1998英语专业八级考试全真试题附答案

TEXT D

 Family Matters

This month Singapore passed a bill that would give legal teeth to the moral obligation to support one’s parents. Called the Maintenance of Parents Bill, i t received the backing of the Singapore Government.

That does not mean it hasn’t generated discussion. Several members of the Parliament opposed the measure as un-Asian. Others who acknowledged the problem o f the elderly poor believed it a disproportionate response. Still others believe it will subvert relations within the family: cynics dubbed it the “Sue Your So n” law.

Those who say that the bill does not promote filial responsibility, of course, are right. It has nothing to do with filial responsibility. It kicks in where filial responsibility fails. The law cannot legislate filial responsibility any more than it can legislate love. All the law can do is to provide a safety net where this morality proves insufficient. Singapore needs this bill not to replace morality, but to provide incentives to shore it up.

Like many other developed nations, Singapore faces the problems of an increasing proportion of people over 60 years of age. Demography is inexorable. In 19 80, 7.2% of the population was in this bracket. By the end of the century that figure will grow to 11%. By 2030, the proportion is projected to be 26%. The problem is not old age per se. It is that the ratio of economically active people to economically inactive people will decline.

But no amount of government exhortation or paternalism will completely eliminate the problem of old people who have insufficient means to make ends meet. Some people will fall through the holes in any safety net.

Traditionally, a person’s insurance against poverty in his old age was his family, lifts is not a revolutionary concept. Nor is it uniquely Asian. Care an d support for one’s parents is a universal value shared by all civilized societies.

The problem in Singapore is that the moral obligation to look after one’s parents is unenforceable. A father can be compelled by law to maintain his children. A husband can be forced to support his wife. But, until now, a son or daughter had no legal obligation to support his or her parents.

In 1989, an Advisory Council was set up to look into the problems of the aged. Its report stated with a tinge of complacency that 95% of those who did not have their own income were receiving cash contributions from relations. But what about the 5% who aren’t getting relatives’ support? They have several options: (a) get a job and work until they die; (b) apply for public assistance (you have to be destitute to apply); or (c) starve quietly. None of these options is socially acceptable. And what if this 5% figure grows, as it is likely to do, as society ages?

The Maintenance of Parents Bill was put forth to encourage the traditional virtues that have so far kept Asian nations from some of the breakdowns encountered in other affluent societies. This legislation will allow a person to apply t o the court for maintenance from any or all of his children. The court would have the discretion to refuse to make an order if it is unjust.

Those who deride the proposal for opening up the courts to family lawsuits miss the point. Only in extreme cases would any parent take his child to court. If it does indeed become law, the bill’s effect would be far more subtle.

First, it will reaffirm the notion that it is each individual’s—not society’s—responsibility to look after his parents. Singapore is still conservative enough that most people will not object to this idea. It reinforces the traditional values and it doesn’t hurt a society now and then to remind itself of its core values.

Second, and more important, it will make those who are inclined to shirk their responsibilities think twice. Until now, if a person asked family elders, clergymen or the Ministry of Community Development to help get financial support from his children, the most they could do was to mediate. But mediators have no teeth, and a child could simply ignore their pleas.

But to be sued by one’s parents would be a massive loss of face. It would be a public disgrace. Few people would be so thick-skinned as to say, “Sue and be damned”. The hand of the conciliator would be immeasurably strengthened. It is far more likely that some sort of amicable settlement would be reached if the recalcitrant son or daughter knows that the alternative is a public trial.

It would be nice to think Singapore doesn’t need this kind of law. But that belief ignores the clear demographic trends and the effect of affluence itself on traditional bends. Those of us who pushed for the bill will consider ourselves most successful if it acts as an incentive not to have it invoked in the firs t place.

