PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Some of the gaps may require a maximum of THREE words. Make sure the word (s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to your notes while completing the task. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
1. According to Dr. Harley, what makes language learning more difficult after a certain age?
[A] Differences between two languages. [B] Declining capacity to learn syntax.
[C] Lack of time available. [D] Absence of motivation.
2. What does the example of Czech speakers show?
[A] It’s natural for language learners to make errors.
[B] Differences between languages cause difficulty.
[C] There exist differences between English and Czech.
[D] Difficulty stems from either difference or similarity.
3. Which of the following methods does NOT advocate speaking?
[A] The traditional method. [B] The audiolingual method.
[C] The immersion method. [D] The direct method.
4. Which hypothesis deals with the role of language knowledge in the learning process?
[A] The acquisition and learning distinction hypothesis.
[B] The comprehensible input hypothesis.
[C] The monitor hypothesis.
[D] The active filter hypothesis.
5. Which of the following topics is NOT discussed during the interview?
[A] Causes of language learning difficulties.
[B] Differences between mother tongue and a second language.
[C] Theoretical conceptualization of second language learning.
[D] Pedagogical implementation of second language teaching.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
Question 6 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.
6. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
[A] Greyhound is Britain’s largest bus and train operator.
[B] Currently Greyhound routes in Britain are limited.
[C] The coach starts from London every hour.
[D] Passengers are offered a variety of services.
Questions 7 and 8 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
7. What does the news item say about the fires in Greece?
[A] Fires only occurred near the Greek capital.
[B] Fires near the capital caused casualties.
[C] Fires near the capital were the biggest.
[D] Fires near the capital were soon under control.
8. According to the news, what measure did authorities take to fight the fires?
[A] Residents were asked to vacate their homes.
[B] Troops were brought in to help the firefighters.
[C] Air operations and water drops continued overnight.
[D] Another six fire engines joined the firefighting operation.
Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
9. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the current decline in the Mexican economy?
[A] Fewer job opportunities in Mexico. [B] Strong ties with the U.S. economy.
[C] Decline in tourism. [D] Decline in tax revenues.
10. Drop in remittances from abroad is mainly due to
[A] declining oil production. [B] the outbreak of the H1N1 flu.
[C] the declining GDP in Mexico. [D] the economic downturn in the U. S.
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the passages.
TEXT A
Whenever we could, Joan and I took refuge in the streets of Gibraltar. The Englishman’s home is his castle because he has not much choice. There is nowhere to sit in the streets of England, not even, after twilight, in the public gardens. The climate, very often, does not even permit him to walk outside. Naturally, he stays indoors and creates a cocoon of comfort. That was the way we lived in Leeds.
These southern people, on the other hand, look outwards. The Gibraltarian home is, typically, a small and crowded apartment up several flights of dark and dirty stairs. In it, one, two or even three old people share a few ill-lit rooms with the young family. Once he has eaten, changed his clothes, embraced his wife, kissed his children and his parents, there is nothing to keep the southern man at home. He hurries out, taking even his breakfast coffee at his local bar. He comes home late for his afternoon meal after an appetitive hour at his ear6. He sleeps for an hour, dresses, goes out again and stays out until late at night. His wife does not miss him, for she is out, too — at the market in the morning and in the afternoon sitting with other mothers, baby-minding in the sun.
The usual Gibraltarian home has no sitting-room, living-room or lounge. The parlour of our working-class houses would be an intolerable waste of space. Easy-chairs, sofas and such-like furniture are unknown. There are no bookshelves, because there are no books. Talking and drinking, as well as eating, are done on hard chairs round the dining-table, between a sideboard decorated with the best glasses and an inevitable display cabinet full of family treasures, photographs and souvenirs. The elaborate chandelier over this table proclaims it as the hub of the household and of the family. "Hearth and home" makes very little sense in Gibraltar. One’s home is one’s town or village, and one’s hearth is the sunshine.
Our northern towns are dormitories with cubicles, by comparison. When we congregate — in the churches it used to be, now in the cinema, say, impersonally, or at public meetings, formally — we are scarcely ever man to man. Only in our pubs can you find the truly gregarious and communal spirit surviving, and in England even the pubs are divided along class lines.
Along this Mediterranean coast, home is only a refuge and a retreat. The people live together in the open air — in the street, market-place. Down here, there is a far stronger feeling of community than we had ever known. In crowded and circumscribed Gibraltar, with its complicated inter-marriages, its identity of interests, its surviving sense of siege, one can see and feel an integrated society.
To live in a tiny town with all the organization of a state, with Viceroy (总督), Premier, Parliament, Press and Pentagon, all in miniature, all within arm’s reach, is an intensive course in civics. In such an environment, nothing can be hidden, for better or for worse. One’s successes are seen and recognized; one’s failures are immediately exposed. Social consciousness is at its strongest, with the result that there is a constant and firm pressure towards good social behaviour, towards courtesy and kindness. Gibraltar, with all its faults, is the friendliest and most tolerant of places. Straight from the cynical anonymity of a big city, we luxuriated in its happy personalism. We look back on it, like all its exiled sons and daughters, with true affection.
11. Which of the following best explains the differences in ways of living between the English and the Gibraltarians?
[A] The family structure. [B] Religious belief.
[C] The climate. [D] Eating habit.
12. The italicized part in the third paragraph implies that
[A] English working class homes are similar to Gibraltarian ones.
[B] English working-class homes have spacious sitting-rooms.
[C] English working-class homes waste a lot of space.
[D] the English working-class parlour is intolerable in Gibraltar.
13. We learn from the description of the Gibraltarian home that it is
[A] modern. [B] luxurious. [C] stark. [D] simple.
14. There is a much stronger sense of ______ among the Gibraltarians.
[A] togetherness [B] survival [C] identity [D] leisure
15. According to the passage, people in Gibraltar tend to be well-behaved because of the following EXCEPT
[A] the entirety of the state structure, [B] constant pressure from the state.
[C] the small size of the town. [D] transparency of occurrences.
TEXT B
For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the "paperless" office is a classic example of high-tech hubris (傲慢). Today’s office drone is drowning in more paper than ever before.
But after decades of hype, American offices may finally be losing their paper obsession. The demand for paper used to outstrip the growth of the U. S. economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in sales — despite a healthy economic scene.
Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and communication systems. Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair.
"Old habits are hard to break," says Merilyn Dunn, a communications supplies director. "There are some functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn’t work. Those functions are both its strength and its weakness. "
In the early to mid-’90s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boost paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year. The convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge in printing anything and everything at very little effort or cost.
But now, the growth rate or paper sales in the United States is flattening by about half a percent each year. Between 2004 and 2005, Ms. Dunn says, plain white office paper will see less than a 4 percent growth rate, despite the strong overall economy. A primary reason for the change, says Dunn, is that for the first time ever, some 47 percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.
