1999英语专业八级考试全真试题附答案

参考答案

PART ⅠLISTENING COMPREHENSION

SECTION A TALK

As we all know, when machines work they give off a lot of noise, and the no ise can sometimes be very unpleasant, or annoying. As a result, people have been trying to find ways to reduce noise. Although it may sound a bit strange to you all, one of the best ways to make machines quieter, in cars for example, may be to make them noisier. The source of this paradox is electronic anti-noise which creates sound waves to cancel out unwanted noise, such as rattles, blare, etc.

Now although the idea dates back to the 1930s, it’s only recently that advances in computer technology have made anti-noise a commercial possibility. Take Franc e for example. Here industry spends a fortune to get rid of noise. We all know how unpleasant it is. Both people working in factories and ordinary people at home enjoying their leisure can be affected by noise. Delicate machines are affected by noise as well. The government has passed a lot of regulations concerning acceptable levels of noise.

Noise is costly to industry. In the first place, just following a single regulation can cost 1 to 2 billion US dollars in the textile industry, they say.

Then secondly, of course, vibration can cause damage to machinery. Even very small vibrations can cause parts to wear out and equipment to fail. And naturally enough, this gets added on to the price of the products. About $ to 15% of the price of a product comes from noise and vibration costs, it’s estimated.

At present, methods used to dampen down noise and vibrations rely on techniques that are 30 or 40 years old. These usually involve wrapping the noisy or vibrating component in anything from cotton to concrete. But this is often expensive and inefficient.

The modern electronic anti-noise devices don’t reduce sound. Instead, sound is used to attack sound. The trick is to hit these sound waves with other waves in a carefully controlled way. It may not be possible to eliminate noise completely, but engineers can build systems to eliminate specific kinds of noise and vibration. The new systems can deal with repetitive noise. This unfortunately means that there is not much that can be done about one-off noise, like someone trying to learn to play a trumpet. But they can handle fairly regular things like engine noise.

A French company has developed a technique which uses a microphone and a microprocessor. The processor measures the sound and directs a speaker to broadcast sound waves that are out of phase with the engine noise. The company claimed t hat it will make a car engine quieter, if not completely 100% silent. There are a number of other areas of application in the noisy, industrial environment of today. One system which the company is developing, aims to minimize the noise of aircraft engines and helicopter vibrations. Now anti-noise systems would be able to reduce noise in the cabin of an airplane to mere acceptable levels.

Another area which affects ordinary households nowadays concerns the noise which electricity and gas suppliers create. The electricity companies spend a lo t of money each year, cutting the harm of transformers, trying to quiet the noise and maintaining equipment that is constantly affected by vibration. If they can get rid of or even stop the vibrations, manufacturers can increase production speeds. But, of course, people working in noisy workplaces are perhaps mere affected than anything by the effects of noise. Anti-noise can also create “zones of quiet” in noisy workplaces. To create such a zone, you do two things.

First, microphones are suspended around the workplace. Then speakers that produce out-of-phase sound waves can then be put close to the worker under the desk o r the machine. A company working in this area has tested this system and says that it cuts noise levels enough for somebody inside the zone to hear a conversation from another part of the work place. Yet, this is only one-way; shouts from t he quiet zone could not be heard over the factory noise by those outside it, because the rest of the workplace remains noisy. This is one of the anti-noise measures experimented with today. If this proves to be feasible in many workplaces, I’m sure it can contribute to the reduction of noise in factory workshops in the future.

SECTION B INTERVIEW

W: First of all, when do people start work in American offices?

M: Right, well, the official work day starts at 9:00 am. This really means 9 o’clock-not ten past or half past nine.

W: Would you say that people work very hard in offices in America?

M: Well, I don’t know about employees in your country. But some nations have a philosophy that you work when the “boss” is around. And any time he’s not there, one can relax by reading the newspaper or whatever one likes doing in a personel way.

W: And things are different in the States, you’re saying?

M: Well, in America one is being paid for one’s time. So employees are expected to find other work if their own desks are clear, or to help someone else with his or her work. But you never sit idle doing nothing.

W: Yes, as the saying goes: “Time is money.”

M: Exactly. Your employer “owns” your time while he is paying you for it. That is precisely what “Time is money” means. And anyway the boss doesn’t ask mo re of you than he is doing himself: he...he will probably work through the lunch hour himself and even take work home at night.

W: Talking about lunch hours. What about them? Do you have to take them seriously?

M: Oh, yes, sure, of course. An employee’s lunch hour should he taken within t h e period allowed, unless you are officially discussing company business-say... en... on a business lunch. It’s the same too with the end of the day. I mean, e n, work until the day officially ends at five o’clock, unless you are in an off ice where “flextime” is the accepted practice.

W: Oh, so you have the flextime system, do you? I wasn’t sure about that.

M: Oh yes, sure. Flexible working hours, that is, en... starting or ending work earlier or later I... I know it’s still relatively new. However, there are mo r e and more Americans on the system today. Well, for the same reasons as in Europe-to keep traffic and commuting problems down. And as more women now work it gives more family time.

W: Er... could you say something about contracts or hiring in America, please?

M: Well, it’s different in America from, say, European countries like Germany o r France, perhaps Japan, too. I’m not sure. I know that in some countries people relax once they have got a job, because they know that they will almost never be fired-unless they do something wrong.

W: You mean that your employer can just fire you in America?

M: No, no, no. There are, of course, legal protections in the US. So employees cannot be unjustly fired without good reasons. Workers must do a good job, produce well, and get along with their colleagues-or they can be “let go”, as it is called.

W: From one day to the next, you mean?

M: Well, it’s rarely done without warning, but it is important to remember that in the US you are a member of a business firm and not a family. It makes a difference.

