上海外国语大学继续教育学院英语专业2009届毕业考试试卷.doc

Graduation Test for English Major, Continuing Education College, SISUTime: 135 min 注意：1、考试一律做在答题纸上。2、考试期间关闭所有通讯工具，否则以作弊论处。3、诚信做人，诚实考试。姓名班级I. Spot Dictation Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear a passage and read the same passage with blanks in it. Fill in each of the blanks with the word you have heard on the tape. Write your answers down in the ANSWER SHEET. Remember you will hear the passage ONLY ONCE.Every human being is fallible; we make mistakes. In America when a mistake has been made, it is considered _(1) for the person at fault to _(2) his or her error and to apologize to anyone who has been inconvenienced. Even supervisors and chief executives are _(3) to admit their mistakes and apologize for them. Trying to cover up a mistake and _(4) your guilt are considered to be indicative of serious character flaws.If you make a mistake that _(5) a group of people, a public apology is considered the best method for _(6) your wrong. If the mistake was a _ (7)one, or if some people were inconvenienced more than others, then the guilty party should _(8) the public apology with private ones to the _(9) most hurt.It is especially important for executives and company _(10) to be able to admit their mistakes. Sometimes leaders are _(11) that if they admit mistakes, they will _(12) the respect of their employees. Actually, the opposite is true-if you are _(13) with your employees and yourself, treat them fairly, and show that you are willing to accept _(14) when you make a mistake, then your employees will be more likely to respect you. They will also be more _(15) to admit their own mistakes.If you have _(16) one person, it is usually best to apologize to that person _(17), unless your mistake was viewed by a large group of people. For example, if Leonard _(18) his voice to Mr. Todd during a committee meeting, it would be appropriate for Leonard to apologize to Mr. Todd at the next committee meeting. If the _(19) created by the initial mistake is public, then the apology should be public. However, if Leonard raised his voice to Mr. Todd when only the two of them were present, he may apologize privately. Notice as well how _(20) the apologies are. As soon as you realize you have made a mistake, you should apologize for it. II. Proof-readingIII. Reading ComprehensionReading Comprehension Questions 1 - 5We are not who we think we are. The American self-image is suffused with the golden glow of opportunity. We think of the United States as a land of unlimited possibility, not so much a classless society but as a place where class is mutable-a place where brains, energy and ambition are what counts, not the circumstances of ones birth. The Economic Mobility Project, an ambitious research initiative led by Pew Charitable Trusts, looked at the economic fortunes of a large group of families over time, comparing the income of parents in the late 1960s with the income of their children in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here is the finding: The rags to riches story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the top.That is right, just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom fifth of the study sample, in terms of income, were able to bootstrap their way into the top fifth. Meanwhile, an incredible 42 percent of children born into that lowest quintile are still stuck at the bottom, having been unable to climb a single rung of the income ladder. It is noted that even in Britain-a nation we think of as burdened with a hidebound class system-children who are born poor have a better chance of moving up. When the three studies were released, most reporters focused on the finding that African-Americans born to middle-class or upper middle-class families are earning slightly less, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than did their parents. One of the studies indicates, in fact, that most of the financial gains white families have made in the past three decades can be attributed to the entry of white women into the labor force. This is much less true for African-Americans. The picture that emerges from all the quintiles, correlations and percentages is of a nation in which, overall, the current generation of adults is better off than the previous one, as one of the studies notes. The median income of the families in the sample group was $55,600 in the late 1960s; their childrens median family income was measured at $71,900. However, this rising tide has not lifted all boats equally. The rich have seen far greater income gains than have the poor. Even more troubling is that our notion of America as the land of opportunity gets little support from the data. Americans move fairly easily up and down the middle rungs of the ladder, but there is stickiness at the ends - four out of ten children who are born poor will remain poor, and four out of ten who are born rich will stay rich.1. What did the Economic Mobility Project find in its research?(A) Children from low-income families are unable to bootstrap their way to the top.(B) Hollywood actors and actresses are upwardly mobile from rags to riches.(C) The rags to riches story is more fiction than reality.(D) The rags to riches story is only true for a small minority of whites. 2. The word quintile (para.5) refers to _ in the passage.(A) the bottom fifth (B) the study data(C) the sample group (D) the lowest family income3. It can be inferred from the undertone of the writer that America, as a classless society, should _.(A) perfect its self-image as a land of opportunity(B) have a higher level of upward mobility than Britain(C) enable African-Americans to have exclusive access to well-paid employment(D) encourage the current generation to work as hard as the previous generation4. