1998年英语专业八级考试真题（附听力mp3及答案）

　　TEXT I

　　First read the following question.

　　34. The theme of the book by Marie Winn ispresumably .

　　A. child abuse B. family relationship

　　C. loss of childhood innocence D. teen-agerebellion

　　Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer question34.

　　Each new crop of adolescents always seemsunfathomable to its predecessors. But when journalist Marie Winn began to study today'syoungsters, she discovered something far more fundamental and disturbing than justanother teen-age rebellion. In the short space of the past decade, she comments in herrecent book Children without Childhood. that many middle-class American children not high-schoolers, but kids between the ages of 6 and 12 have been robbed of their most preciousbirthright — childhood itself. Willy-nilly, the typical fifth grader, once blissfully ignorant of adultmatters, is now aware not just of sex and violence, but also of injustice, fear of death, adultfrailty and cruelty, political corruption and economic instability.

　　What explains this sudden loss of innocence? One potent influence was the sexual revolutionof the '60s. The new sexual awareness of that decade exposed adults and children alike toan endless parade of erotic possibilities. Another factor is the spiraling American divorce rate ofthe last two decades, which has brought so many children into intimate contact with theirparents' self-absorption, vulnerability and quite often, new sexual liaisons.

　　Perhaps the most interesting explanation here for the altered nature of childhood is thesweeping change that occurred during the 1970s in the economic and social status of women.As hordes of them left home for the workplace and shed their own protected position as child-wives, according to Winn. the effect of child rearing was cataclysmic. In practical terms, kidswere left with far less supervision. But something much more basic happened as well. Newlyemancipated women began to feel that it was no longer fair to demand submission anddeference from their offspring — or to deny them full access to information about life'sconfusing realities.

　　Such treatment was well intentioned. But, as Winn documents, "new-era child rearing" in whichthe child is enlisted as an equal partner in his own upbringing — has turned out to be adisaster. Children do not prosper when treated as adults. Instead, what they require toaccomplish their important tasks of learning and exploration and play is the security ofdependency, of their inherent inequality.

　　While the social forces that have transformed family life are probably irreversible, somemeasures. Winn suggests, can be taken to keep children from learning too much too soon.Couples who are bent primarily on self-fulfillment or high-powered careers would do well tothink twice about producing offspring at all. Those who do become parents should be willingto take an authoritative position in the family and to sacrifice their own time for supervisionof the kids.

　　Youngsters between the ages of 6 and 12, Winn emphasizes, require just as much time andattention as toddlers. She also urges parents to repress, gently, their children's sexuality bywithholding information and maintaining discipline - not out of prudery, but because youngpeople whose innocence is prolonged will devote more energy to learning and play, skills thatultimately lead to creativity and achievement. And in the meantime, they can enjoy theblessing of a real childhood.

　　TEXT J

　　First read the following questions.

　　35. The uncultivated part of the arable land in Saudi Arabia is________.

　　A. 9 000 sq. km B. 15 000sq. km

　　C. 6 000 sq. km D. 242 000 sq. km

　　36. Saudi farmer's success in agriculture can be attributed to all the following factorsEXCEPT________.

　　A. abundant ground-water reserves

　　B. government's heavy subsidization

　　C. interest-free loans from the bank

　　D. Government's investment in agriculture

　　Now go through TEXT J quickly and answer questions 35 and 36.

　　Agriculture

　　Few people think of Saudi Arabia as a farm country, but agricultural production reached 1.5billion last year and is on the rise. Tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce are grown in the desert, andthere are large fields of wheat. In many cases the fields are watered by long irrigation armsthat revolve on huge electrically-driven wheels.

　　Water comes from rainfall, ground-water or wells. There are 15 000 sq. km of arable land inthe kingdom, only 6 000 sq. km of which are under cultivation.

　　Recent investigations have confirmed sufficient underground water reserves to support acentury of sustained withdrawal, irrigating an additional 600 000 acres (242 000 hectares).

　　Between 1975 and 1980. 12 commercial dairy farms were established, making fresh milkavailable in commercial quantities for the first time. An additional 16 dairy farms will be inoperation by 1985, producing 500000 tons of milk a year, and making the kingdom almost self-sufficient in this important commodity.

　　Due to heavy subsidization. Saudi Arabia may also achieve self-sufficiency in wheatproduction by the end of this year. Domestic yield reached 400 000 tons in 1982 with 600 000tons expected this year. By 1985. an additional 144000acres will be placed in cerealproduction.

