2017年全国职称英语考试 综合类B级 专用资料可以直接打印.doc

Sunken 1255完形填空A Life with Birds【有鸟陪伴的生活】For nearly 17 years David Cope has worked as one of the Tower of Londons Yeoman Warders, better known to tourists as Beefeaters.David,64, lives in a three-bedroomed flat right at the top of the Byward Tower, one of the gatehouses. “From our bedroom we have a marvellous view of Tower Bridge and the Thames. ” says David. The Tower of London is famous for its ravens, the large black birds which have lived there for over three centuries. David was immediately fascinated by the birds and when he was ) offered the post of Raven Master eight years ago he had no hesitation in accepting it. “The birds have now become my life and Im always aware of the fact that I am maintaining a tradition. The legend says that if the ravens leave the Tower, England will fall to enemies, and its my job to make sure this doesnt happen!”David devotes about four hours a day to the care of the ravens. He has grown to love them and the fact that he lives right next to them is ideal. “I can keep a close eye on them all the time, and not just when Im working.” At first , Davids wife Mo was not keen on the idea of life in the Tower, but she too will be sad to leave when he retires next year. “When we look out of our windows we see history all around us, and we are taking it in and storing it up for our future memories. ”A Lucky Break【幸运的骨折】Actor Antonio Banderas is used to breaking bones, and it always seems to happen when hes doing sport. In the film Play it to the Bone he plays the part of a middleweight boxer alongside Woody Harrelson.During the making of the film Harrelson kept complaining that the fight scenes werent very convincing, so one day he suggested that he and Banderas should have a fight for real. The Spanish actor wasnt keenon the idea at first, but he was eventually persuaded by his co-star to put on his gloves and climb into the boxing ring. However, when he realized how seriously his opponent was taking it all, he began to regret his decision to fight. And then in the third round, Harrelson hit Banderas so hard in the face that he actually broke his nose. His wife, actress Melanie Griffith, was furious that he had been playing “silly macho games”. “She was right”, confesses Banderas, “and I was a fool to take a risk like that in the middle of a movie. ”He was reminded of the time he broke his leg during a football match in his native Malaga. He had always dreamed of becoming a soccer star, of performing in front of a big crowd, but doctors told him his playing days were probably over. “Thats when I decided to take up acting; I saw it as another way of performing, and achieving recognition. What happened to me on that football pitch was, you might say, my first lucky break. ”Global Warming【全球变暖】Few people now question the reality of global warming and its effects on the worlds climate. Many scientists put the blame for recent natural disasters on the increase in the worlds temperatures and are convinced that, more than ever before, the Earth is at risk from the forces of the wind, rain and sun. According to them, global warming is making extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, even more severe and causing sea levels all around the world to rise. Environmental groups are putting pressure on governments to take action to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is given off by factories and power plants, thus attacking the problem at its source. They are in favour of more money being spent on research into solar, wind and wave energy devices, which could then replace existing power stations . Some scientists, however, believe that even if we stopped releasing carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere tomorrow, we would have to wait several hundred years to notice the results. Global warming, it seems, is here to stay. A Success Story【一个成功的故事】At 19, Ben Way is already a millionaire, and one of a growing number of teenagers who have made their fortune through the Internet. What makes Bens story all the more remarkable is that he is dyslexic, and was told by teachers at his junior school that he would never be able to read or write properly. “I wanted to prove them wrong”, says Ben, creator and director of Waysearch, a net search engine which can be used to find goods in online shopping malls. When he was eight, his local authorities provided him with a PC to help with school work. Although he was unable to read the manuals, he had a natural ability with the computer, and encouraged by his father, he soon began charging people 10 an hour for his knowledge and skills. At the age of 15 he set up his own computer consultancy, Quad Computer, which he ran from his bedroom, and two years later he left school to devote all his time to business. “By this time the company had grown and I needed to take on a couple of employees to help me”, says Ben. “That enabled me to start doing business with bigger companies. ” It was his ability to consistently overcome difficult challenges that led him to win the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the same year that he formed Waysearch, and he has recently signed a deal worth 25 million with a private investment company, which will finance his search engine. Traffic in Our Cities【城市的交通】The volume of traffic in many cities in the world today continues to expand. This causes many problems, including serious air pollution, lengthy delays, and the greater risk of accidents. Clearly, something must be done, but it is often difficult to persuade people to change their habits and leave their cars at home. One possible approach is to make it more expensive for people to use their cars by increasing charges for parking and bringing in tougher fines for anyone who breaks the law. In addition, drivers could be required to pay for using particular routes at different times of the day. This