2001年英语专八真题及答案

2001年英语专八真题及答案

　　2015年专八考试还有3个月即将到来，新东方在线为同学们整理了2001年英语专八真题及答案，供各位考生参考练习。

　　PART Ⅰ LISTENING C

　　PART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

　　SECTION A TALK

　　The World Bank is one of the major channels through which development aid is passed from industrial west to the poor and developing nations of the world. Its scale of operations is vast, which is why its lending program exceeds 7 billion a year, and its work force numbers about 4500. In the last decade important changes have taken place in the size of the bank's operations and in the emphasis of its lending policies. What immediately strikes anyone looking at the lending figures over the last 10 years is the tremendous expansion in the bank's loan program. This has increased from 1 billion to nearly 7 billion. The figure includes hard loans, which are made at the current rate of interest, and soft loans, which are allocated to poor countries at concessionary rates, and usually channel led through the bank's affiliate-the International Development Association.

　　In deciding the emphasis of its lending policy, the bank has had to take into account the population explosion which is occurring in many poor countries of the world. It is a fact that the fertility rate of the poor countries is often very high. This is one of the main reasons for these countries remaining poor. Unfortunately, wide-ranging country section programs do not usually reduce this r ate because this was a strong and deeply rooted tradition among people in these countries to have big families. What the bank discovered was that there was a link between economic and social development on the one hand, and reduction of fertility rate on the other. Thus by improving basic health services, by introducing better nutrition, by increasing literacy, and by promoting more even income distribution in a poor country, a lower and more acceptable fertility rate will be achieved. This advanced thinking persuaded the bank to change its overall lend ing strategy, where previously it concentrated on the big infrastructure project s, such as dams, roads and bridges. It begun to switch to projects which directly improve the basic services of the country. There was a shift, if you like, from building dams to digging water holes to provide clear water.

　　A second reason for the change of approach was that the bank has learned a big lesson from projects financed in the 1960s. Many of its major capital investment had scarcely touched the lives of urban and rural poor, nor have they created much employment. The project did not have the trigger-down effect they have in industrialized countries. Instead the huge dams, steel-mills, and so on were left as monuments to themselves. This redirection of its lending has meant that the bank has tended to support labour intensive activities, rather than capita l intensive ones. Both rural and urban areas, there is a better chance in the first case, that its funds will benefit the bottom 40% of the country's population. 

　　The bank is also looking for ways of stimulating the growth of the small businesses in many developing countries since this would create employment opportunities for people with lower incomes. Being such a big, obvious target, the bank has often come under fire. For example, its officials have been taken to task for u sing Concord supersonic aircraft so frequently, about 500 times in one year. Also, the large growth of the organization's personnel has not pleased some critic s . A more substantial criticism has concerned the bank's policy of setting annual target for lending to specified countries. This could lead to the deterioration in quality of loans, some say. One former bank official has said, rather than encourage growth for its own sake, the bank should begin to think of itself less as a foreign aid agency and more of a financial deal-maker, combining official wit h the private resources for specific purposes.

　　Finally, some people maintain that the impact of the projects funded by the bank has been modest. When one looks around the world at regions or countries that have successfully transformed to industrial status, it seems that one should be aware of over-estimating the bank's impact. Take Hong Kong for example. Its changes have come about as a result of trade offensive. The purpose has been to flood western market with low price goods made by capitalist methods of production. The example seems to indicate that some regions can prosper without the bank's aid as well.

　　SECTION B CONVERSATION

　　W: Well, it seems quite common actually. A lot of people in Australia no w are travelling and taking time off. And when I was actually travelling, I met so many people doing the same thing.

　　M: Yeah, yeah, so where did you start off?

　　W: Well, I went to New Zealand first. Eh, and got a job in a computer company as a secretary. And I worked there for 4 months.

　　M: Really? You can do that, can you? I mean it's possible for anyone to get a j ob in New Zealand, without being a New Zealander?

　　W: No, not everybody, only Australians and New Zealanders can exchange either. Y ou know you can work in either country.'