"We’re finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace," says John Maine, vice president of a pulp and paper economic consulting firm. "More information is being transmitted electronically, and more and more people are comfortable with the information residing only in electronic form without printing multiple backups. "
In addition, Mr. Maine points to the lackluster employment market for white-collar workers — the primary driver of office paper consumption — for the shift in paper usage.
The real paradigm shift may be in the way paper is used. Since the advent of advanced and reliable office-network systems, data storage has moved away from paper archives. The secretarial art of "filing" is disappearing from job descriptions. Much of today’s data may never leave its original digital format.
The changing attitudes toward paper have finally caught the attention of paper companies, says Richard Harper, a researcher at Microsoft. "All of a sudden, the paper industry has started thinking, ’We need to learn more about the behavioural aspects of paper use, ’" he says. "They had never asked, they’d just assumed that 70 million sheets would be bought per year as a literal function of economic growth. "
To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilities. For example, Xerox Corp. is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper. Notations can be erased or saved digitally.
Another idea, intelligent paper, comes from Anoto Group. It would allow notations made with a stylus on a page printed with a special magnetic ink to simultaneously appear on a computer screen.
Even with such technological advances, the improved capabilities of digital storage continue to act against "paperlessness," argues Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster. In his prophetic and metaphorical 1989 essay, "The Electronic Pinata (彩罐)," he suggests that the increasing amounts of electronic data necessarily require more paper.
"The information industry today is like a huge electronic pinata, composed of a thin paper crust surrounding an electronic core," Mr. Saffo wrote. The growing paper crust "is most noticeable, but the hidden electronic core that produces the crust is far larger — and growing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but we hardly notice at all. "
In the same way that digital innovations have increased paper consumption, Saffo says, so has video conferencing — with its promise of fewer in-person meetings — boosting business travel.
"That’s one of the great ironies of the information age ," Saffo says. "It’s just common sense that the more you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a face-to-face meeting. The best thing for the aviation industry was the Internet. "
16. What function does the second sentence in the first paragraph serve?
[A] It further explains high-tech hubris.
[B] It confirms the effect of high-tech hubris.
[C] It offers a cause for high-tech hubris.
[D] It offers a contrast to high-tech hubris.
17. Which of the following is NOT a reason for the slowdown in paper sales?
[A] Workforce with better computer skills.
[B] Slow growth of the U.S. economy.
[C] Changing patterns in paper use.
[D] Changing employment trends.
18. The two innovations by Xerox Corp. and Anoto Group feature
[A] integrated use of paper and digital form.
[B] a shift from paper to digital form.
[C] the use of computer screen.
[D] a new style of writing.
19. What does the author mean by "irony of the information age"?
[A] The dream of the "paperless" office will be realized.
[B] People usually prefer to have face-to-face meetings.
[C] More digital data use leads to greater paper use.
[D] Some people are opposed to video-conferencing.
20. What is the author’s attitude towards "paperlessness"?
[A] He reviews the situation from different perspectives.
[B] He agrees with some of the people quoted in the passage.
[C] He has a preference for digital innovations.
[D] He thinks airlines benefit most from the digital age.
TEXT C
When George Orwell wrote in 1941 that England was "the most class-ridden country under the sun", he was only partly right. Societies have always had their hierarchies, with some group perched at the top. In the Indian state of Bihar the Ranveer Sena, an upper-caste private army, even killed to stay there.
By that measure class in Britain hardly seems entrenched (根深蒂固的). But in another way Orwell was right, and continues to be. As a new YouGov poll shows, Britons are surprisingly alert to class — both their own and that of others. And they still think class is sticky. According to the poll, 48% of people aged 30 or over say they expect to end up better off than their parents. But only 28% expect to end up in a different class. More than two-thirds think neither they nor their children will leave the class they were born into.
What does this thing that people cannot escape consist of these days? And what do people look at when decoding which class someone belongs to? The most useful identifying markers, according to the poll, are occupation, address, accent and income, in that order. The fact that income comes fourth is revealing: though some of the habits and attitudes that class used to define are more widely spread than they were, class still indicates something less blunt than mere wealth.
Occupation is the most trusted guide to class, but changes in the labour market have made that harder to read than when Orwell was writing. Manual workers have shrunk along with farming and heavy industry as a proportion of the workforce, while the number of people in white-collar jobs has surged. Despite this striking change, when they were asked to place themselves in a class, Brits in 2006 huddled in much the same categories as they did when they were asked in 1949. So, jobs, which were once a fairly reliable guide to class, have become misleading.
A survey conducted earlier this year by Expertian shows how this convergence on similar types of work has blurred class boundaries. Expertian asked people in a number of different jobs to place themselves in the working class or the middle class. Secretaries, waiters and journalists were significantly more likely to think themselves middle-class than accountants, computer programmers or civil servants. Many new white-collar jobs offer no more autonomy or better prospects than old blue-collar ones. Yet despite the muddle over what the markers of class are these days, 71% of those polled by YouGov still said they found it very or fairly easy to figure out which class others belong to.
In addition to changes in the labour market, two other things have smudged the borders on the class map. First, since 1945 Britain has received large numbers of immigrants who do not fit easily into existing notions of class and may have their own pyramids to scramble up. The flow of new arrivals has increased since the late 1990s, multiplying this effect.
Second, barriers to fame have been lowered. Britain’s fast-growing ranks of celebrities — like David Beckham and his wife Victoria — form a kind of parallel aristocracy open to talent, or at least to those who are uninhibited enough to meet the requests of television producers. This too has made definitions more complicated.
But many Brits, given the choice, still prefer to identify with the class they were born into rather than that which their jobs or income would suggest. This often entails pretending to be more humble than is actually the case: 220% of white-collar workers told YouGov that they consider themselves working class. Likewise, the Expertian survey found that one in ten adults who call themselves working class are among the richest asset-owners, and that over half a million households which earn more than $191,000 a year say they are working class. Pretending to be grander than income and occupation suggest is rarer, though it happens too.
If class no longer describes a clear social, economic or even political status, is it worth paying any attention to.9 Possibly, yes. It is still in most cases closely correlated with educational attainment and career expectations.
21. Why does the author say "... Orwell was right, and continues to be" (Paragraph Two)?
[A] Because there was stronger class consciousness in India.
[B] Because more people hope to end up in a higher class.
[C] Because people expect to gain more wealth than their parents.
[D] Because Britons are still conscious of their class status.
22. " ... class still indicates something less blunt than mere wealth" (Paragraph Three) means that
[A] class is still defined by its own habits and attitudes.
[B] class would refer to something more subtle than money.
