历年英语专业八级改错真题.docx

1、历年英语专业八级改错真题2020年真题So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally complete and perfect as instruments of communication: that is, every language appears to be well 1 equipped as any other to say the things their speakers want to say. 2 There may or may not be appropriate to talk about primiti

2、ve peoples or 3 cultures, but that is another matter. Certainly, not all groups of people are equally competent in nuclear physics or psychology or the cultivation of rice or the engraving of Benares brass. Whereas this is not the fault of their language. 4 The Eskimos can speak about snow with a gr

3、eat deal further precision and 5 subtlety than we can in English, but this is not because the Eskimo language (one of those sometimes miscalled primitive) is inherently more precise and subtle than English. This example does not come to light a defect in English, 6 a show of unexpected primitiveness

4、. The position is simply and obviously that the Eskimos and the English live in similar environments. The English 7 language will be just as rich in terms for different kinds of snow, 8 presumably, if the environments in which English was habitually used made such distinction as important. 9 Similar

5、ly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo language could beas precise and subtle on the subject of motor manufacture or cricket if these topics formed the part of the Eskimos life. For obvious historical reasons, 10 Englishmen in the nineteenth century could not talk about motorcars with the mi

6、nute discrimination which is possible today: cars were not a part of their culture. But they had a host of terms for horse-drawn vehicles which send us, puzzled, to a historical dictionary when we are reading Scott or Dickens. How many of us could distinguish between a chaise, a landau, a victoria,

7、a brougham, a coupe, a gig, a diligence, a whisky, a calash, a tilbury, a carriole, a phaeton, and a clarence ?2020年真题The previous section has shown how quickly a rhyme passesfrom one school child to the next and illustrates the further difference (1)_between school lore and nursery lore. In nursery

8、 lore a verse, learnt in early childhood, is not usually passed on again when the little listener (2)_ has grown up, and has children of their own, or even grandchildren. (3)_The period between learning a nursery rhyme and transmitting It may be something from twenty to seventy years. With the playg

9、round (4)_lore, therefore, a rhyme may be excitedly passed on whtin the very hour (5)_it is learnt; and in the general, it passes between children of the (6)_same age, or nearly so, since it is uncommon for the difference in age between playmates to be more than five years. If therefore, a playgroun

10、drhyme can be shown to have been currently for a hundred years, or (7)_even just for fifty, it follows that it has been retransmitting overand over; very possibly it has passed along a chain of two or three (8)_hundred young hearers and tellers, and the wonder is that it remains live (9)_after so mu

11、ch handling, to let alone that it bears resemblance to the (10)_original wording. 2020年真题 The desire to use language as a sign of national identity is avery natural one, and in result language has played a prominent (1)_part in national moves. Men have often felt the need to cultivate (2)_a given la

12、nguage to show that they are distinctive from another (3)_race whose hegemony they resent. At the time the United States (4)_split off from Britain, for example, there were proposals thatindependence should be linguistically accepted by the use of a (5)_different language from those of Britain. Ther

13、e was even one (6)_proposal that Americans should adopt Hebrew. Others favouredthe adoption of Greek, thought, as one man put it, things wouldcertainly be simpler for Americans if they stuck on to English (7)_and made the British learn Greek. At the end, as everyone (8)_know, the two countries adopt

14、ed the practical and satisfactorysolution of carrying with the same language as before. (9)_Since nearly two hundred years now, they have shown the world (10)_That political independence and national identity can be completeWithout sacrificing the enormous mutual advantages of a commonlanguage.2007年

15、真题 From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can make very positive statements about how language originated.There is no material in any language today and in the earliest (1)_records of ancient languages show us language in a new and (2)_emerging state. It is often said, of course, that

16、 the language (3)_originated in cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the (4)_necessary evidence is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient records, providing evidence of a language with alarge proportion of such cries than we find in English. Ti is true that the (5)_absence

17、of such evidence does not disprove the theory, but in (6)_other grounds too the theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages make rather similarnoises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact that such noises are (7)_similar on the lips of Frenchmen and Malaysians whose languagesa

18、re utterly different, serves to emphasize on the fundamental (8)_difference between these noises and language proper. We maysay that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement are largelyreflex actions, instinctive to large extent, whereas language (9)_proper does not consist of signs but of these t

19、hat have to be learnt (10)_and that are wholly conventional.2006年真题 We use language primarily as means of communication with other human beings. Each of us shares with the community in whichwe live a store of words and meanings as well as agreeing conven- (1)_tions as to the way in which words shoul

20、d be arranged to convey a (2)_particular message; the English speaker has in his disposal a vocabu- (3)_lary and a set of grammatical rules which inables him to communi- (4)_cate his thoughts and feelings, in a variety of styles, to the other (5)_English speakers. His vocabulary, in particular, both

21、 that which heuses actively and that which he recognizes, increases in size as hegrows old, as a result of education and experience. (6)_ But, whether the language store is relatively small or large,the system remains no more than a psychological reality for the indi-vidual, unless he has a means of

22、 expressing it in terms able to beseen by another member of his linguistic community; he has to give (7)_the system a concrete transmission form. We take it for granted the (8)_two most common forms of transmissionby means of sounds pro-duced by our vocal organs (speech) or by visual signs (writing)

23、. And (9)_these are among most striking of human achievements. (10)_2005年真题 A number of colleges and universities have announced steep tu-ition increases for next yearmuch steeper than the current,very low, rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed be-cause of a loss in value of universit

24、y endowments heavily investing (1)_in common stock. I am skeptical. A business firm chooses the pricethat maximizes its net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in in- (2)_come; and increasingly tihe outlook of universities in the UnitedStates is indistinguishable from those of business firms. The ri

25、se in (3)_tuitions may reflect the fact economic uncertainty increases the de- (4)_mand for education. The biggest cost of being in the school is fore- (5)_going income from a job (this primarily a factor in graduateandprofessionalschool tuition): the poor ones job prospects, the more (6)_sense it m

26、akes to reallocate time from the job market to education,in order to make oneself more marketable. The ways which universities make themselves attractive to (7)_students include soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, givingstudents a governance role, and eliminate required courses, Sky- (8)_h

27、igh tuitions have caused universities to regard their students ascustomers. Just as business firms sometimes collude to shorten the (9)_rigors of competition, universities collude to minimize the cost tothem of the athletes whom they recruit in order to stimulate alumnidonations, so the best athlete

28、s now often bypass higher education inorder to obtain salaries earlier from professional teams. And untilthey were stopped by the antitrust authorities, the Ivy Leagueschools colluded to limit competition for the best students, byagreeing not to award scholarships on the basis of merit rather thanpu

29、rely of needjust like business firms agreeing not to give dis-counts on their best customer. (10)_2004年真题 One of the most important non-legislative functions of the U.S.Congress is the power to investigate. This power is usually delegatedto committeeseither standing committees, special committees se

30、t (1)_for a specific purpose, or joint committees consisted of members of (2)_both houses. Investigations are held to gather information on the need forfuture legislation, to test the effectiveness of laws already passed,to inquire into the qualifications and performance of members andofficials of the other branches, and in rare occasions, to lay the (3)_groundwork for impeachment proceedings. Frequently, committeesrely outside experts to assist in conducting investigative hearings (4)_