1999年英语专八真题及答案

　　TEXT H

　　First read the question.

　　34. The writer of this letter attempts to ___ the views in the editorial.

　　A. refute B. illustrate C. support D. substantiate

　　Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.

　　October 3rd 199 

　　Dear Sir,

　　In your editorial on August 31st, there seems to be some confused thinking in attempting to establish a direct relationship between the desire of the OAA airlines to negotiate more equitable agreements with the United States for air-t raffic rights and the cost of air travel for the public.

　　It is simply untrue that the Asian carriers are not looking for increased access to the U.S. market, including its domestic market; they are, as part of b alanced agreements that provide equality of opportunity. So long as the U. S. ta kes the inequitable arrangements enshrined in current agreements as a starting p oint for negotiation, however, there is no chance that U.S. carriers will be gra nted more regional rights which further unbalance the economic opportunities ava ilable to each side. Most importantly from the consumer viewpoint, it has yet to be demonstrated that in those regional sectors where U.S. carriers currently op erate-such as Hong Kong/Tokyo-they have added anything in terms of price, qualit y of service, innovation or seat availability in peak seasons.

　　Turning to cost, I am not sure to which Merrill Larrych study you are referri ng, but it would be simplistic to compare seat-mile costs of narrow-body operati on over U. S. domestic sectors with wide-body operation over international secto rs; comparative studies of seat-mile costs are valid only if they compare simila r aircraft operating over identical sectors. On this basis, International Civil Aviation Organization figures show that Asian carriers are highly competitive. O f course, given its operating environment Japan Air Lines will have high seat-mi le costs, while a carrier based in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore Airlines, w ill have relatively low costs. But it is a fallacy to assume this means 'higher ticket prices or higher taxes' for the 'hapless Asian air traveller' if he travels on JAL.

　　The Japanese carriers have to compete in the Asian marketplace with others, and costs cannot simply be passed on to the consumer or taxpayer. The people wh o really pay the price or reap the reward of differing cost levels are the share holders.

　　(RICHARD. T. STIRLAND

　　Director General

　　Orient Airlines Association

　　TEXT I

　　First read the questions.

　　35. Today's computers can process data ___ times faster than the 1952 model, ILLIAC.

　　A. 4 B. 100 C. 200 D. 4, 000

　　36. NCSA aims to develop ___.

　　A. a new Internet browser

　　B. a more powerful national system

　　C. human-computer intelligence interaction

　　D. a new global network

　　Now go through TEXT I quickly to answer questions 35 and 36.

　　URBANA, Illinois. Welcome to Cyber City, USA, where scientists are developi ng the next-generation Internet and leading ground-breaking research in artifici al intelligence. The University of Illinois at Urbana, which has a student body of 36,100, has a proud computing tradition. In 1952, it became the first educational institution to build and own its own computer.

　　That computer, ILLIAC, was four metres tall, four metres long and sixty cen timetres deep. Its processing speed was about 50 kilohertz compared with 200 meg ahertz-that's 200,000 kilohertz for today's computers.

　　At the state-of-the-art Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technolo gy, researchers from disciplines as far-ranging as psychology, computer science and biochemistry are focusing on biological intelligence and human-computer inte lligence interaction.

　　Beckman also houses the National Centre for Supercomputing Application (NCS A), which played a key role in the development of the Internet global network. I t was NCSA that developed Mosaic, the graphically driven programme that first ma de surfing on the Internet possible.

　　Mosaic, introduced in 1992, has been replaced by much more powerful Interne t browsers such as its successor Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

　　NCSA officials say they are now trying to bring more advanced computing and communication to research scientists, engineers and ultimately the public.

　　"What we're looking for is a national system in which the networks are 10 0 times greater than the Internet today, and the supercomputers are 100 times more powerful," said NCSA Director Larry Smart.

　　A proposed joint project would develop a prototype or demonstration model f or the "21st century national information infrastructure" in line with an init iative announced by President Bill Clinton last October.

　　If funded by the National Science Foundation, the new structure would take effect on October 1st.

　　NCSA, one of the four operational federal supercomputer centres in the coun try, is awaiting a decision from the Foundation's board late this month on a co mpetition for US $ 16 million in continued annual federal funding.

　　NCSA, which employs 200 people and has a yearly budget of US $ 31 million, is expected to be one of two winners along with its counterpart in San Diego.

　　"The University has put a great deal of effort into this competition. We r emain hopeful about the outcome, but we will have no comment until the National Science Foundation Board's decision," Smart said.

　　TEXT J

　　First read the questions.

　　37. In Japanese the work depato refers to ___.

　　A. traditional Japanese stores

　　B. modern stores in cities

　　C. special clothing stores

　　D. railway stores

　　38. During the Meiji era depato was regarded by Japanese customers as a(n ) ___ shopping place.

　　A. cheap B. traditional C. fashionable D. attractive

　　Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer questions 37 and 38.

　　The Japanese have two words for the modern department stores that abound in large urban areas. The older word, hyakkaten, which is seldom used in daily spee ch, can usually be found engraved in ideographs in a building cornerstone, and i t is part of a store's official rifle. Literally "a store with one hundred ite ms ," this word was coined during the late Meiji era( 1868 - 1912), when clothing s tores began to expand their product lines and railroads began to build shops at major train crossings. The more recent and more commonly used word is depato (fr om the English 'department store' ). 

　　These words reflect the dual nature of Japanese department stores. Words wr itten in ideographs can impart an aura of antiquity and tradition. Frequently, a s in the case of the word hyakkaten, they suggest indigenous origin. In contrast , foreign borrowed words often give a feeling of modernity and foreignness. Many Japanese department stores actually originated in Japan several hundred years a go as dry goods stores that later patterned themselves after foreign department stores. Even the trendiest and most avant-garde of these stores practise pattern s of merchandising and retain forms of prepaid credit, customer service, and spe cial relationships with suppliers characteristic of merchandising during the Tok ygawa era (1600 - 1868). To many Japanese these large urban stores may seem lik e a direct import from the West, but like the word depato, they have undergone a transformation in the process of becoming Japanese.

　　Throughout the Tokygawa era, Japan was closed by decree to foreign influen ces. During the Meiji era, however, Japan reopened to the western world; concurr ently, depato emerged as large-scale merchandisers in Japan. The Meiji depato we re soon perceived by Japanese customers as glamorous places to shop because of t heir Western imports, which the Japanese were eager to see and buy. Depato also sold Japanese goods but often followed practices that people of the time conside red foreign, such as letting customers wear their shoes while shopping in the st ore.

　　A representative of the Japan Department Store Association told me that th roughout their history depato have played on the Japanese interest in foreign pl aces, cultures and objects, and that to a great extent these were introduced to Japan through department stores. I suggest that in addition to this role of cult ural importer depato have also been involved in the creation of domestic cultura l meanings. They have made foreign customs, ideas and merchandise familiar by gi ving them meanings consistent with Japanese cultural practice.

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