1997年英语专业八级考试真题（附听力mp3及答案）

1997年英语专业八级考试真题（附听力mp3及答案）

　　听力原文

　　PART Ⅰ LISTENING COMPREHENSION?

　　SECTION A TALK?

　　Good morning, everyone. Today we’re going to talkabout acid rain. You may wonder what is acid rain.Well, it is almost impossible to describe themathematical relationship between what goes up aspollutant emissions and what comes down as acidrain. But we do know the primary source of acid rain is the power station smoke stack. Thepollutants combine with moisture in the atmosphere and they fall as an acid mixture raising therain. Do you know what the Germans call this acid rain??

　　The royal water, I mean the acid rain, falls in rain or snow on the romantic Black Forest ,andattacks the soil. Micro-organisms within the soil collapse and metals harmful to trees likealuminum are leaked out. At the same time, the acid rain attacks the leaves and dissolve theirwaxy coating. The leaves then shrivel and die. About one in every ten trees in the Black Forestis a fir. 76 percent of all firs are dying. The first symptoms of death by pollution in a fir is theyellowing of the needles. At the back of the fir needle, you can see the pores through whichthe plant breathes. The acid rain destroys those pores, and prevent them from closing. So ona warm day, the plant loses all of its moisture through those open pores. The needles, as aresult, turn yellow and die.?

　　The statistics that are available now are horrifying. Of these trees in the Black Forest, 41% ofall spruce are diseased, 43% of all pine are diseased, 26% of beech trees, 76% of all fir treesand 16% of all others are dying. Environmental groups like Green Peace campaign aroundEurope are trying to stop the acid rain.?

　　Germany is now leading the way in attacking part of the problem. Motor vehicles are thought tocontribute significantly to the pollution of the atmosphere. The by-products of motor vehicleemissions are considered dangerous to plants, and humans as well.?

　　In order to clean up motor vehicle emissions, all new cars in Germany must meet emissionstandards and be fitted with a device called “catalytic converter”.?

　　Use of the converters requires people to switch to lead-free petrol. This might explain why theEuropeans are reluctant to follow Germany’s lead in cleaning up its motor vehicle emission.It’s unlikely that Germany will force her European neighbours to change to lead-free petrol.The reason is that though her neighbours may be slow in cleaning up their smoke stacks, theywill have to comply with the new motor vehicle requirements if they want the wealthy Germantourists driving across their borders.?

　　Certainly, the menace of acid rain knows no borders because it gathers in the rain clouds andgoes with the prevailing winds. So Canada’s lakes die from America’s pollution. Germany’strees die from her next-door neighbors. Sweden’s lakes fall victim to Britain’s industry. Andthere are many similar examples. And I won’t go into them because of time constraint. ?

　　Like Germany, the United States also introduced strict clean air-controls on motor vehicleemissions in the mid-70s as part of their efforts to reduce acid rain. But throughout thenorthern hemisphere it’s agreed that such measures, though important, will be of minimaleffect. If we are to save what’s left of forests and lakes in the world, a strict internationalemission standard must be uniformly imposed on industry. However, its unlikely that will beagreed upon before many more acres of precious forests are destroyed.

　　SECTION B INTERVIEW

　　Interviewer: Good morning Mr. Pitt. Do sit down.

　　Pitt: Thank you.?

　　Interviewer: First of all, Mr. Pitt. I’d like you to tell me a bit about what you’ve been doing.?

　　Pitt: Well, I left school after I’d done my A levels.?

　　Interviewer: Ah, yes, A levels. What subjects did you take??

　　Pitt: I took four subjects, French, German, chemistry and art. Chemistry wasn’t my cup of tea,but art has always been.?

　　Interviewer: Art??

　　Pitt: Well, I really wanted to study art. It didn’t turn out like that, because a friend of my fathersoffered me a job. It’s an accountant in London. A quite big firm, you know.?

　　Interviewer: I see. A firm of accountants. Interesting. In your application, you say that youonly spent nine months with this firm of accountants. Why was that??