[C] people from different classes may have the same habits or attitudes.
[D] income is unimportant in determining which class one belongs to.
23. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
[A] White-collar workers would place themselves in a different class.
[B] People with different jobs may place themselves in the same class.
[C] Occupation and class are no longer related with each other.
[D] Changes in the workforce have made it difficult to define class.
24. Which of the following is NOT a cause to blur class distinction?
[A] Notions of class by immigrants. [B] Changing trends of employment.
[C] Fewer types of work. [D] Easy access to fame.
25. When some successful white-collar workers choose to stay in the working class, it implies that they are
[A] showing modesty. [B] showing self-respect.
[C] expressing boastfulness. [D] making an understatement.
TEXT D
The train was whirling onward with such dignity of motion that a glance from the window seemed simply to prove that plains of Texas were pouring eastward. Vast fiats of green grass, dull-hued spaces of mesquite and cactus, little groups of frame houses, woods of light and tender trees, all were sweeping into the east, sweeping over the horizon, a precipice.
A newly married pair had boarded this coach at San Antonio. The man’s face was reddened from many days in the wind and sun, and a direct result of his new black clothes was that his brick-coloured hands were constantly performing in a most conscious fashion. From time to time he looked down respectfully at his attire. He sat with a hand on each knee, like a man waiting in a barber’s shop. The glances he devoted to other passengers were furtive and shy.
The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, with small reservations of velvet here and there, and with steel buttons abounding. She continually twisted her head to regard her puff sleeves, very stiff, and high. They embarrassed her. It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected to cook, dutifully. The blushes caused by the careless scrutiny of some passengers as she had entered the car were strange to see upon this plain, under-class countenance, which was drawn in placid, almost emotionless lines.
They were evidently very happy. "Ever been in a parlor-car before?" he asked, smiling with delight.
"No," she answered; "I never was. It’s fine, ain’t it?"
"Great! And then after a while we’ll go forward to the dinner, and get a big lay-out. Fresh meal in the world. Charge a dollar. "
"Oh, do they?" cried the bride. "Charge a dollar? Why, that’s too much — for us — ain’t it, Jack?"
"Nor this trip, anyhow," he answered bravely. "We’re going to go the whole thing. "
Later he explained to her about the trains. "You see, it’s a thousand miles from one end of Texas to the other; and this runs right across it, and never stops but four times. " He had the pride of an owner. He pointed out to her the dazzling fittings of the coach; and in truth her eyes opened wider and she contemplated the sea-green figured velvet, the shining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil. At one end a bronze figure sturdily held a support for a separated chamber, and at convenient places on the ceiling were frescos in olive and silver.
To the minds of the pair, their surroundings reflected the glory of their marriage that morning in San Antonio: this was the environment of their new estate; and the man’s face in particular beamed with an elation that made him appear ridiculous to the Negro porter. This individual at times surveyed them from afar with an amused and superior grin. On other occasions he bullied them with skill in ways that did not make it exactly plain to them that they were being bullied. He subtly used all the manners of the most unconquerable kind of snobbery. He oppressed them. But of this oppression they had small knowledge, and they speedily forgot that infrequently a number of travelers covered them with stares of derisive enjoyment. Historically there was supposed to be something infinitely humorous in their situation.
"We are due in Yellow Sky at 3:42," he said, looking tenderly into her eyes.
"Oh, are we?" she said, as if she had not been aware of it. To evince (表现出) surprise at her husband’s statement was part of her wifely amiability. She took from a pocket a little silver watch: and as she held it before her, and stared at it with a frown of attention, the new husband’s face shone.
"I bought it in San Anton’ from a friend of mine," he told her gleefully.
"It’s seventeen minutes past twelve," she said, looking up at him with a kind of shy and clumsy coquetry (调情; 卖俏). A passenger, noting this play, grew excessively sardonic, and winked at himself in one of the numerous mirrors.
At last they went to the dining-car. Two rows of Negro waiters, in glowing white suits, surveyed their entrance with the interest, and also the equanimity (平静), of men who had been forewarned. The pair fell to the lot of a waiter who happened to feel pleasure in steering them through their meal. He viewed them with the manner of a fatherly pilot, his countenance radiant with benevolence. The patronage, entwined with the ordinary deference, was not plain to them. And yet, as they returned to their coach, they showed in their faces a sense of escape.
26. The description of the couple’s clothes and behaviour at the beginning of the passage seems to indicate that they had a sense of
[A] secrecy. [B] elation. [C] superiority. [D] awkwardness.
27. Which of the following adjectives best depicts the interior of the coach?
[A] Modern. [B] Luxurious. [C] Practical. [D] Complex.
28. Which of the following best describes the attitude of other people on the train towards the couple?
[A] They regarded the couple as an object of fun.
[B] They expressed indifference towards the couple.
[C] They were very curious about the couple.
[D] They showed friendliness towards the couple.
29. Which of the following contains a metaphor?
[A] ... like a man waiting in a barber’s shop.
[B] ... his countenance radiant with benevolence.
[C] ... sweeping over the horizon, a precipice.
[D] ... as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil.
30. We can infer from the last paragraph that in the dining-car
[A] the waiters were snobbish. [B] the couple felt ill at ease.
[C] the service was satisfactory. [D] the couple enjoyed their dinner.
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
There are ten multiple-choice questions in this section.
31. The northernmost part of Great Britain is
[A] Northern Ireland. [B] Scotland. [C] England. [D] Wales.
32. It is generally agreed that were the first Europeans to reach Australia’s shores.
[A] the French [B] the Germans [C] the British [D] the Dutch
33. Which country is known as the Land of Maple Leaf?
[A] Canada. [B] New Zealand.
[C] Great Britain. [D] The United States of America.
34. Who wrote the famous pamphlet, The Common Sense, before the American Revolution?
[A] Thomas Jefferson. [B] Thomas Paine.
[C] John Adams. [D] Benjamin Franklin.
35. Virginia Woolf was an important female ______ in the 20th-century England.
[A] poet [B] biographer [C] playwright [D] novelist
36. ______ refers to a long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero in a nation’s history.
[A] Ballad [B] Romance [C] Epic [D] Elegy
37. Which of the following best explores American myth in the 20th century?
[A] The Great Gatsby. [B] The Sun Also Rises.
[C] The Sound and the Fury. [D] Beyond the Horizon.
38. ______ is defined as the study of the relationship between language and mind.
[A] Semantics [B] Pragmatics
[C] Cognitive linguistics [D] Sociolinguistics
39. A vowel is different from a consonant in English because of
[A] absence of obstruction. [B] presence of obstruction.
[C] manner of articulation. [D] place of articulation.
40. The definition "the act of using, or promoting the use of, several languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers" refers to
[A] Pidgin. [B] Creole.