system, known as “road pricing”, is already being introduced in a number of cities, using a special electronic card fixed to the windscreen of the car. Another way of dealing with the problem is to provide cheap parking on the outskirts of the city, and strictly control the number of vehicles allowed into the centre. Drivers and their passengers then use a special bus service for the final stage of their journey. Of course, the most important thing is to provide good public transport. However, to get people togive up the comfort of their cars, public transport must be felt to be reliable, convenient and comfortable, with fares kept at an acceptable level.Teaching and Learning【教与学】 Many teachers believe that the responsibilities for learning lie with the student. If a long reading assignment is given, instructors expect student to be familiar with the information in the reading even if they do not discuss it in class or take an examination. The ideal student is considered to be one who is motivated to learn for the sake of learning, not the one interested only in getting high grades. Sometimes homework is returned with brief written comments but without a grade. Even if a grade is not given, the student is responsible for learning the material assigned. When research is assigned, the professor expects the student to take it actively and to complete it with minimum guidance. It is the students responsibility to find books, magazines, and articles in the library. Professors do not have the time to explain how a university library works; they expect students particularly graduate students to exhaust the reference sources in the library. Professors will help students who need it, but prefer that their students should not be too dependent on them. In the United States professors have many other duties besides teaching, such as administrative or research work. Therefore, the time that a professor can spend with a student outside of class is limited. If a student has problems with classroom work, the student should either approach a professor during office hours or make an appointment.The Difference between Man and Computer【人与电脑的区别】What makes people different from computer programs? What is the missing element that our theories dont yet account for? The answer is simple: People read newspaper stories for a reason: to learn more about what they are interested in. Computers, on the other hand, dont. In fact, computers dont even have interests; there is nothing in particular that they are trying to find out when they read. If a computer program is to be a model of story understanding, it should also read for a “purpose”. Of course, people have several goals that do not make sense to attribute to computers. One might read a restaurant guide in order to satisfy hunger or entertainment goals, or to find a good place to go for a business lunch. Computers do not get hungry, and computers do not have business lunches. However, these physiological and social goals give rise to several intellectual or cognitive goals. A goal to satisfy hunger gives rise to goals to find information about the name of a restaurant which serves the desired type of food, how expensive the restaurant is, the location of the restaurant, etc. These are goals to acquire information or knowledge, what we are calling learning goals. These goals can be held by computers too; a computer might “want” to find out the location of a restaurant, and read a guide in order to do so in the same way as a person might. While such a goal would not arise out of hunger in the case of the computer, it might well arise out of the “goal” to learn more about restaurants.Look on The Bright Side【看光明的一面】Do you ever wish you were more optimistic, someone who always expected to be successful? Having someone around who always fears the worst isnt really a lot of fun. We all know someone who sees a single cloud on a sunny day and says, “It looks like rain.” But if you catch yourself thinking such things, its important to do something about it. You can change your view of life, according to psychologists. It only takes a little effort, and youll find life more rewarding as a result. Optimism, they say, is partly about self-respect and confidence, but its also a more positive way of looking at life and all it has to offer. Optimists are more likely to start new projects and are generally more prepared to take risks. Upbringing is obviously very important in forming your attitude to the world. Some people are brought up to depend too much on others and grow up forever blaming other people when anything goes wrong. Most optimists, on the other hand, have been brought up not to regard failure as the end of the world they just get on with their lives.The First Bicycle【第一辆自行车】The history of the bicycle goes back more than 200 years. In 1791,Count de Sivrac delighted onlookers in a park in Paris as he showed off his two-wheeled invention, a machine called the celerifer. It was basically an enlarged version of a childrens toy which had been in use for many years. Sivracs “celerifer” had a wooden frame, made in the shape of a horse, which was mounted on a wheel at either end. To ride it, you sat on a small seat, just like a modem bicycle, and pushed hard against the ground with your legs there were no pedals. It was impossible to steer a celerifer and it had no brakes, but despite these problems the invention very much appealed to the fashionable young men of Paris. Soon they were holding races up and down the streets. Minor injuries were common as riders attempted a final burst of speed. Controlling the machine was difficult, as the only way to change direction was to pull up the front of the “celerifer” and turn it round while the front wheel was spinning in the air. “Celerifers” were not popular for long, however, as the combination of no springs, no steering and rough roads made riding them very uncomfortable. Even