weeks. B. They have similar lecture notes. C. They apply for the same internship. D. They follow the same fashion. 3. A. Having roommates. B. Practicing court trails. C. Studying together. D. Taking notes by hand. 4. A. Protection. B. Imagination. C. Excitement. D. Encouragement.

5. A. Thinking of ways to comfort Mom. B. Occasional interference from Mom. C. Ultimately calls when Maggie is busy. D. Frequent check on Maggie ’s grades.

Now, listen to the Part Two of the interview. Questions 6 to 10 are based on Part Two of the

interview.

6. A. Because parents need to be ready for new jobs.

B. Because parents love to return to college. C. Because kids require their parents to do so. D. Because kids find it hard to adapt to college life. 7. A. Real estate agent. B. Financier. C. Lawyer. D. Teacher. 8. A. Delighted. B. Excited. C. Bored. D. Frustrated. 3

9. A. How to make a cake. B. How to make omelets. C. To accept what is taught. D. To plan a future career. 10. A. Unsuccessful. B. Gradual. C. Frustrating. D. Passionate.

PART II READING COMPREHENSION [45 MIN] SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

In this section there are three passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions. For each

multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one

that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.

PASSAGE ONE

(1)There was music from my neighbor ’hosu se through the

summer nights. In his blue

gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and

the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft or

taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the

Sound, drawing aquaplanes（滑水板）over cataracts of foam. On weekends Mr. Gatsby’s

Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the

morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to

meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with

scrubbing-brushes and hammer and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.

(2)Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from

a fruiterer in New York –

every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.

There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half

an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler ’s thumb.

(3)At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of

canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby ’s enormgaorudse n. On

buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvr（e冷盘）, spiced baked hams crowded

against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the

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main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with

cordials （加香甜酒）so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know

one from another.

(4)By seven o ’clock the orchestra has arrive–d no thin five-piece affair but a whole pitful

of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high

drums. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars

from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas

are gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the

dreams of Castile. The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden

outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions

forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other ’s

names.

(5)The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun and now the orchestra is

playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches

a key higher. Laughter is easier,

minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.

(6)The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same

breath –already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there among the

stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the center of a group and then

excited with triumph glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the

constantly changing light.

(7)Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it

down for courage and moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on the canvas platform. A

momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her and there is a burst of

chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray ’s understudy from the Folies.

The party has begun.

(8)I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby ’s house I was one of the few guests who

had actually been invited. People were not invited –they went there. They got into automobiles

which bore them out to Long Island and somehow they ended up at Gatsby ’s door. Once there

they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves

according to the rules of behavior associated with

amusement parks. Sometimes they came and

went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its

own ticket of admission.

(9)I had been actually invited. A chauffeur in a uniform crossed my lawn early that

Saturday morning with a surprisingly formal note from his employer –the honor would be

entirely Gatsby ’s, it said, if I would attend his “little party ”that night. He had seen me several

times and had intended to call on me long before but a peculiar combination of circumstances

had prevented it –signed Jay Gatsby in a majestic hand. 5

(10)Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven and wandered

around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know –though here and

there was a face I had noticed on the commuting train. I was immediately struck by the number

of young Englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry and all talking in

low earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans. I was sure that they were selling

something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were, at least, agonizingly aware of the

easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.

(11)As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people of

whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied so vehemently

any knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table –the only

place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone.

11. It can be inferred form Para. 1 that Mr. Gatsby ______ through the summer.

A. entertained guests from everywhere every weekend B. invited his guests to ride in his Rolls-Royce at weekends C. liked to show off by letting guests ride in his vehicles D. indulged himself in parties with people from everywhere 12. In Para.4, the word “permeate”probably means ______. A. perish B. push C. penetrate D. perpetrate

13. It can be inferred form Para. 8 that ______.

A. guests need to know Gatsby in order to attend his parties B. people somehow ended up in Gatsby’s house as guests C. Gatsby usually held garden parties for invited guests D. guests behaved themselves in a rather formal manner 14. According to Para. 10, the author felt ______ at Gatsby ’s party.

A. dizzy B. dreadful C. furious D. awkward 6

15. What can be concluded from Para.11 about Gatsby?

A. He was not expected to be present at the parties. B. He was busy receiving and entertaining guests. C. He was usually out of the house at the weekend. D. He was unwilling to meet some of the guests. PASSAGE TWO

(1)The Term “CYBERSPACE”was coined by William Gibson, a science -fiction writer. He

first used it in a short story in 1982, and expanded on it a couple of years later in a novel,

“Neuromancer ”, whose main character, Henryo Drsett Case, is a troubled computer hacker and

drug addict. In the book Mr Gibson describes cyberspace as “a consensual hallucination

experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators a”nd “ag raphic representation of data

abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. ”

(2)His literary creation turned out to be remarkably prescient （有先见之明的）. Cyberspace

has become shorthand for the computing devices, networks, fibre-optic cables, wireless links and

other infrastructure that bring the internet to billions of people around the world. The myriad

connections forged by these technologies have brought tremendous benefits to everyone who

uses the web to tap into humanity ’s collective store of knowledge every day.