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?(A) The US is a land where brains, energy and ambition are what counts.(B) Inequality persists between whites and blacks in financial gains.(C) Middle-class families earn slightly less with inflation considered. (D) Children in lowest-income families manage to climb a single rung of the ladder.5. What might be the best title for this passage?(A) Social Upward Mobility.(B) Incredible Income Gains.(C) Inequality in Wealth.(D) America Not Land of Opportunity.Questions 6-10Before, whenever we had wealth, we started discussing poverty. Why not now? Why is the current politics of wealth and poverty seemingly about wealth alone? Eight years ago, when Bill Clinton first ran for president, the Dow Jones average was under 3,500, yearly federal budget deficits were projected at hundreds of billions of dollars forever and beyond, and no one talked about the “permanent boom” or the “new economy.” Yet in that more straitened time, Clinton made much of the importance of “not leaving a single person behind.” It is possible that similar “compassionate” rhetoric might yet play a role in the general election.But it is striking how much less talk there is about the poor than there was eight years ago, when the country was economically uncertain, or in previous eras, when the country felt flush. Even last summer, when Clinton spent several days on a remarkable, Bobby Kennedy-like pilgrimage through impoverished areas from Indian reservations in South Dakota to ghetto neighborhoods in East St. Louis, the administration decided to refer to the effort not as a poverty tour but as a “new markets initiative.”What is happening is partly a logical, policy-driven reaction. Poverty really is lower than it has been in decades, especially for minority groups. The most attractive solution to ita growing economyis being applied. The people who have been totally left out of this boom often have medical, mental or other problems for which no one has an immediate solution. “The economy has sucked in anyone who has any preparation, any ability to cope with modern life,” says Franklin D. Raines, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget who is now head of Fannie Mae. When he and other people who specialize in the issue talk about solutions, they talk analytically and long-term: education, development of work skills, shifts in the labor market, adjustment in welfare reform.But I think there is another force that has made this a rich era with barely visible poor people. It is the unusual social and imaginative separation between prosperous America and those still left out. Its simple invisibility, because of increasing geographic, occupation, and social barriers that block one group from the others view. 6. The main idea of the passage is that _.(A) The country is enjoying economic growth(B) The poor are benefiting from todays good economy(C) We were more aware of the poor than we are today(D) There were many more poor people tan there are today7. The organizational pattern of the first two paragraphs of this passage is _.(A) order of importance(B) comparison and contrast(C) chronological order(D) classification and division8. In line 6 of the first paragraph, the word straitened means _.(A) prosperous(B) difficult (C) relaxing(D) significant9. From this passage, we can conclude that _.(A) the status quo of the rich and the poor has changed(B) the good and prosperous economy will soon end(C) poverty will be removed as a result of increased wealth(D) all people benefit from good economic conditions10. According to the author, one important reason that we do not talk much about poverty is that _.(A) no one knows what to do about it(B) poverty really is lower than in the past(C) no one has been left out of the current boom(D) the president is not concerned about the poorQuestions 11-15Our visit to the excavation of a Roman fort on a hill near Coventry was of more than archaeological interest. The years dig had been a fruitful one and had assembled evidence of a permanent military camp much larger than had at first been conjectured. We were greeted on the site by a group of excavators, some of them filling in a trench that had yielded an almost complete pot the day before, others enjoying the last-day luxury of a cigarette in the sun, but all happy to explain and talk about their work. If we had not already known it, nothing would have suggested that this was a party of prisoners from the nearby prison. This is not the first time that prison labour has been used in work of this kind, but here the experiment, now two years old, has proved outstandingly satisfactory.From the archaeologists point of view, prisoners provide a steady force of disciplined labour throughout the entire season, men to whom it is a serious days work, and not the rather carefree holiday job that it tends to be for the amateur archaeologist. Newcomers are comparatively few, and can soon be initiated by those already trained in the work. Prisoners may also be more accustomed to heavy work like shovelling and carting soil than the majority of students, and they also form a fair cross-section of the population and can furnish men whose special skills make them valuable as surveyors, draughtsmen of pottery restorers. When Coventrys Keeper of Archaeology went to the prison to appeal for help, he was received cautiously by the men, but when the importance of the work was fully understood, far more volunteers were forthcoming then could actually be employed. When they got to work on the site, and their efforts produced pottery and building foundations in what until last year had been an ordinary field, their enthusiasm grew till they would sometimes work through their lunch hour and tea