so, the wooden celerifer was the origin of the modem bicycle.Working Mothers【职业母亲】Carefully conducted researches that have followed the children of working mothers have not been able to show any long-term problems, compared with children whose mothers stayed at home. My personal view is that mothers should be allowed to work if they wish. Whether we like it or not, there are a number of mothers who just have to work. There are those who have invested such a big part of their lives in establishing a career that they cannot afford to see it lost. Then there are many who must work out of pure economic necessity . Many mothers are not cut out to be full-time parents. After a few months at home with a much loved infant, they feel trapped and isolated. There are a number of options when it comes to choosing childcare. These range from child minders and nannies through to Granny or the kind lady across the street. In reality, however, many parents dont have any choice; they have to accept anything they can get. Be prepared! No matter how good the childcare may be, some children are going to protest wildly if they are left. This is a perfectly normal stage of child development. Babies separate well in the first six months, but soon after that they start to get a crush on Mum and close family members. Make sure that in the first week you allow plenty of time to help your child settle in.All children are different. Some are independent, while others are more attached to their mothers. Remember that if you want to do the best for your children, its not the quantity of time you spend with them, its the quality that matters.阅读理解Telling Tales about People【讲述关于人们的故事】One of the most common types of nonfiction, and one that many people enjoy reading, is stories about peoples lives. These stories fall into three general categories: autobiography, memoir, and biography. 最普遍的非小说类文学作品类型之一就是一些描述人们生活的故事，并且很多人喜欢阅读这类作品。这些故事大致分为三类：自传、回忆录和传记。An autobiography is the story of a persons life written by himself or herself. Often it begins with the persons earliest recollections and ends in the present. Autobiography writers may not be entirely objective in the way they present themselves. However, they offer the reader a good look at the way they are and what makes them that way. People as diverse as Benjamin Franklin and Helen Keller have written autobiographies.Other writers, such as James Joyce, have written thinly fictionalized accounts of their lives. These are not autobiographies, but they are very close to it. 自传是作者记录自己故事的文章，通常自传会以作者最早期的回忆开始并以对现在情况的总结作为结束。自传的作者也许不会完全客观地介绍自己。然而，他们给读者提供了一个途径来了解自己比较好的行事风格和为何成就这样的自己。就像本杰明.富兰克林和海伦.凯勒一样，各种各样的人们已经写了自传。其他的作者就像詹姆斯.乔伊斯一样仅仅写了关于自己生活的虚构小说。这些不是自传，但是它们和自传非常相近。Memoirs, strictly speaking, are autobiographical accounts that focus as much on the events of the times as on the life of the author. Memoir writers typically use these events as backdrops for their lives. They describe them in detail and discuss their importance. Recently, though, the term memoir seems to be becoming interchangeable with autobiography. A memoir nowadays may or may not deal with the outside world. 严格意义上来讲，回忆录是既注重作者本身的生活经历，也注重其所处的时代所发生的事件的自传性的描述。回忆录作者通常把这些事件作为他们生活的背景，他们详细的描述这些事件并论述这些事件的重要性。虽然近些年，回忆录这个词似乎开始变得可以和自传互换，但是目前回忆录也许还没有因外界评论而有所改变。Biographies are factual accounts of someone elses life. In many senses, these may be the hardest of the three types to write. Autobiography writers know the events they write about because they lived them. But biography writers have to gather information from as many different sources as possible. Then they have to decide which facts to include. Their goal is to present a balanced picture of a person, not one that is overly positive or too critical. A fair, well-presented biography may take years to research and write. 传记事实上是记录(作者以外)其他人的生活。在很多方面，传记也许是这三种非小说类文学作品中最难写的了。自传作者知悉他们所写的事件因为他们就生活在其中。但是传记作者不得不尽量从很多不同的渠道来收集信息。然后他们不得不决定包含哪些事实。他们的目标是用比较全面的图片来介绍一个人物，并不是过于积极也不是过于批判。一个公正并详尽的传记也许要花费许多年来研究并进行书写。1.This passage is mostly about_the characteristics of autobiographies, memoirs, and biographies 2.Helen Keller wrote an autobiography. 3. Autobiography writers are not always objective because they want to present themselves in a good light 4. The writer introduces each category in the passage by defining it 5. Diverse means varied or differentOutside-the-classroom Learning Makes a Big Difference【课外学习带来很大不同】 Putting a bunch of college students in charge of a $300,000 Dance Marathon, fundraiser surely sounds a bit risky. When you consider the fact that the money is supposed to be given to children in need of medical care, you might call the idea crazy.让一群大学生去负责募集30万美元的马拉松跳舞活动，这种募捐听起来肯定有点儿冒险。当你知道这笔募捐款是提供给需要医疗护理的儿童，你可能会觉得这个想法很疯狂。 Most student leaders dont want to spend a large amount of time on something they care little about, said 22-year-old University of Florida student Darren Heitner. He was the Dance Marathons operations officer for two years.佛罗里达大学一个22岁的学生Darren Heitner说大多数学生领导者不想在他们不太关注的事情上花太多时间。他任马拉松跳舞经营部经理两年了。 Yvonne Fangmeyer, director of the student organization office at the University of Wisconsin, conducted a survey in February of students involved in campus organizations. She said the desire for friendship was the most frequently cited reason for joining. Yvonne Fangmeyer是威斯康星大学学生社团办公室主任，在2月份进行了一次学生参加校园社团的调查。她说增进友谊是大家提到最多的参加校园社团的原因。 At large universities like Fangmeyers, which has more than 40,000 students, the students first of all want to find a way to ,belong in their own comer of campus.像Fangmeyer大学那样大规模的学校，有4万多学生，学生首先想要找到属于他们的校园一角。 Katie Rowley, a Wisconsin senior, confirms the surveys findings. I wanted to make the campus feel smaller by joining an organization where I could not only get involved on campus but also find a group of friends.威斯康星大四的学生Katie Rowley肯定了调查结果。“我加入校园社团希望让校园感觉上变得小一些，这样不仅可以投入到校园生活中还可以交到很多朋友。” All of this talk of friendship, however, does not mean that students arent thinking about thei