25. The Maintenance of Parents Bill ___.

A. received unanimous support in the Singapore Parliament

B. was believed to solve all the problems of the elderly poor

C. was intended to substitute for traditional values in Singapore

D. was passed to make the young more responsible to the old

26. By quoting the growing percentage points of the aged in the population, the author seems to imply that ___.

A. the country will face mounting problems of the old in future

B. the social welfare system would be under great pressure

C. young people should be given more moral education

D. the old should be provided with means of livelihood

27. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

A. Filial responsibility in Singapore is enforced by law.

B. Fathers have legal obligations to look after their children.

C. It is an acceptable practice for the old to continue working.

D. The Advisory Council was dissatisfied with the problems of the old.

28. The author seems to suggest that traditional values ___.

A. play an insignificant role in solving social problems

B. are helpful to the elderly when they sue their children

C. are very important in preserving Asian uniqueness

D. are significant in helping the Bill get approved

29. The author thinks that if the Bill becomes law, its effect would be ___.

A. indirect

B. unnoticed

C. apparent

D. straightforward

30. At the end of the passage, the author seems to imply that success of the Bill depends upon ___.

A. strict enforcement

B. public support

C. government assurance

D. filial awareness

SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 min)

In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple-choice questions. Ski m or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Coloured Answer Sheet.

TEXT E

First read the question.

31. The primary purpose of the letter is to ___.

A. illustrate the World Bank’s efforts in poverty-relief programmes

B. call for further efforts by nations in sustainable development

C. provide evidence for the World Bank’s aid to the private sectors

D. clear up some misunderstanding about the World Bank

Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.

August 18th 199

Dear Sir,

In your July 28th article you noted that the Bank’s own internal analysis rated one third of the projects completed in 1991 as unsatisfactory. But that statement fails to take account of the Bank’s criteria for ‘success’, which are exceptionally strict. For instance, before a project can be considered successful, it must have at least a 10% rate of return. This rate is far higher than the minimum demanded by many bilateral aid donors, many of which require a return of only 5% or 6%. Thus, projects rated unsatisfactory under the Bank’s standards still yield many benefits.

You imply that, because it deals mainly with governments, the Bank does not sufficiently support private sector development. Here are the facts. The World

Bank has:

supported reforms in mere than 80 countries aimed at opening up trade, making prices realistic and dismantling state monopolies which stifle individual enterprise invested in infrastructure to facilitate business activity; assisted and advised over 200 privatization-related operations involving nearly US $ 25 billion in loans; provided mere than US $ 12 billion through an affiliate, the International Finance Corp. over the last 30 years to mere than 1,000 private companies in the dev eloping world; and through another affiliate, the Multi lateral Investment Guarantee Agency, offered insurance against non-commercial risk to encourage foreign investment in poor countries.

The record shows that, over the past generation, more progress has been mad e in reducing poverty and raising living standards than during any other comparable period in history. In the developing countries:  life expectancy has been increased from 40 to 63 years; infant mortality has been reduced by 50% ;and per capita income has doubled.

The World Bank consistently stresses that most of the credit for these advances should go to the countries themselves. Nevertheless, the Bank and organizations with which it collaborates-bilateral and international agencies and non-governmental organizations-have played a valuable role in this progress. In the future the Bank will continue to do its utmost to support its member countries in t heir efforts to achieve sustainable development.

(LEANDRO V. CORONEL

Public Affairs

The Worm Bank

Washington)

TEXT F

First read the question.

32. The author’s main argument is that ___.

A. most farmers in developing countries face unemployment

B. developing countries need agricultural aid to boost economy

C. agricultural aid hints the economy in developing countries

D. a well-developed agricultural sector provides a domestic market

Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.

Ours is an agrarian economy. We must become serf-sufficient in food to feed a rapidly growing population at an annual growth rate of more than 3 million people. A well-developed agricultural sector would offset the need for food import and play an important role in the development process by providing a home market for the products of the industrial sector. This implies that the rate of industrialization itself depends upon how fast agricultural incomes are rising. Development in the agricultural sector in our country means a rise in the income level of 70 percent of the population who are related to this sector. Their increase d income in turn will give us mere voluntary savings and investment and thus a source of revenue through taxation and potential capital formation by the government plus reduction in income inequalities between the urban population and rural masses. In this sense, aid received in the form of agricultural commodities hurts the developing countries and benefits developed countries mere than proportionately. Because most of the farmers in developing countries are already at a mere subsistence level with a high rate of unemployment, disguised-unemployment and underemployment.

