2021年英语专业八级听力测试test-5

　　新东方在线专四专八频道给大家整理的2021年英语专业八级听力测试test-5,希望能够对大家的专四专八考试备考有所帮助，更多有关专四专八的备考内容，欢迎随时关注新东方在线专四专八频道。

　　[00:27.52]Test Five

　　[00:29.60]SECTION A MINI-LECTURE

　　[00:32.12]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture.

　　[00:35.40]You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY.

　　[00:37.91]While listening, take notes on the important points.

　　[00:41.52]Your notes will not be marked,

　　[00:43.49]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture.

　　[00:47.68]When the lecture is over,

　　[00:49.86]you’ll be given two minutes to check your notes,

　　[00:52.17]and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task.

　　[00:55.34]Now listen to the mini-lecture.

　　[00:57.74]English has the largest vocabulary

　　[01:01.24]and the most synonyms of any language in the world.

　　[01:04.85]This richness is due to the fact

　　[01:07.70]that the English language has grown over the centuries

　　[01:11.09]by constantly incorporating words from other languages.

　　[01:15.14]Even before the Norman Conquest in 1066,

　　[01:19.29]the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary included words borrowed

　　[01:22.79]from Latin, Greek, Celtic and Scandinavian.

　　[01:26.83]After the Norman Conquest,

　　[01:28.59]the English vocabulary was doubled by the addition of French words,

　　[01:33.18]especially those words reflecting a higher standard of living

　　[01:36.79]and a more complex social life:

　　[01:39.19]for example, words connected with food,

　　[01:42.18]such as sugar, vinegar, boil, fry, roast, etc.;

　　[01:46.45]and words connected with clothing such as garment, robe, mantle, gown, etc.;

　　[01:52.79]and words connected with law, such as plaintiff, legacy,

　　[01:56.94]and words connected with social rank and organization,

　　[02:00.99]such as prince, duke, mayor etc.

　　[02:04.39]While much of the new French vocabulary described new ideas and activities,

　　[02:09.74]much of it duplicated the pre-existing Anglo-Saxon vocabulary,

　　[02:14.34]thus giving the writer or speaker a choice of synonyms:

　　[02:18.93]cure or heal, labour or work, assemble or meet,

　　[02:25.06]burglary or stealing, assault or hitting.

　　[02:29.21]With the enormous expansion of classical learning in the Renaissance,

　　[02:33.37]there was a great influx of words of Latin

　　[02:36.10]and Greek origin into the English language.

　　[02:38.84]Also, the larger world discovered through travel and exploration

　　[02:43.98]was a great stimulus to culture and language.

　　[02:47.59]In the sixteenth century,

　　[02:49.34]there also arose a fashion to ornamenting one’s discourse

　　[02:54.04]with what were then called “aureate” terms drawn from Greek and Latin.

　　[02:58.75]As some English-speaking people traded and traveled

　　[03:03.01]around the world in modern times-

　　[03:05.52]in Europe, North America, India, Australia, Africa;

　　[03:09.68]their adventures also expanded the vocabulary.

　　[03:12.85]Words were borrowed from Dutch, Spanish, American Indian, Eastern Indian,

　　[03:18.43]Italian, Australian, Mexican, Japanese, Malay and many others.

　　[03:23.47]Furthermore, the United States,

　　[03:25.98]as a separate nation with its own life and character and institutions,

　　[03:30.79]has added vastly to the English vocabulary.

　　[03:34.18]With the rise of the United States

　　[03:36.70]to a position of world influence in politics,

　　[03:39.98]science, industry, trade and popular arts,

　　[03:42.82]American words and phrases have gained

　　[03:45.67]recognition and prestige everywhere.

　　[03:47.85]Ice cream, jeep and rock-and-roll are internationally known terms.

　　[03:53.87]Moreover, American terminology for many things exists side by side

　　[03:59.44]with an English terminology,

　　[04:01.20]thus placing another whole group of synonyms at our service.

　　[04:05.35]For example, sidewalk in American English refers to the same thing

　　[04:10.05]as the British term pavement does.

