专八改错_历届(2000年-)真题及答案.doc

2005 年-2012 年专八短文改错试题PART IV PROOFREADING&ERRORCORRECTION 15 MINThe passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way:For a wrong word,underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line.For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line.For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash / and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line.EXAMPLEWhen art museum wants a new exhibit, (1) anIt never buys things in finished form and hangs (2) neverthem on the wall. When a natural history museumwants an exhibition it must often build it. (3) exhibitProofread the given passage on ANSWER SHEET TWO as instructed.The central problem of translating has always been whether to translate literally or freely. The argument has been going since at least the first (1) _century B.C. Up to the beginning of the 19th century, many writersfavored certain kind of “free” translation: the spirit, not the letter; the (2) _sense not the word; the message rather the form; the matter not (3) _the manner. This is the often revolutionary slogan of writers who (4) _wanted the truth to be read and understood. Then in the turn of 19th (5) _century, when the study of cultural anthropology suggested thatthe linguistic barriers were insuperable and that the language (6) _was entirely the product of culture, the view translation was impossible (7) _gained some currency, and with it that, if was attempted at all, it must be as (8) _literal as possible. This view culminated the statement of the (9) _extreme “literalists” Walter Benjamin and Vladimir Nobokov.The argument was theoretical: the purpose of the translation, thenature of the readership, the type of the text, was not discussed. Toooften, writer, translator and reader were implicitly identified witheach other. Now, the context has changed, and the basic problem remains. (10) _ 2011年专八真题改错部分From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knewthat when I grew I should be a writer. Between the ages of about 1_seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did sowith the conscience that I was outraging my true nature and that 2_soon or later I should have to settle down and write books. 3_ I was the child of three, but there was a gap of five years 4_on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeing mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my 5_schooldays. I had the lonely childs habit of making up stories andholding conversations with imaginative persons, and I think from 6_the very start my literal ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of 7_being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing in unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created 8_a sort of private world which I could get my own back for my failure 9_in everyday life. Therefore, the volume of serious i.e. seriously 10_intended writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my firstpoem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation.2010年专八真题改错部分So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally complete and perfect as instruments of communication: that is, every language appears to be well equipped as any other to say 1_the things their speakers want to say. 2_There may or may not be appropriate to talk about primitive3_peoples or cultures, but that is another matter. Certainly, not all groups of people are equally competent in nuclear physics or psychology or the cultivation of rice . Whereas this is not the 4_fault of their language. The Eskimos , it is said, can speak aboutsnow with further more precision and subtlety than we can in 5_English, but this is not because the Eskimo language (one of those sometimes miscalled primitive) is inherently more precise and subtle than English. This example does not come to light a defect 6_in English, a show of unexpected primitiveness. The position issimply and obviously that the Eskimos and the English live in similar7_ environments. The English language will be just as rich in terms 8_for different kinds of snow, presumably, if the environments in whichEnglishwas habitually used made such distinction as important. 9_ Similarly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo language could be as precise and subtle on the subject of motor manufacture or cricket if these topics formed the part of the Eskimos life. 10_ 2009专八改错原题The previous section has shown how quickly a rhyme passesfrom one school child to the next and illustrates the further difference (1)_between school lore and nursery lore. In nursery lore a verse, learnt in early childhood, is not usually passed on again when the (2)_little listener has grown up, and has children of their own, or even (3)_grandchildren. The period between learning a nursery rhyme andtransmittingit may be something from twenty to seventy years. With (4)_the playgroundlore, therefore, a rhyme may be excitedly passed (5)_on within the very hourit is learnt; and in the general, it passes (6)_between children of the same age, or nearly so, since it is uncommon for the difference in age between playmates to be more than five years. If ,therefore, a playground rhyme can be shown to have beencurrently for a hundred years, oreven just for fifty, it follows that it (7)_has been retransmitted over and over; very possibly it has passed (8)_along a chain of two or threehundred young hearers and tellers, andthe wonder is that it remains liveafter so much handling, (9)_to let alone that it bears resemblance to the (10)_2008年专八真题 短文改错 The desire to use language as a sign of national identity is avery natural one, and in result language has played a prominent _1_part in national moves. Men have often felt the need to cultivate _2_a given language to show that they are distinctive from another _3_ race whose hegemony they resent. At the time the United States _4_split off from Britain, for example, there were proposals thatindependence should be linguistically accepted by the use of a _5_different language from those of Britain. There was even one _6_ proposal that Americans should adopt Hebrew. Others favouredthe adoption of Greek, though, as one man put it, things wouldcertainly be simpler for Americans if they stuck on to English _7_ and made the British learn Greek. At the end, as everyone _8_ knows, the two countries adopted the practical and satisfactorysolution of carrying with the same language as before. _9_Since nearly two hundred years now, they have shown the world _10_that political independence and national identity can be completewithout sacrificing the enormous mutual advantages of a commonlanguage. 2007专八真题 短文改错From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can make very positive statements about how language originated. There is no material in any language today and in the earliest 1_records of ancient languages show us language in a new and 2_emerging state. It is often said, of course, that the language 3_originated in cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the 4_necessary evidence is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient records, providing evidence of a language with a large proportion of such cries 5_than we find in English. It is true that the absence of such evidence does not disprove the theory, but in 6_other grounds too the theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages make rather similar noises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact that 7_such noises are similar on the lips of Frenchmen and Malaysians whose languages are utterly different, serves to emphasize on the fundamental difference 8_between these noises and language proper. We maysay that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement are largely reflex actions, instinctive to large extent, 9_whereas language proper does not consist of signsbut of these that have to be learnt and that are 10_wholly conventional. 2006专八短文改错We use language primarily as a means of communication withother human beings. Each of us shares with the community in which welive a store of words and meanings as well as agreeing conventions as 1_to the way in which words should be arranged to convey a particular 2_message: the English speaker has in his disposal vocabulary and a 3_set of grammatical rules which enables him to communicate his 4_thoughts and feelings, in a variety of styles, to the other English 5_speakers. His vocabulary, in particular, both that which he uses active-ly and that which he recognises, increases in size as he growsold as a result of education and experience. 6_But, whether the language store is relatively small or large, the systemremains no more than a psychological reality for the individual, unlesshe has a means of expressing it in terms able to be seen by another 7_member of his linguistic community; he bas to give the system aconcrete transmission form. We take it for granted the two most 8_common forms of transmission-by means of sounds produced by ourvocal organs (speech) or by visual signs (writing). And these are 9_among most striking of human achievements. 10_2005年专八真题短文改错The University as BusinesA number of colleges and universities have announced steeptuition increases for next year much steeper than the current, very low rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed because of a loss in value of university endowments heavily investing in common 1_ stock. I am skeptical. A business firm chooses the price that maximizes its net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in income; and increasingly the 2_ outlook of universities in the United States is indistinguishable from those of 3_ business firms. The rise in tuitions may reflect the fact economic uncertainty 4_ increases the demand for education. The biggest cost of being in the school is foregoing income from a