[C] Multilingualism. [D] Bilingualism.
PART IV PROOFREADING &ERROR CORRECTION
PART V TRANSLATION
PART V TRANSLATION
Translate the underlined part of the following text into English.
现代社会无论价值的持有还是生活方式的选择都充满了矛盾。而最让现代人感到尴尬的是，面对重重矛盾矛盾，许多时间你却别无选择。匆忙与休闲是截然不同的两种生活方式。但在现实生活中，人们却在这两咱生活方式间频繁梭，有时也说不清自己到底是“休闲着”还是“匆忙着”。譬如说，当我们正在旅游胜地享受假期，却忽然接到老板的电话，告诉我们客户或工作方面出了麻烦——现代便捷先进工具在此刻显示出了它狰狞、阴郁的面容——搞得人一下子兴趣全无，接下来的休闲只能徒有其表，因为心里已是火烧火燎了。
SECTION B ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Translate the following text into Chinese.
When flying over Nepal, it’s easy to soar in your imagination and pretend you’re tiny — a butterfly — and drifting above one of those three-dimensional topographical maps architects use, the circling contour lines replaced by the terraced rice paddies that surround each high ridge.
Nepal is a small country, and from the windows of our plane floating eastward at 12,000 feet, one can see clearly the brilliant white mirage of the high Himalayas thirty miles off the left window.
Out the right window, the view is of three or four high terraced ridges giving sudden way to the plains of India beyond.
There were few roads visible below, most transportation in Nepal being by foot along ancient trails that connect and bind the country together. There is also a network of dirt airstrips, which was fortunate for me, as I had no time for the two-and-a half week trek to my destination. I was on a flight to the local airport.
PART VI WRITING
According to a recent newspaper report, many famous sites of historical interest in China have begun or are considering charging tourists higher entry fees during peak travel seasons. This has aroused a lot of public attention and also public debate. What is your opinion? Should famous Chinese sites of historical interest charge higher fees during peak travel seasons? Write an essay of about 400 words.
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
You should supply an appropriate title for your essay.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
Complete the gap-filling task. Some of the gaps may require a maximum of THREE words. Make sure the word ( s ) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to your notes.
Classifications of Cultures
According to Edward Hall, different cultures result in different ideas about the world. Hall is an anthropologist. He is interested in relations between cultures.
I. High-context culture
A. feature
—context: more important than the message
—meaning (1) (1)______
i.e. more attention paid to (2) than to the message itself (2)______
B. examples
—personal space
—preference for (3) (3)______
—less respect for privacy/personal space
—attention to (4) (4)______
—concept of time
—belief in (5) interpretations of time (5)______
—no concern for punctuality
—no control over time
11. Low-context culture
A. feature
—message: separate from context
—meaning (6) (6)______
B. examples
—personal space
—desire/respect for individuality/privacy
—less attention to body language
—more concern for (7) (7)______
—attitude toward time
—concept of time: (8) (8)______
—dislike of (9) (9)______
—time seen as commodity
III Conclusion
awareness of different cultural assumptions
—relevance in work and life
e.g. business, negotiation, etc.
— (10) in successful communication (10)______
PART IV PROOFREADING &ERROR CORRECTION
The 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 " 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.
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that
when I grew I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and (1)______
twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the conscience (2)______
that I was outraging my true nature and that soon or later I should have to (3)______
settle down and write books.
I was the child of three, but there was a gap of five years on the either (4)______
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 (5)______
which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the lonely
child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginative (6)______
persons, and I think from the very start my literal ambitions were mixed up (7)______
with the feeling of 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 (8)______
created 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 intended (10)______
— writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would
not amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of five,
my mother taking it down to dictation.
考试试题详解
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A
1.outside the message
2.the context
3.involvement/closeness to people
4.body language
5.multiple
6.in the message
7.what you do/what you say
8.monochronic
9.1ateness