W: I wonder, are the physical or external appearances of office life different from European offices?

M: Well, I have heard people comment on the informality found in American offices. And this is certainly a little difficult for people who are more used to a hierarchical system, of course. But there are some very formal offices, too, say, in... in big banks, law firms and major corporations. But in many establishment s with fewer employees the atmosphere is loose and easy with a lot of joking, and teasing, and wandering in and out of offices among all levels of employees.

W: Well, that sounds quite interesting. I think that’s all I want to know really. Thank you very much.

M: My pleasure.

SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

News Item 1(For Question 11)

President Clinton begins a 3-day campaign-styled trip to the western US later today to highlight his domestic agenda.

White House spokesman says crime, the most important issue for Americans t his election year according to public opinion polls, will be a key theme of President Clinton’s trips to California, Nevada and New Mexico. Mr. Clinton’s presumptive Republican challenger, retiring Senator Bob Dole, has repeatedly disapproved of Mr. Clinton’s record on fighting crime. The president is expected to argue that his policies have helped make American communities safer places. Mr. Clint on will also attend a number of political fund-raising events during his visits to California and Nevada.

News Item 2(For Questions 12-13)

Reports say Japan and the US have reached an agreement on their dispute over air-cargo transport rights in Asia.

The agreement will mean that Washington and Tokyo will renegotiate a 1952 Aviation Treaty which allowed American airlines to fly on from Tokyo to other pl aces in Asia but didn’t allow Japanese airlines the same rights to fly on from America to other destinations. Tokyo has always said that the treaty was unfair and Japan has always wanted it changed.

According to the agreement, Japan will allow the American airline carrier Federal Express to fly on through Tokyo to 7 other destinations in Asia. Now Japan has always said it was happy to allow that, if the treaty was renegotiated. It does seem very clear that Japan has come out of this one on top.

This is certainly not the first dispute and it certainly won’t be the last dispute, either. There are several outstanding areas of friction between Japan and the US. At the moment, they are negotiating about photographic film and photographic paper. It could take a year to resolve. But even where the two countries do reach agreement there is still room for argument. They reached this famous car agreement about a month ago. They are already bickering about it.

News Item 3(For Questions 14-15)

Scientists say they can tell what air and sea conditions were like hundreds of thousands of years ago. They say pieces of ice taken from Greenland provide such information.

Scientists took the ice from more than one-and-a-half mile deep in huge masses of ice that float on the sea. That is the deepest scientists ever have drilled for ice. The ice represents 25,000 years of history. It provides one of the clearest records of ancient weather. European and American scientific teams have been studying ice from the same area to confirm each other s findings. The scientists examine the ice that was formed each year. They measure the oxygen and carbon dioxide in the ice. These measurements tell about the year’s temperature.

From these measurements, the scientific teams say that the past 10,000 years is the only period during which the weather has not changed very much. Before that time, they believe very large, sudden changes in the weather were common. The ice appears to show that at some periods, earth’s weather changed from very hot to very cold in only ten years.

SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING

It is common nowadays for companies and industries to sponsor big sports events. For example, many companies sponsored the 8th National Games held in Shanghai in 1997. Then, what exactly do companies and industries get out of sponsoring big sports events, such as international games? And why need they do so?

There is an obvious answer and a not so obvious one. The obvious answer is that they get known worldwide, particularly if they are the principal sponsor of an event. This is especially important when you consider the number of countries around the world that might show the event on TV. The not so obvious answer is that sponsorship can help firms to save money.

Then how can they save money in this way? Companies can claim expenditures on sponsorship or “support to sport and the arts” against the amount of tax that they owe. So, if they are going to have to pay tax anyway, why not spend the money on promoting their name or product?

However, sponsorship is surely a very expensive business. So, how does one decide which events or activities to support? Companies spend a lot of time making sure that they have a perfect match between the products to be represented and the activity that needs sponsorship. Basically, companies have to make sure that the image is right and that the product gets maximum coverage through the event. I mean, you wouldn’t expect a company whose product has a young international image to sponsor a sport that has a following among older people. There are all sorts of reasons behind sponsorship. That’s what the game’s about for those who are trying to sell it.

There are some important points to consider before agreeing to sponsor an event. First and foremost, I suppose, is the popularity of the event in go-between, I mean. Events like the World Cup and the Olympics have businesses queuing up to offer sponsorship. There are the big media events: hours and hours of TV and satellite coverage guaranteed all over the world, as well as press coverage and the possibility of photographs that in some way advertise your product. Most events aren’t quite like that though. I suppose you’ve got the national games every four years in China. But most events appeal to only a limited proportion of the potential audience-tennis, for example. Most of the audience there is young, so products for the young are the ones that you would associate with the event recently. Then how do you match up the product with the event? The most important thing with the smaller event is to identify the audience it’s going to appeal to in this instance, tennis and young people. That should attract drinks manufactures, sports fashion designers, cosmetics producers, and so on. Then you look at the potential coverage in the media. It’s the sort of event that might attract Coca-Cola or Pepsi maybe even McDonalds.

In sponsoring sports events, it is not just the media coverage that matters. The important question is whether the people who’ve either been to the event or read about it in the press will be more likely to buy your product as a result. A lot of the advantages of investment in sponsorship are longer-term. People who have possibly read about or watched an event on TV may not even be able to tell you who was sponsoring the event, yet will react favorably if asked to comment on products marketed by the sponsoring company. They have been conditioned in some way. Conditioning the mind is what advertising is about. Believe it or not, straight advertising is a far more expensive way of promoting your image than sponsorship, and what’s more, sponsorship is mostly tax-free.

To sum up, today we have talked about sponsorship of sports events by companies: the reasons behind and a few related points. I hope this will help you gain some insight into the issue.