　　M: Right, yeah.

　　W: So that was easy. So I worked there for 4 months and raised enough money for the rest of travels really. So from there I went to Indonesia, and travelled around the different islands around Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, China , Nepal and India. 

　　M: What about Indonesia? What did you do? Did you fly mostly between the Islands?

　　W: Eh, I did a bit of that, and boats, mainly local boats between the Islands.

　　M: What about Singapore? People said it's very very modern. But because it is s o modern, it's rather boring. Did you find that?

　　W: Well, it's difficult to say really. It has different attractions. You know t h e Chinese, Malay, and Hindu communities are there. Each has his own culture and custom, very different from the others. And it's a great big shopping center an d I really enjoy it from that point of view. And it was very clean.

　　M: And after, you said you went what, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and then China? That's a great country to travel in, isn't it?

　　W: Eh, it was. Yeah, it was fabulous. It really was. You have been there then?

　　M: No, I haven't. No, I mean it's very big. What did you do?

　　W: Yeah. Well, I had only one month to travel in China, and that was too short f or such a vast country as China. I felt I didn't have enough time, so I sacrifced a lot of places and did the main tourist throughout really. I went to Beijing, the capital, Kaifeng, Yinchuan, and Tibet.

　　M: Well, how exciting! You said after Beijing, you went to?

　　W: That was Kaifeng in central China's Henan province. It's a charming city, and has got a lot to look around, like temples and pagodas, very traditional.

　　M: Eh, eh.

　　W: What fascinated me when I was there was that some Jews went to live in Kaifen g many years ago. As early as 16th century, there were Jewish families there. They have their synagogue and five books of Masses. Even today several hundred descendants of the original Jews still live in Kaifeng.

　　M: Really, I've never heard of that. And where did you go after Kaifeng?

　　W: I went to northwest to Yinchuan, the provincial city of Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

　　M: Is this the place where there always is a shortage of water?

　　W: No, no, on the contrary, it has got abundant supply of water, because it is n ear the Yellow River. In this sense, Yinchuan has a favorable geographical posit on in otherwise harsh surroundings.

　　M: What did you see there then?

　　W: Ningxia was once the capital of Western Xia during the 11th century. So outside Yinchuan, you can still see the Western Xia mausoleum, where the Kings and t heir Kingdoms were buried. The tombs were scattered in a pretty big area at the foot of the Henan Mountain, and inside the city there are famous mosques in the architectural style of Middle East. It's really a place worth visiting. You got to know something about Chinese Moslems.

　　M: And that sounds really interesting. Where did you travel after that?

　　W: I was lucky enough to get into Tibet, and that was brilliant.

　　M: Yeah. What was the most interesting place you visited, do you think?

　　W: Well, I think actually Tibet is the most fascinating and exciting. I've never been anywhere so different. The people there are wonderful, the clothes .they w ear, the food they eat.

　　M: And you said you went to Nepal as well?

　　W: Yeah, eh, that's a sort of easier passion of Tibetans really and there are a lot of Tibetans——there as well as other tribes and Nepalese, so that was good because I went trekking in Nepal, you should do that.

　　M: How long did you trek for?

　　W: Oh, I only did a short one, only for a week. I was lazy.

　　M: Was it very tiring?

　　W: No, it wasn't actually. I mean you just set your own pace, and don't pace y ourselves too hard, that was a stupid thing to do. Eh, you don't have to walk very far, so that was great.

　　M: So how did you feel after all this travelling? How did you feel to stop travelling? I mean you were on the move alone for months and months ,and suddenly you're here ,and not traveling any more. How does it feel?

　　W: I was ready to stop anyway. You get pretty sick, wearing the same clothes, and washing them in the different hotels. I never stay in the same place for longer than two days. And since I was ready to stop, I don't think I could keep doing it. I mean I've met people who've been travelling for 2 or 3 years. I couldn't do it.

　　M: Yeah, yeah. Maybe it's something I should try after this.

　　W: I think you really should.

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