2000年英语专八阅读真题

　　TEXT I

　　First read the following questions.

　　35. In ___, the table of contents of the magazine was placed on its back cover.

　　A. 1922 B. 1948 C. the 1930s D. the 1960s

　　36. The magazine was criticized for failing to ___.

　　A. appeal to the young B. attract old people C. interest readers aged 47 D. captivate rea ders in their 50s

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

　　New York-Reader's Digest, the most widely read magazine in the world, will get a new look in a bid to attract younger readers, Reader' Digest Association Inc. announced on March 29. Beginning with the May issue, the world's largest- circulation magazine will move its table of contents off the front cover to mode rnize its look and make it easier for readers to navigate, editor in chief Chris top her Willcox said. "When you have the table of contents on the cover, it limits w hat you can say about what's in the magazine, "Willcox said. The magazine's f ami liar table of contents will be replaced with a photograph. The small size and fo cus of the editorial content will be unchanged, publisher Gregory Coleman said. "It will be a much more visual magazine, with more photography and less illustr ation," he said in an interview.

　　Reader's digest was first published in 1922, with line drawings on the c o vers, and in the 1930s began listing the contents on the front. For a couple of years in the 1960s, Willcox said,the table of contents was shifted to the back c over. The May issue will feature a cover photo of a woman firefighter in San Fra ncisco for an except from a new book," Fighting Fire. "The names of a few arti cl es are listed on the cover, but the full table of contents will be on papes 2 an d 3. The issue began reaching subscribers on April 10 and will be on newsstands two weeks later. All 48 of the Digest's worldwide editions-27 million copies in 19 languages-are making the change. Publisher Gregory Coleman said he expe cted the redesign to boost advertising sales. "We've done a lot of research, a nd have tested the concept in the US, Sweden, and New Zealand," Coleman said.

　　The move comes as Reader's Digest Association Inc. has struggled to boost profits. But industry analysts said its problems stretch beyond changes that wer e needed at the magazine. Publishing industry executives and Wall Street analyst s have criticized the magazine for failing to attract the next generation of rea ders. The company says its average reader is about 47,the same as the age for th e weekly new magazines, "They've been looking for ways to make the magazine a li ttle bit more the '90s than the '50s," said Doug Arthur at Morgan Stanley Dea n W itter & Co. "The company has to be addressing the response rate on its direct m a rketing campaign, "where its main problems lie. The company earned USD 133.5 mi l lion on sales of USD 2.8 billion in the year which ended last June. But it said, when it reported results, that profits would fall in the current year.

　　In answer to a question, Coleman said the redesign was not done because of advertisers, although they were enthusiastic about the changes. "This is being done from a reader-driven standpoint, "he said. 

　　TEXT J

　　First read the following questions.

　　37. Words in both the OWF and Longman Activator are ___.

　　A. listed according to alphabetical order

　　B. listed according to use frequency

　　C. grouped according to similarities only

　　D. grouped according to differences only

　　38. To know the correct word for "boiling with a low heat", you will pr obably turn to first ___.

　　A. page 10 B. page 99 C. page 100 D. page 448

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

　　The Oxford Wordfinder (OWF)is a "production dictionary" designed for learn er s of English at Intermediate level and above, It is a useful tool with which to discover and encode (produce) meaning, rather than just to simply check the mean ing, grammar and pronunciation of words. The OWF encourages a reversal of the tr aditional role of the language learners' dictionary, which is normally to help decode and explain aspects of words that appear in a text.

　　The OWF is based upon similar lines to the ground breaking Longman Activato r in that words in each dictionary are not simply listed in alphabetical order. Instead, they are grouped according to their similarities and differences in bot h meaning and use. Twenty-three main groups of 630 "keywords" (concepts) in al ph abetical order, assist the learner in exploring semantic areas such as: "People " , "Food and drink", and "Language and Communication". Each of these rather l arge areas contains cross-referencing in order to provide further helpful lexical in formation. Some of the keywords helpfully direct the learner to another keyword. Most keywords, however, have an index that shows how lexical items and their re lated terms are organized. Other keywords point to smaller sub-section headings whilst a few contain sections labeled "More", which deal with less frequently occurring vocabulary.

　　The majority of words in the OWF are grouped together because they are clea rly related in meaning. Examples include: rucksack, "suitcase", trunk and hol d- all, on page 28, under the keyword "Bag". Other words are grouped together bec au se statistically they tend to "collocate", i.e. appear in English very near, i f not next to each other. The reader would, more often than not, find them in the same sentence or phrase. Examples include those for "butter", "spread" and "melt ", and those for Television on page 448: "watching", "turn on/off" and "pr ogramme".

　　The OWF is an ideal supplementary resource for learners to engage in word-b uilding activities during topic based lessons. How is it best used? Let's say t h e learner wishes to know the correct word for "boiling with a low heat". The i nt ermediate learner, who will probably begin her search under "Cook" on page 99, l ocates the sub-section: "heating food in order to cook it" on page 100,then th e further sub-section "cooking food in water" and finally finds the definition f ol lowed by the word:-to boil slowly and gently: simmer. With the help of the OWF teachers could design a variety of such vocabulary exercises for a class, or eve n go on to designing a vocabulary-based syllabus.

　　Definitions in the OWF are, as with all good dictionaries, concise but cle ar. They are obviously written according to a controlled defining vocabulary. Li nguistic varieties are also taken into consideration: formal/in formal labels ar e provided and, where it occurs, American English (AmE) is pointed out, e. g. fo r alcohol, liquor in AmE on page 10. The OWF also contains many drawings that ou tline meaning where words could not possibly do so or would require too much spa ce. Items chosen for inclusion in the OWF, along with example phrases outlining meaning are, it is assumed, based on evidence of frequency from a carefully cons tructed linguistic corpus, although this is not made clear.

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