break, and even carry on in the rain rather than sit it out in the hut. This was undoubtedly because the work was not only strenuous but absorbing, and called for considerable intelligence. The men worked always under professional supervision, but as the season went on they needed less guidance and knew when an expert should be summoned. Disciplinary problems were negligible: the men were carefully selected for their good conduct and working on a party like this was too valuable a privilege to be thrown away.The Keeper of Archaeology said that this was by far the most satisfactory form of labour that he had ever had, and that it had produced results, in quantity and quality, that could not have been achieved by any other means. A turf and timber fort built near the Roman highway through the middle of England in the first century A.D. had been excavated over an area of 14,000 square feet, and a section of turf rampart and palisade fully reconstructed by methods identical to those employed by the Roman army.The restoration of the Roman fort is being financed by Coventry Corporation as part of a plan to create a leisure amenity area. To this project prisoners have contributed work which otherwise would not have been performed and which benefits the whole community.11. The visit to the excavation site was _.(A) of purely archaeological interest(B) fruitful because a complete pot was discovered(C) interesting in more than one way(D) made by a group of prisoners12. It can be assumed that archaeologists _.(A) found that the prisoners worked far better than students(B) did not like the prisoners carefree attitude to work(C) were willing to take only a few prisoners to work on the site(D) were often forced to discipline the prisoners13. Prisoners demonstrated their attitude to work by _.(A) spending most of their time sitting in a hut(B) insisting on professional guidance(C) taking no initiative(D) working voluntarily14. When prisoners were selected for the work _.(A) many of them refused to co-operate(B) their previous behaviour was taken into account(C) they were told they must work in all weathers(D) they were warned that there would be no privileges15. The Keeper of Archaeology said that _.(A) he had expected more of the fort to be revealed(B) the palisade was very primitive(C) only prison labour could produce such good results(D) the methods to construct the Roman fort were proved identicalQuestions 16-20Flats were almost unknown in Britain until the 1850s when they were developed, along with other industrial dwellings, for the laboring classes. These vast blocks were plainly a convenient means of easing social conscience by housing large numbers of the ever-present poor on compact city sites. During the 1880s, however, the idea of living in comfortable residential chambers caught on with the affluent upper and upper middle classes, and controversy as to the advantages and disadvantages of flat life was a topic of conversation around many a respectable dinner-table. In Paris and other major European cities, the custom whereby the better-off lived in apartments, or flats, was well established. Up to the late nineteenth century in England only bachelor barristers had established the tradition of living in rooms near the Law Court: any self-respecting head of household would insist upon a West End town house as his London home, the best that his means could provide.The popularity of flats for the better-off seems to have developed for a number of reasons. First, perhaps, through the introduction of the railways, which had enabled a wide range of people to enjoy a holiday staying in a suite at one of the luxury hotels which had begun to spring up during the previous decade. Hence, no doubt, the fact that many of the early luxury flats were similar to hotel suites, even being provided with communal dining-rooms and central boilers for hot water and heating. Rents tended to be high to cover overheads, but savings were made possible by these communal amenities and by tenants being able to reduce the number of family servants.One of the earliest substantial London developments of flats for the well-to-do was begun soon after Victoria Railway Station was opened in 1860, as the train service provided an efficient link with both the City and the South of England. Victoria Street, adjacent to both the Station and Westminster, had already been formed, and under the direction of the architect, Henry Ashton, was being lined with blocks of residential chambers in the Parisian manner. These flats were commodious indeed, offering between eight and fifteen rooms apiece, including appropriate domestic offices. The idea was an emphatic departure from the tradition of the London house and achieved immediate success.Perhaps the most notable block in the vicinity was Queen Annes Mansions, partly designed by E. R. Robson in 1884 and recently demolished. For many years, this was Londons loftiest building and had strong claims to be the ugliest. The block was begun as a wild speculation, modelled on the American skyscraper, and was nearly 200 feet high. The cliff-like walls of dingy brick completely overshadowed the modest thoroughfare nearby. Although bleak outside, the mansion flats were palatial within, with sumptuously furnished communal entertaining and dining rooms, and lifts to the uppermost floors. The success of these tall blocks of flats could not have been achieved, of course, without the invention of the lift, or ascending carriage as it was called when first used in the Strand Law Courts in the 1870s.16. Flats first appeared in Britain in the middle of the 19th century when _.(A) they were principally built for those families with several servants(B) people were not conscious of the crowded housing of the l