1999年英语专业八级考试真题听力MP3下载附试题和答案文本

     The Japanese carriers have to compete in the Asian marketplace with others, and costs cannot simply be passed on to the consumer or taxpayer. The people who really pay the price or reap the reward of differing cost levels are the share holders.
                                  RICHARD. T. STIRLAND
                                    Director General
                                    Orient Airlines Association

TEXT I

First read the questions.

35. Today’s computers can process data ___ times faster than the 1952 model, ILLIAC.
A. 4       B. 100       C. 200       D. 4, 000

36. NCSA aims to develop ___.
A. a new Internet browser
B. a more powerful national system
C. human-computer intelligence interaction
D. a new global network

Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer questions 35 and 36.

     URBANA, Illinois. Welcome to Cyber City, USA, where scientists are developing the next-generation Internet and leading ground-breaking research in artificial intelligence. The University of Illinois at Urbana, which has a student body of 36,100, has a proud computing tradition. In 1952, it became the first educational institution to build and own its own computer.

     That computer, ILLIAC, was four metres tall, four metres long and sixty centimetres deep. Its processing speed was about 50 kilohertz compared with 200 megahertz-that’s 200,000 kilohertz for today’s computers.

     At the state-of-the-art Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, researchers from disciplines as far-ranging as psychology, computer science and biochemistry are focusing on biological intelligence and human-computer intelligence interaction.

     Beckman also houses the National Centre for Supercomputing Application (NCS A), which played a key role in the development of the Internet global network. I t was NCSA that developed Mosaic, the graphically driven programme that first ma de surfing on the Internet possible.

     Mosaic, introduced in 1992, has been replaced by much more powerful Internet browsers such as its successor Netscape or Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

     NCSA officials say they are now trying to bring more advanced computing and communication to research scientists, engineers and ultimately the public.

     “What we’re looking for is a national system in which the networks are 100 times greater than the Internet today, and the supercomputers are 100 times more  powerful,” said NCSA Director Larry Smart.

     A proposed joint project would develop a prototype or demonstration model f or the “21st century national information infrastructure” in line with an initiative announced by President Bill Clinton last October.

     If funded by the National Science Foundation, the new structure would take effect on October 1st.

     NCSA, one of the four operational federal supercomputer centres in the country, is awaiting a decision from the Foundation’s board late this month on a competition for US $ 16 million in continued annual federal funding.

     NCSA, which employs 200 people and has a yearly budget of US $ 31 million, is expected to be one of two winners along with its counterpart in San Diego.

      “The University has put a great deal of effort into this competition. We remain hopeful about the outcome, but we will have no comment until the National Science Foundation Board’s decision,” Smart said.

First read the questions.

37. In Japanese the work depato refers to ___.
A. traditional Japanese stores
B. modern stores in cities
C. special clothing stores
D. railway stores

38. During the Meiji era depato was regarded by Japanese customers as a(n ) ___ shopping place.
A. cheap       B. traditional      C. fashionable      D. attractive

Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer questions 37 and 38.

     The Japanese have two words for the modern department stores that abound in large urban areas. The older word, hyakkaten, which is seldom used in daily speech, can usually be found engraved in ideographs in a building cornerstone, and i t is part of a store’s official rifle. Literally “a store with one hundred items ,” this word was coined during the late Meiji era( 1868 - 1912), when clothing stores began to expand their product lines and railroads began to build shops at major train crossings. The more recent and more commonly used word is depato (from the English ‘department store’ ). 

     These words reflect the dual nature of Japanese department stores. Words written in ideographs can impart an aura of antiquity and tradition. Frequently, a s in the case of the word hyakkaten, they suggest indigenous origin. In contrast , foreign borrowed words often give a feeling of modernity and foreignness. Many  Japanese department stores actually originated in Japan several hundred years a go as dry goods stores that later patterned themselves after foreign department stores. Even the trendiest and most avant-garde of these stores practise pattern s of merchandising and retain forms of prepaid credit, customer service, and special relationships with suppliers characteristic of merchandising during the Tokygawa era (1600 — 1868). To many Japanese these large urban stores may seem like a direct import from the West, but like the word depato, they have undergone a  transformation in the process of becoming Japanese.

      Throughout the Tokygawa era, Japan was closed by decree to foreign influences. During the Meiji era, however, Japan reopened to the western world; concurrently, depato emerged as large-scale merchandisers in Japan. The Meiji depato we re soon perceived by Japanese customers as glamorous places to shop because of t heir Western imports, which the Japanese were eager to see and buy. Depato also sold Japanese goods but often followed practices that people of the time considered foreign, such as letting customers wear their shoes while shopping in the store.

      A representative of the Japan Department Store Association told me that throughout their history depato have played on the Japanese interest in foreign pl aces, cultures and objects, and that to a great extent these were introduced to Japan through department stores. I suggest that in addition to this role of cultural importer depato have also been involved in the creation of domestic cultural meanings. They have made foreign customs, ideas and merchandise familiar by giving them meanings consistent with Japanese cultural practice. 