10.importance
SECTION B
1.[B]
2.[D]
3.[A]
4.[C]
5.[B]
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
6.[A]
7.[C]
8.[B]
9.[A]
10.[D]
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
TEXT A
11.[C]推理判断题。由题干中的the English and the Gibraltarians直接定位至首段。第二句指出英国人的生活方式“The Englishman’s home is his castle because he has not much choice”，随后解释了英国人为什么待在家里，第四句提到“The climate, very often, does not even permit him to walk outside.”。第二段首句中的on the other hand表明对比关系，“These southern people, on the other hand, look outwards.”，之后介绍了直布罗陀人成天待在户外的情景，此外，由第三句中的“a few ill-lit rooms”以及末句的“baby-minding in the sun”均可以判断，英国人和直布罗陀人的生活方式大相径庭，主要是天气原因造成的，故[C]为答案。虽然第二段简单提到直布罗陀人的家庭结构、用餐习惯，但是首段没有提及英国人这两方面的情况，因此不是作者认为造成生活方式差异的原因，排除[A]和[D];此外，全文没有提及宗教信仰，[B]无依据，排除。
12.[B]推理判断题。由题干直接定位至第三段。首句指出典型的直布罗陀的住所情况“The usual Gibraltarian home has no sitting-room, living-room or lounge. ”，紧接着第二句出现了一个虚拟语气“The parlour of our working-class houses would be an intolerable waste of space.”，从首段末句“That was the way we lived in Leeds.”可以判断此处的our working-class是指英国的工薪阶层，而该句是指英国工薪族房屋的会客厅对直布罗陀人而言是浪费空间，由此可以推断英国人住所里通常都有宽敞的会客室，故[B]为答案。从句中的waste of space可以判断直布罗陀人对英国人的会客厅不以为然，[A]与原文矛盾;该句是直布罗陀人单方面对英国会客室的看法，并不能证明英国人家里有会客室是浪费空间，排除[C];直布罗陀人认为浪费空间是令人难以容忍的，并非会客厅本身令人难以容忍，排除[D]。
13.[D]推理判断题。由题于中的Gibraltarian home定位至第三段。首句指出“The usual Gibraltarian home has no sitting-room, living-room or lounge. ”之后，作者继续描述直布罗陀人的住所情况“Easy-chairs, sofas and such-like furniture are unknown. There are no bookshelves, because there are no books. ”，可见，直布罗陀人的家里没有很多家具.很简朴，故[D]为答案。文章中没有提到现代风格的装饰，排除[A];[B]与文中的“Easy-chairs, sofas and such-like furniture are unknown.”等矛盾;而stark意为“光秃秃的”，这与该段第五句所描述矛盾，排除[C]。
14.[A]事实细节题。从题干中的stronger定位至第五段。第三句提到“Down here, there is a far stronger feeling of community than we had ever known. ”，该句是对前一句“The people live together in the open air-in the street, market-place.”的解释，从句中的live together以及community可以判断[A]为答案。末句指出“In crowded and circumscribed Gibraltar, with its complicated inter-marriages, its identity of interests, its surviving sense of siege，one can see and feel an integrated society.”，该句的重点在于one can see and feel an integrated society，这里的integrated与community以及live together属于同一语义场，而该部分提到的“its identity of interests, its surviving sense of siege”中identity是指“直布罗陀人的利益是统一的”，surviving是指这里的人“仍然具有”群居的精神，与直布罗陀人的强烈的凝聚感无关，排除[B]和[C]。此处没有提及[D]，直接排除。
15.[B]事实细节题。由题干中的well-behaved定位至末段。第四句指出“Social consciousness is at its strongest, with the result that there is a constant and firm pressure towards good social behaviour, towards courtesy and kindness.”，这里是指社会意识带来了压力，并非是来自国家的压力’[B]不符合文意，故为答案。首句指出“To live in a tiny town with all the organization of a state, with Viceroy, Premier, Parliament, Press and Pentagon, all in miniature, all within arm’s reach, is an intensive course in civics. ”，[A]和[C]符合文意;由第二句“In such an environment, nothing can be hidden, for better or for worse, ”可知[D]符合该句含义。
TEXT B
16.[D]推理判断题。开篇提到“For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the ’paperless’ office is a classic example of high-tech hubris. ”，可见这里的high tech hubris是指the unrealized dream of the "paperless" office。接着第二句指出现在的实际情况“Today’s office drone is drowning in more paper than ever before.”，这与paperless office构成了对照关系.即与high-tech hubris也为对照，故[D]为答案。由此也可知，drowning in more paper than ever before不是high-tech hubris的原因及结果，也不是对high-tech hubris所作的进一步解释，排除其余三项。
17.[B]事实细节题。由题干中的slowdown in paper sales定位至第二段。末句“The demand for paper used to outstrip the growth of the U.S. economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in sales - despite a healthy economic scene. ”中的a healthy economic scene表明美国经济形势不错，[B]与原文不符，故为答案。作者从第三段开始具体分析纸张销售下降的原因，由第七段人们越来越喜欢用电子方式发送信息可以推断，职员们使用计算机的能力会越来越好，[A]符合文意;[D]是对第八段的阐释;由第九段首句可知[C]也符合文意。
18.[A]推理判断题。由题干中的Xerox Corp.和Anoto Group定位至第十一和十二段。第十一段首句指出“To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital, and paper capabilities”，下一句的For example表明Xerox Carp的例子是对该句的细节性支持，同理，下一段的Anoto Group也是为该主题句提供的例证。[A]是对combine digital and paper capabilities的解释，故为答案。[B]与该处矛盾，直接排除;[C]是对第十二段末句中“appear on a computer screen”的曲解;[D]是对第十一和十二段中的stylus的曲解，排除。
19.[C]推理判断题。由题干引号中的内容定位至末段首句。句中的That表明这是对前文内容的概括说明。回溯到倒数第二段可以看出萨福的主要观点是“digital innovations have increased paper consumption”，由此可以判断one of the great ironies of the information age是指该点.故[C]为答案。萨福明确表示自己认为办公室用纸在增加，不是减少.[A]与此矛盾;[B]是针对倒数第二段中的“with its promise of fewer in-per-son meeting”设计的干扰项.为过度推断;同理，[D]是针对“so has video conferencing”设计的干扰项，文中是说视频会议也使得用纸量有所增加，故排除。
20.[A]观点态度题。作者在首段提出舰点“Today’s office drone is drowning in more paper than ever before.”，然后分析了纸张销售增长明显放缓的原因，第十一和十二段举例说明有些公司为了减少办公用纸，正致力于将数码功能和纸张功能相结合。最后四段指出萨福对办公无纸化的不同看法。由此可知作者从不同角度分析了办公无纸化的进展情况，故[A]为答案。作者用引证法说明观点，但只是客观陈述别人对办公无纸化的看法，没有对其观点正确与否加以评论，[B]无依据;作者在开篇首句指出“For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the ’paperless’ office is a classic example of high-tech hubris.”，[C]与之矛盾，排除;[D]是对文章末句“The best thing for the aviation industry was the Internet.”的曲解，排除。