The Chinese experience with rural development has demonstrated that agricultural modernization via labour-intensive techniques is a highly promising way t o create extra jobs without extensive geographic displacement of the farmers. Regarding the impact of transfer of agricultural commodities on the long-term grow threaten in the recipient country, it can be said that transfer of agricultural commodities under confessional terms may result in an ultimate lowering of the recipient countries long-term growth rate.

TEXT G

First read the question.

33. The passage is most probably from ___.

A. a review of a book on cowboys

B. a study of cowboy work culture

C. a novel about cowboy life and culture

D. a school textbook on the cowboy history

Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 33.

A cowboy is defined by the work that he does. Any man can lay claim to that name if he lives on a ranch and works—— drives, brands, castrates, or murmurs ——a cattleman’s herd. In addition, working accounts for ways in which cowboy s portray themselves in their art: in 19th-century poems that they orally compose d and sang on the ranch, in 20th-century poems that they write, in books that they publish, and in art objects that they fashion, cowboys always represent themselves as engaging in some form of labour. This book’s three fold purpose is, first, to look at art that cowboys produce——art, that has never been studied before——and, second, to demonstrate that cowboy art values historically document labour routines that cowboys have traditionally acted out in their work culture.

I use the term work culture not only to suggest that cowboys are defined b y the work that they do, but also to argue that they are serf-represented in culture by poems, prose, and art that ail reveal cowboys to be men who are culturally unified by engaging in labour routines that they think of as cowboy work. Art deals with cowboy work, as well as with concerns about economics, gender, religion, and literature, even though these thoughts sometimes express themselves as concerns about cattle branding, livestock castration, and other tasks. The book ’ s third and most important function is, therefore, to show that artistic self-re presentations of labour also formulate systems of thought which cowboys use as a metaphor for discussing economies, gender, religion, and literature, sometimes equating branding with religious salvation, at other times defining spur making as freedom, and so on.

TEXT H

First read the question.

34. The writer of this letter attempts to ___ the views in the editorial.

A. refute

B. illustrate

C. support

D. substantiate

Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.

October 3rd 199

Dear Sir,

In your editorial on August 31st, there seems to be some confused thinking in attempting to establish a direct relationship between the desire of the OAA airlines to negotiate more equitable agreements with the United States for air-traffic rights and the cost of air travel for the public.

It is simply untrue that the Asian carriers are not looking for increased access to the U.S. market, including its domestic market; they are, as part of balanced agreements that provide equality of opportunity. So long as the U. S. takes the inequitable arrangements enshrined in current agreements as a starting point for negotiation, however, there is no chance that U.S. carriers will be granted more regional rights which further unbalance the economic opportunities available to each side. Most importantly from the consumer viewpoint, it has yet to be demonstrated that in those regional sectors where U.S. carriers currently operate-such as Hong Kong/Tokyo-they have added anything in terms of price, quality of service, innovation or seat availability in peak seasons.

Turning to cost, I am not sure to which Merrill Larrych study you are referring, but it would be simplistic to compare seat-mile costs of narrow-body operation over U. S. domestic sectors with wide-body operation over international sectors; comparative studies of seat-mile costs are valid only if they compare similar aircraft operating over identical sectors. On this basis, International Civil Aviation Organization figures show that Asian carriers are highly competitive. O f course, given its operating environment Japan Air Lines will have high seat-mi le costs, while a carrier based in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore Airlines, w ill have relatively low costs. But it is a fallacy to assume this means ‘higher ticket prices or higher taxes’ for the ‘hapless Asian air traveller’ if he travels on JAL.

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 Interne t 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 10 0 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.

TEXT J

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 Pilipino 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 and 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 it 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 observed 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 option s. 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 t o 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.

Section A原文

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8，000万吨，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原文

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.