TEXT K

First read the questions.

39. The Agency for International Development is a ___ organization.
A. new     B. regional   C. UN   D. US

40. According to NDS’s statistics, the number of babies the average Philipino woman bears dropped by ___ between 1960 and 1993.
A.4.1             B.6.4          C.2.3       D.2.9

Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer questions 39 and 40.

     When representatives from 170 nations gather in Cairo next month for the third International Conference on Population and Development, they will vote on the largest population-control plan in history. It is ambitious. Not only does it call for a host of “reproductive fights” and aim to freeze world population at 7 2 billion people by 2050; it also calls for billions of dollars in new government spending on the issue-US $ 13.2 billion by the end of the century.

     Some of the plan’s provisions have already aroused opposition, most notably from Pope John Paul II. All this has been gleefully covered by the newspapers. Yet scant attention has been paid to many of the dubious social and economic assumptions that underlie the plan. In particular, it is interesting to see how the se programmes are being sold in places like the Philippines, on the front lines of the population debate. For the way the proponents of population control have gone about pushing their programmes raises serious doubts about the integrity of their studies, their ultimate value to development, and the role of foreign-aid groups.

      Although population-control measures in the Philippines never reached the coercive levels they did in India, they were not popular. This time, proponents have learned their lesson. For the past few years, they have been quietly laying the groundwork for Cairo. Rather than attack the issue head-on, it has been redefined in terms of a host of new “reproductive rights” to which the solution is invariably a government-funded initiative.

      We have just had a good taste of this in the Philippines. The National Statistics Office recently published the results of the 1993 National Demographic Survey(NDS),which happens to have been funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It is probably mere coincidence, but the NDS report, published on the eve of the Cairo meeting, nicely supports the thrust of the Cairo Declaration. That is, it has found a connection between mothers’ and children’s health an d fertility behaviour. The implication is that large-scale government family-planning programmes are essential if health issues are to be addressed. 

      But the demographic survey seems to have been selective about what facts i t would report and connections it would make. Take the health issue. The document concludes that the high risk of infant, child and maternal mortality is associated with pregnancies where mothers are too young, too old, or have already had several children. But a discussion of poverty is missing from the list of factor s related to health. It would be difficult to deny that poverty, lack of access to safe water, poor housing, poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions all have a strong bearing on the health of the mother and child. Although the NDS collected data on housing characteristics, it did not include any data on income.

      A closer look at the fertility behaviour of the poor is important because of the extensive literature on the “replacement effect” of high infant mortality . Statistical studies in various countries show high fertility among the poor as a rational desire to have children who will survive into adulthood to help take care of them. This helps to explain why many poor women have babies at such short intervals. The 1993 NDS would have been a good opportunity to verify the validity of this behaviour in the Philippines. 

     The NDS avoided collecting data on socio-economic variables that would have a serious effect on these health issues. But, in one area, it made painstaking efforts to quantify fertility preference to derive figures for planned and unplanned pregnancies. It concluded that “if all unwanted births were avoided, the total fertility rate would be 2.9 children, which is almost 30% less than the obse rved rate. ”This, too, was used to establish an “unmet” need requiring a government programme.

     Yet the NDS’s own numbers suggest that Filipinos are aware of their options . The total fertility rote——the number of babies the average woman bears over her lifetime——has dropped to 4.1 in 1993 from 6.4 in 1960. Some 61% used contraceptives, just a few percentage points short of the 65-80% rate prevailing in Europe, North America and most of East Asia. The delay of marriage by Filipinos to the age of 23 years represents a reduction of the risk of pregnancy by 19% given the 35 years of their reproductive life.

      In short, the Philippines has its problems but its people are not as ignorant as the population-control lobby would suppose. Unfortunately, this lobby has development dollars, organizational muscle and support of the media. “We’ve built a consensus about population as a global issue and family planning as a health issue,” says the UN’s Naris Sadik, host of the conference. Yes, they have. And now we know how.

PAPER TWO
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.

    加拿大的温哥华1986年刚刚度过百岁生日，但城市的发展令世界瞩目。以港立市，以港兴市，是许多港口城市生存发展的道路。经过百年开发建设，有着天然不冻良港的温哥华，成为举世闻名的港口城市，同亚洲、大洋洲、欧洲、拉丁美洲均有定期班轮，年货物吞吐量达到8，00万吨，全市就业人口中有三分之一从事贸易与运输行业。
    温哥华（Vancouver）的辉煌是温哥华人智慧和勤奋的结晶，其中包括多民族的贡献。加拿大地广人稀，国土面积比中国还大，人口却不足3000万。吸收外来移民，是加拿大长期奉行的国策。可以说，加拿大除了印第安人外，无一不是外来移民，不同的只是时间长短而已。温哥华则更是世界上屈指可数的多民族城市。现今180万温哥华居民中，有一半不是在本地出生的，每4个居民中就有一个是亚洲人。而25万华人对温哥华的经济转型起着决定性的作用。他们其中有一半是近5年才来到温哥华地区的，使温哥华成为亚洲以外最大的中国人聚居地。

SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following underlined part of the TEXT into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET THREE.