TEXT C
21.[D]事实细节题。由题干定位至第二段。作者在第二句指出“But in another way Orwell was right, and continues to be. ”之后.马上对其进行解释“As a new YouGov poll shows, Britons are surprisingly alert to class-both their own and that of others.”.[D]符合文意，故为答案。第一段末句的印度阶级的例子是对首段第一句的解释，[A]属于张冠李戴，排除;[B]与第二段第六句文意不符，排除;第二段第五句是对“And they still think class is sticky”所做出的解释，与题干中的句子没有直接的因果关系，排除[C]。
22.[B]语义理解题。由题干定位至第三段。从收入排第四位可知，在确定阶级的指标中，收入重要但并不是那么重要，因此可以推断这里是说阶级的定义不仅仅是财富那么简单，[B]与原文含义一致，故为答案。该句中前面的状语的意思是“过去用以界定某个特定阶级的一些行为举止在今天的社会中已经更加普遍化”，这与后面的主句构成让步关系.[A]是对该句的解释，与主句含义不一致.排除;[C]是对该部分内容的过度推断，无依据，排除;从收入排位第四可以判断，这还是一个判断阶级的重要指标，因此[D]与原文不符。排除。
23.[C]事实细节题。第四段末句指出“So, jobs, which were once a fairly reliable guide to class, have become misleading.”，这里只是说职业作为判断阶级的标准不像过去那样具有指导意义，但并未说两者之间无任何关联，[C]为绝对项，不符合原文，故为答案。[A]和[B]与第五段第二、三句文意相符;[D]与第四段首句文意相符。
24.[C]事实细节题。由题干中的blur定位至第五段。首句“A survey conducted earlier this year by Expertian shows how this convergence on similar types of work has blurred class boundaries.”表明大家集中从事一些相似类型的工作，但不是说工作种类减少，[C]与文意不符.故为答案。由第六段第一句“In addition to changes in the labour market, two other things have smudged the borders on the class map.”可知，有三个原因使得阶级界线变得模糊。第四段第二句“Manual workers have shrunk along with farming and heavy industry as a proportion of the workforce, while the number of people in white-collar jobs has surged.”提到第一个原因，[B]符合文意;第六段第二句“First, since 1945 Britain has received large numbers of immigrants who do not fit easily into existing notions of class and may have their own pyramids to scramble up.”指出第二个原因，[A]符合该句含义;第七段首句“Second, barriers to fame have been lowered.”解释了第三个原因，[D]符合文意。
25.[D]推理判断题。由题干中的white-collar workers定位至倒数第二段。第二句指出“This often entails pretending to be more humble than is actually the case: 22%of white-collar workers told YouGov that they consider themselves working class.”，句中的pretending to be more humble表示他们说的情况与实际情况不符，是一种保守的说法，故[D]为答案。句中的pretending to be more humble意为“假称自己比实际所在的阶级卑微”，并不是他们要表现谦虚，排除[A];显然，该行为并不是自我吹嘘的表现，排除[C];文章中没有提到自重的问题，[B]无依据。
TEXT D
26.[D]推理判断题。由题干中的the couple’s clothes and behaviour定位至第二段。第二句表明“…a direct result of his new black clothes was that his brick-coloured hands were constantly performing in a most conscious fashion”，末句指出“The glances he devoted to other passengers were furtive and shy. ”。第三段末句中提到“blushes caused by the careless scrutiny of some passengers as she had entered the car were strange to see upon this plain, under-class countenance…”，这些行为表现都反映了这对新婚夫妇感到害羞、尴尬，故[D]为答案。secrecy意为“神秘”;elation意为“得意”：superiority意为“优越”，这几种感觉在开篇第二段及第三段中都未出现，故排除。
27.[B]推理判断题。第九段描写了车厢内部的装饰情况“He pointed out to her the dazzling fittings of the coach; and in truth her eyes opened wider and she contemplated the sea-green figured velvet, the shining brass, silver, and glass, the wood that gleamed as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil.”，末句还提到白银壁画，由此可见，车厢里金碧辉煌，装饰豪华，故[B]符合文意。虽然装饰很精美，但没有提及装修风格是古典还是现代，排除[A];作者没有提及车厢各设备的功能如何.[C]无依据;同理，[D]也未提及，排除。
28.[A]观点态度题。第十段最后两句指出“But of this oppression they had small knowledge, and they speedily forgot that infrequently a number of travelers covered them with stares of derisive enjoyment.Historically there was supposed to be something infinitely humorous in their situation.”，句中的derisive意为“嘲讽的”，而infinitely humorous意为“无限滑稽的”，故[A]为答案，同时排除[C]和ED]。句中的stares表明他们注意到这夫妻俩，排除[B]。
29.[C]推理判断题。首段末尾“all were sweeping into the east, sweeping over the horizon, a precipice”意思是德州平原上的景物向东延伸，仿佛越过了地平线，而实际上这里的“地平线”是一个悬崖，这里作者把precipice比喻成了horizon，但是却没有出现表示比喻的词，是暗喻，故[C]为答案。“…like a man waiting in a barber’s shop”中有比喻词like，属于明喻，排除[A];同理，“…as darkly brilliant as the surface of a pool of oil.”也是明喻，排除[D];[B]是对侍者表情的客观描述，没有比喻用法，排除[B]。
30.[B]推理判断题。末段末句指出“And yet, as they returned to their coach, they showed in their faces a sense of escape.”，可见他们在用餐时感觉不舒服，故[B]为答案，排除[D]。第二句提到“Two rows of Negro waiters, in glowing white suits, surveyed their entrance with the interest, and also the equanimity, of men who had been forewarned.”，说明侍者们表现出兴趣，但没有提及是否势利，排除[A];这里没有提及夫妻俩对侍者的服务质量是否满意，排除[C]。
PART III GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
31.[B]本题考查英国地理知识。英国由四部分组成：England(英格兰)、Scotland(苏格兰)、Wales(威尔士)和Northern Ireland(北爱尔兰)。苏格兰位于北部，英格兰位于中部及南部，威尔士位于西南部，而北爱尔兰与大不列颠岛被爱尔兰海隔开，位于英格兰和威尔士西北部、苏格兰西南部。
32.[D]本题考查澳大利亚历史知识。早在4万多年前，土著居民便生息繁衍于澳大利亚这块土地上。1606年，荷兰人Willem Janszoon(威廉姆·简士)率领Duyfken(杜伊夫根号)到达澳大利亚海域，这是首次有文字记载的欧洲人在澳大利亚的真正登陆，并命名此地为New Holland(新荷兰)。1770年，英国航海家Captain James Cook(库克船长)发现澳大利亚东海岸，将其命名为New South wales(新南威尔士).并宣布这片土地属于英国。
33.[A]本题考查英语语言国家文化知识。加拿大素有the Land of Maple Leaf(枫叶之国)的美誉，枫树是该国的国树，也是加拿大民族的象征。加拿大国旗中间就有一片11个角的红色枫树叶。新西兰有the Country on the Edge of the World(世界边缘的国家)之称，也被当地人称为Aotearoa(长长的白云之乡)。英国的绰号是John Bull(约翰牛)，曾有The Sun Never Set Empire(日不落帝国)之称;美国的绰号是Uncle Sam(山姆大叔)。
