2010年英语专八阅读真题

2016-11-09 15:27:44来源：网络

　　TEXT C

　　A bus took him to the West End, where, among the crazy coloured fountains of illumination, shattering the blue dusk with green and crimson fire, he found the café of his choice, a tea-shop that had gone mad and turned. Bbylonian, a while palace with ten thousand lights. It towered above the other building like a citadel, which indeed it was, the outpost of a new age, perhaps a new civilization, perhaps a new barbarism; and behind the thin marble front were concrete and steel, just as behind the careless profusion of luxury were millions of pence, balanced to the last halfpenny. Somewhere in the background, hidden away, behind the ten thousand llights and acres of white napery and bewildering glittering rows of teapots, behind the thousand waitresses and cash-box girls and black-coated floor managers and temperamental long-haired violinists, behind the mounds of cauldrons of stewed steak, the vanloads of ices, were a few men who went to work juggling with fractions of a farming, who knew how many units of electricity it took to finish a steak-and-kidney pudding and how many minutes and seconds a waitress( five feet four in height and in average health) would need to carry a tray of given weight from the kitchen life to the table in the far corner. In short, there was a warm, sensuous, vulgar life flowering in the upper storeys, and a cold science working in the basement. Such as the gigantic tea-shop into which Turgis marched, in search not of mere refreshment but of all the enchantment of unfamiliar luxury. Perhaps he knew in his heart that men have conquered half the known world, looted whole kingdoms, and never arrived in such luxury. The place was built for him.

　　It was built for a great many other people too, and, as usual, they were al there. It seemed with humanity. The marble entrance hall, piled dizzily with bonbons and cakes, was as crowded and bustling as a railway station. The gloom and grime of the streets, the raw air, all November, were at once left behind, forgotten: the atmosphere inside was golden, tropical, belonging to some high mid-summer of confectionery. Disdaining the lifts, Turgis, once more excited by the sight, sound, and smell of it all, climbed the wide staircase until he reached his favourite floor, whre an orchestra, led by a young Jewish violinist with wandering lustrous eyes and a passion for tremolo effects, acted as a magnet to a thousand girls, scented air, the sensuous clamour of the strings; and, as he stood hesitating a moment, half dazed, there came, bowing, s sleek grave man, older than he was and far more distinguished than he could ever hope to be, who murmured deferentially: “ For one, sir? This way, please,” Shyly, yet proudly, Turgis followed him.

　　21. That “behind the thin marble front were concrete and steel” suggests that

　　A. modern realistic commercialism existed behind the luxurious appearance.

　　B. there was a fundamental falseness in the style and the appeal of the café..

　　C. the architect had made a sensible blend of old and new building materials.

　　D. the café was based on physical foundations and real economic strength.

　　22. The following words or phrases are somewhat critical of the tea-shop EXCEPT

　　A. “…turned Babylonian”.

　　B. “perhaps a new barbarism’.

　　C. “acres of white napery”.

　　D. “balanced to the last halfpenny”.

　　23. In its context the statement that “ the place was built for him” means that the café was intended to

　　A. please simple people in a simple way.

　　B. exploit gullible people like him.

　　C. satisfy a demand that already existed.

　　D. provide relaxation for tired young men.

　　24. Which of the following statements about the second paragraph is NOT true?

　　A. The café appealed to most senses simultaneously.

　　B. The café was both full of people and full of warmth.

　　C. The inside of the café was contrasted with the weather outside.

　　D. It stressed the commercial determination of the café owners.

　　25. The following are comparisons made by the author in the second paragraph EXCEPT that

　　A. the entrance hall is compared to a railway station.

　　B. the orchestra is compared to a magnet.

　　C. Turgis welcomed the lift like a conquering soldier.

　　D. the interior of the café is compared to warm countries.

　　26. The author’s attitude to the café is

　　A. fundamentally critical.

　　B. slightly admiring.

　　C. quite undecided.

　　D. completely neutral.

　　TEXT D

　　I Now elsewhere in the world, Iceland may be spoken of, somewhat breathlessly, as western Europe’s last pristine wilderness. But the environmental awareness that is sweeping the world had bypassed the majority of Icelanders. Certainly they were connected to their land, the way one is complicatedly connected to, or encumbered by, family one can’t do anything about. But the truth is, once you’re off the beat-en paths of the low-lying coastal areas where everyone lives, the roads are few, and they’re all bad, so Iceland’s natural wonders have been out of reach and unknown even to its own inhab-itants. For them the land has always just been there, something that had to be dealt with and, if possible, exploited—the mind-set being one of land as commodity rather than land as, well, priceless art on the scale of the “Mona Lisa.”

　　When the opportunity arose in 2003 for the national power company to enter into a 40-year contract with the American aluminum company Alcoa to supply hydroelectric power for a new smelter, those who had been dreaming of some-thing like this for decades jumped at it and never looked back. Iceland may at the moment be one of the world’s richest countries, with a 99 percent literacy rate and long life expectancy. But the proj-ect’s advocates, some of them getting on in years, were more emotionally attuned to the country’s century upon century of want, hardship, and colonial servitude to Denmark, which officially had ended only in 1944 and whose psychological imprint remained relatively fresh. For the longest time, life here had meant little more than a sod hut, dark all winter, cold, no hope, children dying left and right, earthquakes, plagues, starvation, volcanoes erupting and destroying all vegeta-tion and livestock, all spirit—a world revolving almost entirely around the welfare of one’s sheep and, later, on how good the cod catch was. In the outlying regions, it still largely does.

　　Ostensibly, the Alcoa project was intended to save one of these dying regions—the remote and sparsely populated east—where the way of life had steadily declined to a point of desperation and gloom. After fishing quotas were imposed in the early 1980s to protect fish stocks, many indi-vidual boat owners sold their allotments or gave them away, fishing rights ended up mostly in the hands of a few companies, and small fishermen were virtually wiped out. Technological advances drained away even more jobs previously done by human hands, and the people were seeing every-thing they had worked for all their lives turn up worthless and their children move away. With the old way of life doomed, aluminum projects like this one had come to be perceived, wisely or not, as a last chance. “Smelter or death.”

　　The contract with Alcoa would infuse the re-gion with foreign capital, an estimated 400 jobs, and spin-off service industries. It also was a way for Iceland to develop expertise that potentially could be sold to the rest of the world; diversify an economy historically dependent on fish; and, in an appealing display of Icelandic can-do verve, perhaps even protect all of Iceland, once and for all, from the unpredictability of life itself.

　　“We have to live,” Halldór Ásgrímsson said in his sad, sonorous voice. Halldór, a former prime minister and longtime member of parliament from the region, was a driving force behind the project. “We have a right to live.”

　　27. According to the passage, most Icelanders view land as something of

　　A. environmental value.

　　B. commercial value.

　　C. potential value for tourism.

　　D. great value for livelihood.

　　28. What is Iceland’s old-aged advocates’ feeling towards the Alcoa project?

　　A. Iceland is wealthy enough to reject the project.

　　B. The project would lower life expectancy.

　　C. The project would cause environmental problems.

　　D. The project symbolizes and end to the colonial legacies.

　　29. The disappearance of the old way of life was due to all the following EXCEPT

　　A. fewer fishing companies.