　　Pitt: It was nearly a year actually. Well, to be quite honest, I didn’t like it.

　　I just couldn’t seem to get interested in the job although there were fairly good prospects. SoI got a place at the art college to do a three-year diploma course.?

　　Interviewer: I see. Now Mr. Pitt, what about hobbies and interests? Er, what do you do in yourspare time??

　　Pitt: I like jazz, traditional and folk music. I don’t play of course, but I go to quite a lot ofconcerts and I go to the theater occasionally and act a bit myself. I’m in the local Germanicsociety. I read quite a lot and I’ve done a bit of photography. Also, I’ve traveled a lot. Hitchhikea dolly for Europe. Last year that was.?

　　Interviewer: Very interesting. Mr. Pitt. I think, that’s all I wanted to ask about your background.Now let’s talk about the management trainee scheme. What exactly do you think a managerdoes?

　　Pitt: I don’t know a great deal about the work.?

　　Interviewer: But you have got any ideas about it. You must have thought about it.?

　　Pitt: Well, I... Suppose he has a lot of... a... what is called policy making to do. And... he has toknow how to work with people, and all about the company. ?

　　Interviewer: Mm. ?

　　Pitt: Yes, I... should think a manager must know something about all aspects of the work.?Interviewer: Yes, that’s right. We like our executive staff to undergo a thorough training.Young men on our trainee scheme have to work through every branch in the company.?

　　Pitt: Oh.?

　　Interviewer: And one of them is accountancy. Presumably you wouldn’t like that.?

　　Pitt: Well, if I had to do it, I suppose... But I was thinking that my French and German wouldmean that I could specialize in overseas work. I’d like to be some sort of an export salesmanand travel abroad.?

　　Interviewer: You know, the glamour of traveling abroad disappears when you’ve got a hard jobof work to do. It’s not all fun and game.?

　　Pitt: Oh yes, I realize that. It’s just that my knowledge of languages would be useful.?

　　Interviewer: Now, Mr. Pitt, is there anything you want to ask me??

　　Pitt: Well, there is one or two things. I’d like to know if I have to sign a contract and what thesalary and prospects are.?

　　Interviewer: With our scheme, Mr. Pitt, there is no contract involved. Your progress is keptunder constant review. If we at any time decide we don’t like you, then that’s that. We reservethe right to dismiss you.?

　　Pitt: I see.?

　　Interviewer: Of course. You have the same choice about us.?

　　Pitt: Fair enough. And what about the salary

　　Interviewer: As for salary, you’ll be on our fixed scales, starting at 870 pounds. For thesuccessful trainee, the prospects are very good.?

　　Pitt: I see. Thank you very much.

　　Interviewer: That’s all, Mr. Pitt. You should hear from us in a couple of weeks. One way or theother, or we may ask you to come back for another chat. Thank you.?

　　Pitt: Goodbye, Mrs. Williams.

　　SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST?

　　News Item 1(For Question 11)?

　　Russian authorities are questioning five men suspected of taking about a dozen schoolchildren hostage and commandeering a helicopter for a ten million dollar ransom. The allegedgunmen were captured early Monday in southern Russia ending a four-day drama. Thekidnappers initially demanded to be flown to Iran. A police now believes their only aim was tenmillion dollars paid by the government most of which has now been recovered.??

　　News Item 2 ( For Question 12 )?

　　The United States has announced that it’s to send one thousand more troops to Panama toincrease security at Cuban refugee camps where riots broke out last week. Officials inWashington said that the troops will be added to the two thousand who are already in Panama.More than 200 American soldiers were injured when the Cubans, angry at delays in movingthem out of Panama, attacked their guards and broke out of the camps. The refugees havebeen in Panama since September.?

　　News Item 3 ( For Question 13 )?