34.[B]本题考查美国历史知识。Boston Tea Party(波士顿倾茶事件)以后，美国殖民者更加渴望独立。激进思想家Thomas Paine(托马斯·潘恩，1737—1809)为支持独立、反对世袭君主制写下了他的成名小册子The Common Sense(《常识》)。其余三项人物都是The Declaration of Independence(《独立宣言》)的起草者。其中，Thomas Jefferson(托马斯·杰斐逊，1743—1826)是美国第三任总统，著有Notes on the State of Virginia(《弗吉尼亚日记》);John Adams(约翰·亚当斯，1735—1826)是美国第二任总统，著有《论教规和封建法律》;Benjamin Franklin(本杰明·富兰克林，1706—1790)著有Poor Richard’s Almanack(《穷理查年鉴》)。
35.[D]本题考查英国文学知识。Virginia Woolf(弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫，1882—1941)，英国女作家，批判家，意识流小说的代表人物之一，被誉为20世纪现代主义与女性主义的先锋。两次世界大战期间，她是伦敦文学界的核心人物。其最知名的小说包括Mrs. Dalloway(((达洛维夫人》)和To the Lighthouse(《到灯塔去》)。
36.[C]本题考查文学术语知识。epic“史诗”，一般叙述英雄历险故事，例如：The Odyssey(《奥德赛》)是古希腊史诗。ballad“民谣，民歌;叙事歌谣”;romance“传奇小说，爱情小说”;elegy“哀歌，挽歌”。
37.[A]本题考查美国文学常识。The Great Gatsby(《了不起的盖茨比》)是美国作家F.Scott Fitzgerald(菲茨杰拉德，1896—1940)最优秀的一部小说，作品主要刻画了20世纪20年代美国梦的破灭。The Sun Also Rises(《太阳照常升起》)是美国小说家、诺贝尔文学奖获得者Ernest Hemingway(海明威，1899—1961)于1926年出版的长篇小说，作者借此成为“迷惘的一代”的代言人，并以此书开创了海明威式的独特文风。The Sound and the Fury(《喧哗与骚动》)是美国小说家William Faulkner(威廉·福克纳，1897—1962)的长篇小说代表作。这部小说描写的是19世纪末至20世纪20年代美国南方杰弗逊镇的望族康普生家庭的没落以及各个家庭成员的遭遇与精神状态。Beyond the Horizon(《天边外》)是美国戏剧家Eugene O’Neill(尤金·奥尼尔，1888—1953)的成名之作，主要描写一个美国农民家庭的不幸的生活。题干中的American myth指的是美国梦(American dream)，是美国文学作品中的一个重要主题，它曾象征美国人的精神追求与积极进取的精神。
38.[C]本题考查语言学常识。cognitive linguistics(认知语言学)主要研究语言与大脑的关系，解释言语习得、产生等大脑活动过程。semantics(语义学)研究语言的意义;pragmatics(语用学)研究如何通过语境来理解和使用语言;sociolinguistics(社会语言学)研究语言与社会的关系。
39.[A]本题考查语言学常识。vowel(元音)与consonant(辅音)产生的根本区别是辅音的产生需要有an obstruction of the air stream(气流的阻碍)，而元音的产生则没有absence of obstruction(气流阻碍)。manner of articulation(发音方法)与place of articulation(发音部位)用来为辅音归类。
40.[C]本题考查语言学常识。Pidgin(洋泾浜语.混杂语)是一种简化的以交流为目的的语言，没有本族语者;Creole(克里奥耳语，混合语)与Pidgin的区别在于前者有自己的本族语者;Multilingualism，顾名思义，指能够使用多种语言进行交流：Bilingualism指能用两种语言。此外。注意本题中Pidgin与Creole为近义词。
PART IV PROOFREADING & ERROR CORRECTION
1.grew∧→up 固定搭配错误。grow up意为“长大”，而grow意为“生长”。根据句意可知，此处应为when I grew up…“当我长大……”。
2.conscience→consciousness名词混淆。conscience意为“道德心，良心”，consciousness意为“意识，知觉”。本句表达的意思是“在17到24岁的这段时间里，我试图打消这个念头，可总觉得这样做是在违背自己的本性……”。此处如果用conscience，则句意不通。
3.soon→sooner固定搭配错误。此处sooner or later意为“迟早，早晚”。此句意为“迟早我都会安定下来伏案著书”。
4.∧child→middle 形容词缺失。此处child前面缺少限定性词语，根据下文可知作者是三个孩子中年龄居中的一个，因此用middle来限定child。此句意为“三个孩子中，我是老二，老大和老三分别与我相隔五岁”。
5.disagreeing→disagreeable 形容词混淆。disagreeing是disagree的现在分词，不能用来修饰mannerisms。而disagreeable意为“难相处的，令人厌恶的”，可以修饰mannerisms，此句意为“我很快就养成了很多不讨人喜欢的习惯，这使我在学校生活里不受大家的欢迎”。
6.imaginative→imaginary 形容词混淆。imaginative意为“富有想象力的”，imaginary意为“虚构的，假想的”。此句意为“我养成了孤僻小孩子惯有的编造故事和与假想出来的人物聊天的习惯”。根据句意应使用imaginary。
7.literal→literary 形容词混淆。literal意为“文字的”，literary意为“文学的”。此处应该使用literary来修饰ambitions更为恰当。此句意为“我认为，从一开始，我在文学方面的抱负就是同我内心的孤立感和被人低估的感觉息息相关的”。
8.in→删除in介词冗余。face意为“面对”时，为及物动词，后面不需要加介词，此句意为“我知道我拥有驾驭语言的才能和直面令人不快的现实的能力”。
9.which→where或者A which→in关系词误用。此处为定语从句，先行词为a sort of private world，应该使用关系副词where，而非关系代词which。也可以在关系代词which前加in。此句意为“我感觉这样就创造了一个属于我的私人世界.在这里我可以为我每天的挫败感找到一种支持”。
10.Therefore→Nevertheless连词混淆。根据上下文语义，上文提到“我感觉这样就创造了一个属于我的私人世界，在这里我可以为我每天的挫败感找到一种支持”，而下文提到“在我整个童年时代里创造的严肃的作品都不足六页”。上下文是一种转折关系，因此不应使用therefore，而应该使用转折连词nevertheless。
PART V TRANSLATION
SECTION A
参考译文
People always spend their earthly existence in shuttling between haste and leisure — two distinct life styles, though — sometimes even hardly conscious of which way they are on. For instance, while still vacationing at the resort, we receive a call from the boss all of a sudden, knowing that some troubles are with the clients or the work At this moment the handy cell phone is exposed as an evil and dismal device more than a modem and advanced tool. The subsequent leisure is merely showy as such a call has shadowed our leisure tour and made US restless with anxiety.
SECTION B
参考译文
飞机飞越尼泊尔上空时，你很容易天马行空起来，你会假想自己很渺小——像一只蝴蝶——漂浮在建筑师所使用的某个三维地图上方，只是这地图的层层轮廓变成了环绕高耸的山脊的梯田。
尼泊尔是个小国家。我们的飞机在12，000英尺的高空向东飞去。从左边的机窗望去，能够清晰地看到30英里外的雄伟的喜马拉雅山脉闪耀的雪白蜃景。
从右边的机窗望去，三、四条成阶梯状的高耸山脊突然向前延伸至印度平原。
向下看，几乎看不到公路。在尼泊尔，步行是最主要的交通方式，古老的小路纵横交错连接着整个国家。好在这里也有沙土铺设的机场跑道.这对我来说是幸运的，因为我没有时间花两周半跋涉到我的目的地。我正在飞往当地机场的航班上。
PART VI WRITING
参考范文
To charge Higher Entry Free during Peak Travel Seasons: Not a Smart Move
With the increased income and accumulated wealth among general public, a lot of tourism attractions witness great tourists increase in recent years, especially those of historical interests, such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and so on. Having observed such a trend, a lot of historical tourism sites are considering adopting higher ticket prices. When it comes to this issue, I am strongly against it, and reasons supporting my stand against such a practice can be divided into the following three parts.