　　[04:13.44]More examples are railroad and railway,

　　[04:16.39]elevator and lift, fall and autumn,

　　[04:19.89]druggist and chemist, gasoline and petrol,

　　[04:23.28]installment plan and hire-purchase system

　　[04:26.45]and so on through an almost interminable list.

　　[04:30.28]So we can see that synonyms in English are of many kinds.

　　[04:34.54]Some groups of synonyms are just words of different origins

　　[04:39.03]but refer to the same thing.

　　[04:41.00]For example, foreword, preface,and introduction.

　　[04:44.83]Foreword is an Anglo-Saxon word;

　　[04:47.89]preface is from French, and introduction from Latin.

　　[04:52.05]Some groups, like plain, prairie, tundra,

　　[04:55.43]refer to geographical variants of the same kind of thing.

　　[04:59.70]Other groups of synonyms, like teach, educate, instruct, school, tutor,

　　[05:05.83]differ from one another principally in degrees of abstraction:

　　[05:09.98]teach is certainly the most general word of this group,

　　[05:13.49]while the others are more specialized in application.

　　[05:16.77]It can be argued that there really are no exact synonyms-

　　[05:21.58]no exact equivalences of meaning.

　　[05:24.31]By “meaning” here we refer to the total range of contexts

　　[05:28.57]in which a word may be used.

　　[05:30.76]Certainly there are no two words that are interchangeable in all contexts.

　　[05:36.01]But within a given context, there is often exact synonymy.

　　[05:41.70]For example: I mislaid my wallet and I misplaced my wallet.

　　[05:46.73]However, in a slightly different context the two words are not interchangeable:

　　[05:52.85]it would not be idiomatic to say I mislaid my suitcase.

　　[05:58.10]Because mislay applies only to small objects

　　[06:01.71]while misplace is applicable to both small and large objects.

　　[06:07.08]This example shows again

　　[06:08.64]that words which are synonymous in one of their meanings

　　[06:12.24]may be different considerably in their other meanings.

　　[06:15.53]Some groups of words describe the same actions,

　　[06:18.81]but imply different relationships among the parties concerned.

　　[06:22.74]We accompany our equals;

　　[06:25.26]we attend or follow those to whom we are subordinate;

　　[06:29.09]we conduct those who need guidance, and escort those who need protection;

　　[06:34.12]merchant ships are convoyed in time of war.

　　[06:37.86]Womanly and womanish are much alike in referring to female characteristics,

　　[06:43.44]but the second applies only to males,

　　[06:46.06]and in a derogatory sense.

　　[06:48.25]Some differences in locution reveal differences

　　[06:51.54]in the degree of formality of the occasions described.

　　[06:54.93]For example, a luncheon as distinguished from a lunch.

　　[06:59.41]Sometimes different locutions reveal differences not in the situations described

　　[07:05.10]but in the formality of discourse about them.

　　[07:07.95]For instance, He went to bed as compared to He hit the sack.

　　[07:13.31]Semanticists and linguistic scholars continue to remind us

　　[07:18.01]that words change in meaning according to time and place and circumstance.

　　[07:22.61]Such warnings are certainly not to be ignored.

　　[07:25.89]Yet there are remarkable elements of stability in a vocabulary.

　　[07:30.48]The distinctions between fury and rage,

　　[07:33.87]between thought and deliberation,

　　[07:36.28]have remained remarkably constant since Shakespeare’s day

　　[07:39.99]in all English-speaking countries.

　　[07:42.07]Nothing is so important to clear and accurate expression

　　[07:46.12]as the ability to distinguish between words of similar,

　　[07:49.51]but not identical meaning.

　　[07:51.48]In a given context, one particular word is certain

　　[07:55.25]to be more appropriate than the other.

　　[07:57.33]To choose wrongly is to leave the hearer or reader

　　[08:00.83]with a fuzzy or mistaken impression.

　　[08:03.57]To choose well is to give both illumination and delight.

　　[08:08.05]The study of synonyms will help us come closer to saying

　　[08:12.21]what we really want to say.

　　以上就是新东方在线专四专八频道给大家整理的2021年英语专业八级听力测试test-5,希望对大家有所帮助，更多备考内容，欢迎随时关注新东方在线专四专八频道。

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