(3)But there is a darker side to this extraordinary invention. Data breaches are becoming

ever bigger and more common. Last year over 800m records

were lost, mainly through such

attacks. Among the most prominent recent victims has been Target, whose chief executive,

Gregg Steinhafel, stood down from his job in May, a few months after the giant American

retailer revealed that online intruders had stolen millions of digital records about its customers,

including credit- and debit-card details. Other well-known firms such as Adobe, a tech company,

and eBay, an online marketplace, have also been hit. (4) The potential damage, though, extends well beyond such commercial incursions. Wider

concerns have been raised by the revelations about the mass surveillance carried out by Western

intelligence agencies made by Edward Snowden, a contractor to America ’Nsa tional Security

Agency (NSA), as well as by the growing numbers of cyber-warriors being recruited by

countries that see cyberspace as a new domain of warfare. America ’s president, Barack Obama,

said in a White House press release earlier this year that cyber- threats “pose one of the gravest

national- security dangers ”the country is facing.

(5)Securing cyberspace is hard because the architecture of the internet was designed to

promote connectivity, not security. Its founders focused on getting it to work and did not worry

much about threats because the network was affiliated with America ’ms ilitary. As hackers

turned up, layers of security, from antivirus programs to

firewalls, were added to try to keep

them at bay. Gartner, a research firm, reckons that last year organizations around the globe spent

$67 billion on information security. 7

(6)On the whole, these defenses have worked reasonably well. For all the talk about the risk

of a “cyber 9/11 ”, the internet has proved remarkably resilient. Hundreds of millions of people

turn on their computers every day and bank online, shop at virtual stores, swap gossip and

photos with their friends on social networks and send all kinds of sensitive data over the web

without ill effect. Companies and governments are shifting ever more services online.

(7)But the task is becoming harder. Cyber-security, which involves protecting both data and

people, is facing multiple threats, notably cybercrime and online industrial espionage, both of

which are growing rapidly. A recent estimate by the Centre for Strategic and International

Studies (CSIS), puts the annual global cost of digital crime and intellectual-property theft at

$445 billion –a sum roughly equivalent to the GDP of a smallish rich European country such as

Austria.

(8)To add to the worries, there is also the risk of cyber-sabotage. Terrorists or agents of

hostile powers could mount attacks on companies and systems that control vital parts of an

economy, including power stations, electrical grids and communications networks. Such attacks

are hard to pull off, but not impossible. One precedent is the destruction in 2010 of centrifuges

（离心机）at a nuclear facility in Iran by a computer program known as Stuxnet.

(9)But such events are rare. The biggest day-to-day threats faced by companies and

government agencies come from crooks and spooks hoping to steal financial data and trade

secrets. For example, smarter, better-organized hackers are making life tougher for the

cyber-defenders, but the report will argue that even so a number of things can be done to keep

everyone safer than they are now.

(10)One is to ensure that organizations get the basics of cyber-security right. All too often

breaches are caused by simple blunders, such as failing to separate systems containing sensitive

data from those that do not need access to them. Companies also need to get better at

anticipating where attacks may be coming from and at adapting their defences swiftly in

response to new threats. Technology can help, as can industry

initiatives that allow firms to share intelligence about risks with each other.

(11)There is also a need to provide incentives to improve cyber-security, be they carrots or

sticks. One idea is to encourage internet-service providers, or

the companies that manage

internet connections, to shoulder more responsibility for identifying and helping to clean up

computers infected with malicious software. Another is to find ways to ensure that software

developers produce code with fewer flaws in it so that hackers have fewer security holes to

exploit.

(12)An additional reason for getting tech companies to give a higher priority to security is

that cyberspace is about to undergo another massive change. Over the next few years billions of

new devices, from cars to household appliances and medical equipment, will be fitted with tiny

computers that connect them to the web and make them more useful. Dubbed “the internet things ”th,i s is already making it possible, for example, to control home appliances using

smartphone apps and to monitor medical devices remotely. 8

(13)But unless these systems have adequate security protection, the internet of things could

easily become the internet of new things to be hacked. Plenty of people are eager to take

advantage of any weaknesses they may spot. Hacking used to be about geeky college kids

tapping away in their bedrooms to annoy their elders. It has grown up with a vengeance.

16. Cyberspace is described by William Gibson as ______. A. a function only legitimate computer operators have

B. a representation of data from the human system C. an important element stored in the human system D. an illusion held by the common computer users

17. Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the meaning of the first four

paragraphs?

A. Cyberspace has more benefits than defects. B. Cyberspace is like a double-edged sword. C. Cyberspace symbolizes technological advance. D. Cyberspace still remains a sci-fi notion.

18. According to Para. 5, the designing principles of the internet and cyberspace security are

______.

A. controversial B. complimentary C. contradictory D. congruent

19. What could be the most appropriate title for the passage? A. Cyber Crime and Its Prevention. B. The Origin of Cyber Crime. C. How to Deal with Cyber Crime. D. The Definition of Cyber Crime. PASSAGE THREE

(1)You should treat skeptically the loud cries now coming from colleges and universities

that the last bastion of excellence in American education is being gutted by state budget cuts and

mounting costs. Whatever else it is, higher education is not a bastion of excellence. It is shot

through with waste, lax academic standards and mediocre

teaching and scholarship.

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