　　In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.
　　In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.
Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family —they need children to enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in principle, for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile, world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one person for sustenance and in generational extension.

PART V    WRITING (60 MIN)
Some people claim that competition is more important than co-operation in the present-day society. How far do you agree OR disagree with these people? You are to write a composition of about 300 words on the following topic:
COMPETITION OR CO-OPERATION
In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriacy. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.

参考答案：

PAPER ONE

PART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

SECTION A TALK

1. C 2. D 3.A 4.B 5.A

SECTION B INTERVIEW

6.C 7.B 8.D 9.A 10.D

SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

News Item 1
11. A

News Item 2
12.A 13.B

News Item 3

14.B 15.D

SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING

1.known
2.save
3.expensive／costly
4.match
5.image
6.media
7.cosmetics / drinks
8.favorably
9.conditioning
10.expensive

改错
1.as→like
2.supplementing→supplemented 
3.and→or 
4.in→on 
5.as→whereas/while 
6.for 
7.of
8.half∧→that 
9.if→though 
10.for ∧→a 

阅读 A

SECTION A 

TEXT A 
16.A 17.B 18.D

TEXT B 
19.B 20.A

TEXT C
21.C 22.A 23.B 24.C

TEXT D
25.D 26.A 27.B 28.C 29.A 30.D

阅读 B

TEXT E

31.D

TEXT F

32.C

TEXT G 

33.B

TEXT H

34.A

TEXT I

35.D 36.B

TEXT J

37.B 38.D

TEXT K

39.D 40.C

翻译
part A
参考译文：
    The glory of Vancouver has been achieved through the wisdom and the industry of the Vancouver people, including the contributions of many ethnic groups. Canada, sparsely populated, has a territory larger  than that of China, but its population is only less than 30 million. Consequently, to attracting immigrants from other countries has become a national policy long practiced/followed/cherished by Canada. All Canadians except the American Indians, so to speak, are foreign immigrants, differing only in the length of time they have settled in Canada. Vancouver, in particular, is one of the few most celebrated multi-ethnic cities in the world. Among the 1.8 million Vancouver residents, half of them are non-natives and one out of every four residents is from Asia. The 250,000 Chinese there have played a decisive role in the transformation of Vancouver's economy. Half of them have come to settle in Vancouver  over the past five years only, rendering Vancouver the largest area outside Asia where the Chinese inhabit

Part B
参考译文：
　　此外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共通之处，这便是：生儿育女是为了维系或改善婚姻：能拴住丈夫或者使妻子不致于无所事事；修复或重振婚姻；多子多孙，以为家庭幸福惟有此法。这一点更可以由其反 面得到昭示：在某些社会中，无法生儿育女（或无法生育男孩）对婚姻而言是一种威胁，还可作为离婚的现成借口。
　　后代对于家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此。对许多人来说，夫妻两人尚不足以构成一个真正意义上的家庭——夫妻需要孩子来丰富其两人小天地，赋予该小天地以真正意义上的家庭性质，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。
孩子需要家庭，但家庭似乎也需要孩子。家庭作为一种社会机构，以其特有的方式，至少从原则上说，可在一个变幻莫测、常常是充满敌意的世界中让人从中获取某种安全、慰藉、保障，以及价值取向。

作文

Competition Or Co-operation
Some people claim that competition is more important than co-operation in the present-day society. I don't agree with them. I think co-operation is more important than competition because not only people can fulfill today's complex and high-tech work better by co-operating with each other, but also co-operation helps to form fine public morals in the present-day society.
First, co-operation can produce better work effect. Now most work is more difficult and complicated than before. It requires all types of knowledge in different fields. Even the person who is proved to be outstanding in fierce competition can't do it only by himself. After all, one's ability is limited. He can't master all the knowledge in the world. In this case, people had better co-operate; and each one applies knowledge in his major. However, if people compete against each other, work can just be done. The quality of work is uncertain.
Second, co-operation can do good to the forming of a united and fraternal social environment. When people co-operate, they have the same goal. In the process of overcoming difficulties, each of them uses his own merit to compensate for others' defects.  And they encourage each other to strive for their common aim. By and by, their relationship becomes close and friendly. By contrast, competition causes egoism. The final result of competition is to sort out the only best one by eliminating all the others. So this makes every competitor hope that he himself is better than any other. Unavoidably he won't help others make progress because he's afraid that he will be surpassed. In this way, he tends to think only for himself, not for others at all. Egoism appears.
In a word, co-operation is more important than competition in the present-day society for the sake of good work effect and high moral atmosphere.