　　The 1982 harvest yielded 10 000 tons of potatoes and 77 000 tons of dates, of which 500 tonswere exported.

　　Saudi farmers are having considerable success raising cucumbers and tomatoes in enclosedhumidity-controlled conditions. Using these hydroponic techniques, they arc able to harvestsuch produce in five to eight weeks after transplanting.

　　Experiments are also under way growing vegetables in sterilized sand, irrigated with nutrientpack drips.

　　Poultry operations provided the domestic market with 80 million chickens last year, 29% ofnational consumption, and 1.1 billion eggs. 90% of local requirements.

　　The Saudi government's incentives to invest in the agricultural sector are unusually attractive:the Saudi Arabian Agricultural Bank offers interest-free loans on 80% of the cost of a projectup to 15 million. Fertilizers and animal feed are eligible for 50% of cost subsidies, and selectedfarm equipment, subsidies of 30 to 50% of the cost.

　　The airfreight for flying cattle into the country is paid for by the government, as is water forirrigation.

　　As of October 1982 the Agricultural Bank had made loans amounting to US $1. 75 billion.

　　During the current five-year plan the government is investing US $2. 4 billion in the agriculturalsector.

　　TEXT K

　　First read the following questions.

　　37. When can the drought be expected to end?

　　A. In no time. B. In the summer.

　　C. In the fall. D. Beyond prediction.

　　38. The drought is predicted to cause to Texas agribusiness.

　　A. a US $2.4 billion loss B. a US $5 billion loss

　　C. a US $6. 5 billion loss D. an inestimable loss

　　Now go through TEXT K quickly and answer questions 37 and 38.

　　Drought

　　From its headwaters at San Ygnacio, Texas, to its giant hydroelectric dam 50 milesdownstream. Falcon Lake covers some 87 000 acres along the Rio Grande and the US Mexicanborder. Created in the 1950's to improve flood control and irrigation, the lake is a watermonument to the era of gigantic public works. But the worse drought since the Eisenhoweryears has lowered the water level by nearly 50 feet and bit by bit. Falcon Lake is revealing thesecrets of its long-submerged past. On the Texas side of the lake, drowned border towns likeZapata and Lopeno, relocated when the dam was built, are reemerging from the flood. On theMexican side, near the town of Benevidcs stone crosses in a once submerged old cemetery riselike eerie sentinels to the drought. The last time anybody saw these graves, segregation wasthe law of the land, the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn and Bill Clinton was in second grade.

　　The two-year drawdown of Falcon Lake is only one symptom of the Drought of '96 — a slowlygathering crisis that is putting a huge strain on the water supplies of the fast-growing cities ofthe Southwest and on the farm-and-cattle regions of the southern Plains as well. From LosAngeles to Corpus Christi. from Brownsville to Nebraska, the drought pits state against state,city dwellers against farmers and farmers against a global weather system that has turnedsuddenly hostile toward man. Severe to extreme drought conditions now prevail across thewhole southwestern part of the United States, a region that includes southern California,southern Nevada, all of Arizona. New Mexico and Texas and most of Utah, Colorado andOklahoma. The drought has afflicted some parts of the region for up to five years and otherareas for as little as 10 months. But whatever its duration, climatologists agree there is no endin sight. "The expectation is that this thing is going to continue through the summer and intothe fall," says Dr Don Wilhite of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb. "Beyondthat, it's anybody's guess. "

　　What's going on here experts like Whilhite say, is a reverse El Nino effect. El Nino ("the ChristChild") is a huge weather system in the western Pacific that, in a good year spawns welcomewinter rains in the southwestern states and the Plains. When El. Nino does not appear — andlast year he didn't - the result is even less rainfall in a region that is naturally among the fries inthe world. From August 1995 to May of this year, much of the Southwest and the southernPlains region recorded virtually no rainfall or snow. That dried out the soil and set the stage fora deepening drought.

　　In Texas, Oklahoma, Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas, the lack of rainfall fairly crushedthe 1996 winter-wheat crop. It also led to a significant shortfall in the supply of cattle feed,which forced many ranchers to cut back their herds. "Cattle is a US $5 billion-a-year industry inTexas," says Texas agriculture commissioner Rick Perry. "The turmoil this industry is goingthrough is causing a liquidation of historic proportions," Perry says the damage to Texasagribusiness has already reached US $2.4 billion and could rise to US $6. 5 billion — whichwould make the '96 drought the most costly natural disaster in the state's history.

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