The first thing that comes up in my mind is the nature of these tourism attractions. Different from other tourism attractions, such as the carnival, the zoo, the amusement park, etc, which basically need further investment to maintain well operation，historical sites, as the fruits of our ancestors and common wealth of our whole nation, which need only necessary maintenance, do not need and have no reason to charge higher entry fees. Another important reason is that these sites also perform the function of educating the general public about the culture and history of our nation. Higher prices during the peak season will surely influence a majority of those who are interested in the historical and cultural sense of these sites and plan to pay a visit to such tourism attractions. And peak season also means the only time available for those who are busy with their work or academic study in ordinary days. In such a manner, the educational value of historical sites can not be fully realized. Researches regarding the feelings of general travelers during the peak season usually get the results of dominant dissatisfaction, and temporarily higher price surely contributes a lot to this dissatisfactory result. Thus we can move naturally to the third point that conducts like this will inevitably lead to a tourism industry that is not sustainable. Simply taking money from the general citizens without providing them with better service accordingly will never produce a tourism industry that is healthy enough to continue its future development.
With the above analysis, we Call see the unreasonable nature of such a policy to raise ticket price of the historical tourism attractions temporarily. Such historical sites should be operated through official fund and public support, so that these sites can well play the role of history and culture education, and more and better understanding of who we are as a cultural entity could be promoted. Also, improved service quality, more rational outing schedules as well as balanced distribution of tourists among different destinations can only be achieved through the interaction between tourism consumers and service providers in the years to come.
昕力原稿
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
Paralinguistic Features of Language
Good morning, everyone. Today we’ll look at culture, or rather classifications of cultures. Usually when we deal with different people, we deal with them as if we were all members of the same culture. However, it’s possible that people from different cultures have different assumptions about the world, regarding such important and basic ideas as time, personal space. And this is the view of Edward Hall. And Edward Hall is an anthropologist who spent a large part of his life studying American Indians, their culture, their language. But he was different from a lot of other anthropologists who just study one culture. He was interested in the relations between cultures, how cultures interact. What Hall believes is that cultures can be classified by placing them on a continuum ranging from what he called high-context to low-context.
OK, what is a high-context culture? A high-context culture is a culture in which the context of the message, or the action, or an event, carries a large part of its meaning and significance. (1; 2)What this means is that in a high context culture more attention is paid to what’s happening in and around the message than to the message itself.
Now, let me give you examples.First，(3)in terms of personal space, generally speaking, in a high-context culture, because there’s greater dependence on group thinking, people lean towards heavier sense of involvement or closeness to people. And they have less respect for privacy, for personal space. If you go into that culture, people might stand closer when they are talking to you. They might touch more and if they are jostled in a crowd, they won’t feel violated. And also(4)people from a high-context culture pay attention to body language because, remember what I said, (2)the definition of a high-context culture is that more attention is paid to the context of the message than to the message itself. And part of the context is body language.
Second, in terms of time, people in high-context cultures are considered to have what is called a polychronic attitude toward time. (5)Here "poly" means multiple and "chronic" means time. What this means is that they believe people, things, events, have their own time. And there can’t be a standard system of time for everything. What this leads them to believe is that you can’t emphasize punctuality. Things happen when they are supposed to happen. So there’s a different attitude toward time. There’s no set standard of time. You can’t control time. Everything has its own sense of time.So it’s a culture that pays little attention to time, to clock time.
Now, let’s move on to low-context culture. A low-context culture is just the opposite. A low-context culture is one in which the message, the event, or the action, is a separate entity having meaning onto itself, regardless of the surroundings or the context. (6)That is, the message, the event, the action, has meaning in itself. So what this means in a low-context culture is that people pay more attention to the event itself, rather than to the context which surrounds the event or the message.
For example, in terms of personal space again, there’s more emphasis on individuality. So the concept of privacy is very, very important. Or as before as I said, in a high-context culture, they might not even be concerned with privacy or personal space. But in a low-context culture, there’s a feeling that we each have our own personal space. If you get too close, if you don’t knock on doors before entering, that’s an invasion of privacy. People feel violated. There’s a respect and desire for privacy. And you’ll also see that people might pay less attention to body language, because as I said, the message is, the message is everything. (7)They are not going to worry about all the details around it. What you say is the important thing, or what you do is the important thing.
Another example of a low-context culture is people’s attitude towards time. In terms of time, I said before, there was a polychronic sense of time in a high-context culture. (8)What do you think there would be in a low-context culture? Monochronic. Right. A monochronic sense of time and by that we mean that there’s one time. And that concept means that people in a low-context culture believe that there’s one standard of time and that should be for everything and so are not willing to hear "Oh, the traffic was heavy. That’s why I’m late. " or "Oh, I slept late. " (9)People in a low-context culture would be much more upset with lateness because they feel that everyone should follow the same time. There shouldn’t be all this flexibility with time and they expect punctuality. And they look at time as almost a commodity that they use expressions like "use time", "to waste time", "to spend time", or "Time is money. " All of these expressions reinforce the concept that time is actually .something you can hold on to.
So, what this is all about is that Hall stresses that people need to be aware of these different assumptions or concepts about reality. And he thinks that this has all kinds of relevance, no matter what you are doing. If you are in business, negotiations, interpersonal relations, if you are dealing with people from different cultures in any way, it’s going to affect every part of your life. (10) In any multicultural situation, these assumptions need to be taken into account for successful interactions.
OK. Today, we’ve taken a brief look at Edward Hall’s view of culture, mainly his classification of high or low-context culture with some examples. Next week, we’ll look at some more examples of cultures on the continuum between high-context and low-context cultures.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
W: Good morning, Dr. Harley. Thank you very much for coming on our radio talk. We know that you are an applied linguist specializing in second language acquisition.
M: Right.
W: So, today, urn, we’ll look at this issue. Now, first, Dr. Harley, could you please tell us what is second language acquisition?
M.. Well, second language acquisition is, happens when a child or an adult has already become competent at a language. And then, ah, they attempt to learn another.
W: OK. (5) Most people think, including me, it is difficult to learn another language. What are the reasons? Why is it so?
M: Well, there are a number of reasons for this. Ah, first, there have been research studies. (1) They have shown that some aspects of language learning, especially syntax, are more difficult beyond a certain age, say, after around 12 years of age.
W: So, age plays an important role in language learning.
M: Yes. But that’s not the only reason.
W: Oh, is that so?
M: Yes. For example, time and interest. Old children and adults often have less time and motivation to learn a second language.
W: Hmm.
M": Another is related to the similarities and differences between one’s mother tongue and a second language. We find that learners will experience difficulty when their mother tongue and the second language they are learning differ. In general, the more idiosyncratic a feature is in a particular language, relative to other languages, the more difficult it will be to acquire it.
W: Perhaps this is the key issue. Differences between languages cause language learning problems.
M: Well, this may be one of the issues here. But this can not be the whole story. (2)As not all differences between languages cause difficulty. Let me give you an example.
W: OK.
M: (2)Research has found that many errors by Czech speakers learning English were made on syntactic constructions in which the two languages do not differ.
W: Oh, really? The picture is more complicated than we’ve imagined.
M: Definitely yes. Each language learning situation is different. So reasons vary a lot from case to case.