　　U.S. lawmakers have criticized- the recent US-North Korean deal calling for freeingPyongyang’s nuclear program in return for US diplomatic and economic concessions. Theyexpress concern that the North may take the concessions and break the accord. Otherlawmakers noted that inspection of Pyongyang’s nuclear site is not required for at least fiveyears. The U. S. chief negotiator defended the accord, saying he had made no compromisesthat would damage U. S. national security. ?

　　News Item 4 ( For Questions 14-15 )?

　　Italy, a major producer of landmines, has joined the campaign to ban the weapons which killand maim many thousands of people every year. The Chamber of Deputies, the Lower House ofParliament voted 402 to 2 with four abstentions to ratify a 1980 convention that will commitItaly to drastically limit the use of landmines and help to clear mined areas. Parliament alsopledged Italy’s support for efforts led by the Secretary General of the United Nations, theInternational Red Cross and the Swedish Government to promote a total international ban onthe production and export of the mines. The Italian Parliament acted at the request of DefenseMinister.??

　　SECTION D NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING?

　　Good morning everyone. First about your second assignment. I’d like to remind you that yoursecond assignment should be handed in by next Friday, You can either put it in my pigeon holeor leave it with the department secretary. Now, let’s get down to the lecture.?

　　Today the lecture is on credit or, to be more specific, on credit cards. I’m sure you must haveheard of some credit cards like the Visa card, which is an internationally used card or the GreatWall card issued by the Bank of China.

　　In order to give a better understanding we’ll discuss it in sonic detail. Many businesses, such asdepartment stores, restaurants, hotels and airline companies use a credit system for sellingtheir products and services. In a credit system the seller agrees to sell something to the buyerwithout immediately receiving cash. He receives the goods or services immediately and promisesto pay for them later. This buy-now-pay-later credit system is quite old. There are two types ofcredit cards. One type is issued directly by a store to a customer. Many large departmentstores issue credit cards to their customers. The store credit card can be used to makepurchases only at a particular store. For example, if you have a credit card from Store A, thenyou can only buy things in that store. Other stores would not accept it.?

　　The other kind of credit cards is issued by a credit company. Credit cards from creditcompanies can be used to buy things almost anywhere. If you have a major credit card, youcan buy air plane tickets, stay in hotels and eat in restaurants with it. Most large creditcompanies are connected to large banks. So if you want a credit card from a credit company,you generally have to make an application at a bank. After an applicant receives a credit card,he or she can make purchases using the card. The credit company sends the customer astatement of purchases at the end of each month. Generally the Customer has to pay 25 to 50percent of their (his) credit bill every month. The customer pays directly to the credit companyand the credit company pays to the store or hotel or restaurant.

　　There are some advantages and some disadvantages to using credit cards. The biggestadvantage for the consumer is expressed by the phrase “Buy now, pay later”. This meansthat the consumer can purchase what he wants when he wants it. There is no need to save upmoney in advance. Another advantage of having a credit card is that it protects the owner, if acredit card is lost or stolen, the owner only has to call the credit company, and the creditcompany will stop the credit

　　card number, No one else can use it. So the owner doesn’t have to worry about losing thecard.?

　　Another advantage of the credit card system is that the consumer receives a record of his orher purchases. Every month the credit customer receives a bill. The bill has a list of allpurchases from that month. This makes it easier to remember when and where purchases aremade. And another advantage is that credit cards can be used when something unexpectedhappens. Many kinds of professional people - plumbers, taxi drivers, doctors and dentists willaccept credit cards in an emergency. This is very important if you don’t have any cash withyou.?

　　However, having said all that, using credit cards has one major advantage, that is consumerstend to overspend their money. They spend more than they make. If a consumer buys a lot ofthings on credit, he or she has to make large payments each month. Sometimes it becomesimpossible to keep up with the payments. As a result, the consumer’s life becomes more andmore difficult. If the consumer cannot make the payments, his card will be taken away. It will bevery difficult for him to get another credit card in the future.?

　　To sum up briefly, we can see a credit buying system has both advantages and disadvantages.On the one hand it gives people convenience in life and on the other hand it tends toencourage overspending.

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